I had asked Sarah if we could go for a drive in the country so I could see what it looked like outside of London. We set off for a castle in a town called Arundel and then down to get some sea air from Brighton. ( not pronounced the hoity toity way the people of our Brighton pronounce it). I was not in a very good mood , as I had a bit of hay fever ( i am blaming the cat) and I was just a bit moody.Sarah did well not to leave me on the side of the road.We had trouble getting on to the M23 as there were roads blocked every which way we went so by this time it was approaching 1pm and I had not had anything to eat  I am not the happiest camper if I am over hungry. So we went into a town called Crawley and went to a chain Mexican restaurant and ordered lunch. It wasn’t the best food in the world and the service was only spasmodically good. So at least the hunger beast within me had been calmed down. We then headed back on our way to Arundel to see a castle built in the 11th century. It has been used in tv and movies that involve historical re-enactments . ie “the young Victoria”. The castle was just incredible. It was under siege in the 1600s and we got to see all the things the castle had to protect the occupants from the intruders. The work gone into it was mind blowing , so was the land it was on. Descendants of the original Arundel family moved back into a section of it in the 1990s. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the castle but the rooms and corridors and everything about it was a whole lot of wow.

Then we headed off to Brighton to walk along the pier and get some sea air. It is a really beautiful town/city. Driving along the foreshore is very reminiscent of St Kilda but better. It was great for my head to get a great big burst of sea air and hear the waves. On our walk back along the pier we stopped in to one of the bars for a quick drink. When Sarah went to the toilet an old man said something to me. I had to ask him to repeat himself three times and after the third time I said to his young friend. “i’m sorry I don’t understand English, what did he say?” the young guy said “he doesn’t speak fluent English only fluent git”.

The countryside was different to how I imagined it . It was very wooded, some of the small towns along the way were just beautiful. I wish I had’ve taken more photos and not been in such a bad mood