birthday celebrations

the lovely adam celebrated his 32nd birthday on thanksgiving day last week!


wednesday night we had dinner with friends at our favourite italian place, ciao bella


the group got a bit rowdy after too many bottles of value-priced house wine


friday afternoon it was off to a seaside town called brighton, about an hour away on the train. we stayed in a wonderful little b&b called the cavalaire, which was in a restored victorian mansion. breakfast in the mornings was amazing, everything from a Full English to salmon and scrambled eggs! i didn't want to leave.


our first stop in brighton was the fish bowl pub, where we feasted on giant fish finger sandwiches and seasonal ales.


since it was really, really cold in brighton, our second stop was at a cosy pub called the bath arms, where we sat by the fire and enjoyed more seasonal ales and a lovely woodford reserve.


saturday morning we braved the cold for a walk on the beach and down to the famous pier. the ocean was beautiful...too bad we were wearing ski hats!


that blurry thing in the corner is my MITTEN, which i wore to the BEACH


heh, heh. the brits call cotton candy "candy floss" which makes absolutely no sense to me


cheeky illustrations on the side of the women's bathing house


i tried my hand at some skee ball in the arcade, although the game was actually (appropriately) called "ice ball"


after a very cold morning on the pier we walked back down the beach to a place called mdtea, which i didn't take a picture of because the staff wasn't very friendly and they scared me. that aside, i had the BEST cup of tea there ever. it was a peppermint and chili infusion, absolutely amazing.


adam's friends mike and amelia drove in from kent to have dinner with us saturday night! we went to a great seafood restaurant called english's, where we dined on oysters, scallops, and fresh lemon sole. the meal took 3.5 hours, so we really got to enjoy every course and not feel too rushed.


i would smile here but my face is actually frozen