Home today.

The last leg of our trip sees us in Brighton for dinner with old friends . We think it's two years since we last saw them but it turns out it was pre-Covid. Our hotel room is unusual for having two baths positioned in the middle of the floor. Closer examination of the layout suggests that the architect originally intended to have two rooms fill this space but belatedly discovered that the ceiling beams prevented it from being partitioned. Behind a frosted glass wall a shower fills up one entire end of the room. It is huge. Between the twin baths and the rugby club sized shower the furniture looks like an after thought.

A lady has taken her two greyhounds down to the pub for a post lunch 'snifter'. This is a very 'Brighton' sight. In the local Waterstones Boris Johnson's memoirs ( which were £5 off in the St Andrews bookstore ) are now piled up and are being offered with a 50% discount.

From the hotel balcony we can observe the derelict state of many of the buildings that line the lanes that run in from the sea.  Ferns sprout from gutters.  The presence of a new office block suggests that the whole area is about to be redeveloped. This is long overdue. Brighton - or parts of it - still has the feel of the 1940's to it.

A modern apartment block has appeared among the Georgian era fishing cottages. It's not a thing of great beauty but it's better than it could have been. The outside is finished in black painted wood to match one of the old stores for fishing nets.

Two things we've never seen in a hotel before.

1) A small herd of cow themed milk jugs grace the tables in the breakfast room. Neither of us has ever given much thought to hotel milk jugs. They are usually either white and invisible or simply non-existent. In America the milk jug has largely been replaced by the plastic 'capsule'. Swedes - who are big on milk - tend towards the small stainless steel milk jug with a flip up lid.  Perhaps there is a coffee table book on milk jugs waiting to be written ?

2) Umbrellas are hired out from a rental machine. £2 gets you use of an umbrella for 48 hours. If it's not returned your card is debited £20. The lady behind the desk says the umbrellas are always returned.

We are now heading off to Gatwick to take the flight back to Edinburgh. Gatwick during the English schools half term can be like one of Dante's circles of hell. 

Kate Bush was on the radio talking about her new childrens song and video :https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gXUkSiV4Jzs

Language and the mind:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/small-things-big-questions/202410/what-goes-on-in-the-minds-of-babies

Good question :https://www.livescience.com/health/alcohol/why-do-hangovers-get-worse-with-age