Introducing Cocoa Beanie to Proper Adventuring

Today we had a bit of a surprise.  Andrea's water heater in the kitchen sprung a leak a few weeks ago and is so prehistoric, it's actually cheaper to replace the whole thing rather than try and fix it.  They rang up at 5:30 last Friday evening and said they're coming in today to rip out the old one in preparation for installing the new one.  Because it's such a noisy job and Andrea has squiffy ears, she took the day off work and took us out for the day...... but it's the first day of excessively high temperatures for England, so it wasn't a good idea to go up to London..... so we had a "practise adventure" for Cocoa Beanie to show him the kind of thing we do.

First we went up to the post office because we had a package to mail.  Looks like they're building a tower over there.....

We found a decorated cable box for our collection!

We had to sit down and wait for the Post Office to open first, so we sat on a bench and got hydratified.

And had a Panno Shoko Lah too!!!  Mmmm chocolate, yum!!!

After we posted the package, we stopped in Tesco's and used the facilities and then washed our paws forever.

Then we had a little walk along the road leaving CDs on railings!!

We had another sit down here...!

And then went into the grounds of Hove Museum and Art Gallery

We left a floppy disc on this tree...

And a CD in this tree

And then we sat on a bench and read a book and drank lots of water to stay hydratified.  You're supposed to do lots of hydratifying when it's hot.

There were quite a few people walking their dogs and we met two lovely labradors while we were there.  They came up for a chat and a cuddol - they were lovely!!!  Later on we started to get a bit hungry so we walked out of the garden leaving a poppy here on the way.

We left this CD here as well!

That's a posh wooden bagoda thing.  It's from India!

We left another CD on the front gate!

Then it was a short walk to the bus stop and a bit of a wait for the next bus.

We got off here at Palmeira Square!!

And left another CD on the railings here.

Then we decided to come in here for lunch. It's a new-ish Greek place called Nostos that none of have even heard of!  Their menu is HERE

The first thing they did was bring us a carafe of iced water because it's hot today.

After a long look at the menu and changing our minds at least twice, we settled on a small mango juice.

And tzatsiki with an olive on top and wholegrain pitta bread.  The olive was nommy (still have the stone in it) and the tzatziki had something in it that gave it a bit of heat.  Nothing red, so it wasn't chilli...

We also got scallops on avocado mousse with orange and ginger sorce and crunchy shredded leek -  this was FANTABULOUS!!!!  Oh, we're coming in here to have this one again!!!!!

After that fabulous lunch, we went to get another bus.

We got off here at Brighton Train Station - we're only here to show Cocoa where it is.  We're not getting a train...!

We also used the facilities and left a floppy disc on the door.  Then washed our paws forever.

We spotted some bunting in the station concourse!

Then we went to get another bus!

And we got off here!

And had a short walk to here!  It's The Royal Pavillion!  We've been here before but Cocoa hasn't!

We got on free on the National Art Pass which was spiffy!

They've got lots of dragons in here too!

And a special expedition on where someone had made lots of dresses out of paper and thread!

Yeah!!  PAPER!!!!

That's amazing!

This is the dining room...... with amazing chandaliers!!!

Cocoa was gasping every time he turned around!!!

There's another dragon up there holding the chandalier up!!

And more dragons there.....

We think that's a phoenix up there....

Then we had to follow a corridor that lead to the kitchens.....

It gave a list of the Royal Household and Cocoa Beanie got excited!!!!  Yeoman of Confectionery .... that's what Beanie does!!!!  

OOooooo I used to have copper molds just like that for my chocolate pralines!!!!

Yeah, just like those!!!  Lost them all in the tsunami though....... :(

Ah yes, I had the exact same set.....!!

Reminds me of home, this does!!

Wish I could start making chocolates again.....

Ooo pies!  Yum!

UH-OH!!  Rats in the kitchen!!!

More dragons?!?!

We saw some more paper dresses here - black and white ones!!

That one has dolphins on!!!

Oh wow, what an amazing carpet!!!

It's got a sunflower in the middle!!!

These dresses are amazing!  I can't believe they're made out of paper!!!

Wowzers!!

This is an amazing place, you know!! Completely over the top!!

MORE dragons!!!!!

Oh wow...!

This is in the music room - it's completely mad!

Mad, I say.....!

There was this paper dress in here with a train at the back.....

.....all made out of paper!!!

And this as well?!?!

That's a bonnet....

And a fancy fan too!  We could do with one of those.

Told you they were made out of paper.....!

Queen Victoria used to sleep on that bed ..... look at the mattresses?!?!?!!!!

And Cocoa found her toilet!!!!!

That's a very shaky dragon because Cocoa sneezed.

We then went to the gift shop.  We couldn't get a squished penny because a couple of foreign students were trying to work the machine.  But we saw some baby dragons. 

These are the gardens outside.  All that brown stuff is supposed to be green.  It's supposed to be grass.

But it isn't.

We decided to leave some more CDs on the railings here.

This is so much fun you know!!!

Wonder how long it'll take for someone to find them?

There's a big archway here too!

We left this floppy disc here.....

Next to a statue of a King!!!

George the 4th, to be precise.

We carried on leaving floppy discs around.....

And there's the other side of the Royal Pavillion!

Fun huh?!

We left this CD here.....

And then crossed the road to the bus stop.

And got off here.....

Just over the road from the Hove Museum again!!!  We decided to sit in the gardens at the back again and read some more book.  We met the labradors again later on too!  They remembered us!!!

Later on, it was time to go home so we left a few poppies on the way.

It's a very nice place to sit, back there.

We left another poppy here....

.....and here.....

.....and here!!!

And then we found this post box!  It looks quite a modern one.

And we also spotted a brown hairy caterpillar crossing the road!!!

So - now Cocoa has an idea of what we do on our expeditions!!!

And this is what we got at the gift shop!!!