Sunny world and distant views!

The south has been bathed in a blanket of warmness and sunny skies and little breeze over the past couple of days and it's been so nice to be off and be able to enjoy it for a change. Today I took a walk along St James Street, Upper St James street and through Kemp Town and then back along the prom, some times it's just so wonderful to watch the world pass by. I was so relaxed, no rush, just doodling and enjoying the stunningly hot weather. I love looking out to sea and walking along the prom is perfect for that, plus just once in a while you get to see some nice totty walking along. Ahh I love living in Brighton! Next time I take a walk, I'm going to take my camera and snap a few of the sights along the way.

I was shocked looking through the local newspaper yesterday, I was glancing at the property section and saw and ad for a little garage, just 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, in Hove for sale for £25,000! I guess I shouldn't really be surprised at the cost, when tiny 1 bedroomed sea front apartments are going for £390,000! I don't think I'll ever be able to afford to buy a decent sea front pad at these prices, not unless my numbers come up or I marry some hunky sexy rich handsome millionaire. And the changes of either of those happening are about 50 million to 1!

Troubled singer Amy Winehouse or Amy Wineglass as I tend to call her, has been admitted to rehab following her recent hospitalisation, according to various media reports. The 23-year-old was rushed to University College Hospital (UCLH) in London on Wednesday suffering from "severe exhaustion" according to her record company. But tabloids are hinting her illness may have been caused by drink and drugs instead, with the Daily Mirror claiming she checked into exclusive London clinic The Priory on Thursday to battle her demons. This is not the first time she's been to rehab and to be honest I don't think it's gonna be the last time either. She seems to have one of those addictive personalities that just need to have some kind of crutch. I'm going to see her this December with David down at the Brighton Centre, that is of course if she turns up and is not in rehab or pissed as a parrot in the gutter along St James Street or high as a kite flying above North Laines!

The things people do, I saw this on the net and found it kinda hard to believe, but apparently it's true. It was under the headline, "US man has thumb surgery to use iPhone" That's going a bit far, I thought to myself and read onwards. It's true, 28 year old Thomas Martel, from Bonnie Brae, was struggling to use the touchscreen keyboard on his iPhone so he did what any red-blooded gadget lover would do and got his thumb chopped about so he could use the device better. Apparently his thumb has been altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as "whittling." Basically, the thumb is slimmed down and shortened and made smaller. "From my old Treo (what?) , to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," explained Martel in his local paper, "Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration - that's priceless." I doubt I'd have surgery just to use some new piece of electrical gadgetry, but is this now a case of things becoming too small to use? Or maybe he just had really fat thumbs!

OK, so just last week we had Brighton's gay pride, which was a wonderful exciting day, but if you are a red head, a ginger hair'd boy or girl, then there is one place you will definitely want to be later this month - The Ginger Festival! Oh my god, yes, there is one and if you are ginger or a red head you'll be offered free entry to a festival celebrating all things ginger. The National Botanic Garden of Wales claims the event on August 26 will be the country's first Ginger Family Festival. The day will celebrate the opening of the new Tropical House at the tourist attraction in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, which features many exotic examples of the Zingiberaceae plant family, also known as the ginger family. Gingers of the world unite!!!

I'm kinda used to the prices down here in the bar's of Brighton, Jake's mate Adam, who has been down for a few days bulked at the price of a pint in Legends at just over £3.40. Adam is a northern boy, pints of the same beer back in his home town are £2.10 which is a snip. Here in Brighton, the prices are the same, and sometimes just a little more expensive than London. I'm used to it, however, I wish I could go to a bar and spend, spend, spend like that businessman did in London the other day. Did you hear about that? This guy, A Middle Eastern businessman spent over £105,000 in a five-hour, champagne and vodka drinking spree in a London nightclub at the weekend. Crystal nightclub in London said the big spender entered Crystal at midnight on Saturday with friends, 9 women and 8 guys, first ordered a £24 bottle of white wine. But before long he was ordering magnums of Dom Perignon at £700 each and then called for a Methuselah, that's 8 bottles in one, of Cristal Champagne at £30,000 and the party spread. The festivities ended with a "night cap" consisting of a Methuselah of Belvedere vodka, which cost £1,400 "He basically just said, 'keep the drinks flowing,'" the club spokesman said. When the party left at 5 a.m., the bill was £81,471.50, which with tax and service added amounted to £105,805.28. A costly night out for sure, next time can I come!

We don't get them very often, but when we do, they tend to make the news, even if they are very mild, it's still exciting to know that Manchester has had another earthquake measuring 2.5 on the Richter scale. There were no reports of any injuries in the city, but experts said the impact was felt by a number of people across the city "We expect about eight earthquakes of this magnitude each year in the UK," a British Geological Survey spokesman said. The reason it has been felt by more people than usual is that it is quite shallow, about 5km, and it appears to be in a built-up area. It appears to be right in the centre of Manchester, the same location as a series of earthquakes in October 2002." Feel the earth move under my feet, sounds like a song to me, god, I can't remember the last time the earth moved for me.

Looking for a different holiday destination? Want something a little more unusual? How about a hotel with the best view in the universe? Well you'll have to wait until 2012 for it, but it could just be that place were very few have gone before. "Galactic Suite" the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes. Its Barcelona-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing $4 million for a three-day stay. Fancy going? How about a nice romantic long weekend away, during that time guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman. Company director Xavier Claramunt says the three-bedroom boutique hotel's joined up pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space. "It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge," says Claramunt. "How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy."

When guests are not admiring the view from their portholes they will take part in scientific experiments on space travel. This far out Galactic Suite began as a hobby for former aerospace engineer Claramunt, until a space enthusiast decided to make the science fiction fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel. I'm packing my bag already!

Right that's ya lot for now, I'm going to have a little snooze before I have to go to work tonight for a full shift of four on. Oh what crap! Nope, I mean what fun don't I?