Hastings Battleaxe gets Pre-Christmassy

Busy Battleaxe at home, disentangling Christmas lights and disinterring baubles. Busy Battleaxe out and about, eating, drinking and all that. Busy buying presents, wrapping presents, writing cards… eating mince pies, messing up on-line food orders and it’s only 8 December. Hmm, let’s just pick out a few things….

Have just got back from a Book Club (with a couple of walkers added in) Christmas lunch at the East Hastings Angling Club – we have our Book Club meetngs down there. They did a really tasty spread and it was very reasonably priced.  Very enjoyable. Nice mince pies… Battleaxe would recommend that Angling Club. You may, although you probably won’t, notice that Battleaxe has new glasses. Philosopher and I went to the opticians the other week and the bloke said my eyes have much impoved with age. Bizarrely, I have one eye that sees well at a distance, and one that sees up close. So I only really need glasses to give those hard working eyes a rest.

Today was cold and frosty, but like yesterday, was gloriously sunny. Yesterday, Philosopher and I went for a walk along the sea-front, with a coffee at Kassa. Our usual place of resort, Smith’s, where we have been going since we moved to Hastings, has mysteriously transformed itself into a Sri Lankan restaurant.

It is so sad to see the Pier all deserted and locked up, particularly when the weather is good. Unfortunately it is still owned by the dodgy ‘Sheik’ Abid Gulzar, but the tenants who have managed the Pier for the last few years have left, citing a ‘rent increase’. Lord knows what will happen to it. Battleaxxe understands it is not being maintained, and without that, it will eventually revert to its  previous unsafe and dilapidated condition. Hastings is not doing too well for heritage just now – St Mary in the Castle has also been put up for sale by the charitable trust that own it, but have been unable to make it pay. They want a mere £500k for it – but the maintenance/repair costs are presumably horrific.

Ah well. On Sunday we went to a ‘coffee concert’ – with mince pies – at the Kino in St Leonard’s, with the Acapella Bellas – four local women who sing unaccompanied (of course they are unaccompanied you Battleaxe twit, the clue’s in the name)  Slavic folk-songs. Everyone who was everyone was there… Philosopher has got to know one of the Bellas, Nicky, via an art class he has been attending. She is the partner of artist Danny Mooney, who did the illustrations for my ‘Lines and Wrinkles’ poetry book…. what a small world this is. Anyway, the singing was lovely, very different and interesting, apart from the occasional shriek that sounded like Digby when someone has trodden on his tail… Here are the Bellas in action.

On Saturday I was down at Priory Meadow with the Friends of the Conquest Hospital – we were supposed to have a choir singing carols but most of them called in sick so we had a few singing children instead – unfortunately they didn’t sing very long or at all loudly, so our jolly bucket-shaking capacity was very  limited.  Still, there were plenty of mince pies…

On Monday evening we were up at Fairlight Hall for an event for volunteers, members and patrons of the Hastings Piano Competition. No mince pies but many, many canapes. Again, anybody who was anybody was there. Collectively, we were introduced to Paul Hughes, who was previously director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and chorus, and is now acting managing director of the piano competition. I have been oop at ‘all twice this week – Sarah Kowitz is Chair of the Trustees, and Battleaxe has got stuck into her Trustee job with normal level of extreme gusto…

Ah well, on I go – Philosopher has finished the outside decorations but I have not finished indoors yet…