Tag: Brighton

That time of year…

Brighton Pride, in August!

In all the years I have lived here I have only once seen the procession, because we spend as much of the summer as possible in France. As it happens, that particular weekend is also the closest I have ever come to attending a festival, which you may think is rather tame. I do remember the crazy colourfulness of the parade though – and the good humour. I am told that the spirit of Brighton Pride is now endangered for all the usual reasons – uncontrollable crowds, transport and parking issues, the cost of clearing up staggering amounts of litter, the inevitable commercialisation….It is true that the impact on residents, especially in the St. James’s Street Kemp Town area, has to be deplored. They are understandably protesting against the conditions imposed on them for over three days when the council authorities close public streets to enable the event organisers to make money by charging for entrance tickets.I have no idea what deal the council have got into over this, but as well as putting up with the mess and late (all?) night loud noise, residents in a very wide zone (25 densely populated streets) are required to register for wristbands, which they must then collect from a box office, with id and proofs of residency. They then have to wear them – just to access their own homes if they dare to step outside! The standard issue is 4 wristbands per household – so don’t even think about inviting any of your own visitors for three days…Apparently many residents just can’t stand this weekend and so are effectively driven away to stay elsewhere. No wonder they feel nostalgic for the old-style friendly (free) Pride street parties of not so long ago….

I will restrict my own Pride ‘commercial opportunity’ to something much less controversial. I have made precisely three crazy Pride items for my Etsy shop. Not in themselves exactly low-key, but definitely not intrusive.

Mission failed

By the time I was free to plant those 200 odd last bulbs, it was looking like this outside….so it was not the (awful) weather that got in the way and thwarted me but unexpected visitors (delightful) and pitch darkness!

So I did this instead:

And then I cleared away some of the claptrap (including that cork) that the camera had unkindly picked up… It hasn’t really been cold enough yet to ‘need’ the fire but it does make a big difference to the mood of the room. We don’t seem to hang around in there in the summer, it feels unfinished somehow with an empty grate – even stuffed with flowers. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I will have to face up to blackleading the fire surround – down on my knees scrubbing at the filthy stuff like the original Victorian maids, though fortunately for me not much more than an annual rather than a daily chore!

Will try to tick off those bulbs tomorrow.

Day 3

Of Blogvember.

Not needed for work today, so had a quick look at the sea (Hove end), then back to sorting stuff for Etsy. These pictures were actually taken in mid October, hence the startlingly blue skies (and lack of pebbles – which are all over the place today.) The statue is relatively new. It’s called ‘Flight of the Langoustine’, by a Brighton sculptor Pierre Diamantopoulo and has only been on the Hove plinth for a month or so. I love the energy of the thing – life size human figures, escaping into the air through a metal grid. It was apparently inspired by a discarded lobster pot.

I have heard mutterings about the £135K it is said to have cost and I suppose the timing is unfortunate right now but it is a major piece of bronze which must have been commissioned years ago – so much work involved.

I seem to have slept through the remains of storm Ciaran last night, which is not like me. But there does seem to have been more damage in Brighton than I quite realised – the roof of the big Boots by the clocktower became unsafe, so that the whole of North Street (major thoroughfare) had to be closed, which then meant re-routing the buses along the seafront – which cannot have pleased the drivers. There were several shops closed/opening late in the centre this morning while they dealt with leaks – in one case there was water coming down through three empty flats above the shop. The built environment in our city does have its downside – so much of it is old – elegant and beautiful, but what one builder described to me as ‘Victorian spec. jerry building.’ I think he was exasperated, dealing with the notorious Brighton Bungaroosh!

Visit Brighton

IMG_5646

But NOT right now. It is not itself (and, of course, we all know why).

I love this city – my home for nearly half a century.  Normally so tolerant and accepting, there is now an edge of suspicion. We are forced to be unwelcoming  – I do understand why we turn away tourists at the station. There are unsettling incidents  – I don’t understand why we need three police ( two clearly NOT socially distanced!) to move on one lone adult sitting by himself on a deserted sea front….we are not talking Bank Holiday crowds here…

I think of myself as a very law-abiding citizen. But I have never felt more like marching onto the (totally empty) beach and sitting down on the pebbles. Just because.

I won’t. I’ll watch the sea from my windows. I’ll be grateful for the private gardens we are so privileged to access.

And look forward to this!IMG_5639

Almost over…

 

But still got ten tickets left for Brighton Festival events this weekend – 8 for a family outing to BOAT for lunchtime picnic/outdoor Shakespeare – the Tempest this year – and a couple for Medea, Written in Rage. Not at all sure what to expect for this one, but it is apparently ‘different’ and much hyped!

I may already have mentioned how much I appreciate living in Brighton…?!  I came to the University of Sussex from small town Berkshire a zillion years ago and, despite the definite problems in the City (housing, drug-related, traffic and parking…) it is such an open minded, creative, quirky, vibrant and simply beautiful place that we have never left. I am lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time in rural France now, but cutting ties with my City by the Sea is just not going to happen.