Late present!!

We got a box in the mail today......!

It's for wild and free people.  That's us isn't it??!!

OOOooooo!!!  We think this is Andrea's birthday present from Latvia....

We got some spot samples of paint (there was another one hidden with the main present!)

Special message on the bottom of the box!!

Aha - now, what's this?

OOOoooo!!

A box of watercolour paint!!!

So seven spot samples and six pans of paint!  Hurrah!!!

And we tried them out in our sketchbook!!

Mail from Sandy Bear!!!

We got a letter from Sandy Bear AGES ago...... and we still haven't blogged it!!!

Actually it was addressed to Jelly Beanie so he helped read it.....

There was a looooong letter - Sandy had visited the beach where Jelly had floated onto.  Didn't say if his wooden hut was still there.

Sandy sent two piggie postcards...... we know EXACTLY who to send these to!!!

Arcade games and food!!

Today we rifled through my pirate treasure chest for some money.

We're going out!!!  Our friend Carolynn came too.

We got the bus into Brighton and had a wander through the Lanes....

.....and came out on the seafront!!

We're going on the Pier!!!  We haven't done this for ages!!!

ARCADE GAMES!!!!  Hurraaaaaayyyy!!!

We started off on a 10p game and won a sparkly parrot!!!  Wow, that was quick!!!

Then we switched to the 2p game and won a yellow alien!!!

And then got a blue alien!!!

Then we went back to one of the 10p games and got a sparkly wol and a sparkly key!!!

Wow, we've never done this well on the 10p games!!!

And THEN we won a lizard and a fairy AT THE SAME TIME!!!

After all that excitement, we went and sat on the beach for a bit and examined our winnings.

Carolynn chose the blue alien and the sparkly fairy to take home.

Then it was lunchtime....

.....so we went to Harry Ramsdens.

We got a fizzy drink....

And then we had a small cod and chips each.  It was just the right size for us and we were stuffed!!!

Then we got the bus home.....

We had fun today and won loads of prizes!!!

Interactive expedition.....!

Today Andrea got up early and took me up to the bus stop..... we're not working today???!!

Excellent!!

We got off at the train station - what?!  A day out?!?!

We're meeting Andrea's friend Kirsty off the train!!

We had a walk through the North Laine and found a pink punk snail!!

And a pair of legs!!

We stopped off at a cafe first and Kirsty bought a coffee and a nomTASTic pistachio kwussant because it was Andrea's birthday last week!!  It was proper yummy!!!

Then we walked down to the Dome....

And found a decorated cable box!!

We're going to see an expedition!!!  But we're at the wrong entrance..... we have to go round the other side of the building.

So we did!!!  Only had to wait a few minutes for opening time.

And we're in!!

First we went through a mirror corridor with sparkly lights on the ceiling!!

Oh wow....!!

And then arrived at the main hall!!

We were shown multiple images on screens around the room AND on the floor of Van Gogh's paintings plus different quotes from his letters.

They showed his life from when he started in Holland - this one's his advert for stopping smoking!!

....and showed paintings from his time in Paris....

...lots of quotes....

We love his flower paintings.....

This one specially!!

There's some of his Japonaise style paintings there too

And lots of sunflowers!

....ah, the introduction of Absynthe, the green fairy.....!!

....and these are from his stay at Auvers sur Oise just north of Paris.

Andrea's been there..... 

The cornfields just behind the church & cemetery (where he's now buried) are still there too.

The starry nights images.....

Then we went into another room full of sunflowers and mirrors on the walls and ceiling.

LOADS of sunflowers!!

See?!  Told you there were sunflowers on the ceiling!!

I like it here!!!

Then we went to see a mock-up of Vincent's room in the Auberge in Auvers where he stayed until he died.

I was allowed to sit in his chair!!!

Then we went into the gift shop and passed this flying horse!!! (we'll show you what we bought later!)

Then, since we had a while to wait until the restaurant opened for lunch, we went to visit the Royal Pavilion gift shop.  We found a peacock!

He's pretty!!

We then had a look round a Waterstones book shop and spotted some books we'd like to read...

.....but we didn't have enough money to buy them all today.....

.....so we'll have to come back and buy them later.....

Then we went to lunch!!!!

We got drinks in....

SEAWEED???  You're feeding me SEAWEE....... oh.......... oh actually...... yeah, OK we like seaweed!!!

Then we had a seafood Pad Thai which was proper yummy!!!  Apart from the squid bits, they were chewy.  We didn't eat those after struggling eating one of them.

Then it was time for Kirsty to get her train home, so we said goodbye and got the bus home.

At the expedition, we got a sunflowers pin badge and a pack of page markers.  We might use those for bus bingo prizes though.....