Adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood

I was really bummed to say goodbye to Lisa and Josh while they went off on their trip through Europe but luckily for me I didn't have time to dwell as I was off to Brighton and Forest Row for the weekend.

As you can tell from previous posts, I love spending time in Brighton but this was the first time I was lucky enough to get a sunny AND hot day while I was down there. I got the train down with Laura and Doug and we met up with Claire, Ted and Kate who had all stayed at Claires house (a half an hour drive away) the night before. Once we all met up we headed to Claire's favourite cafe in Brighton called Bills. She had constantly raved about this place as there is one in Brighton and London so I was pretty keen to check it out. I was also famished as I hadn't eaten so when I ordered my BLT and Latte I was pleased to find they were fresh, well made and extremely yummy. Bills offers quite a lot of organic fresh food and also sells some sauces, pestos and jams as well and I can totally recommend it to anyone down in Brighton who wants to branch out from the diet of fish and chips.



After breakfast the girls split up from the boys and we headed off to the vintage and second hand shops to browse for ideas for our upcoming 1940's Blitz Night and have a girlie catch up. If I was rich I swear I could have bought a thousand things in those stores. They were huge and so well organised and everything was good quality and they actually had things left in my size (usually the stores in London are out of my size). Sadly I was on the wrong end of the pay month and had had a massive blow out during the last week so I wasn't able to go crazy. One day I am sure I will head back and be able to get some good clothes!

We wandered through the north lanes, hit the lolly shop, print shop and bric-a-brac shops before meeting up with the boys and heading down to the waterfront via some gardens and down town Brighton. Where randomly - I saw a rabbit on a leash. Weird.






Once we got to the water we sat down there for a little while just chatting and bumming around. The girls even attempted to test the water since it was so warm but after hurting our feet walking along the pebbles and finding the water ice cold it was a short dip in the ocean.





Photo by Laura Havill

Soon enough it was time to head back to Claires house so we said goodbye to Laura and Doug who went on to check out the pier and more shopping. En route to Claire's house we stopped by a pub in the middle of no where that had a massive beer garden next to a river where you can row your boats. Of course a sunny afternoon, good mates and sunshine equals Pimms O'clock so we grabbed a jug and had a couple of drinks. Once the clouds came out we headed back to the car and over to Caz-a-lan (the name of Claires house in Forest Row).




I love Claire's little village and always love visiting her house as it is so homey and welcoming. No matter what we are doing there we always have fun whether is drinking or just watching a movie. Its almost like a little getaway from the city sometimes! We freshened up and had a bit of a pit stop before heading back out to their local pub The Swan where we had a few more drinks and some yummy pizza for dinner. We spent the rest of the night yarning away and catching up as it had been week since we had quality time together as we no longer saw each other every day at work.

The next morning we got up and were treated to a lovely cooked breakfast (yet another reason I love Claire's house - I am always treated to lovely food) before heading out to have a walk through the forest. We were lucky again that the weather was so nice so we wandered down the back of Claires house and through the Hundred Acre Wood. Sadly I didn't see Pooh Beer or Tigger but we did get to see the gorgeous Blue Bells and other spring flowers as we wandered through as well as a cute little pond.






After our walk we were a bit tired so we went back to Caz-a-lan for a cup of tea and a spot of watching Pride and Prejudice - watching Colin Firth as Mr Darcy is one of our favourite past times! Sadly though the weekend had to end and me and Kate headed back to London. It was the end of my longest holiday since starting work in London in July last year and I must say that I squeezed as much out of every day as I could! I got to see and do a lot of the things I love with some of my favourite people.