Out and About

 We had a really delicious curry at Lahore in Tooting a few weeks ago when meeting our oldest son who lives nearby.  Lahore is not fancy and you have to bring your own booze, but it's always packed out and the food is brilliant... we had a shared order for 3 of:

Butter paneer, chicken paneer, chicken masala, bombay potatoes, sag aloo, lentil dhal, rice, naan bread.

This week I had a steroid injection in my wrist for carpal tunnel pain.  The surgery a few years back hasn't really helped and eventually a bone may have to be removed due to the thumb/wrist pain.  However, hopefully in a few weeks the benefit of the jab will be felt!

Obviously I needed to reward myself for being so brave so the following day I skipped off on the train to Brighton for the day.  I took another look at the dress I mentioned on my previous post.  Thank you Vix for pointing out the pattern placement issue .  I went back and tried on 5 and found this one which has the black pattern much lower and  hangs so much better so it came home with me!  I have jeans on underneath and have realised that you could wear this without having to wait for Summer!

Brighton was grey and deserted, until I got to the seafront where it was University Graduation Day and all the young grads were posing for photos in their mortarboard hats and robes.  The parents all looked so happy and proud.  One girl, who I think is from Thailand, wore the most incredible traditional dress and headress and was happy to pose for me as well as her mum! isn't she beautiful?!

I have never been in All Saints before, there clothing is beautiful quality but I don't know much about how they source their products with regard to fair trade and the environment;  They told me their beautiful soft biker leather jackets are made in India, other items Turkey and Portugal.

I love the charity shops around The Lanes, isn't this the most upmarket faux fur hoody you ever saw!

With so few shoppers around I was able to get some nice pics of the shops and landmarks that are usually hidden by passing buses and crowds of people!

I took a pic of both piers, the burnt out West Pier is actually my favourite, because there's a really good sun bathing spot right in front of it and a tiny bit of sand when the tide is out.

The pump room in the arches used to provide water to the Grand Hotel (the sea water was considered a health therapy), the arches are now used as lock up shops  this one is for icecream and coffee!

On the seafront the arcade shops haven't opened up yet but the little fishing museum (free) was open and I popped in, it's tiny and only takes 2 minutes to walk round.  The seashell shop usually has its sign obscured when open and sells plastic windmills, buckets and spades and, of course, bags of seashells (from tropical shores, you would never find conches and sea urchin shells like theirs on Brighton beach!).

In The Lanes:

Yep, I noticed that beautiful maxi wool tartan skirt but it wasn't my size. 

I stopped for Weatherspoons sustenance, the Spoons pubs in Brighton are always crowded and there's no need for a lady alone to feel uncomfortable, newspapers are provided and I had a nice cosy table by the window for my pint of orange and lemonade.  

I finished the day with a good hour or so in Waterstones book shop - this branch is my favourite because, If I'm lucky, the third floor window seat is free and I can sit reading all the books.  I take a pic of all the books I like, then spend some time searching my library to borrow them, we can order online through the library app and collect from a chosen branch which the books are delivered to, some are free, a few titles might cost 75p to order in  - if they don't have one or can't get it for me, then I justify buying one. 

 I bought The Caliph's House and began reading on the train home, it's a true story about a family moving from London to Casablanca to a very large, old house, full of  eccentric staff that the owners have inherited as guardians of the property and there may also be some Jinn's too  (ghosts).

Today I managed to get my 30 lengths in at the swimming pool, then did my supermarket shop and nipped up to the allotment to drop off some ground coffee waste (hubby gets it from work and I use it to keep insects off my seedlings).  We now have a tarmac path up to our plots, lovely to drive on - no more potholes!  Also the ground is being cleared by the organisers for the bee hives to be installed in the Spring.

Well that's all my news this week, thanks for reading and please leave a 

bit of chit chat if you have time!