I've had another week or two here in Brighton and started settling in properly. I've registered with a few job agencies and taken my CV along to a few shops for christmas work, as a result of which I have an interview with Gadget Shop on Wednesday after Peter arrives in the morning. I've been improving my cooking skills too by adding chicken rarebit and others to my repertoire

   This weekend I had my from-the-road first visitor. I've dropped in on lots of people along the way, and I met up with Stacey and Brie a couple of times.

Jenny on Brighton seafront

Lorraine and Bronwyn came down a few weeks ago but Jen would be the first person that I met during my trip and has come to Brighton to see me. She came down on Thursday via a marathon 10 hour coach ride from Newcastle. On Friday we had a simple day out in Brighton exploring The Laines. I already liked the place, but had never taken quite so long to look through the fashion shops there, nor stopped to visit the photographic gallery on Kensington Gardens. I did on that particular day and realised why Josephine loves the place. The clothes and costumes on display there are brilliant and the gallery really shows the wide variety of Brighton's many faces as seen by the locals. I highly recommend it.

A storm in the channel

Looking out to sea we figured that the incoming storm wasn't going to make the pier much fun so we headed back to the house.

Looking south near Devils Dyke

   Saturday was mostly based around getting to Devil's Dyke using Jo and Jed's hand built bikes. They assembled them ages ago, and they worked fine after a little tweaking to prevent the chain coming off when ever I went up hill :-) The ride totalled about 12 miles up and along the South Downs with the peak looking across The Weald where a number of paragliders where attempting to take off. Only a couple actually got airborne and only one got any decent fly time. On the way down (video 1.9mb), while checking which footpath took us back to Portslade, we noticed a number of valley names on the map that I thought would have made good road-sign trophies. 'Bushy Bottom' was perhaps my favourite. That night Marko & Emma, James & Sarah and Jen & I went out to Lewes for James' birthday dinner. The Ask restaurant in Lewes is a good Italian place, though they were very busy and service was slow that night. Afterwards we hung out at The Volunteer. A pub I have passed hundreds of times when walking around Lewes, and never been into. It seems nice enough inside, and we had a good night playing pool and knocking back a few beers.

   On Sunday the six of us went to Arundel market which is a good half hour drive from the house. The market had loads to offer, but I am not really in a position to be stocking up on household electricals, even if they are are 'just fallen off the back of a lorry' prices. I finally saw Amelie last night and I really liked it, but I think Jen fell asleep in the middle. She's gone back north again now but I'll be seeing her and Rory soon when I catch a lift up with James in his lorry. He delivers up there quite a bit apparently and while I'm unemployed I might as well be hanging out with old (and new) friends as much as I can.