Last Saturday the Texan and I jumped on the train and headed to Brighton. I love the seaside and Brighton is the perfect mix of city life and sea air. The last time we went, a couple of years ago, I drove and we were stuck in traffic for 3 hours...the train took 50 minutes; why on earth anyone in London has a car escapes me. Needless to say, I sold our little Ford Ka (and used the money to help pay for my Masters degree, boo to sensible spending!).
Anyway, these were taken while frolicking around on the seaside. I always hope to find a prehistoric fossil of some kind but no luck this time (or any time). I find myself scouring the pebbles with my eyes and forgetting to take in the beauty of it all... There's something particularly magical about the remains of the original Brighton pier - although it has become a giant nesting ground for the seagulls, there's a quiet eeriness about it which I love. It's such a contrast to the noise and glitz of its former life.
Another reason to love Brighton is that a good portion of my favourite book is set there, A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. If you haven't ever read it, then you really should. At a time when divorce was a complicated and expensive affair (well, in many ways it still is), incriminating events were sometimes staged so as to secure the necessary evidence of adulterous behaviour for the court - the so-called 'Brighton divorce racket'. In A Handful of Dust, the protagonist, Tony Last, finds himself in a compromising position while trying to provide his wife with false proof of adultery... Every time the Texan and I walked by the hotels on the seafront, all I could think of was all the pre-war gentlemen trying to find a civilised yet incriminating way to end their marriages!
After much seaside frolicking and fossil searching, the Texan and I ate like royalty at lunch time and spent the rest of the day wandering around town and browsing through photographs and vintage clothes at Snoopers Paradise. I could spend all day rifling through junk just to find a couple of treasures...and we did, we came home with a handful of old photos and another film camera (which must be at least 60 years old) to add to our collection... The perfect day :)
What I'm wearing -
Jacket, jeans + bag: Zara
Silk blouse: c/o Aubin & Wills
Sweater: Aubin & Wills
Ballerina pumps: Topshop
