Ok first of all apologies for the lack of posting...its hard...really hard sometimes to come up with witty, funny things to say...not to say that we live boring lives...on the contrary, perhaps too many things are happening that we are having little to no time to jot them down...So here is a little story that took place a few days ago...Its being written about because it fits our initial 'impromptu' theme and is still very fresh in my mind...
Planning is technically a major part of both mine and T's everyday lives since we are teachers. And though I try and rebel against this as much as possible, I have come to realize that planning ahead does make teaching a whole lot easier and more effective. Now, since I have started to accept this in my work life, I feel as though I have completely neglected it in my everyday life....perhaps on purpose, as I am a big supporter of spontaneous adventures, or simply because planning takes time and makes things nauseatingly organized...Either way, a perfect example of plan-less travel occurred on Saturday:
Thursday afternoon as I am enjoying my day off I get a thought process flowing through that goes something like this...'Monday is a bank holiday...Cousin works at a bank...I wonder if he gets the day off, or is it just a big tease of a name for all bankers...he for sure doesn't get it off, he never gets time off...I'll call him...oh its 2pm...he is probably in a meeting...but if I was in a meeting I would have my phone on silent as I am sure he does so it will just go to voice-mail...decided...calling...ring ring...
a very quite "Hello?"...
"Hey can you talk?"
this has been a typical way of responding by Cousin lately...I'm going to call him out on it as soon as I get a good opportunity:
"Ya ya ya give me a sec....Hey whats up?"
"Do you get the day off on Monday, and if you do do you wanna go somewhere this weekend?"
"Ya ya ya...I get the day off Cousin...its a BANK holiday"... (OK fine it makes perfect sense that he would get the day off but whatever...thought I'd make sure...)
Either way the conversation went something along the lines of well where do you want to go...I don't know...anywhere...but the weather will be crap...oh who cares it will be crap here as well...ok fine where does T want to go? Not sure, I haven't asked him if he wants to go anywhere he is in the shower... Bla bla bla...End of conversation decided nothing, a few ideas were thrown around but I hung up not really convinced that Cousin would be down for a random vaca as he seemed mega concerned about the weather being crap...which it is/was and has been for the past month...argh...
So Friday night a little more random discussion occurred about the possibility of going somewhere but was left with...we will discuss it in the morning...
Saturday morning...T and I wake up at roughly 8:30... not sure why, but it happened...I try and call Cousin...voice-mail...This happens over and over for a good 2.5 hours...Not cool Cousin...
While still in bed T and I start semi planning a possible weekend away...B&Bs are booked up, hotels are not in our price range and also seemingly booked up...so far not a great start...At about 10:30 we decide that we will just get ready and head over to Cousins, pick him up and go to the train station together headed to Brighton. (The idea of Brighton arose when our wonderful friends/neighbors suggested it as they had made reasonable plans at least a month in advance to have a wonderful long weekend away)...
At roughly 11:00 we make it down to central London, ring Cousins bell...He is stunned/confused at our unexpected arrival...We quickly get him and his not so ready at all to go friend (still in bed and wildly hungover) to get dressed and out the door.
By 1 we are on the train...by 2 we are sitting on the beach looking for rocks with holes through them...Not sure about you but in my family we always search for these natural treasures...Normally, or from previous treasure hunting excursions we were lucky to find one or two...The rocky Brighton beach however proved to be crawling with 'Chicken Gods' as we call them, so now I have a HUGE collection...zing!
By 3 we have decided to go see the Brighton palace...with a purse already super heavy and now filled with magical rocks we head down the boardwalk with the ocean on one side and a quaint beach town on the other.
We arrive at the palace...a wildly out of place Indian looking structure, surrounded by gardens, stands before us. We take it in, all with our heads kind of leaning to one side trying to grasp the meaning behind this weird place and move on. Our friends, M and S are waiting for us at the museum, which is located in the palace grounds...And as much as the palace totally did not fit into Brighton at all, at least it had its museum friend which was pretty much its twin sister...Full of totally random exhibitions of pretty much anything you can think of and find all shoved into one place...Entertaining? yes...Interesting? perhaps...Strange? very much so...
After completing our cultural program as we like to say we headed down the lanes to find some food for our hungover, hungry friends...Linner (lunch+dinner) was served at a wonderful tapas restaurant (if I had planned on writing this then I would have looked up the name and added it to the post but...)
By 7 pm we were standing outside a pub while the boys caught the last few minutes of the football match...once again if I planned this I would tell you who was playing and why it was so intriguing for them but...
Ok so this is where the lack of planning and possibly the learning experience for our next trip kicks in...Up until this point we had had a great day, we explored, we ate, we walked along the beach...etc...T and I however kind of wanted to stay in Brighton for the night and even packed a few overnight things with us juuussttt incasesss...
So we part ways with Cousin and still very much hungover friend and decide to meet up with M and S for some drinks while we search on Ts ever so handy telephone/mini computer for a place to sleep for the night.
By 10pm we are walking along the beach again while M and S are at dinner, in search for a random place to take us in...Our search ends quickly as we find (thankfully) that the hostel filled with drunk girls either dressed as cows or milk maids is completely full...
By 11 we are on the train headed home...I really wanted to stay, and was even super whiny about it...poor T....but this just goes to show me that perhaps planning, even just a little before going somewhere is probably a good idea...
All in all, Brighton is a beautiful/ slightly tacky little town that will be revisited with a little more planning as soon as the weather gets better...
That is it for now...Hopefully T will post part 2 of his Ukraine adventures soon...
V.
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