Tag Archives: Brighton

Brighton football, Sam Kavakli

Column: Are the Seagulls becoming a new Bird of Prey? by Sam Kavakli

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The story of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club and how they have evolved over the last few decades is one of the most remarkable in modern football, but has success led to a feeling of imposter syndrome for many of their fans?

Jimmy Case was sacked as Brighton manager on Wednesday 4th December 1996. The Seagulls had been relegated into Division 3 (today’s League 2) but were on course to be sent down in back-to-back seasons. The club were 13 points adrift at the bottom of the table and their stadium, Goldstone Ground, was set to be sold to pay off the ever-increasing debts.

Despite an improvement in performance under new management, Brighton became under greater threat that season, after a two-point deduction was imposed when fans invaded the pitch in protest of the club’s stadium being sold. The future of the seaside club looked troubling.

However, lifelong supporter Dick Knight took control of the club in 1997 after ousting the previous board for eventually selling the stadium. Despite having to share a home stadium with Gillingham for two seasons, Knight helped the Seagulls slowly and steadily get back on track. Brighton had managed to maintain their Football League status based on goals scored and finished above Hereford United.

Division 3 remained Brighton’s home for a few years, but it could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for Knight stepping in. They finally moved to playing their home games at converted athletics track, Withdean Stadium, in 1999. Two years later, Micky Adams finally led the Seagulls to league triumph and promotion back to Division 2 (today’s League 1).

A new league saw new management and this transition proved to be a successful one. Peter Taylor led the club to back-to-back promotions into Division 1. All thanks to Dick Knight, Brighton had gone from being a near-non-league side, being one division under the Premier League in the space of five years.

The decade that followed saw the Seagulls drift between the second and third tiers of the football pyramid. Their final season at Withdean in 2010/11 saw them promoted from League One, back into the Championship. Brighton moved to Falmer and remained in the new second tier for a considerable period.

After years of fighting various demons – whether it be money problems, stadium issues or pure bad luck in promotion play-offs, the 2016/17 season saw Brighton finally promoted into the Premier League. They became a topflight outfit for the first time in 34 years and fans were buzzing. Dick Knight and later Tony Bloom, who were not just chairmen for the Seagulls, but lifelong supporters too and it means a lot when having pure love for the club rather than for money, finally and deservingly rewards you.

In a Guardian article written just before their first Premier League season, Brighton fan Alan Wares said: “At the end of last season, the sense of pride was massive. This was a club that was almost extinct, that had to fight tooth and nail to be here,” which shows how lifelong fans have kept on believing in their team through thick and thin.”

So, where are the Seagulls been flying nowadays?

Well, they haven’t flown downwards that’s for sure. The Premier League has been Brighton’s home for almost eight seasons and therefore they have grown into an even more respectable club, delivering plenty of talented players.

The first few seasons were a fight to survive but in 2022/23, something amazing happened. Brighton finished in sixth place and therefore qualified for European football for the first time in their history. Roberto De Zerbi truly transformed the Seagulls into a new ‘Bird of Prey’ in English football terms and even led his team to the FA Cup semi-finals for the second time in four years.

Brighton were unlucky with injuries during their time in the Europa League but still managed to achieve a round-of-16 finish and topped a group that included European giants Marseille and Ajax.

As of now, the Seagulls currently sit in ninth place in the Premier League table; holding on to their status as a topflight club and they definitely won’t be taking flight anytime soon. It’s a competitive league but new manager Fabian Hurzeler has made sure that his team keeps going.

The story of Brighton & Hove Albion is a genuinely underrated tale, and it is truly amazing how thirty years can turn you from the brink of becoming a non-league club to a top half Premier League team.

The story of a seaside club with passionate fans has made the Seagulls a force to be reckoned with.

Imposter syndrome? What is that?

When a football club evolves, so does its identity and Brighton have been able to reach these levels of achievement at a deserving rate. The evidence of their success is there, and they no longer have a reason to feel inadequate – supporters know who they are and where they have come from and that is what will continue to shape the future of the club.

Jo Rowkins

Seven ways to a stress-free, nourishing new year 

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When we talk about making changes in the new year, we often fall into the trap of feeling like we need to be a “new version” of ourselves. However, consider this: You are already whole and enough just as you are. As we turn the page into a new year, many of us may feel a little sluggish, a little heavier, a little tired after the Christmas festivities… and there’s no shame in that. It’s all part of the beautiful balance of life. So, let’s start the year with self-compassion and a commitment to nourishing ourselves in ways that feel good. Start Small, Think Big

1.Nourish Your Body with Colour 

After indulging, it’s natural to crave lighter and more nourishing foods, but this doesn’t have to mean deprivation or strict regimes. You can embrace balance instead. The key to feeling good after the holidays is nourishment – filling your plate with vibrant, nutrient-dense foods that your body will love.

Think colourful fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and quality proteins. Make time to really slow down and appreciate the textures, colours and tastes. Allow your food to not only fuel your body but also delight your senses. There’s something so satisfying about eating a plate full of gorgeous, bright colours to lift your mood and fill you with energy. A celebration of life with each bite!

2.Take a Walk

A 30-minute walk outdoors can work wonders. It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s effective. Walking helps with mental clarity, boosts brain function, and gives you a natural dose of daylight to increase serotonin. Spending time in nature is soothing for your soul too, so walk in the forest or by the ocean, if you can. 

3.Sip Your Way to Health

We often forget to drink enough water, especially in the colder months, but staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to feeling better fast. Start your day by drinking a glass of water as soon as you wake up. It helps kickstart your metabolism and sets the tone for a day of mindful hydration.

If plain water feels boring, infuse it with fresh herbs like mint, or slices of citrus and cucumber. And let’s not forget about herbal teas. They’re a wonderful way to hydrate and soothe yourself in the colder weather. Right now, I’m loving Yogi Tea for a lovely way to warm up, hydrate, and give my body a little Ayurvedic TLC.

4.Move in Ways That Make You Smile

The gym isn’t for everyone, and movement doesn’t have to feel like a chore. It’s best to embrace activities that make you feel good. Whether it’s dancing, hiking in nature, or yoga – find something that brings you joy and makes you feel alive. Forget about what’s trendy or what you should be doing. It’s about what makes you feel good, what gets your heart pumping and your body moving in a way that feels natural.

I’ve personally fallen in love with outdoor swimming in my forest health club – I started it during the pandemic and haven’t looked back.

5.Sleep: Your Secret to Wellness

When you sleep well, everything else falls into place – your energy, focus, mood, and even your cravings. If you’re not getting the restful sleep you need, it’s time to make some adjustments.

Create your own sleep sanctuary. Make your bedroom a peaceful, calming space that helps your body wind down. Stop using screens one to three hours before bed, dim the lights, and perhaps enjoy a cup of herbal tea or a calming bedtime routine. When you treat sleep as a priority, you’ll start to notice how much better you feel during the day. During the winter months to support optimal circadian rhythm, I recommend using a Lumie Lamp beside your bed to simulate the setting and rising of the sun.

6.Top Up Your Stress Kitbag

Stress is inevitable, but how you handle it makes all the difference. One of my priorities across the week is to top up my stress kitbag – a collection of activities that calm me down and help me relax and build stress-resilience. Whether it’s walking by the ocean, meditation, or snuggling up with a furry friend – these top up my tool bag when life feels overwhelming.

Everyone’s kitbag is different, and that’s what makes it powerful. Fill yours with whatever makes you feel calm and use it whenever you need to ground yourself.

7.Enjoy The Journey: Celebrate Every Step

Lastly, let’s make this year about progress, not perfection. Every step forward is worth celebrating. Did you choose a nourishing meal over a quick snack? Celebrate that! Did you take a walk outside for some fresh air? Celebrate that too! Small victories, when celebrated, pave the way for big transformations. This is your health journey – encourage yourself and be your own best cheerleader.

So, as we step into 2025, let’s choose a path of self-love and balance. No pressure, no rush – just a gentle journey towards a healthier, happier you. Here’s to making 2025 your best year yet – one small, joyful step at a time.

Happy New Year, friends.

Jo Rowkins is a Nutritional Therapist at Awakening Health. She uses nutrition and lifestyle medicine to help people align with a healthier way of living. She specialises in helping people who are feeling stressed, and women for hormonal balance.

www.awakeninghealth.co.uk

Corinne Sweet

Corinne Sweet – Growing Old(er) Disgracefully – Jan 2025

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It happens every year – regular as solstice clockwork. We gorge and party our way through the winter months and then bang on the midnight hour (Ist Jan) cry: “That’s it. I’m done. No more drinking/eating/indulging/spending….”

I see so many of my clients doubled-up like veritable pretzels chastising themselves for that extra slice or that ATM splurge. Not to mention the binge-watching and zero-exercise routine. “I’m going to be ‘good’ in the new year”, they plead, “Honest…no more take-aways”.

I see grumpy friends, colleagues and clients in ‘Dry January’, racing out the door on 1st February to turn on the beer taps with a collective ‘Phew’. Then the binge-indulge-remorse cycle starts all over again and by March people are back on the couch, bemoaning their waistlines (and their waste).

Resolution, Schmezolution. It can be a punitive start to the year.

Here’s the thing: I’ve come to believe that the annual roundabout of splurge and restraint has many threads to it: cultural, religious, environmental, elemental, familial. However, the way we approach being either ‘Good’ (= restraint) or ‘Bad’ (= indulging) is not really helpful. It’s too polar a perspective: black and white.

In my book Overcoming Addiction (Amazon) I look at how we can meet our real needs for ourselves without ‘filling up’ on the phoney, ersatz habits that we are told we must have in order to like ourselves. Or to feel better. (Or not to feel to all). Or to have fun, relax and relate.

I genuinely believe ditching the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ labels attached to food, drink, chocolate, spending, sex, exercise, money, TV and other daily necessities, is actually the healthy place to start. 

Instead, we need to get in touch with our real needs and ask ourselves: “What do I really want, really need, right now?” Or “What am I feeling?” A bit of emotional literacy goes a long way. All too often we simply numb out before we can answer any of these questions. 

We need to look after ourselves and our needs first and foremost – all the time. Not just in January. Instead of wrestling with new year’s resolutions, try and identify just one habit you’d like to curb or another one you’d like to adopt, as a new, more fulfilling, healthier, happier way of life. You may even enjoy it.

Instead of thinking about things as ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’, ask yourself what you really want. It could be contact with a friend, a dance round the living room or simply a good night’s sleep. 

Make sure there’s a good dollop of leisure and pleasure in your daily life, too. Living in West Hill, and in Brighton, that’s not too hard to find. A stroll to the sea, a coffee in a funky café or simply a night sky over the West Pier can work wonders.

A healthy habit isn’t just for Christmas. It can be for life.

l Growing Old(er) Disgracefully by 

Corinne Sweet

Psychotherapist, writer, broadcaster 

www.corinnesweet.com

Brighton, Brighton Life

Editorial – Jan 2025

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Happy New Year. Glad tidings we bring. By the time you read this I’m guessing you’re halfway through your resolutions – that Direct Debit to the gym is already looking as appealing as Dry January. We here at Whistler Towers don’t buy into that “New Year, New Me” thing because, well, the old me’s still basically OK. A few tweaks and it’ll be fine. It’s not that often we sit down with a box of Quality Street and a small Jack. A little something sometimes, it’s OK. And walking to the bamboo Hawaiian drinks cabinet to get another glass… That’s exercise. 

We have though been watching a fair bit of telly and recently watched a rather fine series about the early days of the American airline PamAm. It’s set in 1963 and essentially it’s about style, and the style is to die for. The clean lines, the attention to detail. The clothes they wore, the angle of their hats, everything was about the cut, the line, the style. And nowhere was the style more stylish than the cars. 

You should watch PanAm just for the cars. These extraordinary, exquisite creations, all chrome and fins, were the ultimate in style over purpose. On almost every measure we’d use today, they’re ridiculous. They were unfeasibly big – the Ford Galaxie 500, an extraordinary thing of beauty, was 18ft long and did about 12 miles to the gallon – but it’s heart-breaking that that idea, the idea that style comes first, fell out of fashion. 

No one ever got frothy saying “Oh look, there’s a five-door hatchback” or “Look at the lines on that SUV”. What’s happened to car design is nothing short of tragic. 

Take away the style and all there’s left is purpose. And if all there is is purpose, then there’s little argument against getting an electric car. It’s quiet. It’s cheap to run. It doesn’t use fossil fuels. It doesn’t spit out emissions. And, for those who care, they’re surprisingly very fast. No engine, no weight. It goes from A to B. There’s no road tax. Insurance is polite. And it costs next to nothing to run. Plug it in, go to bed. Wake up, full tank, less than £20. The other thing is, you won’t only feel good, you’ll look good too . You’ll be fit and svelte because you’ll never go to a petrol station, so you never buy a useless Twix or raisin and biscuit Yorkie Double. 

And here in Brighton, electric cars make even more sense, because we’re Green. First Green MP, don’t you know? So you’d think everything is geared to supporting these environmentally friendly if slightly dull cars. Well, no it isn’t. There are precious few street chargers, which you need because if you live in a house on a street with a pavement between you and the road, you can’t charge at home because even if you could park right outside your house/flat, you’d have wires trailing out of your window across the pavement. You need a street charger. But there are precious few street chargers and they’re all in parking permit bays and so people with ordinary cars and permits park there. So, unless you’re very lucky, you can’t charge your car. If the Council was serious about supporting electric cars, it would a) provide more street chargers and b) make it so that only electric  cars can use those bays. 

We’ve got a new column by two of our Green councillors (see opoosite page). Maybe next time they can address this. 

Just a quick line to say how sad we here at Whistler Towers are about the sad demise of the i360. It’s not in our manor, but it’s in our city and we care. Take away the money, the costs, the politics, all the miserable stuff, all the practical stuff and what you’ve got is a phallus, complete with ring, rising up from the beach. It’s a little odd. Brighton’s got a rich heritage of mad stuff – think about Magnus Volk’s “Daddy Long Legs” train in the sea. It’s very Brighton. Make it more accessible – or, better, free. And make it part of our landscape

Microdosing

The secret diary of a microdoser #4

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We are in a dance. A cosmic dance of monumental proportions and majesty. But we are not alone. Once a month the full beauty our dance partner is revealed and the Moon basks in all her glory, calmly accepting the Sun’s spotlight. Even though we often take her name in vain, she is still prepared to take a hit for us, as she follows our celestial rhythm. 

The music that weaves through our universe is conducted by four virtuosos, according to our current scientific understanding. We call them “Forces”: Nuclear Fusion, Nuclear Fission, Electromagnetism and Gravity. It is those forces that carve the shape of our reality. 

Physicists can show you how the first three work. They know how they communicate their message. They can measure them, photograph and record their stories with minute sensors. We’ve all sprinkled iron filings on a blank page to see how a magnet writes its script. But no physicist can actually tell you how the Moon says to the oceans “Come to me”. We can see the effect of that message, sure. But in reality we’re as close to understanding gravity as a mechanic gauging the torque of an engine by sniffing the burnt rubber left behind by a wheel spin. As it stands, nobody can actually tell you how the Moon speaks to our seas, nor how our oceans obey its command. We can see and hear the opera, we just can’t tell you how it is played. 

We are all told that the chances of us existing on this perfectly positioned planet are a billion trillion to one, but the moon is an enigma. It is apparently travelling away from the Earth by two inches every year. What we are not told is that, just at the point when we achieve consciousness as a species, the moon is the perfect size and at the exact distance between us and our nearest star to occasionally create a total solar eclipse, producing a perfect corona. Another billion to one chance? Pure coincidence? It has nothing to do with anything, right? Unless, of course, it is Everything. Unless it is absolutely pivotal to our existence and our development as a species. Unless we wouldn’t have achieved our current level of sentience without it. We just haven’t fully understood its importance because that can only be attained once we have reached the end of that particular journey, and we’ve still got some way to go. 

Some journeys are waiting for us to determine their outcome. Others are a race. The one in which we have found ourselves is a race between natural resources on one axis, population growth and technology on the others. It’s a race we have to win if we are to survive as a species. 

The apple is falling from the tree. It needs to be caught before it hits the ground. 

Predicting a solar eclipse was the ultimate statement of power in ancient times. Greek sponge divers made a stunning discovery in the Mediterranean in 1900. Named after a nearby island, the Antkithera Mechanism, most likely created by Archimedes, was the technology which could deliver that prediction. Much as Alan Turing is credited for creating the first computer, it actually started two thousand years beforehand. It is around that time that the race began. The time when we became a super-predator. But we have reached the point where we need a new Archimedes. 

Is he Elon Musk? There could be a lot worse candidates for the position. A self-confessed high-functioning autist. I approve. I understand his fixation with rockets, but unfortunately his obsession is misplaced and badly timed. Aiming for Mars is fine, just fix the Earth first. Maybe I should post him some mushrooms. Retune his Hyperfocus. He’s already got a Duncan Fearnley. He just needs to be pushed out on to the right wicket. 

Recent revelations have brought the holy grail of Cold Fusion much closer as a promising ingredient, Deuterium Hydrogen (which critically contains an extra neutron), has been found in a stunningly abundant source: seawater… In theory, a gallon of seawater could produce the same amount of energy as 300 gallons of petrol. If only we could artificially create anywhere near the gravitational force of the sun, or harness the Earth’s magnetism… 

Like Newton, Einstein, Darwin, and many others, the new Archimedes will very likely be an autist, this is not an arena where a neurotypical will excel. However, Alan Turing’s reward for his brilliance was chemical castration. Archimedes’ ultimate conclusion was a thrust of a Roman sword delivered by a soldier who didn’t give a shit about “disturbing his circles”. Discrimination and ignorance persist. The current stance of the Australian government is not to issue a foreigner with a working visa if they are diagnosed with autism or ADHD, much to their loss. 

In order to win this race, it is essential to house the new Archimedes in a Bletchley Park appropriate for our age. Because the code of this enigma is far harder to crack and way more important. They will need the support of a nation who realises that we are the Steward, not the Owner, and that it is our duty to stand on the shoulders of our forefathers, save us from this lunacy, and reach for the sun.  

With love, Ray, Brighton, 2024

For back issues: https://www.instagram.com/sdoam.therayman/

Editor’s note: The Whistler does not condone Ray’s opinions. We chose to publish this as we know there are many microdosers in the city. But remember, what works for Ray may not work for anyone else.