When I got diagnosed, I knew my life had changed forever and I found this really hard to accept. I was 21 years old and enjoyed going out, socialising, clubbing, drinking and having a laugh but things would have to be different now. Maybe I could do things like I used to once in a while, but not every weekend as I had been doing before. I felt like my life had been robbed off me and like I said, I found it hard to accept. My family and boyfriend are all big socialisers and I worried how this would affect their relationship with me. They wouldn't want to sit in every weekend, or go for dog walks and have early nights but how I underestimated them. They rallied round to think up new things we could do together instead of going out and drinking and this was when we came up with our A-Z challenge. Driving to places in the UK from A-Z in the alphabet and spending the day exploring something new. So after Aldebrugh, was Brighton...
I'd only been to Brighton once to look at a University before sitting my A levels. I never ended up going to University as Crohns robbed me of my good grades and I wasn't able to sit the exams. At the time this was upsetting for me, but now I'm in a great job and in a better position in life so everything does happen for a reason!
It was nice to be actually exploring Brighton as I never had before. Me and my boyfriend packed up the car and drove down Friday after work. We even packed little Nelly our dog in the car as we had found a hotel that was pet friendly. I was excited to be taking her and also nervous as she is a complete nutter.
Lots of beach walks needed to wear her out!!! When we arrived we parked up and got out the car to be greeted with high force winds and rain - oh the great British weather. I didn't mind the weather too much, as it was just nice being away. We dumped the bags down and headed out for dinner to a place called The New Club on the seafront which was also dog friendly. It was a really cool restaurant with New York City vibes and shortlist magazine had rated it one of the best burgers in the UK so my boyfriend was eager to try. We battled the winds and rain with a tiny umbrella and walked to the restaurant. I'd bought Nelly a hard chewy bone to act as a dummy to keep her quiet, and it did the trick. The staff were so friendly too her which made me feel relaxed.
JJ had the 5* burger and I made a very random choice and ordered the vegan burger. It came in a gluten free bun, and was a butternut squash and cashew pattie which was actually delicious. Places are getting so much better now at catering for dietary requirements and it is so nice to be able to enjoy a meal and not worry about being upset by it afterwards.
After dinner, we wandered out in the rain and found an ice cream parlour and as ice cream is my boyfriends favourite thing in the world, of course we had to go in. Much to his delight they had a 'Nutty-Ella' flavour which was of course chocolate Nutella flavour. He licked the bowl clean
!! They had sorbets in there which meant I could enjoy too. So I had a scoop of mango, which Nelly really tried to share.
The ice cream lady told us there was a nice pub down the road where they welcomed dogs, so we thought we should try it out. Everywhere was so dog friendly it was lovely. The pub was so warm and cosy inside, Nelly snuggled straight up on my lap clearly worn out! And me and my boyfriend enjoyed a Hendricks gin and tonic while playing heads up. Yes we did feel like a middle aged couple, but we didn't mind, we were having fun. It was nice to spend time together too as we'd both been away on seperate holidays, so being together was lovely.
After a distributive nights sleep with Nelly barking at any passer by the hotel room, we woke up to a sunny Brighton and was desperate to get out in the sunshine. I wanted to take Nelly to the beach as she hadn't been before, so we went for breakfast to a beachfront cafe. It was a cool quirky place which served all the foods that were a bit of me and not so much my boyfriend who just wanted plain scrambled egg on toast. I ordered avocado on gluten free toast with bacon and it came gorgeously displayed with rocket, seeds and even edible flowers! J got fried eggs on toast which came equally as gorgeously displayed with seeds and edible flowers much to his disgust! I know my boyfriend would much rather go to a standard cafe and have a fry up, but he goes to these special places and eats different food just for me. And I love him for that xxx
After breakfast we wandered down to the sea to see what Nelly would make of it, and it's safe to say she wasn't too keen and she just wanted to be carried. So we left the beach and went to explore the Laines which I had heard were very cute shops. It was so lovely to be outside just walking around and enjoying being somewhere different, and I think the sea air just does something to you. It feels so good, fresh and clean. I felt energised being outside and enjoying the fresh air. We wandered around all the shops and noticed a sign for a Vegan festival, JJ said we should go as it could be really good for me and he'd be happy to wait outside with Nelly. So we did walk round to find it, but the queue was all the way down the street, so in the end we didn't bother. Plus I knew it wouldn't really be a bit of him, he would just be doing it for me (the cutie!).
So after a bit of shopping, we got a bag of chips on the seafront which was the perfect end to our lovely trip. We headed back to the car with a broken Nelly who couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and went home.
I had such a lovely time, and by doing fun different things like that, it makes me realise I can still enjoy myself and me and my boyfriend can still enjoy time together. Next on the list is C, so maybe we'll be taking a mini road trip to Clacton!
