So last Thursday I popped to Brighton with a couple pals from work to see the sea…the sea, you see…the sea and well, to shop…and eat. It’s safe to say I had been looking forward to this day for a little while. Day off work, pay day, and a trip to Brighton all in one! First thing’s first though – meeting up outside the station for coffee. It may have been blooming freezing but the beautiful sunshine that beamed down us that day was just calling out for frappucino season.
Group saver ticket purchased, we’re told that the next available train is an hour away. Oh. Back to Starbucks we go for some breakfast grub (cos let’s be honest, more effort went into my makeup than my nutritious start to the day).
Of course we didn’t spend the entire hour eating, Lex and Lucy had a go on the ever popular “Speech Jammer” app, oh my, it messes you right up. I tried doing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but I just got far too perplexed by the prospect of speaking against the delayed reverb of my voice and couldn’t get much further than the second line. Sooo weak. The app fun didn’t stop there, once on the train we played Head’s Up, perhaps a little bit too enthusiastically at times and perhaps we shouldn’t have started with the “adult supervision” round when in public. But then again, who reaaallly cares? Just live, have fun; as long as no one is negatively affected, then what’s the problem? I am trying so hard to just not care what people think anymore, and yes, it’s difficult, but no, I will not let looks of disapproval, from people that don’t matter to me get in the way of my fun.
Once in Brighton we set out for the North Lanes to poke around the variety of independent stores, pretty much starting out at Snooper’s Paradise. There’s not really any need of a description, the name pretty much sells it. It’s exactly what it says on the tin with anything from sunglasses to big old lamps and chairs, records, books, clothes, woodwork, random vintage photos – you can snoop for hours and find an array of unique items.
I think our favourite thing however, was the photobooth. Expect amusing results from this £3 a go booth, because there’s no screen for you to check that you’re in shot, looking hot, or lost the plot. Oh and make sure you wait for the camera to flash four times, because that baby takes four photos for that £3. It’s fairly obvious that our first go at this machine wasn’t entirely successful – I was barely in shot for any of them, and the one that I featured in most, Lex had got up and left, ‘cos you know, why stay for the last photo? Try again. Much better. Was it enough? Are you serious? We had to at least make sure we all got a sheet to take home with us of course. Twelve insane(ly hot) photos later and we’re back on to the street, browsing the stalls and various other shops.
Time to eat. Following the recommendation of Lucy’s friend, we ate at Pompoko, a small Asian restaurant that was definitely a converted house, we almost felt like we had walked into someone’s home for tea. We enjoyed some yakisoba noodles while deciding who kept which lot of photos, at which point we realised just how attractive we all are. Well fed and energised we set out to see some more shops, I particularly fell in love with a little place called Edited – so much of this place is so much of what I want, everything was a little bit quirky without being too in your face. Definitely the kind of the place I’d get some home accessories for when I’m out of this horrid house share that I currently have to deal with. Let’s not get dredged down with that though, because what I’m about to talk about may just be my new obsession.
Bluebird Tea Company. Wow. Wowowowowowowow. I want it all. We popped in for a refreshing iced tea, only then to get talking to the very helpful Hannah about the different varieties of tea they supply. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. All the teas seem super special, and it’s such an indulgent experience, just getting to see the fabulous colours of the mixes – I’ve never seen tea leaves that look so inviting. Hannah had mentioned one that was “kind of a like a Pina Colada”. Hold the phone. PINA COLADA TEA? One of my favourite cocktails, in tea form?! I mean the strawberry lemonade iced tea I had in my hand was stunning, but PINA FRICKIN’ COLADA?! I just had to try it out and so a sample pack of ‘Retro Ted’ was bought (well I had to be somewhat sensible surely?). Then Hannah brought out something else. A little tea called ‘Candy Floss’. No word of a lie, each time I’ve taken a whiff of this sample pack (yes, that’s right, I got another) it’s been pure happiness. It’s sooo sweet and heavenly, I haven’t even used this one yet and I’m already totally addicted. I have however tried the Retro Ted tea and can confirm that it in fact exceeded expectations, so I am really looking forward to having a big ol’ warm mug of Candy Floss – that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. They may not be too local to me, but they’re online, so that’s good enough. This is the start of something truly beauTEAful. HA, good one Sam.
I should probably stop talking about tea now. Sea rhymes with tea so we’ll go with that! The visit to Brighton was a little different to the last couple of times I’ve been, in that we didn’t spend a whole lot of time by the sea. I mean we didn’t even step on to the pier. Shocker. That’s okay though because in the little time we did near the pier, we managed to catch the beginning of the sunset, and indeed we took some #sunsetselfiesbythesea – which, by the way, were absolutely flawless. Seriously though, that sunset has made me want to get up early and watch the sunrise and set out to watch the sunset more often. It’s so calming and pleasing – since moving away from my seaside roots, watching it on the coast of Brighton was so comforting in a way that I didn’t really expect. Perhaps I need to plan a trip home soon…
So after the sea had been seen, we hit up a few more shops and well, I don’t really like to go on and on about things I’ve bought, but you should know… I bought some things. It’s all likely to feature on a “Favourites” post in the near future so I’ll wait ’til then to talk about them, but you’ll be able to see some of the things I got over on my Instagram, because, well, it’s pretty. I bought a couple of items that, for now at least, I intend to put away until I move. However I’m incredibly impatient so we’ll just see about that.
I feel like I’ve said everything that I wanted to say about today. Thanks to Lucy and Lex for a wonderful day, it was a pleasure to spend it with these guys and it’s definitely made me want to get out of town more often.
More days out to come
x
Thanks for being sweet and reading this, check out my Twitter and Instagram (@samaanthamae) for quick updates of my nonsense.
SAMANTHA MAE 