Self-indulgence

I spent several rather tedious hours yesterday trying to improve a low-resolution graphic (a sponsor's logo) so that it would reproduce satisfactorily on a large - VERY large - poster.  I changed it pixel by pixel, only to find that the end result was exactly the same as before I started.  Most frustrating.  Things did improve after I switched off the computer in disgust, partly at myself for being unable to do what seemed a simple enough, albeit tedious (as I said earlier) task, partly because I suspected that a gremlin had taken up residence in my computer's innards.

The Old Bat cooked a very tasty risotto - one of my favourite comfort foods - for dinner, after which we spent a couple of hours in front of the goggle-box.

The latest (4th) series of Downton Abbey started airing about ten days ago.  As we had not then finished watching series 3, I set the recorder and yesterday evening we watched the first episode of the new series.  I have to confess that I had not really noticed something so many of the professional television critics had pointed out: that the standard of the scripts - and, indeed, the plot - in the 3rd series had slipped from the heights of the earlier episodes.  Yesterday evening I realised what I had missed.  If the rest of this series is up to the standard of the first episode, Julian Fellowes (the script writer) will have done a first-rate job.  He is ably assisted by the members of the cast, especially Michelle Dockery who plays a blinder as Lady Mary, and Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess.

After that, we switched to real time TV.  Well, a programme that we watched as it was broadcast.  This was one of those superb BBC nature programmes, this one the first of a series of four programmes about the British seasons.  The photography was superb, even though I felt there was a touch too much of speeded-up footage, the sort that shows a tree as it changes from winter to spring.  The voice-over, although a bit twee at times, was remarkably unobtrusive and, indeed, absent completely at times as, for example, we watched a barn owl hunting.

Superb.

~~~~~

With today's photo we get back to the streets of Brighton, this being Lewes Crescent, Kemp Town, in the east of the city.

Most of these house have been divided into flats, but  a complete house did come onto the market fairly recently with a price tag of over £3 million.  This is the agent's description:

There are many historical rooms and artefacts within the house including a 'wind indicator', the lavishly decorated Drawing Room and listed 'King's Loo'. However, the house is currently used as a wonderful home and is now arranged over 6 floors, offering 5 bedrooms, plus a master suite, 2 magnificent receptions including the first floor Drawing Room, still with its original beautiful hand painted ceiling and walls, and the ground floor Dining Room with the ornate grapevine moulded cornice. On the lower ground floor are the kitchen fitted in a Shaker style with the original range plus all the necessary modern appliances needed in a modern kitchen, breakfast area with water feature, dining room, family room, wine cellar, utility room, shower room and plenty of store rooms, crockery and linen cupboards having been there since it was first completed in 1830. The second floor comprises the master suite offering the main bedroom, 2 dressing rooms and a full bathroom having a central roll-top bath with glass shower enclosure. There are 3 further bath/shower rooms within the house with a further four bedrooms being on the third and fourth floor. To the rear of the house are two rooms which could form a separate self-contained area for staff. The house also benefits from the use of the beautifully kept private Kemp Town Enclosures; a 6 acre private garden which also gives direct access to the beach via a tunnel under the road.

Dream on!