New Year thoughts – on moving, resolutions for Battleaxe and Hastings

Last blog post of 2012. 

Happy New Year – and thanks for reading my blog.

Have just had a good rant about the big political things I would like to change for 2013. Read all about it on Bombastic Battleaxe.
     Well, Christmas is over. All our social initiatives went well, and I have the most evil cold.
I got some lovely presents, including several books, including a lovely one called ‘Advanced Style’ by Ari Seth Cohen.  It is full of stylish and/or mad old ladies in incredible outfits.  Battleaxe is not quite old enough to be totally mad yet, and I am only periodically stylish, but I hope my time will come….You can see what I mean on the Advanced Style blog.
     Philosopher got a Samsung Galaxy Tablet – he seems to like it so far.
     How much longer is it going to stay wet?  The day before Christmas Eve we discovered a little river running down the drive from under the house.  The neighbours told us it is a spring, and that it has appeared only once before in the 35 years since our houses were built.  It has dried up again now, hopefully for the next few years. I guess these must be quite common round here – it would be interesting to know how other Hastings residents manage.

2012 has been a busy year  – mostly, getting ourselves settled in our Forever Home.  

We left our Birmingham house in November 2011 (there’s the lorry outside the old house), and this time last year we were living in our temporary home in Harold Road.
     I started this blog exactly a year ago, sitting in our little study, staring across the road into the doctors’ surgery – literally into Dr Chisholm-Batten’s consulting room if he didn’t pull the blind, or watching Mr Cormorant drying his wings, perched on the chimney pot opposite.
     Despite promising our friends we would take a break from moving, being us, we had already found this house by the end of November, and had an offer accepted. The occupants were uncertain about where they wanted to move to – or if they wanted to move at all.  Most of our stuff was in store in Birmingham and Battle.   
     We eventually did not get possession of this house until 17 April, by which time Harold Road was sold – we had three offers for it within three days of it going onto the market. Then the builders moved in here…..
     This house was pretty much deconstructed, see below.  Even though we did not have to live in it, it was stressful. However, I would totally recommend the builder we used, Ross Southwood.  We went through the whole process without falling out once – he dealt with an overwrought Battleaxe with commendable diplomacy.

Then, finally, on 14 June, we moved in.  We had to do one move with one lot of men, from Harold Road, and   next thing, the lorry rolled down from Birmingham with lots of stuff we could not fit into the house……..

What a lovely sunny day it was.
      The Brummie moving men sat sunning themselves at the top of the steps, looking down at the sparkly sea….
     Finally, a last van headed out of Battle with all the Philosopher’s books..
     So, here we are, settled in Hastings.

New Year’s Resolutions for Battleaxe?
1.  As ever, getting thinner. One thing about all the stylish old ladies referred to above – they are not fat.
 2.  As I said in my last post, for me, I would like at least one local person I can call a friend.
3. Getting a piece of writing published, or winning more prizes…

Resolutions/ideas for Hastings 2013?
1.  Let’s see evidence of work starting on the pier – soon.
2.  Improve the sea-front. How about a Dotto train running along the sea-front from the Amusement Park up towards St Leonard’s, and a couple of coffee places built onto the beach on decking – like in Eastbourne.  Near that new sand-pit at Pelham Beach would be good.
3.  Tackle the poor road infrastructure.  I think we are probably stuck with that daft Link Road, but they need to sort out junctions at each end of it, and ideally, press ahead with improving the A21. 
4.  Address the dog-poo problem.  And address the issue of untrained, vicious dogs not on leads. When I broke my foot in the summer I was sitting in A & E with some poor woman who had been attacked by a dog in the Country Park, and owners of little dogs must go in fear of their animals being savaged by some horrible creature.  I would still like a little dog – but………..

I forgot to mention the arrival of the third member of our little household – Digby the cat, from Bluebell Ridge. 
Given he is a rescue cat, we are very lucky to have such a gentle and loving little animal. His previous owner, who sadly died and left poor Digby alone, must have treated him very well. He gives us much innocent pleasure and is spoiled rotten.

 

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