The day dawned looking slightly unreliable but improved rapidly.
I was taken to Brighton with Martin Tomes and rapidly transported by Di Walker. We needed lunch to support us for the afternoon and I suggested Shoreham Airport's cafe. This proved to be a very good choice and we had a very reasonably priced and tasty snack lunch each. I would recommend this venue to anyone.
Parking in Brighton costs an arm and a leg and still places are not easily found. We eventually parked the car and arrived at the meeting place, the entrance to the pier, about 15 minutes late, to find a small group of familiar faces waiting for us. Others had already arrived and headed off into the city! In all, a total of eight good and true ladies and gentlemen of the club attended. John Goodfellow headed for the wheel, which he had not seen before, and the rest of us headed down the pier.
We found a great selection of colourful subjects there, both human and material, and I was told later that two coach loads of folk from Leicester were 'in town' having a great day out, along with us. I have been photographing on the pier several times over the years and have always found lots to photograph.
The funfare at the end of the pier has some very scary rides and I even felt at risk standing below some of them in case they came off the rails! They were accompanied by very loud pop music which added to the whole atmosphere.
Throughout the afternoon a succession of aircraft passed by from Shoreham, where we had seen them earlier, heading for the Eastbourne Air Show, including the most beautiful airplane ever, a Spitfire (not from Shoreham).
An Ice cream was necessary to complete the experience; but Di's was stolen 'complete' from her hands, just leaving the paper in which it had been served, by a passing seagull!
After about two hours a couple of us decided that a cuppa was required and found a cafe behind the Brunswick hotel where we encountered still more photogenic folk. There was a Japenese group of four youngsters sitting at the table next to us all studying their tablets and phones and occasionally talking to one another and laughing and joking, great!
We left for home at high speed at about 5.30 having had a really enjoyable afternoon. It was a pity that a few more members did not attend, but August is a busy month for everyone with families. Thanks are due to Anne for bringing it all together.