Joe and Lou's Travel Blog

A brief stop in Brighton

As a surprise present Lou took me to Brighton where we were met by our friend Joe. The weather was unseasonably good so we settled on heading straight out again to a little town called Lewes.

Lewes

Lewes is an historic, small town just out of Brighton on your way back to London. Lewes was the major town in the region before Brighton rose to prominence. It is dominated by the ruins of a Norman castle on the hill. However it is unique for its brickwork. Instead of just the standard red brick you see almost everywhere in South East England they also used glazed brick. Glazing makes the bricks almost black in colour and shiny. These glazed bricks are arranged in patterns with the red ones on the facades of houses. When you look up a street with this pattern on each house the sparkle effect is quite striking. Joe remarked that he intends to move to Lewes, Brighton is too crowded.

Fracas in the Restaurant

In the evening we headed to a local restaurant for a nice dinner. However the food was overshadowed by the drama that unfolded beside us. A party consisting of a Middle aged gentleman, his wife, their twenty something daughter and grandchild were seated close to us. Joe assured us they were from Essex, where Mum grew up ;).

From the time we arrived we noticed the loud conversation they were having perpetrated particularly by the gentleman. Obviously a complaint was made and the manager moved in to ask them to keep the noise down. This did not go down at all well with the party. Over time, numerous other staff became involved in the discussion. We could not help but overhear that the party had been there since 1 o’clock in the afternoon (it was now about 7:30) and they had spent a considerable amount of money in the establishment (the amount of which seemed to go up each time the man found a new person to earnestly explain this to). This, he felt, entitled them to make as much noise as they wanted and refused to bay the bill until this right was recognised. Obviously a large portion of the money had been spent on alcohol.

This continued until a contingent of four police cars arrived and, coincidentally, the gentleman decided to finish the meal, pay the bill after all, and leave quickly.