Did you guess what it was?

This was my Silent Sunday photo yesterday....

Here it is before it floated off into the night sky...

So all of you who guessed correctly, well done!. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Pretty, yes?

The Gallery - Mother Nature: A Gentle Wonder

This weeks Gallery prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers is Mother Nature.

And I have the most wonderful example right on my doorstep. 

Something, which at first sight can appear so serene, calm and gentle, yet hidden beneath the beauty, something which is capable of unleashing a power so ferocious and wild it can take your breath away. 

A truly glorious force of nature which never fails to amaze and fascinate me...

A Fluffy Red Bikini and a Santa hat in the Snow

Oh Matt Whistler! You've made another video...

No tea tray this time, and you have clothes, sort of, on. If you can count a red fluffy bikini, and rather dubious looking stockings worn with, erm trainers? as clothes.
It does make you look very festive though, if a little chilly in the snow!

Surfin' Bird Christmas No.1 2010 starring Matt Whistler from Convict Films on Vimeo.

Thank you...I do like a good laugh and my favourite part is the fact so many Brightonians don't seem to bat an eye to your rather odd behaviour, love it!

A Tea Tray slide down Southover Street in Brighton!

I realise that with all the snow that everyone has been getting over the past week, it can start to get a wee bit booorrrring! And we all get a bit 'stir crazy' stuck indoors, especially if you have little ones.

But if there is one video you watch, make it this one. There are some mad, mad people out there and this guy, Matt Whistler, is up there with the best of them.

So if the snow is giving you cabin fever and you need a laugh, and I mean howling, tears down your face, side gripping laughter, then watch this.
Thank you Matt, you made my day...

...and how did I not know this was going on, I LIVE at the top of this street! God dammit, they threw a party and I wasn't invited...Boo..

 


Matt Whistler's Merry Christmas 2010 Southover Street Brighton from Convict Films on Vimeo.

Enjoy...???

Gay Pride in Brighton...And a happy Cat

If you're gay you already know about this. If you happen to live in Brighton this is not news. But if you're neither of these then I'll let you know that Brighton hosted Gay Pride last weekend. It's held every year in the summer and stretches back as far as 1992 when it was just a small afternoon event. Since then, it's evolved into the biggest free Pride festival in the UK. 
And boy has it got big. According to reports in my local paper The Argus, an estimated 160,000 attended the Parade through the streets and joined in the party at Preston Park. 
That's a hell of a lot of very happy people. And I say happy because that's exactly what they were, and are every year. Yes they drink, dance, hug people and sing in the streets. But there's never very much trouble, certainly not in relation to the numbers of people involved. It always has such a wonderful celebratory feeling about it. I love it. People really do walk around with silly, smiley faces. 

All my children, as teenagers, have joined in the fun of Pride over the years, walking through the streets of Brighton with friends (you don't really have a choice but to walk if you live here, as they close off all the roads!) and heading to the Park for all the festivities.

And just like last year, I arranged with my TD to pick her up on the seafront at 11.30pm. 

This was not as simple as it sounds.


I managed to not kill, maim or run over roughly 25 extremely happy people who, due to the sheer mass of bodies on the pavements outside all the clubs, decided that the roads would be a much more viable alternative to a dancefloor. But this just made me smile even more, rather than roll out the road rage. I was laughing out loud as I managed to manoeuvre my car  round various 7ft tall gorgeous Ladies and people in all manner of amazing costumes, and rather fit looking men with very little clothing *ahem* on, dancing in the middle of the 'main' roads. 
TD had left the house at 10am wearing various leopard print clothing, with a cute little 'Cat' face drawn on. By the time I picked her up she resembled a slightly bedraggled, but very happy 'Cat'.

Sometimes I just love living in a place where everyone comes to party! 


Wouldn't you?

A soothing afternoon stroll...with NO Teens.

With the roller coaster of emotions I've experienced in the 10 or so days since OH had his op (much, much more if you count all the time beforehand), I really wasn't in the mood for a drive and lunch out this afternoon. Particularly after a dark and tearful meltdown moment mid week. I didn't want to have to be nice, happy, cheerful, funny or talkative, didn't want to be anything at all really. I just wanted to stay, figuratively speaking, curled up in the corner, licking my wounds (NOT physical ones) hiding from everyone and everything. Waiting until I felt I could be me again.  

But as my Mum and Step-dad were leaving today, I felt I should make the effort.

I'm glad I did now. 

We drove to a little village just outside Brighton called Kingston, it's small you'd miss it if you blinked, it's not on the way to anywhere so I'd never even heard of it. OH had told us it had a very pretty, old little pub where we could have a late lunch.
It may have been the slow, gentle amble the 3 of us took (we left OH nursing his beer at the pub!) through the village toward the 13th century church, past tiny pretty cottages with overblown gardens, with two of us taking lots of photos. 
Or it could've been the peacefulness of the location, as other than crickets, birdsong and church bells it was silent, but I now feel a little better. I'm really not sure why?
Here are some of the photos I took as we wandered.

Very soothing, what do you think?

HOW MUCH???

Yay! TD has been offered a place at City College in Brighton on a 3 year Catering & Hospitality course starting in Sept.
This is brilliant news. It was something she originally had the 'Option' to take in years 10 and 11. But it would've meant giving up her 4 GCSE options in other subjects.  It was an 'either or' scenario. She decided, and we agreed, that it was a very narrow and limiting choice, to only take one subject at that point.
She loves baking, is into cooking and in fact cooked this evenings meal of Chicken Korma, rice and cabbage & peas from scratch...Lovely girl!!

But I'm going to give you a heads up here, in case any of your offspring are thinking of embarking down a similar path anytime soon, or even the distant future. Consider yourself warned.

£346.34...

That's the cost of the equipment list supplied to us. It wasn't a huge suprise really, it's about what we were expecting.

Unless of course you happen to be of the 'Male' variety, because then it's only £343.09
It's cheaper if you have dangly parts? But that's sort of okay too, as we females are used to paying a little bit extra for those essential items in life, like...
Shoes..bags...shoes...and...oh yes, maybe more shoes.

But the thing that made me snort with laughter?? 

The 'Optional Item' listed....

Go on, have a look at the photo, I've even ringed it in red for you...

...for the princely sum of.... £3.25 you too can have an optional 'Spoon shaped spatula'...or not?

Erm..well, I'm not quite sure we can to stretch to that...

Oh, also, just an aside...have a closer look, just how many different types of cloths do they need?

The Gallery - A picture of the world I live in...

The theme for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers this week is 'Paint a picture of the world we live in'. The hidden parts, places other people wouldn't see. The problem I have is that most people recognise Brighton, it has a distinctive style and a fair few instantly recognisable landmarks.

So I thought I would take you on a virtual 'open-top bus trip'. Just to give you a slightly different perspective. These photos are about 4 years old and not of the greatest quality as they were taken on my phone when I took TD on a long promised trip round her home town.

The first two shots are along the seafront, and what was left of the burnt out, collapsing old West Pier...

The next you may not recognise, but it's very pretty...

It's the Victorian built train station. If you look you can see Brightonians are all fairly good at cycling...

 

 The next is down toward the Old Steine, and The Pavillion...

  ...passing the Clock tower...

This is an image most people will recognise, but maybe not from this angle, The Pavillion, and yes, 'I'm on the bus'.

I LOVE this street. It's only round the corner from our house, but it's on the bus route. Although it's called Blaker St, a lot of people call it Rainbow Rd. Every house is painted a different colour. Very cheerful...

Next on the trip is the marina. Which could possibly end up a little boring with just a load of boats. Not that I have anything against boats, it's just that's exactly what you'd expect, isn't it? Instead I took a shot of the roundabout. This was during The Brighton Festival. It  caused many a giggle on the way to Asda, which is just to the left of the roundabout, and possibly a few collisions!

And finally, I'm going to share our family's closely guarded secret (so it fits Tara's theme) 'eating place' in Brighton. This isn't on the bus route, I just love the photo!.  A pub in a narrow little 'hidden' street, just off the seafront. It serves the most mouth watering pub food, all organic, all locally sourced and the menu takes half an hour to read...so much scrumptious choice. We've had many lovely, various family lunches there. And a local artist makes 'sculptures' from car trims; hub caps and so on. This is hanging on a wall in the patio area...

The Gallery: Outside my front door...

 

The theme for Week 5 in The Gallery at Sticky Fingers is... 'Outside your front door'.

I live in Brighton, now. But that wasn't always the case. We used to live in a suburb of East London, which had absolutely no appeal, aesthetically or otherwise, but was handy for the commute into London. Also it was within mine and ex-hubbys, at the time, extremely limited budget.

We've lived in Brighton, my OH and my 4 children, for 10 years now and I truly, honestly would not want to live anywhere else, ever. Why would I? We have the the beach, the sea, the Pier, the most amazing shops in 'The Lanes', not to mention all the stunningly beautiful Regency architecture, 'The Pavillion' oddly beautiful... All within a 15 minute walk. There is an abundance of Arts, Dance, Music and Sporting Festivals, both mainstream and alternative, to enthrall and capture the imagination of everyone, from the most conservative palate to the downright outrageous. It's just as likely I'll be sitting having a drink or a meal in a bar or restaurant next to a bunch of 6ft transvestites, as a mum with 2 toddlers in tow. I did a shop at Safeways, in St James St, at the same time as cast members of the 'The Lady Boys of Bangkok' also happened to be shopping, and hardly an eyebrow was raised, not a twitch.


So for me, one of the main reasons I love Brighton so much, is the sense of openness it gave and continues to give my children. To be who they want to be, to express themselves in a way they choose and not be afraid, to reach and push a little further, in an environment which upholds acceptance and tolerance as an everyday way of life. 
Of course, that's not to say that there are not lots of other places where this would also hold true, but nowhere have I seen it in such abundance as Brighton.


Now, I suspect you were expecting lovely photos of all the above places...


No, this week I've taken the theme literally. This is a panoramic view from our loft windows, of the road in which we live. The windows actually face east and west, but the pictures are of north and south.


The last photo though, is as the theme suggests, right outside my front door...
Please click on the photos to make them larger, and then click again if you want to see most of Brighton in all its glorious detail...

Enjoy, as I constantly do...

Let it snow..Let it snow..Let it snow..and a SnowKat!

We rarely get snow here in Brighton, nothing that ever sticks anyway, so of course when it does people go all out and fully embrace their inner child....

Here are some slightly festive (festive only 'cause it's snow) picturey type things...
....including a snowKAT!


I'm spelling it like that because my Gorgeous 18yr old son's girlfriend is called Kat....and they made it on the roof of our house. That's not quite as dangerous as it may sound! His bedroom is in the loft, with huge loft windows.

But snow does make people do some very odd things. For instance, while it was snowing last night, said 18 yr old son & girlfriend opened the loft window, wide, and videoed themselves, whilst singing "It's snowing in my bedroom!" which of course it was....He-he...

Grounds for Divorce - YUK!

After an evening out in Brighton with friends, my 21 yr old Gorgeous Son arrived home at about 1am this morning. Quietly giggling & gently bouncing off walls he then sat on the sofa and proclaimed, as only rather drunk people can, 'Grounds for Divorce is the beshtestest drink ever!'. And no, it's not a spelling error, moi?...that was how it came out.

Apparently it's a cocktail that consists of a shot of vodka, sambucca, whiskey, gin, southern comfort, amaretto with a squeeze of lime & lemon. I've not checked or googled it, but I've never heard of it before. And do you think they actually missed any spirit out of that list...I personally think it sounds revolting. YUK..

Do you think the Bar/Club they went to were having a giggle? Or a clear out maybe?

And at £9 a drink, they were having the last laugh too...He had 3, yes, 3 of them!

Oh boy, I bet he had a hangover this morning.....

First contact sheet...And I'm a little proud & relieved!

TD came home today with a contact sheet from her Photography AS level course.

Last week, one of her Tutors took all the students down to Brighton seafront, cameras at the ready....

Very brave tutor. Imagine if you can, 20 to 30, 16 yr olds, running amok with cameras! I think I'd have been hiding in the nearest cafe with a stiff cup of tea...11am being a little too early for anything stronger..

According to TD it was a fun morning, and she managed to get her photos taken just before the skies opened up, and the rain came heaving down, sending everyone running for cover. She was so endearingly enthusiastic about the whole thing she could hardly 'talk' in a straight line when she came home.
Telling us how she had even laid down along a sea wall to try and get more interesting angles, and the fact she had managed to get a couple of shots of the 'carousel' horses & poles being moved and cleaned.

All the students developed their negatives on Monday this week, apparently amid much hysterical laughter & probably some very ripe, Teenage language, as they all fought to remove the film from the canisters inside a developing bag, and into a developing tank, in theory, blind-folded.

Today they got to play with the 'Dark Room' stuff, and print off their photos. TD says she finds it a little claustrophobic in there, with big developing trays down the centre, and enlargers/workstations down both sides. When we looked at it before her course started, I did think it looked a little like a morgue..all those stainless steel tables.....Ugh..shudder...

So, this is TD's first ever contact sheet....















And she was right, the '3 carousel horses' is a good shot. But my favourite is of the 'poles'.
I think she needs to work on the technical stuff, but then that's why she's there, that side of it will come with time and practice, but the girl has a 'good eye'.

Given the ups & downs of the last few weeks, with her wanting to drop courses, drop out of everything etc, I'm so, so happy & a little relieved that she's now enjoying her time in college.

Truly, Madly, Deeply Grateful....

My 21 year old Boy-Man Gorgeous Son, works full time in retail, at a certain High St fashion store that only seems to sell clothing for skinny size 8, 6ft giants, so obviously I don't shop there! He works hard, with 7am starts and he loves it. It's the ideal job for him really, as one of his passions is clothes. His present obsession is with cardigans....8 or 9 and and counting! And he takes every opportunity to grab bargains and uses his 'Uniform' days to get big discounts on the latest 'New in Stock' items. Possibly living his 'dream....' so to speak....

And when he wants, he can play hard too. Along with his large circle of lovely friends, some working full time the same as he, others part-time, juggling with Uni or college courses, as he also did from the age of 16. Burning the candle at both ends as we all did at the same age. You remember...oh, come on you do!...Not going out till 11pm and coming in at 6-7am still slightly drunk, it can't have just been me...Ah-ha, no, I didn't think so!

As is the norm, he has most of the 'must have' gadgets/techno material items, laptop, ipod, flat screen TV, x-box etc....Some of which have been bought for him by us, as birthday or Christmas presents, I'm not a believer in buying items willy nilly as and when they ask/demand just because all their friends have them. So they have all had to wait for, and on some occasions have even had to add any Birthday/Christmas money (mean mummy that I am!) to ensure receipt of said items. Others he has bought himself, with his hard earned pennies, just like everyone else.

When he first started full time employment, it was he who first brought up the subject of paying rent (mind you, only just before we did), asking 'How much do you want me to pay?' and after discussions, we thought 25% seemed a reasonable, realistic amount. Enough for him to be aware of his responsibilities in paying his own way, as is the way of the world. But not so much that he would decide he would rather live elsewhere for that sort of money (Erm...yes, of course I do want my kids to fly the nest, just not yet please). For that rent, he gets his laundry done, meals cooked, and most of the time sandwiches, stuck in the fridge the night before (I know, some habits die hard, sad but true!!) to take to work with him. But he does also try to do his little bit. He keeps his room tidy himself, I don't even go in there, he hoovers, changes his bed linen, brings his dirty laundry/cups/glasses down to be shoved into the washing machine/dishwasher.

So, to put it plainly, he's just your normal (!) run of the mill 21 year old still living at home.

Now, I'd guess, after everything I've just said, you're expecting me to go on some kind of rant about how ungrateful he is or some such, but you would be wrong....SO VERY, VERY wrong...

At 2am, early for him, on Sunday morning, Gorgeous Son walked into the living room, where I was lounging on the sofa, catching up on my 'Recorded' TV, carrying with him a takeaway bag of food & a can of fizzy drink. He sat on the chair opposite me and mumbled...

'...I feel like (mumble..mumble) '

'Pardon?' I replied, thinking, do I need to go and get a bucket?...'feel like throwing up' ?? I thought, maybe?? But he didn't look or sound particularly drunk.

'Feel like what?' I asked....only partly listening to him...

'I said, I feel like crying'

'What? Crying, why???' Now listening fully, frantically doing a quick visual check for any obvious injuries/black eyes or something...

At which point I patted the sofa next to me...'Come here....Why do you feel like crying?'

He moved from chair to sofa, and curled up, with his head on my shoulder, crying....real, full on shoulder heaving sobs.

Sob....'I've just watched a bunch of people, about my age,..sob...throwing chips & verbal abuse at some homeless guy, and...sob...I can't believe anyone could behave that way, it was just disgusting!' 'Why would they do that?? I don't understand how...how.. ANYONE can treat another human being that way'...sob... 'What is wrong with them??'...

'What! Oh sweetheart.. I don't know?' 'What happened, what did you do?!'

I stroked his hair, hugging him close, trying to comfort him.

'Hic...Well, I was just getting some food, and couldn't..sob.. really see what was going on, but there was some sort of....commotion going on outside, lots of noise, you know whoops & hollas and so on...by the time I'd paid for my food and gone outside...sob.... I only caught the last of it, there was this poor homeless guy, huddled on the floor, covered in chips, with a crowd, 'my age' running away, still flinging chips & abuse at him'..SOB

'Oh honey...what did you do?....by this point I was trying my hardest not to cry along with him. If I cried now we would both be blubbering wrecks, absolutely no help at all....

'Well..sob... I helped him up and asked if he was OK..and then I asked him if he wanted something to eat, and he said 'Yes please'..sob...'he said please!'...'He was so polite, Yes please,'... 'then I took him back into the takeaway & bought him a sandwich & a drink...HOW could they behave that way? they were like animals!!!...it was all I could do, it wasn't enough, he was SO grateful....but there wasn't anything else I could do, I felt SO, so awful for him, just a sandwich..hic...& a fricking drink!'...'I felt awful'

By now of course, I was silently crying with him, my hugs & hair stroking had gone up in proportion to his distress.

He'd bought a homeless guy a sandwich & a 'fricking' drink, yet felt guilt that it wasn't enough to make up for the disgraceful treatment he'd received.
He felt shame that people his 'own' age, didn't have the compassion or decency to treat another human as they themselves would wish to be treated.

...And I felt a wave of emotions fill my heart. Anger at some peoples lack of respect for others less fortunate than themselves, I wonder where are they learning these morals & values?!! Shock, that people, even if not wishing to help those same people, would actively ridicule & belittle them.

Yes, I do realise, some of this behaviour could be put down to 'youthful drunken' hi-jinks , but I don't remember behaving that way at that age, sober or drunk...nor do I believe Gorgeous Son or any of his friends would either....

I also felt sadness for the unfortunate, but, inevitable, erosion of my Gorgeous Sons belief & trust in human nature. Its one thing to read & see it all in the media, and to be aware of all the crappy stuff that goes on in the world (His Home page is BBC NEWS...he's a bit of an info junkie) and homelessness is an ongoing problem in Brighton, so he is more than used to seeing people sleeping in doorways, wrapped in newspaper & old blankets for warmth. But it's quite another to be confronted, face-to-face, with this type of callous, unthinking behaviour.

But, and I will admit (am I allowed to admit to this..??!?) another feeling was one of pride. ...I felt a HUGE amount of pride in the fact that my 6'2, Boy-Man Gorgeous Son (baby in my heart...as they always are) has grown up to be a most wonderful human being, and that I had some small part in it. I am proud of the fact that he felt that it was his responsibility, as one human to another to take part and at least do something to ease someone else's suffering..however small he felt his contribution was.

I told him, that I thought, although he felt 'it wasn't enough', that possibly his one small act of kindness may have gone a little way to restoring the 'homeless guys' faith in human kindness.
As no one person can 'do it all', we can only do what we can, when we can.

So, for all his funny 'obsession' with cardigans (He-he!). His enjoyment of his 'must-have' items, and quite rightly so, some of them he 'earned' himself with his hard worked for cash, this MAN (sob!) has a BIG heart. With a depth of compassion & kindness, which I always knew anyway, that he is not afraid to show, honestly, openly & painfully.

*This was his 'Status' on Facebook, 10 minutes after he left me....an emotional wreck on the sofa!

'Saw how Inhumane people can be tonight. Some people are awful.'

He is grateful for all he has......and for that I am truly, madly, deeply grateful...