Old-fashioned Seaside Charm

Candy coloured beach-huts, wind swept piers, glowering cloudy skies, hardy families with buckets and spades on pebble beaches, lighthouses on rocky outcrops - it must be the English seaside!

Lovely weekend spent in Southwold, soaking up the old-fashioned seaside charm: a very sweet town, with a gentle, sleepy feel, with lots to look at and enjoy.

We particularly liked:

• Southwold Pier - endlessly optimistic cafes with outdoor seating protected by gigantic windbreaks, and the eccentric Victorian-style slot machines at the Under The Pier Show
• The Adnams Brewery Shop - Peronelle blush cider to die for, mmmm, and vast arrays of Suffolk ale for the Boy
• Dinner at The Swan - unexpectedly superior dining in a beautiful Georgian inn, I had chicken confit with a hazelnut sauce, yummy!

Only regret: no meal opportunity to sample the much recommended fish and chips.

Only thing lacking: a decent tourism website ... c'mon guys, get it together!

Beautiful Brighton

As the train moved further south-east and drew closer to the sea, the weather got sunnier and sunnier.

A quick day-trip to Brighton this Saturday: we took in cavernous junk shops and overpriced architectural salvage in the Lanes, browsed fruitfully in indie record shops (well, the Boy did - I read the Guardian in the sunshine outside) and generally ambled aimlessly.

Then to tea at Sian and Matt's, bearing dreamily beautiful cakes from the Angel Food Bakery: strawberries and cream, smooth red velvet, vanilla topped with sugar butterflies, and to top it all off, devil's food cake.

Finally, we finished up with dinner with the Aged Parents and the Affianced Couple at the cavernous Bill's Produce Store on North Road, a 'horn of plenty' style deli with wide oak tables for communal dining. Tasty, tender Moroccan lamb stew with lashings of harissa and yogurt for me, and a lush walnut, spinach and goat's cheese cannelloni for the Veggie. Lots of rich, velvety Syrah to wash it down. Too full for pud (I had my eye on rhubarb and white chocolate croissants, He had his on profiteroles), most unheard of.

I fell asleep in the car and woke up at the Blackwall Tunnel, a fine finish!