I've just come back from my birthday treat - a few days in Brighton - and it was amazing.  We got a brilliant upgrade to a sea view room with a balcony and a fabulous view of the pier, beach and so on....noisy but lovely!  The Grand is such a brilliant old hotel - and the new seafood restaurant serves fantastic whitebait with a singing waiter who brought Kara an extra portion of lemon sorbet with an edible pansy flower on top - she now things all fancy restaurants serve edible flowers.

 

A Grand seagull enjoying the same view as we had.....

 

We had treatments in the new spa downstairs - which were so pampering and luxurious.
The visit was especially lovely because I bumped into Ali and her family - she and I were friends at school.  She was staying at the hotel to celebrate her daughter's graduation.

It was also a work trip and we thoroughly checked out all the shops and galleries - and I am pleased to say we have as lovely if not much nicer stock in the gallery here in St Just - it would pass the test very well.

We added a few more Sally Welchman paintings to our gallery collection....as well as two rusty tables, two birdcages, a carboard display stand, , four wooden seagulls, some wonderful thrift shop clothes for Kara - which were not for display in the gallery!

The best bit of the whole trip was the lovely Grand cream tea we had with John - and Kara was polite to him!