You Call That a Beach?

I had the whole flat to myself for the Easter weekend: Lee and Margaret were having fun in Paris, Wendy and Nicole had moved into their new flat and the new tenants hadn't moved in yet - so what did I do? Cleaning, of course!

Seeing how I'd been such an inconvenience for the last week, I figured the least I could do was tidy the flat up for when everyone arrived on Monday night. It also gave me a chance to break out the new vacuum cleaner and give it a spin. For some reason I really enjoy doing the vacuuming - I can't really explain why. Please don't ask.

That's not all I did this weekend, though. Last week, when I knew I was coming back to London, I got in touch with Kylie to ask if she wanted to catch up. The next day I realised this wasn't going to be a good idea, so I rang her to explain - to which she offered to take me to see Brighton on Saturday! So that's what we did.

One early morning train ride later (plus a short walk) and we'd arrived by the seaside. I've seen pictures of Brighton before so I knew what to expect, but it really is a strange (foreign?) experience to walk on a beach that consists of rocks. There were no waves either, which made it even stranger still - the beaches in Newcastle are the complete opposite.

The weather forecast for the day had been 20 degrees and sunny, but for most of the day it was quite cloudy and cool. This, compounded with the fact that it was Easter Saturday, meant that the crowds were out in droves. By lunch time, the beach and surrounding streets were thickly spread with people trying their best to soak in what sun there was.

As it turns out, I think the main reason Kylie was so keen to go to Brighton was to do some photography. Seeing how this has been my latest hobby while I've been away, I can't exactly complain because this is what I wanted to do as well. We wandered up and down the beach taking snaps of various things and occasionally chuckling at some of the sights we saw on the beach - sunbathers, mainly.

One of the things I experimented with during the day was trying to create some high dynamic range (HDR) photos, which is a fairly recent technique I've been messing about with the last week or so. Basically, you take the same photo with different exposure settings and use some very clever software to piece them together into one single stunning image. You really, really need a tripod to be able to do them properly, but I don't have one (yet) so I had to make do with any flat surfaces I could find that pointed at something interesting.

After some lunch, an ice cream and a big long walk up, around and through the pier, we decided to beat the crowds and head back to the flat. Having extolled the virtues of HDR photography to Kylie all day, it came as a bit of a disappointment when we viewed the final results. It wasn't a complete bust, but it looks like I still have a lot to learn as they didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped.

The rest of the weekend was quiet, as I started contemplating my next trip. I thought I might go on a tour this time, just to see what it's like compared to going it on my own. I've decided on a 10 day tour of Ireland that includes almost all expenses - sounds good to me. The only problem is that it leaves from Dublin, so I have to figure out a way of getting there.