On the Beach


On the beach is a title from one of my favourite albums by Chris Rea. This was where most of Saturday was spent, it was warm and sunny, however the planned bicycle trip over the East Downs on Sunday was postponed because of the torrential downpours. I was joined by Bakery in the MSc course this week; he arrived late and is from the Gambia where he is in charge of the countries first seed bank, hence I can see a trip to the Gambia one summer. He had not been into town; he stays at the university, so this was my chance to act as tour guide.





Brighton has one main pier nowadays and that’s where most of the photographs were taken from, as you can see it is quite a distance out and reminds me of Coney Island since it is all cheap food and cheap amusements.



From the current pier you can see the remnants of the old pier that was abandoned and then recently caught fire. They plan on building a tall viewing ‘Thing’ on this site and it is quite controversial since it will clash with the regency architecture that fronts that part of the beach. Frank Gehry has a project planned for the ocean front as well; it looks like a building undergoing convulsions, typical Gehry style. I will try to get an image to share with you at some point.





















On Brighton pier of course is where the crippled Jonathan Livingston Seagull hangs out after failing at his high flying acrobatics. It is amazing how smart he is ( how do you determine the sex of a seagull?), there he stands on one leg at feeding height in the midst of all, looking for handouts, all he needed was a cup and sign.





















On the way back from the pier we passed the Quaker Meeting House, actually we went in since they were having a sale of local produce. I put this in for my friend Tina who is a Quaker and once took me to the Quaker meeting house in Coldstream. Tina, they all have the same feeling, this one however sits on prime real estate close to the ocean in the old part of town.















The final shot is the last hill I go down everyday that I ride the bike to the university, and of course it is one of the first four I must go up on my return journey home. This was taken half way before I entered Stamnar Woods for the rest of the climb.