Seaside Stags

Brighton! Jay's stag do. In one of those massive coincidences, we ended up staying just across the road from where I stayed the only other time I've spent some time in Brighton, on Paul's stag do a few years back. The facilities weren't quite as basic as the previous time, but the Quality Home wasn't one of the best places I've ever stayed. I can't recommend staying in a smoking room, even as an ex-smoker, it's pretty grim. Ah well.

Brighton is a pretty cool place, even though I've still not really had much chance to explore it properly. It's a shame that it's so difficult to get into by car, because sitting in a queue of cars for over an hour every time you want to come back in is a huge problem, especially when it's as warm as the past weekend was. I like being by the sea, though I think Jay was a bit surprised to find out that Brighton has a pebbly beach. How could he not know? I thought everyone knew that!

Fortunately the weekend was pretty good overall. I have to admit I wasn't particularly looking forward to it because knowing all about the wrangling between Mark and Jay that went into organising it, I wasn't sure that we'd have an enjoyable weekend, because there were obvious issues arising there, but it's to their credit that none of that showed over the weekend. In fact everyone got on pretty well really and there wasn't any problems between us all. You never quite know how these things will work out when there are a disparate group of people meeting up for the first time. I think I was pretty quiet alot of the weekend, possibly because I was worrying that Steve wasn't having a good time (he looked really miserable on Friday night) and worrying what they all thought of me. It's sometimes pretty uncomfortable being a gay man in the company of straight men- especially the kind of friends my brother has, and I was worried that they had a problem with us. It's probably irrational but it's done now, and I was quiet a lot more than i should have been. Sometimes I still have these moments where I feel shy and not very confident, even after all these years. *sigh*

Anyway, I very much enjoyed Friday's fishing trip, especially as I managed to beat Jonathan to catching the first fish. Just like all those years ago in Cornwall, except he didn't sulk as much as the last time! The evening out was OK. Harry Ramsden's fish and chips were a big disappointment. They're a long way from being the best in the country, let me tell you! We went to some bars, which were noisy and busy- I feel so old sometimes cos I like bars where you can have a nice chat and hear yourself speak... ah well. The Font was pretty cool though!

Saturday was paint balling. That was cool. I've never tried it before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I was any good at it, because I did send to spend a significant proportion of the time waiting to be resurrected! People kept shooting my goggles, which made shows how obvious I was! Anyway the best part of the day was the stag run, where Jay and Mark had to run the gauntlet while the rest of us shot at them! Great fun and just about the only humiliation my brother got. He was lucky!

We went out for a Mexican meal that evening. They put cheese on the chili, which wasn't a good idea if you ask me. However, I laughed it off having had a shot of tequila, a flaming sambuca and a couple of cocktails. We got into the club despite my lack of ID, unlike Mark who didn't and ended up in a bit of trouble for trying to use someone else's... not very clever. i enjoyed the club. It was a shame that the cheese room was so damn hot, because the music was much more fun in there. We stayed until 1ish, then went and cooled off on the beach, which was still busy at that time.

Sunday everyone looked far too fresh at breakfast! A long trip home and we were were ready to watch the return of the Macra in Doctor Who. That was a Wooo! moment.