Lunch

This is what I had for lunch today. Leftovers from my Ma's 60th surprise birthday bash. I tried to balance it by accompanying the sugar treat overload with white tea. I don't think it was quite balanced hehe.

(Okay really, this pic was taken after I had eaten one cupcake and one macaroon. What you see in the box was saved for later).

Arundel & Littlehampton

Arundel is a pretty little village in West Sussex. In fact it's so teeny we saw the whole town and sights in about an hour. When I'm with Craigos we don't do stroll, we do everything in fast forward mode. We aren't touristy type of visitors so visiting the castle wasn't an option, it was enough to appreciate it from afar. We had already browsed around all the antique and charity shops and we had another 7 hours to go till our train journey back to London...

View from Arundel Station.

Arundel buildings.

We wanted this.

Antique shops.

Vintage cameras. Lots of it.

Vintage telephones and records. Lots of it.

Vintage wax. Lots of it.

Hello bright eyes.

Nice view.

Fresh country air.

Me walking. Did lots of it that day.

Arundel Castle.

Coffee break time.

View from the cafe.

It was a sweltering hot day so naturally we felt drawn to the beach, the closest being Littlehampton. The buses ran every hour so we passed time with our favourite time filler - a cuppa coffee in a cute cafe. The bus journey to Littlehampton started off pleasant but the latter part was grim - a complete contrast from winding green country roads to a grey concrete estate. We got off the bus feeling like we had made a big mistake.

The walk to the seafront was slightly depressing. Craigie was ready to turn back and jump on a train, but I stayed strong for the both of us and insisted we check out the beach... We felt like The Warriors, battling through unsavoury characters (and strong wind) to reach our destination. We were both glad we made it to the seafront and so happy to see there was a bit of sand (bonus!), we sat on the patch of sand for a couple of hours until we could no longer bear wind.

And then the journey back to Arundel - now that's another story and not a happy one :-/

Littlehampton.

Littlehampton.

Littlehampton.

Splendid Hampstead

These kind of specialist shops are disappearing from London. Thankfully, Hampstead and the surrounding areas have retained a model village. Yep that's me astonished to see a fruiterers.

Woah - me taking a butchers hook at a butchers!

When we lived not that far from here, we had a Valentines meal in this charming pub.

The attack of the bunting. It's everywhere! I'm not complaining though, I love it.

This pretty flower was spotted hanging outside someone's fence.

Wonderful Whitstable

We went to Whitstable on a Wonderful Wonday, I mean Monday. We were super lucky, to cut a long story short - we went for a stroll on the beach, had coffee, another stroll, went back to the cafe, more strolling, then sat down on the beach with a pint from the pub plonked right by the sea to watch the sunset. To cut the long story even shorter - the weather was perfect, the sea was calm and it was a peaceful day. What a wonderful Whitastable day! Wayhey!

Luscious Lewes

So we continue with Part 2 of our summer tour of England which takes us to Lewes in East Sussex. I was in awe of the place, it was full of antique/vintage shops, charity shops, bargains galore. It was a snoopers paradise. I left Lewes feeling satisfied and I left Lewes with a vintage teapot. So did Craigie. Jeez, we are showing our age! I guess youngsters collect teapots these days, teapots are the new records dontcha know!

After leaving the station we walked up a hill that had independent shops. This record shop is called Si's Sounds.

On the hill was an antique centre housed in a church. I had my eye on a few things here.

I want that lamp.

I didn't know where to look, I wanted everything!

15th Century Bookshop!

Beautiful houses on a hill with a stunning view. Ugh, I sound like an estate agent.

After all the walking we had to take a break (one of many) at Pleasant Stores cafe.

Lady making Cawfee.

My flat white and berry cake.

There was a lil' art exhibition in the cafe. This shoe box art scene thingy by Emma Carlow was A-maze-ing!

Inside the box, how cool!

 Alphabet fridge magnet menu. How very old school are they eh!

Lewes, what a beaut!