Reunited with Mushy
The last time we housesat in Hove was around ten months ago, prior to our trip to Mexico, Cuba and Colombia. Our travels came to an abrupt halt when we had to fly home early due to COVID-19. Lockdown was spent in Eastbourne, just along the coast from Brighton.
Now, we are back looking after a lovely cat called Mushy and staying in a house just off Hove seafront. This is a return housesit for us – in fact, we have looked after Mushy many times. He’s a real character – a chatty black and white Persian with oodles of personality. We arrived just after the property owners had left. Mushy looked a little surprised to see us, but he nevertheless wandered over to greet us and it was as if we’d never been away. It’s always a pleasure to return to housesits and see our old feline friends.
About Hove
Hove is Brighton’s more sedate neighbour. That being said, it’s only sedate in contrast to super-exuberant Brighton. In fact, Hove isn’t short of great restaurants, pubs, cafes and indie shops of its own. Its seafront has a wide promenade, not to mention sprawling beachside lawns and colourful beach huts.
Hove started out as a small fishing hamlet and was originally surrounded by farmland. By the 19th century it was a fully developed town. The area is home to several wide elegant avenues. Many of the buildings were constructed in the Regency, Georgian and Victorian eras. These days the main shopping area is pedestrianised George Street. The majority of bars, cafes and restaurants line Church Road, Hove’s main thoroughfare.
In addition to carrying out numerous housesits in Hove, we lived here for six months just before undertaking our first round-the-world trip together. Consequently, we know Hove pretty well and housesitting here is like coming home (wherever that may be!)
Hove’s Thriving Food Scene
As mentioned previously, Hove has an abundance of fine eateries. Danny’s is our favourite Chinese in the whole of Brighton and Hove! Luckily for us, they deliver! When we are housesitting in Hove, we inevitably treat ourselves. Another favourite is Hove Tandoori, just around the corner from our present housesit, which serves delicious Indian cuisine.
Mexican Los Amigos was probably the first restaurant we went to in Hove many years ago. It is still going strong all these years later. Just along the road from us is the renowned Ginger Pig where we celebrated Ku’s Birthday last year with a delicious brunch. Other top choices for eating out in Hove include Planet India, Lemongrass and cutting-edge Etch.
Live Music Venues
One of our favourite venues in Hove is The Old Market which hosts gigs, theatre, comedy and festivals. It’s housed in a Grade II listed building and has an intimate performance space with a cute bar. We saw Cerys Matthews there last year when she was talking about her book and travels and it was a great night out. Tickets are reasonably priced too, so it’s worth checking out the programme if you happen to be in Brighton & Hove.
We have also been to a couple of events at The Brunswick, a popular pub located just off the seafront. It’s a small, relaxed venue with cabaret style seating around tables. The pub has an excellent menu with the added bonus of a large beer garden on sunny days.
Many pubs in Hove host live music nights including Revelator, The Neptune The Exchange and another of our favourites for food and music, the friendly neighbourhood pub The George Payne.
The Seafront
Strolling along the seafront from Brighton towards Hove, the bars and souvenir shops are left behind. On crossing the border into Hove (no passport required!) the promenade broadens. Hove Lawns are used for picnics, yoga sessions and dog walking. The long stretch of beach huts add a splash of colour to the promenade. On summer days, queues form outside Marrocco’s, a popular family-run Italian ice cream parlour. Established for over fifty years, they serve up twenty-four flavours of home-made ice-cream. Further along, Hove Lagoon is an activity centre on the water. Here, it’s possible to try your hand at windsurfing, paddle-boarding, kayaking and wakeboarding.
A Green Space
Hove Park is the largest green space in the area. Covering over forty acres, it’s a popular spot for families, runners and dog walkers. The park has a path running around its circumference and features lawn, flowerbeds and mature trees. There are recreational facilities including football pitches, tennis courts, a basketball court and outside gym. Points of interests include a sculpture called Fingermaze and the Goldstone Rock which is believed to have been used for Druid worship. Hove Park Cafe is a popular meeting spot serving meals and snacks.
The Best of Both Worlds
Hove offers the best of both worlds. The beaches between the piers of Brighton are often chock-a-block in the summer, whereas those in Hove tend to be much quieter. Indeed, Hove is relatively peaceful, yet is only a walk or bus ride to the metropolis of Brighton and all its attractions. We love staying in the area and always try to make the most of our time wherever we are. However, we feel particularly spoilt here as we are only a five-minute walk from the beach. We have our next housesit with Mushy lined up for February next year and are looking forward to it already!
Housesitting
We have been housesitting for around eight years now and it has revolutionised our lives. Not only have we met some adorable pets, but also some lovely people, who we have stayed in contact with over the years. We have mainly looked after cats, but occasionally we have had dogs to care for. Many people see themselves as either ‘cat people’ or ‘dog people’, but the truth is we love both equally!
Many of our housesits are arranged by word of mouth, through friends and people we have housesat for previously. We also use TrustedHousesitters when we have gaps that we need to fill or when we are looking for housesits abroad. Coincidentally, TrustedHousesitters are based in Brighton and Hove. In fact, they have housesits all over the world on their website – from Hong Kong to Argentina and everywhere in between!
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Looks like you’ve struck gold with your housesit in Hove. Mushy looks gorgeous, and it really does seem as though you have the best of both worlds there. Fabulous shot of Hove beach with the colourful kayaks. Enjoy your time there!
Hi Alli, thank you so much. Yes – we are lucky and Mushy is lovely. Hove is a pretty nice place to be too!
Have a great time there. That photo of Mushy sitting on the table made me think of a portly politician delivering a very ‘sincere’ speech! 😀
Love the beach huts and the look of everything actually. Here in South Australia we have the suburb of Brighton and right next to it…Hove, and they are beachside suburbs. There are many English place names replicated in Australia.
I didn’t realise you had a Brighton AND Hove! That’s interesting!
We have sooooo many English place names 👍
Lovely pics! Thanks for posting!
Hi Jyothi – Thank you! 😊
You will need to find a bigger box for Mushy if you intend to take him with you.
Haha – I don’t think his owners would be very pleased if we took him with us!
You probably haven’t looked through my blog enough, but I write occasionally about my 4 cats. Yes, I am a cat man.
Your cats are very cute!
Thank you. They get their hood looks from me.
Looks really good. And a lovely place
Yes – Hove is a pretty good place to housesit! Sorry to read you missed out on so many great trips this year, but at least you got a new car. It’s nice to be able to take off on a spontaneous road trip every now and again!
Thank you. It really is
Hove is such a beautiful place … and Mushy looks adorable!
Sadly, we are leaving tomorrow. We will certainly miss Mushy’s company! Thanks for reading 😊
A gorgeous cat (I’m a cat person) and a lovely area—nice combo. Housesitting sounds like a great opportunity to explore near and far. It’s wonderful that you’ve been doing this for eight years.
Yes – he’s one of our favourites. Not only is he cute, but he’s really fun to be around and very entertaining! And housesitting has been great for us – it would be difficult to settle down now! Thanks for reading the blog ☺