Claire Smith: Hogmanay spirit touches even the staid streets of Brighton THIS week I have mostly been in Brighton, on a non-traditional New Year staycation. Hit by a flurry of midwinter wanderlust and realising I had a week out of the office, I jumped on a plane and headed south. It's amazing how different it is here. There are palm trees in the garden and my friend and I sat outside on the decking drinking coffee on New Year's Day. We took our New Year's Walk along the seafront, beside a bright sparkling sea and pink scudding clouds. We walked past the blackened ghostly skeleton of the old West Pier right up to the twinkly fairy lights of the East Pier, with its ice cream shops, fun fairs and Art Deco fish and chip shops. The people are different, too. Women wearing leopard skin coats with bright red lipstick, men in tight fashionable jackets and expensive shoes. It's like Camden Market in 1988 - in fact, I wonder if some of them are the same people who've packed up the stalls and moved to the coast. I love the palmists, the whelk stalls, the tiny art galleries and the beachfront gym. It's a place where lots of people seem to be having fun. In the lanes there are shops selling costume jewellery, comic books, bondage gear and frilly knickers. We went to a pub with a giant mural of John Peel where there was a band playing upstairs and posters signed by rock bands around the walls. It's all a bit rock and roll by the sea. My friends have only just moved here, so it is very nice of them to let me stay. They are still living out of boxes and still trying to find a way of transporting Leonard the Lizard from his old home in the north of England. I've tried to offer moral support. I've sympathised with my male friend, who can't find any of his trousers. It's been my first non- Scottish New Year for decades. But even in the warm south we couldn't resist a bit of reeling after the bells. After midnight we put on a couple of fiddle tunes and hurled ourselves around the kitchen. Palm trees or no palm trees, some things just have to be done.