Highlights Of Brighton

1. LP's gorgeous Victorian terrace house, with all the original features such as the wrought iron fireplaces, beautiful wooden cupboards in the kitchen, floorboards etc. I love how she has found beautiful, old pieces of lovely furniture and reused them. So much better than the standard Ikea fare that one finds in so many houses over and over.



2. The animals who rule the house - 2 lovely fat English cats, Pippa and Teddy (they look like teddy bears) and a little dog, Bertie (formerly known as Dirty Harry to the chagrin of the little British old ladies who walk their dogs in the park, hence LP had to change his name to be less offensive) who eats everything and who is a little whorish and sleeps with all new visitors in the house.



3. The weekly car boot sale at the carpark at the Brighton station. Lots of treasures if you look carefully. Old Victorian furniture waiting to be lovingly restored, going for a song. I got my beige Boots plastic kitchen scales here for 3 pounds. LP reckons it's from the 60s, I think it's from the 70s and G thinks it's from the 80s. It was coated with grease and dirt, but after a good scrub with the scouring pad and dishwashing liquid, it was as good as new. It was a good alternative to what I really want - a metal, retail-type scales where one places little metal round weights on the counter-pan to see what the item weighs while it sits on an oval/scoop-shaped pan. But that would be crazy, carrying back half across the world, not only the heavy metal weighing scales but the pieces of weights that come with it.



4. Seeing my lovely friend, LP again after our last meeting 2.5 years ago in Bangkok. LP has always been like a sister, almost like twins at times, as our lives are played out in parallel, thousands of miles apart.

It was a great weekend, relaxing around the house with the animals, eating healthy stuff that LP cooks, strolling through the cobblestoned streets of Brighton, visiting the quaint little shops, looking for treasures in the antique stalls and weekend markets - it made the hectic work week that followed in Brighton worth it!