Cinema at the Sussex Exchange. Just the thing for this weather.

Weather? Don’t get me started. On Saturday it felt as if we’d been blown clean through a portal into Brexit-Never-Neverland Hell by contnuous howling gales and lashing rain. On Sunday, we were sitting outside in the sun drinking coffee down in town.  On Monday it was back to absolutely torrential rain, which lasted solidly until late morning today, and now Philosopher and I have just been out for a sunny afternoon walk… and it has been all over the place like this for weeks. Still, we found consolation with a first visit to the luxury cinema at the Sussex Exchange, to see ‘Judy’.

These fabulous pictures of the waves are from Peter Norman.  Thanks Peter! There are other pictures on Facebook showing how the sea has dumped the beach all over the promenade, but I can’t find them. I do find the constant dull wet days depressing, but perk up again with a bit of sun. Here is Sunday’s picture from me – walking over the West Hill, taken with my new phone…

So what is the Sussex Exchange?  It is a modern building just off the Queensway. A little hard to tell what it is about – it describes itself as a ‘Function Venue’ plus restaurant, cinema etc. It was part of a development undertaken by Sea Change Ltd, a hard-to-understand development company with close links to Hastings Borough Council….. but we won’t get into that now.

We had planned to eat in the restaurant, but it is closed for refurbishment, so had to content ourselves with the cinema. Getting seats is really difficult – it only seats 30.  You have to book ages in advance on-line. Expensive too – but worth it if you like spacious ultimate comfort, no trailers or adverts before the film.  They do have a little bar, where I got an excellent ice-cream. You can take drinks into the cinema in proper ice-chinking glasses… A member of staff shows you to your seats… which are amazingly comfortable – you’d have to be watching a good film to avoid dropping off to sleep. Battleaxe would recommend the cinema if you want a treat – when the restaurant reopens we’ll try that as well, for the complete Sussex Exchange experience.

We saw Judy, starring Renee Zellweger. I had heard mixed accounts of it but we really enjoyed it – she gave a great performance as the older Judy Garland, all shaky, emaciated and drug-crazed, and sang really well.  She wore some fabulous 60s clothes too.

 

The political situation is indeed Hell. We are now aqua-planing towards an election on 12 December, with, I fear, a pretty clear certainty that the Tories will win, railroad through some crazy Brexit,  and then grind our faces into the dust for the next five years. The centre/left/Remainers can’t get themselves together to agree on a blocking strategy…  Friends tell me to stop worrying about politics and to think about fluffy kittens instead. So here is Digby the cat, reclining on Philosopher’s legs, also taken with the new phone. The camera is totally excellent.