Yesterday was an excellent day despite wintry weather conditions. Although inclined for a lay in, or should it be lie in, I went looking for a car parking place as close to the Sussex Cricket ground as available around 8.30 am and found a free space facing the right way towards the sea front and a short walk from the main entrance. I then had an explore of the local shops and estates agents where the average rental of property is £1000 a month with several in £1400 to £1500 but where there was also a studio flat for around £500, Obviously it is about location and the ability to rent out during the Summer holiday season. I bought a cheese and onion sandwich and a copy of the Daily Mail and made my way into the ground and the Member’s lounge for a seat at a table immediately behind glass and with a large screen TV nearby. I read a little of the paper, did the wagon wheel word search, quickly getting the minimum average of 15 words and then floundering after 17, and then though I had the right starter for the code word but failed then onwards.
The skies were full of rain and the wind was exceptionally cold so before the match commenced I ordered a bacon roll which was a large bap well filled with bacon, and a cup of coffee for £ 3.40 remembering my £1.50 experience at the Ship and Royal back home. It was a salutary reminder of what the South regards as a normal costs of living.
My experience of Brighton is limited but there are some important memories. Going with my mother at the end of World War Two, it may even have been in war time with beaches closed off, mined with barbed wire and devices to handicapped a sea borne assault. I was dumped in the sea by the son of the my birth mother’s eldest sister after he had returned from a Prisoner of War camp in East Germany liberated by the Russians who raped and pillaged the enemy. I retained a fear of water into my adulthood. I attended a conference staying at the Grand Hotel. I visited as part of the Local Government Forum on Drugs. I made a couple of visits, days out one with my birth and care mothers. I visited as part of trips to Sussex Cricket Club. I have walked the remaining pier. I did come on a visit on my own when my mother was in residential care and I stayed at her former home, buying a copy of Peace News from a shop in the Northern Laines. Someone who was once important in my life when a young man and involved in the Peace movement became an academic administrator at a university in the area.
There are now two universities in the area whereas before 1960 there was none. The first, the University of Sussex was then created as a new red brick and with a reputation for being left of centre in its approach to the world and further education. It has a campus site outside of the town centre. Then with the subsequently development in which the Polytechnics transmigrated into Universities a new University of Brighton was created and which has developed campus sites not just in Brighton but neighbouring resort town of Eastbourne and Hastings, places which I visited as a child and once stayed on holiday at Hastings which was our least successful family holiday if I remember correctly. The number of students and staff will have increased significantly throughout the last decade because of government policy, academic reputation and popularity of the location.
Then there is the conference Brighton although my experience was that apart from a walk on the front there had been little opportunity to explore. I must search for the conference programme. There would have been a civic reception and dinner.
A lot people will be commuters living in Brighton and working in central London. When I worked for the Government’s Drug use advisory service on secondments I knew an administrator who did this.
During the same period I was also an advisor to Local Authority Drugs Forum (whose creation had been my idea and was the first local government organisation which represented all the separate representational bodies in the UK) we came on a visit to West Sussex and although based at Lewis (the place not the TV series) we had visited two advisory help services in Brighton, including a needle exchange service. The town had developed a community of gay people outside of London so there was a problem with HIV and it had always been a resort which attracted young people because of the season work opportunities.
Then there is Brighton the retirement area although rocketing property prices will have had it impact on those able to migrate here for retirement.
There will also have been a relocation here of asylum seekers and other displaced persons living on benefits because of the availability of accommodation during the period when the British seaside holiday was replaced by the short time flight to Spain and Greece and with Gatwick airport a quick train ride away and more people coming to the coast for day when the weather is fine. The road between London and Brighton used to be blocked with vehicles on the good summer weekends and bank holidays and with people making their way home slowly from early evening until the pubs closed on coach trips ( what were they called in those day charabanks?) or in packed special trains. Yes charabank is the correct spelling although it is also a character level 80 Troll Hunter to be precise in the World of Warcraft.
Then there are the mangers, the professionals and the service providing workers although my impression is that the latter are now are primarily new and old Europeans and students. I will try and find the time over the next few days to find out a little of the reality.
The sun did emerge, almost for a few minutes after lunch and left my comfortable and ideal position to climb the stairs to sit behind the bowler’s arm. The as I soon as a felt rain in the air I descended and retreated on bench backing on to the wall of Dexter’s the restaurant, so I did not block the view of those sitting at table for a late lunch or an early afternoon tea. When the rain stopped play I joined the dozens of other viewing the Test Match at Lords. It was a brilliant decision because Graham Onions of Durham in his first match took a second wicked in the same over, I missed the first, and then a third and later he took two more to finish with five wickets for 38 runs. The consequence is that anyone taking 5 wickets in an innings or scoring 100 or more runs have their names immediately added to a toll of honour board in the dressing room of the national side. It was the making of a legend. No one can alter what will be there for everyone to see in successive generations.
Returning to the field of play outside in the cold Durham were all out for 380 with Liam Plunkett not out for a career best of 94 and short of the fifth batting point. Sussex had an excellent start with 80 0n the board before the first wicket and then had an extraordinary collapse with five wickets going for 28 runs three were out each for 0 caught by the wicket keeper Mustard, one to Claydon and two to Liam. However then Hodd 101 and Luke Wright 67 came together and put on 150 before the next wicket fell and the Innings closed on Friday only 17 runs behind the Durham total, emphasising my feeling that a draw was the most likely outcome.
In the evening I watched an average episode of Taggart and had intended to watch Any Questions and the late political programme but went to sleep and missed the most significant political event so far this year which is likely to bring forward the end of the Labour Government.
The skies were full of rain and the wind was exceptionally cold so before the match commenced I ordered a bacon roll which was a large bap well filled with bacon, and a cup of coffee for £ 3.40 remembering my £1.50 experience at the Ship and Royal back home. It was a salutary reminder of what the South regards as a normal costs of living.
My experience of Brighton is limited but there are some important memories. Going with my mother at the end of World War Two, it may even have been in war time with beaches closed off, mined with barbed wire and devices to handicapped a sea borne assault. I was dumped in the sea by the son of the my birth mother’s eldest sister after he had returned from a Prisoner of War camp in East Germany liberated by the Russians who raped and pillaged the enemy. I retained a fear of water into my adulthood. I attended a conference staying at the Grand Hotel. I visited as part of the Local Government Forum on Drugs. I made a couple of visits, days out one with my birth and care mothers. I visited as part of trips to Sussex Cricket Club. I have walked the remaining pier. I did come on a visit on my own when my mother was in residential care and I stayed at her former home, buying a copy of Peace News from a shop in the Northern Laines. Someone who was once important in my life when a young man and involved in the Peace movement became an academic administrator at a university in the area.
There are now two universities in the area whereas before 1960 there was none. The first, the University of Sussex was then created as a new red brick and with a reputation for being left of centre in its approach to the world and further education. It has a campus site outside of the town centre. Then with the subsequently development in which the Polytechnics transmigrated into Universities a new University of Brighton was created and which has developed campus sites not just in Brighton but neighbouring resort town of Eastbourne and Hastings, places which I visited as a child and once stayed on holiday at Hastings which was our least successful family holiday if I remember correctly. The number of students and staff will have increased significantly throughout the last decade because of government policy, academic reputation and popularity of the location.
Then there is the conference Brighton although my experience was that apart from a walk on the front there had been little opportunity to explore. I must search for the conference programme. There would have been a civic reception and dinner.
A lot people will be commuters living in Brighton and working in central London. When I worked for the Government’s Drug use advisory service on secondments I knew an administrator who did this.
During the same period I was also an advisor to Local Authority Drugs Forum (whose creation had been my idea and was the first local government organisation which represented all the separate representational bodies in the UK) we came on a visit to West Sussex and although based at Lewis (the place not the TV series) we had visited two advisory help services in Brighton, including a needle exchange service. The town had developed a community of gay people outside of London so there was a problem with HIV and it had always been a resort which attracted young people because of the season work opportunities.
Then there is Brighton the retirement area although rocketing property prices will have had it impact on those able to migrate here for retirement.
There will also have been a relocation here of asylum seekers and other displaced persons living on benefits because of the availability of accommodation during the period when the British seaside holiday was replaced by the short time flight to Spain and Greece and with Gatwick airport a quick train ride away and more people coming to the coast for day when the weather is fine. The road between London and Brighton used to be blocked with vehicles on the good summer weekends and bank holidays and with people making their way home slowly from early evening until the pubs closed on coach trips ( what were they called in those day charabanks?) or in packed special trains. Yes charabank is the correct spelling although it is also a character level 80 Troll Hunter to be precise in the World of Warcraft.
Then there are the mangers, the professionals and the service providing workers although my impression is that the latter are now are primarily new and old Europeans and students. I will try and find the time over the next few days to find out a little of the reality.
The sun did emerge, almost for a few minutes after lunch and left my comfortable and ideal position to climb the stairs to sit behind the bowler’s arm. The as I soon as a felt rain in the air I descended and retreated on bench backing on to the wall of Dexter’s the restaurant, so I did not block the view of those sitting at table for a late lunch or an early afternoon tea. When the rain stopped play I joined the dozens of other viewing the Test Match at Lords. It was a brilliant decision because Graham Onions of Durham in his first match took a second wicked in the same over, I missed the first, and then a third and later he took two more to finish with five wickets for 38 runs. The consequence is that anyone taking 5 wickets in an innings or scoring 100 or more runs have their names immediately added to a toll of honour board in the dressing room of the national side. It was the making of a legend. No one can alter what will be there for everyone to see in successive generations.
Returning to the field of play outside in the cold Durham were all out for 380 with Liam Plunkett not out for a career best of 94 and short of the fifth batting point. Sussex had an excellent start with 80 0n the board before the first wicket and then had an extraordinary collapse with five wickets going for 28 runs three were out each for 0 caught by the wicket keeper Mustard, one to Claydon and two to Liam. However then Hodd 101 and Luke Wright 67 came together and put on 150 before the next wicket fell and the Innings closed on Friday only 17 runs behind the Durham total, emphasising my feeling that a draw was the most likely outcome.
In the evening I watched an average episode of Taggart and had intended to watch Any Questions and the late political programme but went to sleep and missed the most significant political event so far this year which is likely to bring forward the end of the Labour Government.
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