Brighton - early Jan. As I mentioned in my last posting, Anna and I went to Brighton in January and it kicked arsed.
It was a spontaneous trip. It was a pretty uneventful morning when I suggested we take a day trip there. Within an hour, we had eaten breakfast, showered and were on the train to Britain's seaside town, that is apparently also the gay capital of the nation. The sun broke through the clouds and what was a grey dreary day became baked in sunshine.
The best way to describe Brighton is that it is very much like Wellington. It's got a beach walkway that runs along the shore, much like Oriental parade and it's packed with loads of cool shops and trendy places. The beach is actually made of stones, so that's a bit rubbish, but it means you can lie on the beach and eat without getting sand blown in your face or finding it's way down your bumcrack.
We basically checked out the town, and walked a long way down the beachfront. After that, we grabbed some amazing fish'n'chips (I hadn't had Fish'n'chips for quite some time at this point) and at them on the beach.
Brighton is known for it's pier landmarks so we checked them out before heading towards the Amusement park. This was definitely the highlight of the day as we played lots of old school amusement style games of skill and luck. I thought it would be cheesy and really poorly maintained, like most amusement parks, but no, it was actually pretty good.
After that, we checked out a few pubs, watched England beat Wales in the 6 Nations rugby match then caught a late train home. All in all, it was a damn good day. Brighton is a beautiful place with lots to see and do.
February sometime... Another Sunday in February, another dreary rain-filled day. Not so, unbelievers! Anna and I went for a walk to a secret location that turned out to be Britains Tate Modern Art Gallery.
Like most modern art galleries it was filled with displays and paintings that look nothing like the subject they claim to be. Modern art (especially minimalist abstract art), by and large, infuritates me. But if people want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on an 'idea' then more power to them. One day, it will become clear that the crumpled garbage that was so painstaking arranged, is simply junk that was thrown around.
Anyway... the Tate Modern was actually pretty cool, and there wasn't much shitty abstract stuff at all. It's an impressive brick building, quite imposing, actually. We checked out a big installation in the turbine hall which is one of the major attractions. The installation was a bit 10 metre high box where people were encouraged to walk around inside it as the further you went in, the darker it got. The whole 'theme' of this piece was gauging how people react when they are in a place where their sight is deprived. Do they walk normally? Or do they inch their way along? It was pretty cool, if ultimately a bit pointless. People bumped into each other and said sorry and then walked in another direction and tried not to bump into anyone else.
I hope the artist didn't get too big a grant for it. So people inside a big dark box will not move as confidently as when they can see. Not exactly rocket science.
The rest of the museum was pretty cool with lots of famous art and sculpture. Saw Andy Warhols stuff (and more than just cans of soup) and Jackson Pollock plus some others. I was quite impressed with the Russian Revolution (Stalinist) era art which was filled with propaganda and war effort posters. Pretty cool.
Despite whether you like art or not, the Tate Modern is a pretty cool place to visit. There were 5 or 6 levels open to the public so you can easily spend a whole afternoon there if you're so inclined. Later on, we had tea upstairs (as you do in England) and then checked out the surrounding area. Saw some BMX stunt riders doing a photoshoot which was pretty rad.
