Since coming to Brighton

[shermarama]

What have I done since coming back?

• Joined a new diving club last Tuesday
• Reacquainted myself with the shops of London Road and the North Laines, enjoying the mix of crusty, student and middle class, and everyone somehow with more style than any area of London
• Went to see four stoner / doom / metal bands at the Cowley on Friday night; all four bands were pretty good at what they did, if none of them really remarkable, but there were loads of people there that I used to know back when I lived here before, and the pints in the Cowley were £2.20, and then we went to the Caroline and drank until they kicked us out, and that was when I really knew I was home, you know?
• Spent Saturday fixing Chris's leaky drysuit (which involved turning it inside out, blocking the wrists and neck up and inflating it into a weird sort of mannequin and feeling for leaks) and then buying Chris shirts, since his office now think he needs shirts, and we got an amazingly soft olive-green officer's shirt for a bargainous price from the army surplus place round the corner, and several other properly-fitting shirts in proper shops since the world of fashion currently acknowledges the existence of slim men
• And then we got up absurdly early on Sunday (whose alarm clock goes off at 6.30 on a Sunday? Really?) to go diving out of Brighton Marina, on an upside-down wreck called the Clodmoor. I had borrowed someone else's 15 litre cylinder; the conditions were rather murky down there so it was a good job as I went through rather more air than usual, but it was an okay dive, and what with being done by lunchtime, we got to spend the afternoon sitting in the glorious sunshine down at the sailing club
• So I was unsure after that whether Brighton diving was going to be for me, since the locals didn't think that vis was anything unusual, but on Monday evening after work we went out again on a proper night dive, and it was fabulous. On the wreck of a steam trawler in 20 metres and we were last down, but the vis was excellent and as we came down the shot line you could see quite a lot of the shape of the whole thing in various divers' lights, and we all had glowsticks tied to our valves, in matching colours for the buddy pairs, and the fish! So many fish! When the Brighton club go to other places they think there's no fish, and if this is the fish level they're used to I can see why. Half a dozen big congers lurking in the wreck, masses and masses of bib and pollack and cod, some giant bass and some even bigger something else I can't name. A whole bunch of tompot blennies lurking round some plates together, some lobsters lurking under things, and so many edible and velvet swimmer crabs that you kept catching sight of a crab next to a rock and realising it was actually a crab next to a bigger crab. I stroked a big bass; it was just sitting there next to a gunwale and didn't seem to mind. And as we were sitting at 6m on the safety stop, there was visible phosphorescence; as you waved your hand around little sparks like fireflies formed around it. And at the surface, waiting for the boat to come over, the stars and moon overhead, and the chain of lights along the south coast, from Worthing to Eastbourne and beyond...

In short, it's great to be back home. 

Comments

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you feel your sense has settled back into where it wants to be. Sorry that you are further awauy, but then I oprobably saw you as often in brighton as I ever did in London. Will let you know if I'm ever down (another of my friends has just started at Sussex, and I like that part of the world anyway).

[shermarama]

Everyone should come to Brighton more.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's great to hear! Also if I should find myself spending more time in Brighton, it'd be great to see you again, dude.

[shermarama]

Hey, it will. You know, if you were looking for somewhere to live, your housebuying dollar stretches a bit further here...

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Glad you're enjoying yourself so much there! It's really good that things are going well and you're happy.

*raises glass to you*

[shermarama]

*raises pint*
I'm just about to go to the Evening Star, in fact, as in the brewwery pub of Dark Star beers. Mmmmm.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Ah, lovely Brighton! I need to pop down there again myself, as soon as I'm able. Soooo much lovely vegan food!

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

sounds like a fine weekend. glad you're happy to be home, i'll have to come visit sometime... (and i really need some non-London-centric userpics)

[shermarama]

Come to Brighton! And, is that the Eye, then? I'd always assumed it was some random concept of a wheel rather than a real one. They're allegedly planning to build another big wheel on the seafront here, but I'll believe that when I see it, rather like the i360, the subject of many a knob gag long before they've started doing anything to the actual site.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

it is the Eye, big version here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/13173991@N00/294595336/in/set-72157594370959034/). one of those unlikely slow exposures that turned out quite well. indeed, i definitely need to come to brighton. fastblack was in town over the weekend, and i feel next time, Brighton. london was too tiring for just a couple of days.