Jazzy D's Soul Notes

This get-together was eight years ago now.

The first get together of the New Year down in Brighton. It stayed on the whole a sunny cold day except for showers midday, It seemed as if somebody just turned a tap on or faucet in the States. Anyway, we had a great day with good food and company. The usual five of myself, my bro, Phil, Graeme and Lesley. It was steak club day so I had the rump steak.



Mike had his usual gammon and eggs, Phil and Graeme had the sirloin steak and Lelsy had a smaller gammon and eggs.



Mike and Lesley.



An impression from the side.

Tue lunch club was a great success. The food was excellent and the chat convivial and sometimes funny.

Phil and I arrive quite early as we had a smooth trip down to the city. So we found suitable seating for the five of us. Lesley arrived last as usual.

I had lamb shank, the lads had gammon eggs and chips, Phil had the battered cod, and Lesley had the Wiltshire ham eggs and chips.







Quite a few beers were drunk too.


An excellent relaxing day.

Well folks, what a fun day that was. I must admit I did not sleep much last night due to the mugginess of the evening. Consequently, I did not get up till nine and Phil had arrived by 9:20 when I was still in the shower. He waited ten minutes or more for me to get ready and we left Faversham at around 9:40. We had a good journey down and arrived in Brighton fifteen minutes before midday.

Mike and Graeme were already in the pub when we arrived. As it was curry day we all had curries. I had my beef madras, Mike had the chicken tikka masala, and so did Phil, whilst Graeme had the lamb Rogan Josh. We had quantities of beer except for Phil who was driving.

The weather was really hot but at least there was a breeze that dampened it somewhat, and in the afternoon it had clouded over and we had some rain. I think Favershamhad the hottest weather because on our journey back along the motorways it brightened up again. I recorded 36 C on the journey and now it is overcast and we have lightning and thunder. Parts of the south-east here it has reached 38 C!

I took some pics as well.




Mike and Graeme



Phil and Graeme



Mile and Lesley.

It was a great day with excellent company and food.

Another excellent lunch club day in Brighton. Phil and I arrived in time to meet up with my bro and Graeme, with Lesley tagging on later. We had the sirloin steak except for Mike who had his usual gammon eggs and chips.
I washed down the food with pints of Hook Norton's Old Hookey Ale, a classic ale that I drunk way back in the seventies.

After lunch, I and Phil walked back to the station car park and manoeuvred through the North Laines area of the city. I took a pic of Kensington Gardens that leads to the next road and of course Across The Tracks record shop.



I picked up The Dave Holland Quartet "Extensions" CD for a few quid there.

A wonderful day indeed.

We had lunch at the Spoons pub in central Brighton rather than goto Bella Italia.The reason for this was the weather.It rained most of the day,and thus we decided to stay in the pub and had their very delicious and cheap currries.

I had a beef madras,the lads had chicken jalfrezi, and when Leslie finally arrived,she had the veg curry.

we had rounds of beer to go with the food. Graeme had Doom Bar,and we had the appositely named Old Man ale!

It was a wonderful day,despite the weather.

Another fine dry sunny day.Yet most of that time has been just reading or listening to the radio. Still, i have managed to finish off a few books.

Last night i finished Season 6 of House MD,a series that surprisingly has me hooked and that in the final episode of this series Cuddy admitting that she loves Gregory House. Now i will have to watch season season seven. I also watched a few episodes of Angel from season two.

If it was not for the fact that my brother and his wife coming over to Kent i could have been in Brighton doing a footfall count near the old Hanningtons department store. One of my research companies offers three focal points within the city with a couple of shifts at each. Each shift was £55 , and doing two of them at one of these locations (8 am- 2 pm and 2 pm - 8 pm) would have earned me £119! Oh well ,c;est la vie! Family comes first. Anyway i am looking forward to this evening.

Phil will be picking me up at 5,30 pm and then we shall head over to Faversham to meet the guys and at the Sun Inn and then dinner at ASK Italian.

Photos tomorrow.

Had a great day in Brighton. Met the lads for lunch and a few beers. Phil picked me up at the usual time of ten this morning. We had a good journey down and arrived in the city at around 11.30 am. We parked at the usual car park behind the rail station and found an empty space very easily,

First port of call was the newly refurbished Evening Star pub.





My brother Mike , me and Phil




Me Graeme and Phil.


After a couple of beers we walked down to Bella Italia. Mike stuck to his usual pizza, i had a lamb shank . and the others had pasta dishes. We had two bottles of wine , desserts, and coffee to end with.





For the sweet i had a cookie dough lava cake. Iy was filling.



It was a thorough enjoyable time. Gramee and i got talking about physics and in particular the Michelson-Morley experiment to determine the speed of light in the so called "aether with the result being generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the then-prevalent aether theory, and initiated a line of research that eventually led to special relativity/

I think we will be more conversations like this the next time we meet op.

We had a very enjoyable lunch day in Brighton. Phil picked me up from the Quays dead on ten this morning and then travelled down to the city.We did not have any hold ups along the way and arrived within one and a half hours via the motorways.

First port of call was to meet the lads at the Evening Star but as we walked through from Brighton station car park Graeme was milling around the station concourse. We walked down Surry Street towards the pub with my brother coming in the opposite direction to meet us.

He handed me a bag of books - two more paperbacks to read.



So when the pub opened midday we were first in.




There was one beer that i had to try as it had my name on it.



The lads were on Hophead whilst i tried the dark Dave beer.



The Evening Star sure has a great range of beers.




The lads ,Phil, Graeme and my bro Mike






Then after a couple of pints we headed off to Bella Italia. I had a Roma pizza , the Diavola Forte, followed by an indulgent Cookie Dough Lava Cake,washed down with a vino.







Finished with a coffee.


A great day.Think i snoozed most of the way back journeying in Phil's van.

Had a great day in Brighton today despite the long journey back on the motorway due to a crash on the M25 and we had to divert a bit through Weesterham and Borough Green.

We first had a couple of pints at the Evening Star before walking down to Bella |Italia.

We started with ciabatta nibbles - mini ciabatta bites baked in hot garlic butter



My starter was the Arancini Peperonatahe - balls of risotto, red pepper & melting mozzarella, coated in breadcrumbs & served with rocket leaves & pomodoro dip/



And for the main idsh i had the Pollo Formaggi - ciant shell pasta with chicken & pancetta in a four cheese sauce, with a crispy crumb topping & oven baked.



Everything was so delicious and yummy.  Washed down with red and white wine. Followed by  a coffee , and  a Big Tony gelato sundae which on their website says "The Classic Godfather! Nutty fudge brownies, vanilla and chocolate gelato, chocolate sauce, fresh cream, popping candy, dark chocolate tagliatelle and a wafer curl. He's got it sorted!"



Stuffed and satisfied.