My Brighton Trip

Two weeks ago, I was in Brighton for the World Social Marketing Conference. It's hard to imagine that it was only recently that I was there. I flew to London via Singapore and did a one-night stopover to see Mum and Azri and check out the Geylang Serai Bazaar together. The next morning, I was back on a plane. I wasn't looking forward to the 14-hour flight. I hadn't done such a long flight in yonks. I think the last long-haul flight I did was to Cairo in 2001 and I don't even remember how long that must have been.

I watched movies for most of the flight and was a bit disappointed with the food service as I was starving for most of the journey. When I finally arrived in London, I was surprised at the number of Eastern-European looking people at customs. London must be the place where everyone in that region wants to escape to. I had to take a train from Heathrow to Brighton, which was another agonising journey. I took the wrong train from Paddington, got lost, and tried to ask for directions from a well-dressed woman who promptly ignored me like I was invisible, even though I was standing right next to her and saying "Excuse me" three times.

I arrived in London at 3pm local time, but it was 7pm by the time I reached the hotel in Brighton. I'd spent 40 pounds on the trains, 20 more than I thought I would, and my mobile wouldn't let me make calls or send smses even though I had auto-roaming, a signal and could receive calls and smses. I was exhausted, poor, and upset that I wasn't able to call home and hear a friendly voice. I didn't even think about dinner and just went to bed.

The next day, Monday, was the first day of conference. It was my first overseas and international conference (apart from ANZMAC which is regional) and I was there alone. Interestingly, the first people I met were Australians and as the day went on, I met more and more Australians I knew. I was a bit freaked out by the conference at first, but decided to just enjoy myself since I wasn't presenting that day. I ended up listening to some really good sessions, but was so jet-lagged that I'd left the conference dinner early that night to go to bed.

On Tuesday, I ran into someone I met in Wollongong at the hotel restaurant so we had breakfast together, which was nice. I attended a few of the sessions in the morning before going back to prepare for my own session. I thought the presentation went well. The room was full at the start (almost full by the time it got to my turn), although I had two questions both of which I really had no idea what the person was going on about. I was just glad that it was over.

That afternoon, I randomly bumped into the professor I knew from the University of Brighton, so we made plans to meet for dinner. I was happy about that as I'd really wanted to meet up with him and I was going to go out for dinner by myself anyway. He took me to an English restaurant/pub type place where I had a traditional English Guiness pie. Very nice! It was a lovely experience, although when we left it was starting to rain and the wind was pretty gusty. I'd never experienced wind so strong before, I thought I was going to get blown into the sea!

The conference only lasted for two days, so by Wednesday I was free to explore. I cancelled my plans in London and decided to just stay in Brighton and do a little sightseeing.

It was too early in the morning and the Brighton Pier was still closed, but I managed to go for a walk around the beach and take some photos. I then went into the city to explore some more and went to the Royal Pavillion, which was built as a castle. The architecture of the pavillion reminded me of the domes you sometimes see at mosques and I thought that maybe there might have been some Arabic or Egyptian influence.

I also went for a walk around the Lanes, which is were many shops are found although most of them were still closed as I was out really early in the morning. I went back to the hotel for a break before heading out again, as I wanted to have a look at some of the shops. I ended up buying some nice things but didn't get much 'cos it was all too expensive.

It was just a beautiful day that morning. The sky was blue and it was nice and sunny. I checked out and walked to the train station to head back to Heathrow and the closer to London we got, the more grey the sky became. Haha. London and its crappy weather. I'd been to London before but don't remember it being as chaotic as it was.

By the time I got to Heathrow, the airport staff made us wait in the queue forever and when I finally checked in, I was told that the flight was delayed. I spent most of my day idling around in Heathrow Airport. All I wanted to do was sleep 'cos I was so jet-lagged but didn't dare doze off for fear that someone would steal my bag! I eventually made it out of Heathrow (urgh) and the minute I got into my seat on the plane, I just passed out. I was asleep for most of the flight, all the way to Singapore...