Next morning we had a Premier Inn breakfast, and it was fine, especially for the price. The boys eat free and we all got what we wanted. I had vegan sausage and bacon which I had to ask for, plus the tomatoes, mushrooms, hash brown, and toast I could just get off the buffet. Plus coffee and lots of juice, would have cose more than twenty quid for the four of us elsewhere.
Then back to the car, remember we had to be back within twenty-four hours remember to get our discounted parking. What time do you think we made it? Twenty-four hours and one minute. So while we got the special rate for the frist day had to pay another NINE QUID for that extra minute.
The drive from Brighton to Portchester took a bit longer than expected, we diverted to avoid some slow main road traffic and went through some lovely looking places. We should go to Arundel and to Amberley, wondering if we can do it by train.
Next stop then Portchester. But I will write that up tomorrow, as everyone is gathering to watch a film. Or are we going to watch a film? Boys are still trying out new XBox and Nintento Switch games they bought and it's getting late...
I mentioned coffee and that puts a little coffee update in here. That was Premier Inn coffee, not as good as my coffee at home, and not contributing towards my coffee estimates here of course. This also reminds me I got some new coffee beans before we went, from Tesco, from Grind, which look good. Grind is a chain that we don't have near us, we've been to one in Greenwich though. AND while was away I got a new delivery of coffee beans from the roaster in Canterbury that I have not opened yet. Coffee galore.
The Pump House was right by Giggling Squid so we went in for our dinner. We had to go up the narrow stairs to our table, this is not a big place, not as big as the one in Bath. Super delicious food though. The others shared a big mixed starter for three, I had a Massoman curry with Tom Yum rice that was really tasty. Oh plus some mushrooms and greens side dish. We probably went a bit over budget on this dinner, following our over budget lunch, but we had always planned to have a bit of a blow out this day.
I could have tried to sneak in another pub here but we took some wine and some sweets back to our huge hotel room instead. Really a lot of room, a pleasant surprise.
To The Pump House, a pub I had spotted earlier, with promising sounding real ales and a comfortable but nice traditional interior. Not busy either as most people looking to be in the sun for as long as possible. We wanted a sit down inside though. Beer there was really good, and we sat and played more cards. Clare and T2 went to get something for his indigestion and checked into our hotel while they were out. T1 and I stayed and probably looked at our phones, but there were also TV screens showing sports. Basketball while we were there, then some darts.
The fire alarm went off towards the end of this pub stop, everyone was evacuated, and the fire brigade came. They had to close the pub for a bit while they figured it out. A false alarm I think, we did not see anything on fire.
Went on Brighton Pier, you have to pay now just to go on it! Clare was relly looking forward to the Dolphin Derby and there are actual rides the boys would like. They both did the small rollercoaster with a loop, and a spinning mini coaster, and then T2 only did a log flume and some dangerous looking spinning upside down thing. Was really nice and sunny, we were lucky with the weather. I think I "caught the sun", I got a bit burnt on my forehead. I should have had sun cream and a hat.
They did go on the dolphin derby, two goes each trying to win a Mario soft toy. That's three pounds, times three players, times two goes each. These fair games have gone up in price!
Next to ice creams, and while I waited outside the ice cream shop for them I was tempted for dinner by a Balinese restaurant next door. It had a mix of Indonesian and Thai and Japanese stuff, but I was overruled as Clare had lalready set her heart on Giggling Squid Thai now, that she had already booked as a backup.
Finally to a pub, settled on The Cricketers, lovely interior, but not a great beer for me! A bit cloudy, tasted ok, but I'm not convinced it should have been cloudy. Probably the issue was having the first pint of real ale of the day, though maybe their lines needed a clean. I'm used to top quality beer! And this was quite expensive too. So as nice as the place looked I would not rush back there again. We sat on high stools at a high table inside and played cards and plotted what to do with the rest of the day.
Now I'm losing confidence, in my own memory. Did we go in The Cricketers first? I have a picture I took in there of my cloudy pint at ten past twelve. Was it before the pizza then? We couldn't have finished a pizza by this time.
Had vouchers and a deal for Pizza Express, and though I hoped to avoid a chain we never go there so did. Or tried. Too full, probably because everyone had vouchers and a deal, but we could try the other one, five mins away, near that hotel we stayed in on a previous visit. Still no joy! So we got pizza in Franco Manca instead, where we did not have vouchers, nor a deal, so it probably cost us twice as much. And is still a chain, but was lovely. Think it gave T2 hearburn, he was a bit off for the rest of the day with this.
I had the Greek influenced vegan special pizza that I had last time and said I wasn't going to have, but I panicked. And it was fine.
Just back from a super long weekend to Portchester via Brighton, and it was great. But we are exhausted now. Lots to cover, hoping to refer back to some Signal messages I sent over the weekend to help me remember it all. I will try and break it up here into single posts for things of note. Of note to me.
Took Thursday off work, up early Thursday morning to drive to Mum and Dad's for the easter bank holiday weekend, but here's the clever bit, we had a day and a night booked in Brighton too. No particular plans, just spinning out a nice weekend. We thought at first about going by train but then figured this would be quicker, cheaper, and no risk of a rail replacement bus all the way home at the end of the weekend. So drive to Brighton was fine, motorways, maybe a bit slower past the airport, but fine. We drove into Brighton through Dyke Road, some nice big houses along there! Brighton is nice. We had some disounted parking with our Premier Inn, so put the car in that car park, noted the time, we must be back in exactly twenty four hours. Oh more on that later. Dropped bags of at hotel and walked to look for fun.
First idea of fun is a pub, but no pubs open yet. Perhaps a couple of Greene King pubs open at 11am but instead we'd wait until after lunch.
Shopped and looked around a little bit, great bookshop, https://www.goldsborobooks.com who specialise in signed first editions. Bought something called The Lamb, a heartwarming tale of cannibals, sounded interesting.
Paul Clarkeʼs blog - I live in Hythe in the deep South. Wed and dad to two, I'm a full-stack web developr, + I do mostly javascript / Node, some ruby, python, php etc. I like pubs, parkrun, restaurants, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and time travel.
