A full day of activities in Brighton on Daniel's 20th Birthday, touring the Royal Pavilion, visiting the Brighton Marina village and then playing at the St Alfred Bowl in Hove before Diana and I had nice cocktails in the hotel lounge before eating early and watching the film JFK. Bad news from home about the thatching costs for the old Heronshaw,
A very sound night's sleep as we all got used to our rooms and beds, and Debbie got used to not disturbing her room-mates in the middle of the night! We woke Daniel and sang him "Happy Birthday" as he opened his cards and smaller presents from the girls. Diana and I are buying him some more memory for his computer and we ordered it by mail later on. Another huge breakfast for the family after which I got complementary tickets from the hotel reception and took all the party to see the Royal Pavilion. Diana and I particularly enjoyed this tour, appreciating the efforts the Corporation had made to restore both the fabric and contents of the building.
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I am not sure the others were so intrigued, but we all enjoyed the refreshments in the "Queen Adelaide Room" before collecting the car and making our way to Brighton Marina for lunch and to do some shopping. In my day, the area was just known as Black Rock with hopes for a marina being just a remote dream and it was interesting to see how they had created the marina and added a "Marina Village" shopping mall, a cinema and super store to make the whole thing more viable. Even so, many of the units were empty and the new apartments still unsold by Barrett’s, the developer. A nice lunch in the Beefeater after an even nicer visit to the chandlers which was very well stocked with boating goodies. Then the drive to the King Alfred Bowl in Hove, an old haunting place of mine, where I celebrated my return by soundly beating the whole party, more than doubling the score of second-placed Debbie.
Back at the hotel to eat Daniel's birthday cake with our afternoon tea and we sang him birthday returns again with even Angela joining in despite protesting that she could not sing! I booked the evening's meals and entertainments and then relaxed listening to the news as the girls went swimming again. There were many messages as I called home and I spoke to Mr David Farman, the thatcher, who gave me the bad news that Heronshaw needs re-thatching on one side at a cost of £6000 plus VAT and that the roof pitch is not really good enough.
Diana and I had nice cocktails in the hotel lounge before eating early. We then drove out to Brighton Marina to go and see "J.F.K.", the dramatic representation of the suspicious circumstances in which John F. Kennedy was murdered. It was a long film of three hours performance and so it was well after midnight before we were back at the hotel. Daniel and Angela went earlier to watch their film and ate alone in the restaurant.