Brighton mate....

I had an unexpected trip to Brighton at the weekend, a birthday surprise from the lovely J.... Bloody fantastic place - it's kind of unfair that one little city gets to be so great whilst the rest of us slum it in the real world. All I knew in the build up was that I was to keep Saturday 'evening' free and that I had to get up at 9am in the morning, so couldn't get drunk after work. I failed, of course, in this one simple task but felt better as I witnessed my guide for the weekend rolling back into the flat somewhat the worse for wear at 2am on Friday night.

I still didn't have a clue what was going on as we arrived at Victoria and it was only when we got to our coach that I saw where we were going. How cool - a day by the seaside! It was only when I asked what time we were coming back to London that J admitted "6 o'clock. Tomorrow evening". A whole flippin' weekend away?! What the hell?! Having checked into our hotel room - 3rd floor overlooking the beach and opposite the pier, naturally - we went out for a wander and pints. Dinner was booked, in a place that we knew little about but turned out to be perfect - I recommend you visit if you get the chance. It was a small Scandinavian bar called Northern Lights - booked because of my obsession with all things Norwegian and Swedish and, of course, of seeing the sky turn green in the Arctic Circle. It has the friendliest (and most authentically Scandinavian) staff in the world, and amazing food - although the reindeer steak was unfortunately finished for the day, my huge helping of Caselian casserole more than made up for it. The atmosphere was brilliant and had it not been for the fact that we were a bit knackered and wanted to see a few other places, we could quite happily have stayed longer. In hindsight it's probably better we left, as the dishevelled bar staff were still attempting to clear up after the party the night before when we returned for a drink the following day.

Sunday was spent walking the beach, strolling the lanes, checking out flat rental prices (usual day-dreaming), drinking far too much in the sunshine and stuffing ourselves on pub grub. It was magic.

The thing is, even before we went anywhere I was already overwhelmed that anyone would have gone to any effort to surprise me. But the thought that J had put into it just made me lost for words. I'm a lucky boy.