As the evenings draw in . . .

And don't they just?  I know we've passed the autumn equinox, but it does seem a little hard having to switch on the lights in the living room by six o'clock.  I now close the living room curtains as well, a sure sign that the dank, dismal days of an English winter are approaching.

The mornings are almost as bad.  It seems only last week that I was waking before the alarm clock sounded because of the light seeping in around the edges of the curtains and even through the curtains as well.  I'm sure it is a result of the ever-extending darkness that I am suffering trouble with both my back and my eyes.  When the alarm rings - no, it doesn't ring, it buzzes - well, when it sounds I have great difficulty on these darker mornings in forcing open my eyes and getting my back off the mattress.  I know full well that it is hardly a matter of life and death if I stay in bed another few minutes so I simply hit the snooze button - and again and again.  It would be all the same in a hundred years (as my old granny was fond of telling me) if I stayed in bed all morning, but there are things that have to be done and thigs that I would like to do.  The longer I stay in bed, the less time there is for me to do those things I would like to do after I have done those things that have to be done.

It will be different next week.  We shall be in France and when we are there, there are fewer things that have to be done.  There is no dog to be walked as she stays in kennels in England - and you don't have to feel sorry for her as she enjoys going because she is spoilt rotten.  The one thing I do have to do in the mornings over there is visit the boulangerie to buy the bread for lunch.  An possibly some patisserie as well.

Well, I can't sit here gossiping all day - there's a car-load of garden rubbish to be taken to the tip.

~~~~~

Before I go, I'll leave you with a little puzzle.  You can see from the sign that this Brighton building is the home of the Proud Brighton Ballroom, a cabaret bar/restaurant or, as they describe themselves, "a retro supper club".  (I've never been there, something I really should put right!)  But what was its original purpose?

It was built in 1892 as a wing of the family homeas a mausoleum for Sir Albert Sassoon and other members of his family, including Sir Edward Sassoon, 2nd Baronet, of Kensington Gore.  Albert Abdullah David Sassoon was born in Baghdad in 1818 to a prominent, Sephardic Jewish family. After many years spent managing the family's banking and merchant shipping business in Bombay, he retired to England where he was created a baronet. He died in Brighton in 1896.  In 1933 the remains of the Sassoon family were removed and reburied in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery in Londo.

The former mausoleum was for a time a furniture depository. During World War II it was used as an air raid shelter during fierce bombings. In 1949 it was purchased by a brewery for use as a pub - The Bombay Bar. In 2001 the mausoleum housed the Brighton Arms Pub. In 2003 it was bought and the name changed to "The Hanbury Club".

In 2011 the mausoleum reopened as Proud Cabaret Brighton.

(Thanks to Wikipedia.)