Brighton Rocks

Ok so technically this is written on Monday but please, please don’t hold that against me as there is a review coming up a little later on Monday and I don’t like leaving a day blank and try not to where I can. So I thought I would let you know about the Non-Reader and my 1st Wedding Anniversary holiday. It all started out a little to pot when I booked a Eurostar weekend away and the Non-Reader announced on Thursday that their passport had run out. I don’t even want to go down the route of what my head was thinking but some serious string pulling later and that weekend has been postponed by a few months (to tie in with the Non Readers 30th). This then left me with two days (Non Reader is working on Monday) to fill.

Next idea was a trip to Alton Towers, until I saw the train fares and there was no way I was doing a coach trip – you cant even read on those without feeling sick. So then I thought of Thorpe Park! Was just literally about to book when the Non Reader phones and says “we’re not doing anything next Sunday are we as I have told my work colleagues we will go to Thorpe Park with them. So that’s plan three ruined. I was stuck, very, very stuck. In the end I searched long and hard and found a hotel in Brighton free on Sunday night so an early Sunday trip was planned for our actual anniversary date... You all know me so well I can envisage some of you thinking “I bet he bought Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock for the trip” and you would be wrong, I didn’t. I did think about it though. Saturday comprised of the Non Reader being taken first on a surprise trip to Chessington World of Adventures (where I nearly threw up on a rollercoaster for the first time ever and felt very pathetic watching hardcore 8-11 years olds coming off it bouncing along whilst I was green) followed by a surprise trip to see the a circus at Wimbledon Theatre which was jaw droppingly amazing.

Sunday morning’s early departure became an twelve o’clock departure partly because we waited for Sainsbury’s to open for a picnic and partly because we both had hangovers from hell, shamefully from only a bottle of wine between us! So we get on the tube, the Non Reader having no idea where we are going, when a book is produced out of their bag. I tried to think nothing of it; though in the last month the Non Reader has devoured ‘The Cellist of Sarajevo’ and ‘The Thirteenth Tale’ both in their second language. The book ‘Restless’ by Simon Kernick is then devoured on the train… and on the beach. Weirdly myself I was mainly watching tourists, daydreaming and bidding my time until I couldn ‘need the loo’ to go and check into the hotel and then create a real “surprise” which it did and even a few emotional tears. I think the boat had been pushed out when someone wasn’t expecting it to be.

Later on a trip for me to get some shorts, as the weather was amazing, we fell into a book shop as I wasn’t really getting on with any of the reading I had brought and was about to give into the aforementioned Brighton Rock. None in stock as luck (well luck for my bank balance this weekend) would have it but when I came downstairs the Non-Reader is avidly flicking through the books in the 3 for 2 offers and debating ‘if I should get three as am reading much more’. I felt a bit dizzy at that and was worried if I was dreaming. None were bought but there is now a mental TBR list being compiled in the Non Readers head especially Henry by David Starkey “which I really, really want to read” (and is wrapped in gold paper on the Non Readers bedside table for when the come back from work but sssshhhh it’s a secret). I am worried though do I now have competition for my TBR pile? I shall leave you with a postcard from the seaside below. Did you all have lovely weekends? Get much reading done?

Oh and a little competition as it seems the Non Reader’s non-reading days are on the wane… what new nickname can I use? The best answer gets a stick of Brighton Rock in the post!