Brighton Rocks

Birthday Girl

It was my 57th birthday on Friday so we decided to take a trip to Brighton for the weekend. Being on a bit of a budget due to forthcoming trips we stayed in a small hotel in Kemp town called The Limehouse with what was described as a room with a sea view but technically turned out to be in my opinion a sea peep. However the room was quirky clean and comfortable and we weren't in it for long spending most of our time wandering, exploring and eating and drinking.

Massive delicious Rhubarb and Ginger Gin

Kemp town is historically known as an actors and artists quarter and is characterised by a network of quirky streets with specialised shops, hotels cafes bars and pubs. The first port of call having checked in and deposited our bags was a little cafe called The Manor which lured us in by advertising speciality gins. Rhubarb and ginger gin with juniper berries and a light lunch of fish cakes and salad hit the spot nicely as we had a meal booked for that evening and it was already past three o'clock.

 That evening we went to La petite Maison. Set in the heart of Brighton's lanes where they focus on serving quality fresh sussex produce. I do remember enjoying my dinner and its accompanying bottle of red, however, I do not have a pic due to too much Gin.

Saturday saw more wandering and exploring the Lanes and more eating and drinking. There were lots of quirky interesting shops to explore and many examples of street art which apparently rival the remains of the Berlin wall for sheer beauty and extraordinary creativity. A reproduction of Banksy's Kissing Coppers is located on Trafalgar street which I stupidly forgot to take a pic of, however here is  selection of some of the art I did remember to photograph.

I found all of the street art fascinating, and the scenes I saw were stunningly beautiful and striking and its apparently all down to the forward thinking of the Green Party Council. During our exploration of the Lanes and North Laine I a came across lots of interesting little shops, below are just a few.

The sewing machine shop (not)

The front, side and rear windows of this shop in East street are entirely filled with an array of antique sewing machines so that at first glance it is impossible to make out what the shop is selling. It actually sells very expensive clothing from The British All Saints Spitalfield brand. The name All Saints was inspired by both the All Saints Road in Notting Hill and 60's TV icon Simon Templar as the Saint. I've had to look this up but I do remember the Saint, perhaps thats why there is a street art version of the Saint.

Gorgeous chocolaterie

Fabulous irregular choice shop window. Having bought a pair of these as my wedding shoes online I was thrilled to find an actual shop in Brighton. Those yellow ones with the red flowers have my name on them, however, I was good and didn't buy a pair.

 Only in Brighton. We could see this chap opposite from our hotel room, it scared me to death until I realised what I was looking at.

Brighton pier

Beach

Brighton wheel

Brighton pavilion

The weather was absolutely bitterly cold but it was a fun birthday weekend.

Wendy @ the contented cabin lol

As I've previously commented I'm trying to blog a little more regularly so I thought I would do a quick post re my new garden cabin. After all Lovejoys hard work felling trees and completing the concrete base the cabin is now erected in a corner of our garden. It has a separate part which will house garden paraphernalia etc which means I don't have to have another shed. Our garden is not massive and a separate shed in another corner would not be a good use of space.

   

The garden needs work its taken a hammering due to all the  building work on the house last year and the cabin, has not improved matters. I can't wait to get cracking on the garden I want a Mediterranean feel to it so when I'm not travelling I can sit out there and visualise.





 Lovejoy is painting it as we speak hopefully it won't rain today.



I'm thinking of changing my blog name to Wendy@the contented cabin. What do you think lol

Russian Mafia at work in Cancun

ATM Skimming device

So yesterday morning Lovejoy receives a phone call from the bank enquiring about our spending activity over the previous evening. Did you spend £80 last night at 20.56pm he asked? This threw me into a slight panic because I have been known to have a couple of glasses of wine and then go on a bit of an online spending spree and forget all about it until the stuff turns up, ( I do not do this regularly and not for ages). No I said not guilty. Anyway to cut a long story short we are the victims of the Russian Mafia at work in Cancun. We used the ATM once in the hotel reception. Apparently ATM skimming is big business in Cancun with around $5million being stolen from holidaymakers every month krebsonsecurity.com. The bank informed us that this was the third time they thought our account had been compromised and asked us where we had been. Cancun we said. We checked our bank account and there were two separate withdrawals of £100 each to a timber company in Mumbai dear lord. We are ok we will get the money back but what with this and half the trip taking in Spring Break (we knew nothing about this) I do not think we will be going back to Cancun any time soon. However, I loved the Mayan archeological sites so it was worth it for this alone.

My blogging leaves a lot to be desired.

A beautiful but crowded beach

Kukulkan's Pyramid at Chichen Itza

I am not very consistent with my blogging. Since returning from Mexico life has taken over and my time has not been my own. It's half term in my neck of the woods which means childcare duties. Easter was full on with family staying meaning lots of hosting. The first couple of weeks home I thought I was suffering from the Zica virus or prolonged jet lag.

Now we are preparing the garden to erect a summer house/log cabin/ shed etc. This does not come close to the creative genius of Iliona over at life after money but it did mean removing a couple of trees which much to my concern Lovejoy decided to do himself. I was unhappy about this, I thought he might kill himself, however, he has done it roots and all with just an axe and a saw, the man's a brute.

He is now in the process of laying out the footings or whatever before the concrete mixer arrives tomorrow. Lovejoy does not mind spending money but if he can save some by doing it himself he will despite my bleating constantly "get a man in, get a man in. Also I am baking my granddaughters 5th birthday cake. This is no mean feat as I have set my bar way too high over the last couple of years

Lovejoy taking down our tree (not really its a Mayan chap extracting  tree sap which they use as gum to keep their saliva flowing whilst working. Its like bubble gum without any flavour)

Mexico seems a long time ago now and I am getting Itchy feet again. We had to rearrange our travel appointment re our RTW trip due to half term so are going in a couple of weeks. Trips coming up include Lille, Brighton and a six week trip to Samos starting with two nights in Athens followed by Greek Island hopping with Samos as our base. This trip is an experiment on a couple of levels. It will mean being away from home for longer than a few weeks and also we will be travelling with carry on luggage only (for six weeks, no hairdryer OMG ) More on Mexico coming up when I've finished the cake.