Girl’s Night

After an early morning outdoor swim, I had a quick trolley dash around Asda before heading to the station to collect Jen who’s staying with us for the weekend.

I drove home to put the shopping away and then we went to Molly’s at the beach in Rottingdean for lunch. Elif said she would walk down with Luca to meet us as she had to be in her boutique for a 3pm bridal fitting, and as Alan was working from home he said he’d come down for a quick coffee. As his time was limited he said he’d ride down on Betsy (my e-bike) and then he could leave us there and power up the hill on his way home.

Elif has very kindly offered me her studio lighting, so we walked to her boutique with her to collect them, but on the way passed one of the little charity shops and I spotted a small tripod in the window. So I told Elif we’d catch her up and went in to have a look. I’d been saying to Alan that I could do with a tripod that fits in my camera bag, as the other one is big and heavy to carry round all the time. Anyway, this was just perfect, and best of all, it’s vintage and in excellent condition, it even came in its own little case, but I doubt I’ll use that as it does look old, but for only £5 it was a done deal. Even better, when I showed it Alan later, he said it has telescopic legs! He said he thinks it’s from the 1970’s and said it’s really well made, so I’m very chuffed with my purchase.

We walked up to Elif’s boutique and she said that Luca has just fallen asleep, so I offered to take him out for a walk in his pram so that he’d hopefully sleep longer. We strolled up the High Street and I took Jen to see Kipling’s Gardens which are beautiful wall gardens that I assume once belonged to the house where Rudyard Kipling lived. Luca stayed asleep until we stopped off at another charity shop just near Elif’s, and when he woke up and saw his mummy wasn’t there, he got so upset, he had a proper ‘bottom lip’ quiver and I couldn’t console him! So we quickly walked back to the boutique where Elif was in the middle of the bridal fitting - not great timing but I couldn’t have kept him out any longer. She took him in the back to feed him and the poor bride to be had to wait and didn’t look very impressed, but there wasn’t much Elif could do - it’s difficult trying to juggle a business and a young baby! We left her to it, and offered to collect the lighting another day, but she said she’d rather I take it as it was in the way, so we took it and left.

Once home we went in the hot tub for an hour and then got ready to meet Alison & Chrissy in Rottingdean. We had a drink at the White Horse and then went for dinner at Frank’s French restaurant, the Bistro Gaumond. The food is always excellent but it’s more than I can say for his wine - it’s awful! It’s probably the cheapest French house wine available which is such a shame as they used to charge corkage for you to bring your own, and ironically he has a sign hanging that says ‘Life’s too short to drink cheap wine’. Frank, you should take notice of your notice!

Anyway, a good night was had and it was a lovely start to the weekend. I’m like to get behind on comments again while Jen’s here, so I hope you have a good one!