Coastal views, Primark, and the new Hanushka…

The turbulent weather has produced some great coastal views just begging to be photographed. Hastings has finally got its new Primark store, and we tried the newly-opened branch of our favourite cafe, Hanushka. Of course the political situation is worse than when I wrote the previous post, but have resolved to try and forget about it…

How pretty are these views of Rock-a-Nore? Look at that sky…

 

 

I have been very busy over the the last week – loads of WI stuff, poetry, pub quiz at the Stag in the Old Town, taking cat to vet, but will just focus on a couple of things:

I think everyone in Hastings thought that Primark was never actually going to open, it has taken so long for them to refurbish the former BHS in Priory Meadow. People will be wondering how on earth a discriminating Battleaxe of refined tastes can get excited over Primark, but we suffer from retail deprivation down here…. For myself, when we lived in Birmingham I often bought basics from Primark – for example, their stretchy tee shirts tops are excellent, and so cheap. I still have, and wear, some of them now, nearly seven years later. Yes, I know, you can say its all made by children in Chinese sweatshops, but it is probably no different from more expensive stuff – you pay for the label, not the labour…  Anyway, the new store is absolutely huge, seems very well organised, and so damn cheap…  I know all the established retailers moan, but in many ways they have no excuse.  Take jeans for example…. oh, I can’t be bothered…. suffice it to say that Primark has what I like, and cheaper…

Then, off to the new Hanushka.  We have always liked their coffee shop in George Street, in the Old Town, and take our visotors there.  It has always been incredibly popular – here is just one sparkling review…  I have written loads of posts about it. Here is just one – oh, quelle surprise, it has a political slant…  Anyway, they have opened a new branch in Robertson Street – a very large cafe which was formerly the very good Cafe des Arts, run by autistic people.

Beiing Hanushka, it looks lovely – book-lined walls and a pretty children’s corner.  Good range of cakes and drinks.  However…. they need to sort their service out.  A great many earnest young people rushing around, but little actual delivery. When we eventually got our drinks, the young man said the coffee machine was too small and they were short-staffed.  It looked like a perfectly normal coffee machine to me, and as I say, lots of people.  As so often, I would diagnose an extreme lack of training, process design etc etc. Battleaxe would still recommend the place because it is a nice place to go, but not if you are in a hurry!  Hopefully, they will sort themselves out eventually.

 

So, to finish, one more view- the turbulent sky, taken from our house one evening a couple of days ago.  We are off on our annual trip to Cornwall shortly, the next blog post will be about that.  Let’s hope the weather is a bit more stable.  Theoretically, we would have been down there for Brexit day – we still will, if there is No Deal disaster!

 

Who is this guy? I dunno – just any one of us after a no-deal Brexit….

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