A day in Brighton

It’s hard to think of going to the beach when you are staying in London. It kind of feels like it doesn’t fit. Where we are flatting is in Clapham junction, straight opposite a line of take-away restaurants, above and next door to a hairdressers and an organic shop, also across from a major supermarket and right down the road from the Junction. This Junction is a busy place, all of the time, where trains and buses run on strict timetables. It’s a hive of activity. It’s very cool.
At night you can hear sirens blaring, people yelling, loud music and the hustle bustle of the traffic non-stop. It’s amazing how peaceful it can be inside, away from it all, yet hearing it quietly (and sometimes loudly) in the background. It’s crazy. It’s different. It’s London.
So going to Brighton on the train, was a peaceful experience. It is still a bustling town but as you walk down the main road from the top where the station is, you hit the beach. A beach made of pebbles and a calm, peaceful part of the ocean. Wonderful!
We visited the Pier where there were some more wonderful fun rides for the girls. We had fish’n’chips at a cute restaurant where I was asked by a foreigner if my brother and I were thinking of having anymore children. Of course I couldn’t be bothered explaining he was my brother, so I just said “oh we’re still thinking about it”.
We had the most amazing coffee at this café owned by Australians and it was just such a nice day. Everyone else was in a Christmas Eve rush, but we were just cruising along, doing our ‘beach visiting’, patting strange dogs and watching out we didn’t get bashed by ‘Mr Christmas Rush’ with her many bags of shopping!
To finish with, I really like this quote from a book I’ve been reading, as I’m trying to think and act on having Christ more at the centre of me.
Living in us
I don’t want to be the first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile, where everything in your life – your friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities – is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth in an incredible dance of being.