Seaside

We originally planned a trip to Brighton seaside for Good Friday, but since I had to work on that day, we booked our tickets to Brighton for the Saturday following it. Manish Bhai and Poonam Bhabhi and also Satish bhai and Kamini bhabhi (the next door neighbours) also were to come along with us.

So the Picnic was to be well planned and so we thought when we started the planning for it. We decided on the menu and delegated responsibilities. Food was to be a palatable affair. But the trip was to start at 7 in the morning from Victoria station which was quite a distance away. We decided to start at 5 30 from home which meant that we had to wake up at about 4 so as to finish dressing etc.

Cooking was done the day before and some of the packing too. Fruits, plates, water, glasses, everything well in order. Dhairya was running a temperature which made me rather unsure of whether I would want to travel that day. But since he was quite active and energetic we decided to carry on. At about 5 30 we indeed did leave from home. We reached the coach station on time and the journey to Brighton was quite a smooth one, except the little part when we realised we forgot the curry for our breads at home (huh !!! all that effort wasted.)

Brighton, which we came to later was notorious for Gay and Lesbian activities. But maybe it was Easter holidays or probably as it was daytime, we really did not see much on that aspect, though we all did wish to ;), . We reached there early morning and set out to look for the Beach which was not very far away. One thing that I was very disappointed was that the beach side was laid with pebbles unlike the normal sand that we expect on beaches. The water was cold and there was obviously no question of getting inside the water.

On the Pier, we did find lot of amusement. We spent quite a bit of money and a lot of time at the Casino inside and then had fun strolling amidst all the amusement rides built about 10 feet above the water in the middle of the sea. And with all the crowd that was pouring in due to the holidays and the first view of summer sun...it was no more a quiet and serene seaside which one would like.

However we did spend some time on the banks, lunched and did a little sunbathing ( not really !!) with all our clothes on and the coats too, as the coast was not all that warm....and summer was just an illussion as the temperature kept playing roller coaster all along. Back to a little casino and then a long walk along the higher bank with all the crowd soaking deep into their chilled glasses of beer and fuming in the smokes of ciggarettes. It was quite tiring by the time we decided to head back to the bus stand and alight into the buses as though waiting only for us. Well Brighton is a town of the nights and you do not see people leaving the town at night fall, they wait till day break I guess....we did have a very comfortable and pleasant ride back to London.

The day ended with us pondering over the leftover food that we carried back home for dinner.... and ofcourse that curry that we forgot at home was put to some good use. Next day I was supposed to go to work, I only declined it early in the morning when I realised that I was so tired that I could not move out of the bed.