Brighton Rock, With Steve And Kai, Chris And Wannie,

at last another sunny day,

we parked at the far end of the top beach road,

in town the car parks and beach side paring were full, so we figured we could take the Volks railway to the pier,

so a walk down to the beach front,

Diana with our goal in the distance, the pier,

the girls strike the pose,

to say it was windy and the sea was rough was a real understatement,

Diana was nearly blown away the wind was so strong,

and here we were by the station at Black Rock,

the wind seemed to be getting worse if such a thing was possible,

then the train arrived, with bad news, it was so windy all trains were canceled, so having parked so far away we had to walk from Black Rock,

the end of the tracks in the far distance,

to the pier, also in the far distance,

then the train passed us with passengers!

by the way if you went to Croydon Volkswagen today and asked for a test drive and was told no, the reason you could not do so was that the car was here!

as we neared the pier some filming was going, though what the film was I do not know, I just hope the script called for windy weather!

at last, after what seemed miles we had arrived at the pier, well actually it was miles!

it does not look it but there were more than a few people about,

it was still very windy as you can see from Diana's hair,

first some cockles and whelks,

looking along the seafront the waves crashing in were enormous,

bearing in mind August is supposed to be the height of summer the seas were not very inviting,

then to what Diana and Kai had been waiting for,

fresh doughnuts,

yummy!

then a try your luck on some of the stalls,

we decided for a moment to get out of the breeze,

so we called into the pier pub, it had a strange collection of items hanging from the ceiling,

whilst there a couple of Chelsea Pensioners called in,

further along we called in at another goodie shop,

the one that sells chocolate waffles,

for a change blue skies with hardly a cloud,

then to the end of the pier for the rides, but no such luck, it was too windy,

all of the high rides were shut down,

which was a shame as Duncan's kids had told me this was the one not to miss,

Diana was so disappointed, but the sign says it all,

but the winds were great for the seagulls,

wheeling around with apparently so little effort,

almost mountainous waves still crashing onto the beach,

the second pier now completely wrecked in the distance,

not a place to go for a swim!

then a walk through 'The Lanes' these are a collection of small streets where typically small antique/jewelers shops and coffee houses have set up,

this shop for me was so unusual, the entire window display was taken up by sewing machines,

it was of course a tailors, or perhaps I should say a clothes shop,

but instead of having samples of their wares in the windows they had just these machines,

when ever I think of sewing machines I always think of Singer,

but there were so many makes here that I had never heard of,

Wickers, Harris and Jones to name just a few,

I should mention all of these were wired very securely to the display stands,

but I guess is that it certainly got my attention, unlike the scores of clothes shops I walked by without noticing,

the theme continued inside the shop with more machines inside,

in some of the wider lanes some traders set up on the road,

there are a lot of 'one man band' type of operations, local workers sell their home made goods here,

or bring their skills to the market,

some of the lanes are really narrow,

one of the many jewelers shops in the lanes,

now they look nice!

and those,

and these are even better!

but now to a shop that I found interesting, The Lanes Armoury,

dueling pistols were an immediate interest to me, not that I have ever needed them, I just like that sort of thing,

and the history that goes with them like this pistol, both Steve and myself went inside to take a look around, in truth if we were not with the girls we would have stayed a lot longer,

but we decided to go naked, or at least have a coffee in the Naked, a coffee shop again in The Lanes,

later we meet up with Chris and Wannie and made our way to the Brighton Marina, we were going to have a meal together, I managed to get Diana past the McDonald's,

we were on the raised walk way from the car park,

the whole area has become a sort of restaurant complex, seems like a good idea after a hard days sailing,

the yachts behind Diana safe in the harbor,

Kai, Diana and Wannie,

Chris, myself and Steve,

all of the tourists boats were not out today,

the girls pose by a mermaid,

we decided on an Indian meal this evening,

it was very palatial inside,

Steve and Chris with their starters,

'Cheers!' from all of us,

the food was superb,

the prawns that Wannie ordered were delicious,

then home to Chris and Wannies past the floating Chinese restaurant and on to Beckenham,

we had a couple of V & S's on the balcony looking at the moon,

then it was goodnight from Steve and then a good nights sleep and see what tomorrow will bring.