Cocktails!

It wouldn't have been that long ago that I would have been excited to be going to Brighton Pride, in fact we always used to go for the whole weekend. But with Dusan having been in Croatia recently, a weekend off would have not been possible for him and so that meant a simple Day Trip. Alex & Mikey and I were going to go down for the day on the train, but the memories of former years where the train system, inadequate on the best of days, completely broke down leaving thousands of revellers stuck on non air-conditioned trains with no facilities for hours in hot temperatures. It was enough to put us all off. That along with the fact that despite its close proximity to London the fares are quite astounding. It was also the first year that the Pride event was not free. A huge shame, considering how many thousands of people the event brings to the City of Brighton & Hove. I believe they say last year there were around 135,000 people in Preston Park. I particularly like the way that as the Parade makes its way from the sea front to Preston Park the entire cities population comes out for what the locals often call the "Gay Parade".

But due to lack of contributions in the collection buckets over previous years, the costs were getting too high and they decided to charge this year. In a year of all these cuts and high taxes it seemed a crazy thing to go. Why not slap a £1 per Person, per ,tax on all hotel rooms. That in itself would cover the cost of the cleanup and security etc. Several times over the last week I have logged on to the Pride Website and looked at buying tickets. There was no option to have the tickets sent and in addition to the ticket, there was a compulsory collection fee. Tickets had to be collected from a location in Brighton, on the day. You would have thought they could have sent a unique code to a smart phone and that be used on the door eh?

So with Saturday having arrived and us all feeling rather exhausted from a heavy week (Was it all the Riots on the news that made everyone exhausted?)we opted for Plan B. I met Alex & Mikey at Pizza Express in Saint Christopher's Place and enjoyed a leisurely lunch before shopping for Swim Wear in Selfridges. Well I can't be seen wearing last season's trunks can I?

We then made our way to Soho for some drinks. Giraffe just off Old Compton Street honour their Happy Hour 7 days per week with selected cocktails 50% off till 1900. Fabulous. So we sat and sipped watching the boys go by from the upper loung bar. The weather was hot and humid, the drinks were chilled and company fabulous. It may not have been Pride, we may not have seen the Parade but we had fun and after the exhausting week we'd all had, was just what the Doctor ordered!