Latest Homes magazine

Fill your stockings with this year’s Christmas ideas

Bonfire night’s sparklers are barely spent, yet the countdown to Christmas has begun. Worried about the credit crunch? Can’t face those Christmas Eve queues? A little time spent planning now will allow you to spend December curled up on your sofa with a glass of something warm and spicy, rather than battling out there in shopping hell. Strategy, tactics and an early shop will mean less stress, less hassle and, let’s face it, less expense… and what better place to start your Christmas shopping than the Latest Interiors guide to gorgeous gifts for the home?

Melamine jelly baby bowl, £2.95, www.dotcomgiftshop.com

Luxury living

Luxury has been an enduring trend for the last few seasons: buy less, but buy the best. Good quality classics will give years of use and pleasure. Perfect gifts for those with a classic sense of style include pure linen sheets, heavy cotton tea towels, cashmere throws or blankets, a simple sheepskin rug, or plain white bone china.

Uniquely you…

If you’re shopping for someone with a quirkier sense of style, be brave: 2007 saw colour and texture explode onto interiors. Bold ceramics, super-sized bowls, fantastic plastic accessories with a nod to the 1970s, cushions with fish-scale sequins, or a vintage colourful folk-art throw; the wonderful thing about eclectic style is that anything goes.

Green, green home

Johnstons Cashmere Hottie & Socks, £79.95, www.harrods.com

Get with the year’s ecofriendly theme, helping family and friends to reduce their carbon footprint. A logmaker (recycles household waste into fuel), a wormery, composter or stylish recycling storage would be welcome in most homes. If you or someone you love can’t face all the Christmas consumerism, why not donate to charity on their behalf? Oxfam Unwrapped have a marvellous selection of imaginative ‘gifts’, from simple schoolbooks to training a midwife in the developing world. Or support a local charity – it does begin at home, after all.

Eat, drink and be merry

Few foodies could fail to be delighted with a thoughtful hamper. Browse the Laines and local shops to make your own, or go for a good-quality department store offering: Interiors still loves the hampers on offer at recently renovated Fortnums (www.fortnumandmason.com). For the record, Santa, we can’t get enough of those sweet little baskets and oh, the paté and wine… Another good gift for regular entertainers is a scented candle: natural soy candles burn for hours, bestowing gentle light and ambience – check out www.naturalmagic.com for inspiration.

And now for something completely different…

Shopping for a time-poor relative or new parent? Organise a voucher with a local cleaning company, for a basic or deep home clean. If you can, makesure there is flexibility about when the gift can be used. Help with a post-Christmas clean? That has to be a miracle…

Gift Gallery

Here are more great gift ideas:

Wave pleated throw, £15, www.matalan.co.uk

Set of three recycling bins, £49.99, www.tch.net

From a selection of home gifts Design Studio, 58 Western Road, Hove.
Tel: 01273 206123
125 South Road, Haywards Heath.
Tel: 01444 443777
www.design-interiors.com

From a selection of home gifts Design Studio, 58 Western Road, Hove
Tel: 01273 206123
125 South Road, Haywards Heath.
Tel: 01444 443777
www.design-interiors.com

Large Stardish. Handmade glazed porcelain. £48 From Buxtons, 35 Ditchling Road (opp The Level park) Brighton
Tel: 01273 691750 www.buxtons.co.uk

Stag cushion (£46.00)
Rume, 54 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1JD
Tel: 01273 777 810 info@rume.co.uk / www.rume.co.uk

Large Stardish. Handmade glazed porcelain. £48
From Buxtons, 35 Ditchling Road (opp The Level park) Brighton
Tel 01273 691750 www.buxtons.co.uk

For even more gift ideas
Pick up our free magazine this week and turn to page 10

What’s coming up in the garden this week. By Louisa Bell of City and Country Gardens

Design and construction

Solid as a rock?
The sub-prime mortgage crisis will eventually hit us all. I don’t think banks should be allowed to hide the extent of their exposure to the crisis until their figures are released. It’s like now there are problems. Barclays is turning down 50 per cent of all credit card applications now, and reducing the credit limit for their existing customers. The only good news is that interest rates will probably drop as we all stop spending money.

What does this mean for the housing market? Well, here we all are, sitting in our houses that are worth more than our parents could have ever believed possible. But it’s all relative unless you’re seriously going to convert it into cash and drive off around Europe in a VW camper and never enter the property market again. Our houses are worth lots of useless money. It just means we pay the banks and building societies huge amounts each month so we can live in the house that has been over-inflated by the banks and building societies.

On top of this, with stamp duty and fees it now means it costs the average householder £15,000 (and the rest) to move. That’s just to go from one utility bill address to another.

As you can see from the number of skips and builders’ vans all around us, we’re staying put. We’re moving up, out, down and across and making space and doing with what we’ve got. Creating more space is a thought-provoking exercise, but knocking down a wall here, adding a window there can make a huge difference to a house. Spending £10,000 indoors will also add that money back into your house value (meaningless I know), but it’s not a cheque written out to Gordon or the estate agent.

You obviously know that I’m coming to the garden don’t you? But think of this as space for work too. We have been putting in some great outdoor offices. Lined and insulated and measuring 12 ft by 10 ft, there’s room for a desk; plug in your iPod, install great lighting and it’ll be comfortable, warm and secure throughout the winter. That’s a big room, and all for around £8,000.

The garden itself is such a useable space. I hear clients say time and again that they never used their garden before. Now it’s built properly, they can use it all the time. It’s great to eat outside and sit outside. Look at the November we’ve had. We had a great bonfire party last weekend, and we barbecued, lit a bonfire, had the fireworks and didn’t have to go indoors for anything except more beer.

Money spent on the garden is such a worthwhile investment. It’s better than paint and carpets. Look at the size of your garden, compared to the rooms in your house. If that was a room, just think what you could do with it! Let us tell you what’s possible. There’s no need for that For Sale sign.

Plants

Holly
Ilex aquifolium is he Latin name. Berries, prickly, Xmas – holly makes us think of all these things. Holly is a great tree for all gardens. For a start, as a security measure, it’s perfect for planting along hedges and boundaries. Nobody will want to climb over your fence! It’s evergreen so it keeps its leaves all through the year, but the leaves remain green and glossy and lovely, whatever the weather. Holly looks wonderful in the snow too. There’s something about the outline of those spiky leaves and the red berries against the white ground.

Holly is very easy to grow. A holly tree will often seed itself into your garden too, and you see them growing in hedgerows. They also grow in dense shade, so they’re seen underneath beech and oak trees.

Britain is the only place in the world to have holly woods. These are ecologically equivalent to the evergreen cloud forests of South America and China. So you can see how important our native plant is.

In folklore, the amount of berries on the holly tree is supposed to tell us if the winter will be harsh. It’s also thought to be extremely bad luck to cut down a holly tree, but it is okay to cut the branches and bring them indoors in the winter. This was a pagan tradition but was eventually accepted by Christianity (just like they hi-jacked Christmas itself) as the spines on the leaves symbolised the crown of thorns and the red berries the blood of Christ.

This notwithstanding, it’s a good evergreen shrub with prickly bits and berries on the female plant only. Of course.

Things to do

Winter care
Keep an eye on the weather. Rainstorms, gales, frosts and sudden temperature variations are all common at this time of the year. Keep your plants tied in securely, check tree stakes so that newly planted trunks are helped through any winter gales.

Cut back any herbaceous plants, with thick woody stems, right down to ground level. It’s quite dangerous in the spring when one is weeding the borders (sounds quite Jane Austen doesn’t it?) as there’s the possibility of getting poked in the eye with a woody twig! Keep raking the leaves off the lawn as they fall from the trees, and pull out dead growth from plants to stop the leaves rotting. Plant bulbs in abundance – in their hundreds! Cut back roses with a good sharp pair of secateurs. All straggly growth can go and don’t be scared of pruning them really hard. I have cut ten foot roses down to two inches. It did them the world of good. Prune roses with a diagonal cut, just above a bud on the stem – that little pink full stop. Cut out really skinny stems completely.

Make sure the buds are pointing outwards if you can. That way, the rose will send out new shoots from the pink bud, and they’ll grow outwards and keep the centre of the bush open for the sunshine to reach. It’s all common sense really. If you’re not sure what to do, just trust your instincts. It’s hard to go terribly wrong in the garden. We’re not really a nation of shopkeepers. We’re gardeners.

I have just returned from a weekend in Denmark with The Boyfriend. Unfortunately, the day before we left, I went down with a stinking cold, which was really quite annoying as I hadn’t had one for four years. The Boyfriend, or course, in true man-flu fashion chose to have his cold last May on our trip to Greece, where he spent a great deal of time in bed, only managing to get up in order to watch an Arsenal/Chelsea match. Although I was determined not to let my cold ruin our trip, I thought my eardrums were going to explode as we came in to land. The Boyfriend suffers from extreme ear pressure when landing on airplanes, regardless of whether he has a cold or not, so we were both stone deaf when we arrived at Kastrup, which didn’t help with the confusing ticket-buying procedure that we had to negotiate in order to get into the city centre.

“By the time I’d unpacked my very small bag, the fridge was already stocked up and His Lordship was busy making salami and cheese toasties”

Things improved dramatically on arrival at our apartment, which looked just like an Ikea room-set and had everything one could wish for in a holiday let. The Boyfriend was delighted to find ample cooking facilities and I have never seen a man so overjoyed to discover a full set of cooking pots and a brand new frying pan, which still bore a price tag confirming its virgin status. Determined to christen the new frying pan, The Boyfriend immediately set off to the nearest Netto to stock up on provisions. By the time I’d unpacked my very small bag, the fridge was already stocked up and His Lordship was busy making salami and cheese toasties.

By our second day, we still hadn’t eaten out and, although we were determined to do so that very night, we got terribly waylaid by huge amounts of Tuborg lager (a blast from the past, for those of us who remember the 1970s) and ended up not eating anything at all. Much the worse for wear – Tuborg and Night Nurse are a cathartic, but not ideal combination – we went to bed at some ungodly hour and just managed to wake up in time to go back to the pub and watch the Arsenal/Man U game with a load of Danish blokes. Not my idea of the perfect holiday activity, I can tell you. Especially not when the Tuborg was £5 per pint and then they do that terrible thing of not filling it right to the top of the glass and leaving a huge frothy head on it. Because we were a little the worse for wear, we decided not to eat out that night either and The Boyfriend paid another visit to Netto and knocked up some chicken breasts in peppercorn sauce with sauté potatoes and green vegetables.

The following morning – our last day – I felt much better and decided to go for a jog in the nearby park. It was a clear, frosty day and no one was around because it was 8am on a Sunday morning. I was just admiring the fabulous autumnal colours of the trees, when a stern-looking young lady stepped out in front of me and said something firmly in Danish. I thought she’d said that running was forbidden, but told her I was English and didn’t understand. She then repeated in English that running was forbidden in the park, but I was allowed to walk, if I wanted. Kind of negates the whole point of going for a run, really and I found it very strange, and told her so. It reminded me of a time when, out running on a beach in Essaouira, Morocco, I was chased by a furious policeman on a camel. Don’t you just love foreign regulations?

Andrew Kay asks why the need for meeters and greeters?

As roving ‘Jack of’ for Latest Homes my travels take me pretty far and wide. I spend a pleasant amount of time in restaurants, bars, hotels and clubs and after 14 years of reporting on the same I feel I have perhaps earned the right to pass comment with impunity.

Last weekend I made my third trip to Glyndebourne Touring Opera this year. I loved all three and on the third visit we decided that, having arrived early, we would go to a restaurant there for tea and cake. We walked up to the entrance and there was a sign asking us to wait to be seated. After a couple of minutes a charming dinner-suited gent came across and asked us what we would like. “Tea and cake,” we cried. “Please find yourself a table gentlemen,” was the reply.

“‘Tea and cake’ we cried. ‘Please find yourself a table gentlemen,’ was the reply”

Now why the catering firm in charge require a Tuxedo-ed man to tell us to do what we could quite clearly do without his kind instruction is beyond me. It was also remarkable that we had to ask three times for some milk to go with our beverages. When milk did come it came three times. There seemed to be rather a lot of chiefs and too few injuns.

A few days later I happened to be in London and realised that if we did not eat there It would be rather too late to eat when we got back to Brighton. We dived into Chez Gerrard at Victoria where once more we were met by a bevvy of serious looking meeters and greeters. This time an utterly charmless guy in a tired suit asked us what we wanted. “ We would like to eat,” we cried. “One moment sirs, I will see what I can do.”

The place was half empty with immaculate tables laid with linen and the like. He eventually returned and led us to a distant corner where a bare table was surrounded by two chairs and a small sofa. Mr L, with whom I was dining, took a seat and I went for the sofa. I lowered myself gingerly down and, as I expected, it was ridiculously low, even for a man of my height. We stood up and went back to the front. “Can we please have a proper table at which dining will be possible?”

A second and far nicer lady took us through to a cramped table in a busy corner where we had trouble getting in without removing the napery from the adjacent tables. From there on the service was better and the food not bad either.

A week earlier I went to Fortnum and Mason for tea, oysters and champagne actually, all very good. There a maitre d’ made sure that we had the best table possible, the best service and a throughly good time. I tipped handsomely. It’s easy to see why they boast so many royal warrants. Fortnums is a pearl and if it’s good enough for that queen then it’s certainly good enough for this one.

A modern family home in Saltdean that raises the benchmark

I watched this house being built. It’s one of a pair sitting on a plot of land close to the sea and near to where I live in Saltdean. The project drew a lot of attention locally as the houses were clearly going to be rather large.

The properties are detached, but prettily designed in butterfly fashion so that left and right are mirror images of each other. The first has been finished and occupied for some time and now the second is ready to be taken to the market. I went along to take a look and it’s certainly been worth the wait.

Built over three floors, the house is reached through a small front garden and drive. The entrance is to the centre with the garage to the right and the front door is protected by a tiled canopy, a traditional feature that is typical of this new build. Inside, a wide hallway leads to all the main rooms. At the front left and opposite the garage is a large and beautifully designed modern kitchen with Smeg and Zanussi appliances. The units are faced in a glossy taupe finish and there are stylish details everywhere the eye can see. It’s not only a kitchen either, but has been well designed to provide a relaxed family dining area.

‘‘A truly modern family home in one of the city’s most desirable locations’’

The next door opens into a large cloakroom and utility with WC. It’s a good sized room, way above average and with ample space for appliances and storage. This is the second glimpse I get of the standard of finish here too. The kitchen is fantastic and this continues at the same standard with modern fixtures and designer radiators used generously where other developers might have gone for ‘plain’ or ‘economy’.

At the rear of the house, double doors lead into the main living area which runs the full width of the house and then stretches into the garden in the form of a fully integrated conservatory. At the far end of the conservatory, a pedestal-style radiator is topped with a black marble bench seat. It’s unfurnished when I view, but immediately I can see endless potential and a huge number of ways that this large space can be configured. French doors lead out onto a sun terrace that will be filled with sunshine for the best part of the day until the sun finally goes down over in the west. Beyond the terrace, the garden is laid to lawn, easy to maintain maybe or just a blank canvas ready for green fingers.

The stairs lead up to the first landing. At the front of the house are two large double bedrooms – the scale is immediately impressive. From the landing, another door leads into yet another strikingly chic bathroom, this time with a Jacuzzi-style bath and beautifully tiled walls and floor, a feature of the bathrooms throughout – as are the stunning designer radiators.

To the rear is the master bedroom suite, again on a large scale and again with a stunning contemporary bathroom with an amazing deep free-standing bath tub and a separate shower cubicle. There is a real sense of luxury despite the fact that other than the bathrooms and kitchens this house is as yet unfurnished.

The stairs rose one more time to the top floor where there are again two large double bedrooms, high ceilinged despite being built into the eaves, but with stunning sea views from a series of Velux windows. Between the front and rear bedrooms, the landing is filled with light, again from a Velux window. A final door opens into an excellent walk-in storage room, typically space gained where others would have not bothered.

The look of the property is classic – banisters,rails and newel posts are traditional, as are the windows and doors. There are, however, some great cutting-edge details. All efforts have been made to make the property as modern as possible, with excellent heat and sound insulation throughout, even between floors, and of course, double glazing throughout as well as a modern condenser type boiler.

The developer has also installed a centrally powered vacuum system that has ports on each landing, which makes cleaning that little bit easier.

It’s easy to fall for this house, the scale alone is a draw, but when you start to add up the details and extras it’s just a clear winner. A truly modern family home in one of the city’s most desirable locations, with excellent local facilities, public transport, beach and down-land walks… who could ask for more?

Bannings Vale, Saltdean
£495,000

David Webb Residential
12 West Street, Rottingdean
01273 300525
www.davidwebbresidential.co.uk

What’s coming up in the garden this week. By Louisa Bell of City and Country Gardens

Design and construction

A job well done
We are having work carried out on the house. It’s really quite odd to be on the ‘other side’ of the work in progress.

Like most people, we sometimes have no idea how much these things cost. The building company broke their quote down in detail and we do the same with our construction quotations. We don’t do estimates, and I wouldn’t accept estimates from the building company either. You need to know what you’re in for right from the start. We all have a few savings or perhaps we’ve re-mortgaged to get some work done. Either way, it’s usually a finite budget for works to be carried out. We had a figure ‘in mind’, and it wasn’t the figure on the quotation. We didn’t know what to do, and I decided to wait and get another quote. The second company were very nice, but somehow they just weren’t as professional. Company A had all of their own trades, and knew the local structural engineer we wanted to use. The building regulation people were high on their list. Company B wanted us to get all the drawings done, and didn’t seem to think we’d need building regulations. They were very friendly and had clearly carried out this kind of work before, but their quotation came through as one sum, without any detail. We realised that the initial quotation was going to be the scary cost for the job.

Company B were less expensive, but we went with Company A. We had to wait for them too, but it has been worth it. The guys working on the house are great. They turn up every day on time, and as each trade is needed, they’ve been here. They have paid attention to detail and have matched all the other features on the house as they have built in walls and doors.

I have always known how important it is to our clients that we offer the whole service. We have every trade working with, or for us. To that end we can carry out every single aspect of a garden construction site. We have chosen each member of our staff very carefully and they are all valued members of our team.

As the builders put the finishing touches to our house, I can stand back and realise how our clients feel as their garden is completed. It’s very exciting.

Plants

A shade better
Plants are getting thin on the ground now. It’s easy in the summer. I’m spoilt for choice, but at this time of year, a newly flowering plant is a little treasure. I planted some hellebores back in the summer. I had forgotten about them really. I needed something to grow underneath our big old conker tree. It’s very shady and dry underneath there. I improved the soil, with bags of farmyard manure, and then planted shade tolerant groups. I put in foxgloves, ferns, trilliums, bergenias, japanese anemones and hellebores. All of them are white flowering varieties, as they will lighten up the dark space. None of them were flowering back in the summer when they were planted and I call this anticipation planting. You have to just imagine and wait – the true joy of gardening. I walked past the hellebores yesterday, and they were all scrunched up like Kleenex, the first white flowers emerging from the ground. I knelt down (all of my jeans have muddy knees) to look closely at these beautiful little white flowers who have been waiting patiently for this time to arrive. All shade-loving plants are a bonus, you don’t expect to see anything much flowering under a big tree. Under my apple tree are tiny white cyclamen (just buy them in pots from the nursery and put them straight in the ground) and they’ll be followed by primroses and then white trilliums. Who said shady sites are tricky?

Things to do

The cold snap
Be prepared for the frosty mornings. We had a couple of frosts last week. Of course, we’re over the Downs and this makes a big difference to the temperature. I have lived most of my life within the sight and sound of the sea and last year, having moved away north (well, six miles north) I had to scrape my car every morning. I didn’t know your fingers could get so cold. The frosts will really affect your garden. Green leaves will go black or brown. Tender things in the garden will succumb to the cold. Some plants, like bizzie lizzies, almost look like their stems are full of water don’t they? It’s no wonder they collapse as soon as it’s cold. Other tender things are used to growing in a hot climate. They grow beautifully in our summer months, but their indigenous state doesn’t resemble our cold winter days. It’s often the damp, rather than the cold, that gets plants in the end. If you have something special, you can wrap it around in hessian or straw to keep out the damp. Don’t walk on the grass during a frost. Your footprint will shatter the frozen grass like a bus shelter’s window and the grass will die.

If you have plants that are tender don’t cut them back too hard now. Leaving a bit of top growth will protect them through the winter months and you can cut them back harder before they start to grow in March as the temperature rises. Keep sweeping up your leaves, especially off the grass. Buy some warm cosy gloves and keep inspecting your garden. Somewhere, under the leaves, there are bulbs and beautiful things just waiting to emerge. Like this weeks hellebore. Little winter stars, making us cry ‘Oh!’…

Have yourself a tech-happy Christmas as we give you the lowdown on the latest home entertainment equipment

Monpoli unit from Design Studio, 58 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1JD, Tel 01273 206123, Fax 01273 206789 studio@design-interiors.com

Whether you’re settling down to watch the seasonal re-runs or working your way through the Ugly Betty box-set, there’s never been a better time to bring your home entertainment experience into the 21st century. Bewildered by all the technology? Latest Interiors gets the popcorn in, opens the instruction manuals and finds a seat…

Special features

You can always take it slowly, asking Santa for just one or two new gadgets. Top techno gifts for Christmas 2007 include a Slingbox (around £130), a device that will turn almost any internet-connected Windowsbased (or Mac) computer into a personal TV, via a single live TV stream re-routed from your aerial, cable or set-top box.

Get wired for sound, and upgrade your hi-fi to an MP3-based system. Vinyl addicts need not despair, as you can transfer your old vinyl to CD or MP3 format with an Ion iTTUSB turntable (around £120).

Fancy a big new telly but don’t know which to choose? Plasma and LCD TVs are two different technologies trying to do the same thing: produce crystal clear, colour-filled images on a wide, thin screen. Each has its pros and cons – LCD TVs use less power and are generally lighter and stronger; plasma TVs give better moving colour and can be bigger and cheaper. On balance, a plasma TV will give you a large screen at a reasonable price, but if you leave your TV on a lot and want to use it as a computer too, choose an LCD. Look out for new eco-friendly features: John Lewis have just launched the Cello LCD TV, a 19” HD ready LCD TV with a unique ‘power off’ feature on the remote control, helping to reduce costs and energy consumption (www.johnlewis.com).

Gold Globe system with real gold leaf, Design Studio, 58 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1JD, Tel 01273 206123, Fax 01273 206789 studio@design-interiors.com

System addicts

For a total techno makeover, home cinema systems are still the last word in entertainment. Generally, they fall into two categories: all-in-one dedicated systems, and separates. All-in-ones are popular with first-timers for their simplicity, but while systems built around high quality separates may seem complex, chosen and assembled correctly they offer advantages such as superior stereo playback. Individual elements can also be upgraded to incorporate new technology or features that suit your taste and space such as a projector and holographic screen.

For the truly technologically enlightened, a custom or multi-room installation is the ultimate indulgence: a fully integrated music and video system serving several rooms. Lighting, curtain and even security systems can also be integrated into a central control. If only it could cook the turkey, too…

Samsung Blu-ray player £399 from www.johnlewis.com

HBC for Bathrooms offers a wide range of cutting-edge designer bathroom suites, including a range from world-acclaimed Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck is acknowledged as one of the leading contemporary designers in the world, receiving public acclaim for his amazing interior designs but he has also proved to be an accomplished architect and product designer. His work is not just for show at museums and exhibitions, it is also available for your home, with a complete Philippe Starck bathroom suite starting at only £1680 at the city’s local stockist, HBC for Bathrooms.

Starck promotes the ethos that honesty and integrity should be at the core of design. Products should not be created as ‘throw away artefacts’, only surviving for as long as they remain in fashion but should ideally have longevity and durability. He believes that designers need to be both honest and objective. It is this approach which is crucial when choosing a bathroom suite, where quality is more important than following the latest fads.

Products designed by Starck can be seen on display in the collections of a number of European and American museums, among them the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the Museum of Design in London. Prizes and awards he has collected include Designer of the Year, Grand Prix for Industrial Design, the Oscar for Design, Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and many more.

But as writer Ed Mae Cooper, points out, ‘he also takes time out to change our pasta, our ash-trays, lamps, toothbrushes, door handles, cutlery, candlesticks, kettles, knives, vases, clocks, scooters, motorcycles, desks, beds, taps, baths, toilets… in short, our whole life.’ It is fitting that HBC for Bathrooms have established themselves as the main Brighton centre for Philippe Starck, as since establishing the company in 1979, they have always been dedicated to sourcing the best in bathrooms and accessories.

Other brands they stock include Duravit and they have a dedicated Lefroy Brooks traditional bathroom showroom area. The service they offer is tailored to individual needs. They can simply supply the bathroom furniture, they can design and they also offer a complete installation service.

HBC for Bathrooms has remained a small family-run business, averaging at 60 refurbishments per year. Rather than expand and compromise their quality of service, they have retained the exceptional level of personal service on which they pride themselves.

The range of bathroom suites, showers, basins and baths range from affordable chic to high-level luxury. If your bathroom needs a make-over or just a bit of livening up, pop in to the showroom on Church Road and have a quick browse. You may be pleasantly surprised at the diversity and choice on offer.

HBC for Bathrooms, 195 Church Road, Hove BN3 2AB.
Tel: 01273 730149
e-mail info@hbcforbathrooms.com, www.hbcforbathrooms.com

The Paul O’Grady Show’s Marc Abraham remembers the alternative heroes of war

I always find this time of year very emotional. Remembrance Sunday never fails to help all of us reflect on how lucky we really are as a nation and how it’s all due to those brave heroes that fought for us, in every bloody battle, conflict and terrible war.

But who ever considers those poor animals that helped to bring us peace? Specifically employed by mankind for use in warfare. They didn’t volunteer – they had no choice.

Horses formed the cavalry and drawing artillery, and were a useful all-purpose method of transport. In fact, eight million of them lost their lives during the Great War. Most died from disease, starvation, or exposure. One of man’s most loyal servants, reduced to shivering bags of skin and bones, even chewing on their own rugs for fodder.

“Man’s most loyal servants, reduced to shivering bags of skin and bones”

In the deserts, mountains and tropics, with tougher terrain, camels and elephants were more suited. Let’s not forget the oxen, the mules or the donkeys either, carrying supplies, arms and the wounded. The mules serving in the Burmese jungle even had their vocal cords severed, to ensure that their braying would not betray allied positions to the enemy.

Dogs also suffered high casualty rates. Their sensitivity to smell meant that they were used to search for mines and trip-wires, resulting in injury or death from explosions, or they might have ripped their paws to shreds scrabbling through the rubble of bombed-out buildings, looking for survivors or bodies. Para-dogs were also dropped behind enemy lines and assisted with covert operations. In the Soviet Army, dogs even had explosives strapped to their backs and were used as antitank weapons.

War isn’t just about man against man, supported by animals though. Sometimes, animals were pitted against other animals. Carrier pigeons delivered crucial messages in both the First and Second World Wars. In an attempt to prevent British pigeons reaching their destinations, German hawks were kept at the Pas de Calais, waiting to attack unwitting winged messengers. Between the hawks, the bullets, and Mother Nature, some 100,000 pigeons were killed from 1914 to 1918. Of those who survived, some limped home with shot-away wings and ripped-open necks. And the difference made by the successful ones was crucial.

Then there were the cats used to control mice and rat populations on war ships, the dolphins and sea lions deployed to detect mines and the canaries who would alert sappers to gas.

So we must never forget – not them, nor anyone or anything else that made unimaginable sacrifices for every one of us.

The other evening, I had a few friends round for a curry. After we’d finished discussing how rubbish men are, the conversation turned to how noisy it is to live in Brighton. Especially at night and particularly if you are silly enough to live in central Brighton, as we all do. One of my colleagues from the supermarket had gone to bed early the other night in full anticipation of a long night of undisturbed sleep. What she actually got, was a night peppered with salsa music from the man downstairs, followed by her next door neighbours having a furious row, which culminated in many possessions being thrown, apparently at great force, through the window. Meanwhile, Disco Nikki, who had accidentally destroyed the light-pull in her bathroom had come out that night leaving her bathroom light and extractor fan on. She was rather concerned that her over-sensitive neighbours might complain. Another supermarket colleague who lives right next to Churchill Square is regularly kept awake by one of her neighbours vacuuming at 1am, which in my opinion is possibly one of the saddest things you can do at night.

“A colleague next to Churchill Square is kept awake by her neighbour vacuuming at 1am”

I’m lucky that my house has very thick walls, through which almost no sound can penetrate, but I have lived in some very badly sound-proofed flats in the past. One in East Dulwich, London had walls and floors so badly sound-proofed that one could hear the woman upstairs having a pee. On the upside, you had no need of a radio of your own as you could listen to hers. The worst flat by far was one in Brixton, where The Big Daughter, Big Son and I resided in the early 90s. Not only was it full of mice, but we were kept awake all night by a neighbour with learning difficulties, who enjoyed singing along in a desperately out of tune fashion to The Best of Rainbow or Fleetwood Mac. She sounded so happy that I could never muster up the anger to complain.

Anyway, regular readers will already be aware of my views on the night time noise emanating from late bars and the like. I have always said that if you don’t like it, move to a quieter spot, like Worthing or Lewes, for example – though the latter can apparently get rather noisy around bonfire night. Having lived just off the Saturday evening hell that is Western Road for over 12 years now, I have managed to develop a finely tuned capacity for selective hearing. I am never awoken by strangers fighting right outside my bedroom window, yet the sound of the Big Daughter, or Big Son unexpectedly entertaining a few friends can drive me crazy within seconds. I think this is maybe because I can’t bear the thought of any of my offspring having fun without inviting me. I am also often kept awake when The Boyfriend stays over, as he doesn’t sleep as easily as I do and lies there yawning really loudly, which drives me insane and when he’s not yawning, he’s snoring.

At the end of our curry night discussion, we had reached the conclusion that if we chose to live in a converted building in central Brighton, then that was our own fault. I then managed to stay up with The Big Son and Big Daughter making lots of noise until 5.30am, which would have been marvellous if the Small Daughter hadn’t got up at 8am the following day. Bah!