Feeling Happy in Brighton - Part One

After a couple of tough weeks at work and a week-end of exploding ovens, wind damaged drainpipes and power cuts, I was feeling slightly frazzled and also a little down in the dumps so thank goodness I had this Monday off work.  I decided to have a day free of self-imposed pressures, a day free of "oh, I must do this" and "oh, I must do that". Nope, today was all about me taking a little time out and living in the moment and reconnecting with the simple things in life.

Today was a glorious December day (sunny, calm and reasonably mild) and I headed off into Brighton, parking the car in Hove (where I found a free parking spot) and then took the 40 minute walk along the seafront into Brighton.  It was so calm and peaceful, just dog-walkers, mums with pushchairs, a lady feeding the seagulls on the beach (really, do they need to be fed?) and elderly gentlemen (yes, there was more than one of them!) using the balustrades along the seafront to do leg stretching exercises a ballerina would be proud of.  It was so calm and warm, there was even a guy on the beach performing yoga rituals. It seemed that everyone down at the beach was enjoying living in the moment (the sea does have that effect) and I was feeling my spirits lifting already.

When I reached Brighton, I decided to wander along the Lanes and also visit some of my favourite "happy" shops, such as Cath Kidston for a fix of colour and  Lush for a fix of the most wonderful smells.

Cath Kidston - very girly but never afraid to use plenty of colour

Lush for an assault on the senses - colour and smell

I couldn't resist buying some smellies whilst I was in Lush but I'll be writing about them in a future post once I've test-driven them, so more about those soon.  But I also emerged from Lush covered in glitter - must have been dusted by a sparkle fairy whilst I was in there!

By mid afternoon I decided it was time to start heading back to the car and as it was almost 3.00pm and I was getting hungry with a long walk ahead of me, I got some chips to eat on the go as I walked back along the seafront.

chips by the seafront - but not many left by the time I took the photo

The sun was already starting to get low on the horizon by the time I reached the West Pier.  So sad to see the last remains, following fires and severe storm damage, but refusing to give in and still hanging on to the bitter end.

But I mustn't get too melancholy here as this post is intended to be about happiness - I'll be back soon with Part Two of my Brighton Happy Day (which starts to get even more Christmassy once I get home).