(2026 Edit. This post is from the archive. It was first published in 2008, and things and views may have changed since then.)
I've been home now for a few days and have gotten over the jet lag, which tore at me like a weeping sore, not enough to lay me down but more than enough to be annoying. I guess the thing I hated most was not being with Matt, spending time with him or being able to reach out and touch him. Yes, we've spoken on cam, but as we've both agreed, it's just not the same, and we can't wait for him to come over to my side of the pond. He has to get his passport first, which is already in hand with all the documentation sent off and all that. I just hope he can make it over soon, sooner the better as far as I am concerned. I can hardly wait to show him this fair city and see what he makes of it; it sure is a lot different from Marion, Vienna and the rest of Southern Illinois!
If been asked a couple of times what Brighton is like, by Matt and others, it's a hard question to reply to as Brighton seems to offer lots and lots and means different things to different people. But basically, here are just some of the reasons I have come to choose Brighton as my home.
Chinese, Goan, Indian, Italian, Jap, Lebanese, Tex-Mex, Thai, Greek, French, Spanish - you can sample food from all over the world in Brighton and Hove's 400+ cafés and restaurants! Enjoy a show at one of the 8 different theatres around this groovy city. Shopping - yep, this place has the lot, for all the best high street names, try East Street, North Street, Western Road and the Churchill Square Shopping Centre. OK, so the prices are not as low as in America, but there is still a lot of choice. Upper North Street has a range of antique shops. And don't forget Hove and Upper Kemp Town for antiques and bric-a-brac. Brighton Marina offers factory outlet shopping on the Waterfront, with top quality goods at discount prices (down to about twice US prices!). Explore The Lanes, with its narrow, paved streets full of shops selling antiques, jewellery, hats, designer clothes, steeped in history and much more.
Visit the North Laine area, Brighton's Bohemian Quarter, with quirky and unusual shops selling everything from bonsai trees to vegetarian shoes!!
There are 5 museums, 3 cinemas, and 1 massive pavilion. Brighton hosts the UK's largest and boldest arts festivals, complete with a massive upside-down purple cow and also the largest 'free' gay pride event anywhere in Europe.
All this and I've hardly touched the surface of this great city, god, reading this, it's a wonder I don't work for the local council in the tourist department, it sounds like a bloody advert for the place. But, as I said before, there is so much Brighton has to offer, I've not even touched on the vibrant bar, pub and club scene, which is pretty wild at times.
David says, 'No one comes from Brighton, we all come from other places and settle here in town'. Indeed, he's right, in all the years I've been here, I can't remember the time I met someone who hadn't moved here from some other town, city or country.
Jake says, this is the city other cities try to be like but fail! Where else can you get a crate of beer delivered at 5am to the house of a drag queen with everyone in dresses after enjoying an evening on the beach and club with no one batting an eyelid?
The only way you'll even know what Brighton has to offer is to see for yourselves, which is what Matt is doing, and I recommend that anyone else do the same, come for a day, a weekend, a month or even a lifetime!
So there ya go, that's Brighton for you, or rather a little taste of it, a tiny slice of this funky city by the sea, which at this very moment is calm and still, the starlight shining on the black rippling surface like a mirror. I only wish I didn't have to go back to work after my lunch break is over. It's been good getting back to work, OK, that's a complete lie, it hasn't, it's been hell, I've not missed it a single bit while I've been away, but I have missed the folks I work with. It's been fab catching up on almost three weeks of gossip. The queenie strops are going on all around David, up on his floor, the damp flats that Rach has been looking at until she found a nice one for her and her fella, another David, to settle into. Quita telling tales of her wild housemate and declining four-somes, and Nyree laughing until she almost wet herself at my new dark denim dungarees!
Matt's out tonight with his friend Daved, which is good, he hasn't had much of a chance to socialise with his friends for a while, as I seemed to monopolise most of his time when I was over there, but a little secret, I don't half miss our brief but significant lunch time chat!
OK, that's ya lot for now, don't forget to keep coming back, comments are always welcome and tell ya friends, I need all the readers I can get. Strangers are just friends I haven't met yet!
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