The Angel of Brighton

We went into town this morning as I needed to go to the railway station to get my ticket to London for next week when I go to Brussels with Chrissy.  We're travelling on the Eurostar, so will be getting the direct train from Brighton to St Pancras and I didn't want to have to queue for a ticket on Thursday morning when we travel.  Ticket bought, we walked into town and I wanted to look for a new waterproof jacket and luckily all the outdoor shops had really good sales on, and I found one reduced from £90 to £35.

We wandered through The Lanes to a gun shop that Alan wanted to look at, and then we went to North Laine, stopped at a little Indian food stall where we had a couple of samosa's each, and then had a look in Snooper's Paradise, which is exactly as it sounds - it's a huge shop selling all kinds of second hand and antique things together with vintage clothes, it's always interesting to have a rummage.  We then went to meet Anna and Ben for a drink at Cafe Rouge - you may remember that Anna came to stay with us for a week in February when she had a trial for a job here.  She's since started work at American Express, they found a flat and Ben got a job too, so it's all worked out really well for them, and 5 months on they seem really settled, have made friends and love living here.

While we were walking through North Laine, I remembered the 'Angel of Brighton' that we saw being painted back in January - I mentioned it in my blip that day and said that I would blip it another time, and never have done.  The artist is called Cosmo Sarson and the image depicts a naked lady rising out of the ashes of 2017 and represents hope for the new year.  It was completed on 7th January, almost a year to the day after his father's death and the image represents the human power of recovery and resilience, to ride out the difficult times and to move on refreshed, looking forward.  I've added some extras of the photos I took of Cosmo back in january which really show the scale of it - it spans the side of a three storey building, and 4kg of gold glitter was used which makes it sparkle in the sun.

Cosmo said at the time that it was highly likely that people would add graffiti onto it, which they have, but as it's so big, the additional 'art' is only at the bottom and I've strategically taken this image to cut the graffiti off.

Anyway, the Palace is calling, so we're going to have a drink in there tonight as rain is forecast again tomorrow - at least I have my new waterproof coat.

Happy Saturday!