Sometimes you just need some food for the soul

A couple of weekends ago Mr B said to me at lunchtime on Saturday “What do you want to do today?”

My response was instant:  “I don’t care, I just want to get out”.

I love working from home but sometimes, particularly at the end of a week when he has been away and I haven’t left the house for a fortnight (other than a ten minute round trip to granny or the supermarket) I just get a bit cell crazy.  I need to get out.  Anywhere.  I don’t care where but it just needs to be out.

Which is how at 3pm that afternoon we ended up in Brighton.   With the sole intention of eating cake and drinking tea.    I love the sea, I could sit and watch the tide all day.  I could skim stones (I can’t skim stones but I can chuck) all afternoon.  Or just wander the front and take in the sights and sounds of all that the British seaside on a good day has to offer.   What I also love, as regular readers will know, is a good cup of tea and a slab of cake.

Which means Chocccywoccydoodah.  You cannot go to Brighton and not visit their shop, or their cafe.   I am a huge fan of the Christines and their DooDahs and all that they do.   No other place on earth gives you the welcome you get in their shops (there are two, London is the “Flagship” store, and Brighton is the “Mothership” because it is where it all started), their staff are passionate about what they do and that is simply to feed people amazing food, and let them walk out feeling better about life.

And god knows we could all do with a bit of that at the moment, right?

I had woken up that morning really despairing at England.  A place I have called home for all but six years of my life, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I didn’t want to live here anymore.  Our government is a mess, Brexit is going to be a disaster, innocent people are being killed on an all too regular basis, it was all just too much.   So the idea of escaping to Brighton for the day was a timely one.

We hadn’t booked (hell we hadn’t even realised we were going until we hit the A287) but still they managed to squeeze us in amongst the hen parties.   I felt myself physically relax as I sat down and looked through the menu.   We couldn’t make a decision on what we wanted, we wanted all of it so when we saw there was a platter we went for that.  Slabs of cake in every available flavour, tiffin, brownies, ice cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries, it was the most astonishing plate of goodies I have ever seen.   All served with big mugs of tea and milkshakes.   It truly is the most incredible cake.

I wanted to move in.  I wanted to stay all afternoon and not return to the reality of the outside world.

But leave we must and we went for a wander to walk off the calories we had consumed.

 

 

 

 

I can’t claim to know Brighton at all.  I have only been a couple of times, but it is everything I want it to be.  A long beach, a pier with amusements, seagulls trying to steal your chips, people having a good time.  You really see the best of people at the seaside in England.

In fact you really see the best of England full stop.

It’s food for the soul.   And I don’t just mean the cake.