Brighton

We are still cursed with our Internet outage, so I'm back at Starbucks this morning, this time with Dave. We're getting our online fix. It's scary to realize how small life seems without Internet access. It feels a little like being unable to breathe.

We've been on the phone (repeatedly) with our Internet provider, and their diagnostic tests haven't shown any fault with their system. So we bought a new router yesterday and installed it, and our connection still doesn't work. So now we're waiting to hear from the ISP engineers. This is more than just a drag -- I depend on this Internet connection for work!

As you can see, though, being unplugged from the WWW didn't stop Dave and I from going down to Brighton on Sunday as planned. We had a fun day traipsing around town. It's a terrific place for photography, starting with the strange, Moorish-looking Royal Pavilion.

There's a lot of peculiar street art, especially in the back alleys between streets. Dave gamely came along as I scurried down alley after alley.

And of course I found plenty of interesting storefronts...

...sometimes with interesting people walking past.

The beach at Brighton is very pebbly. There's very little sand, and Dave -- always the musician attuned to sounds -- pointed out that the waves make a completely different noise coming ashore on pebbles. I can't possibly convey it in writing, but it is very strange.

There's a huge pier with an amusement park at the end, complete with roller coasters and other rides. We walked out to the end but didn't ride anything. Instead we ducked into a pub and had a pint, watching a passing parade of old and young visitors, including what seemed like a lot of tattooed parents pushing strollers.

The pier included the requisite carnival games. We skipped those too. Even after a pint, I wasn't ready to climb a Loopy Ladder.

We walked back into town and found another pub where we had lunch, and then made our way gradually back to the train.

I'll have to go back down sometime when I have more time to explore -- I think there's a lot more street art lurking in those alleyways, and lots more great storefronts to find.

Sorry I'm not able to keep up with everyone's blogs at the moment. I hope we have this Internet problem sorted out soon!