Brighton - Sun, Sea & Sand (well, pebbles)

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Hi there.

We went to Brighton on Saturday & I thought you might like to see some pictures. It was a bit bright & sunny to take decent photos from all angles (very glarey - I really regretted not having my sunglasses), but at least it was a nice day in general 😊

A bit about Brighton:
It was really awesome, apart from when we first arrived, the smog from London was still around & combined with the sun shining through, made everything bright white & totally impossible to see without sunglasses. It's about a 2 hour drive from London - not that far in distance, but if you saw London roads you would understand. Even main highways are small, narrow, one laned streets with heaps of traffic lights & endless traffic, so it takes quite a while to get anywhere around here. Brighton is directly South of London. It was a lot bigger than I had imagined & it was nice to see some views from the hills (London is quite flat). The Brighton Pier was also much larger than I had imagined & not only had the carnival rides on it, but about 5 pubs, a HUGE arcade (kind of like a casino), about 20 or 30 places to eat (like carnival stalls) & about 5 places or so dealing with handwriting analysis or tarot readings. It was all very impressive & still quite busy despite the cooler season. It must be incredibly busy in the Summer time! Along the beachfront (below the road) there is a boardwalk with restaurants, stalls & art galleries for about 1km, up to another pier (the West Pier), which is undergoing reconstruction. We went to the Brighton Museum/Art Gallery, which I must say, is the most interesting one I have ever been to in my whole life & not once did I feel like I was bored or dragging my feet. There was quite a lot of information about Brighton in it's hey-day & about the mods/rockers wars of the 50's or whenever it was. Now Brighton is home to several gay festivals so it's quite a colourful & exciting place. It really was just so nice there. Kind of like New Brighton in Christchurch (for it's shops & pier & Summer carnival that they bring in by truck), but kind of like Nelson, with it's good weather, nice views & laid back atmosphere. I wouldn't actually mind living there - it has far more of a sense of space than London & it's probably cheaper to live there. We also saw the Royal Pavillion, which looks like a Turkish kind of temple - quite crazy for the UK. I couldn't take many decent photos of it though, as it was having maintenance work done on it & a lot of it was covered in scaffolding.

We are both doing fine here - Vaughan has received a recent promotion at work so he has a work car now also, as well as getting to keep the digital camera his work had previously given him. Trust that you are all OK - please email us anytime, as we are all caught up with things now & have the laptop going at home, so internet access is easy. My usual email address is [e-mail], & Vaughan's is [e-mail]. It's still nice for us to hear what you have been up to, even if you feel like you haven't been doing much.
Please take care,
Love Toni (& Vaughan too) xxxx

PS - Sorry about the datestamps on the photos.

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