Hastings Battleaxe Blogoversary – and Happy New Year!

Yes, it’s a horrible word, but in the ‘Blogosphere’, celebrating the anniversary of your blog’s start date seems to be what you do.  Maybe because so many quickly fall by the wayside .  
     What are you supposed to do on the big day? have a cake with candles? Crack open a bottle of

champagne?  There are websites offering ‘widgets’ to put on your blog that count down the days until your blogoversary, but that sounds seriously naff.
     Hastings Battleaxe will have been going for two years as at 21.03 on 31 December. What on earth was I doing, hunched over the computer teaching myself how to use Blogger on New Years’ Eve?
     I do know it took much fiddling about before I managed to generate my first post, which got precisely 18 page views. With currently around 2000 views per month, this blog is still small time, but traffic is still steadily increasing month on month, which is good for a ‘hobby’ blog.
     In December 2011 we were at the start of our new life in Hastings. We had only been living here full-time for two months.  Most people thought we were crazy – we had no friends or family here, no work ties, nothing except the belief that Hastings would be a good place to spend the rest of our lives.
     So, looking back at that first post, what has happened? I can almost feel I can call Hastings my home. Our forever house is sorted, and suits us very well. Our new neighbours are lovely, and we feel lucky to have joined such a nice little community – but their Christmas lighting practices are no different.  We have Digby the cat. I am busy with the Writing Group and now the WI, and am Battleaxing happily on both their committees. We still often rejoice at our good fortune in living by the sea, in an area with so many places to visit and walk in – I know Hastings Battleaxe reflects all this.
     On the regrets side, while I don’t miss Birmingham, or our former home there, at all, I miss our friends. I have met some really nice people here, but as yet, it is too early to think of them as close friends.
     A couple of our friends in the Midlands have received bad news, health-wise, this year. I sincerely hope 2014 will turn out positively for them.
     When you move, as well as all the practicalities and the emotional wrenches, you also have to find new doctors, dentists, hairdressers etc. We now go to the surgery down Harold Road, and while I am not sure that the doctors are as good as our old lot, you can get to see one wonderfully easily – booking on-line, even for the same day. In Birmingham everyone had to ring the surgery at 8.30am, and you could never get through, and when you did, you were then subjected to some sort of ‘triage’ call-back system, after which you were a nervous wreck and often still without an appointment. I guess it is a toss-up. Is it better to have a good doctor you can never see, or a less good one who is readily available? I think, on balance, the latter, because often you just need antibiotics or whatever.
     Dentists? Our next-door neighbour has recommended theirs, in Bexhill, but I can’t comment yet because he hasn’t done anything except look in my mouth and exclaim at what he sees as the unskilled botchery of his predecessor.
     Hairdresser – grrr. I am back to square one. I mentioned that Ronni had suddenly legged it to London? Well, allegedly, it had something to do with royal ‘Rootmageddon’. Kate appeared in the tabloids a few months ago with greying roots on show. She was reported as fleeing to her hairdresser, who is presumably now struggling with massively increased business. I gather that’s where Ronni has gone…….

Great sale at Robert Dyas!

     Changing the subject, one of my great New Year pleasures is Sales. On-line stuff is no fun for Battleaxe, I like scrabbling through the rails. Not so much this year though – too many started before Christmas, which is cheating. Shows what a state the economy is really in. Best sale of all is clearly Robert Dyas in Hastings. Great bargains there…….
     Last year I posted my New Year’s resolutions on here. I won’t again, they are still much the same – am still not thin. However, like last year, I may get round to posting Thoughts on Bombastic Battleaxe. Looking at last year’s rant, unfortunately things in the wider world have got worse. Our government is a disgrace.
     Can any local Battleaxe readers recommend a good hairdresser hereabouts?
      Happy New Year!