Hastings Battleaxe enjoys Macbeth and discovers Morrisons

Wow, what a combination. We went to Morrisons largely to look at their loo, but were blown away by the vast range of yummy grub on sale, and have now been twice in three days! Yesterday afternoon we went to a wonderful performance of Macbeth in the walled garden at Fairlight Hall – The Duke’s Theatre Company. We have been to their excellent productions at Fairlight for the last couple of years.  It was good to see so many friends there!

I’ll do Macbeth first. As I have explained in previous posts, the cast is very pared down, and the principals double and treble up.  Above, you can see all seven of them taking their bow at the end.  The only person who only played one part was Macbeth himself, played by Finnbar Hayman. The whole performance was really excellent – the acting from all the cast was very powerful indeed, the staging minimal but highly effective, and the costumes – again minimal – but just right. Battleaxe would totally recommend. The play is just at the very start of its run, and will be on in various garden settings up and down the country throughout the summer. You can see details on the website – link above. It was very different in tone and execution from their previous productions we have seen, As You Like it last year, and Twelfth Night in 2023. Unfortunately I can only find a post about Twelfth Night, so here is the link.

Fairlight Hall garden was looking lovely, and as you can see, it was a sunny, if windy, afternoon. The famous peony border was nearly at its best – here’s one.

So, off to Morrisons. I’ll tell you now, Battleaxe has always been a bit sniffy about Morrisons, despite the fact that they have an absolutely huge super-doopermarket in Hastings, with a massive car park, right in the middle of town.  We have done Waitrose deliveries, then Ocado, now we have Sainsburys… But I decided that I would include the Morrisons loo in the great survey, as it is so central – other supermarkets are too far out of town. Also, they are one of the very few stockists of my favourite sort of popcorn – I like a mini-packet with my evening drinkie.

So, down we go. We had a coffee in the caff. That was a bit of a shock to our systems for a start – two flat whites and a slice of chocolate fudge cake for £6.80. These days, we no longer escape with a tenner anywhere else… The food was incredibly cheap, dunno what it’d be like. We were struck by the offers to feed children. My goodness, that is a real social service for people on low incomes. You could bring a whole family of kids and at least they’d get one decent meal a day. How can Morrisons do it?  Anyway, both Philospher and I have got our digital Morrisons More card so we’ll be in there again…

Then, into the main store. Oh goodness, such a huge choice of evrything, including massive amounts of fruit and veg, a fresh serve-yourself salad bar, butcher, fishmonger, bakery, deli stuff to die for and a section called ‘Oven’. Now, years ago, Philosopher and I liked getting a cooked hot chicken first from Waitrose, then they gave it up, so we moved on to Tesco and then they gave it up as well. We’d have the chicken on a Friday night with a pack of Caesar salad and a bottle of bubbly.  But in Morrisons, there the chickens were, hot and sizzling, along with lots of other cooked hot stuff.

Anyway, the first time we went we got the popcorn but were so riveted by everything else that I totally forgot about the loo. Had to go back on Sunday – excuses, excuses. You can park there, go underneath a tunnel and have a walk in Alexandra Park. We did that, came back… and guess what – we got a chicken.  I went to the loo but met WI friend Dawn in there – her mum Jean was in the store… so she gave feedback for me. Report at the end.

So, to finish this bit of the post, here’s Battleaxe at Fairlight Hall.

LOO LATEST – MORRISONS

The supermarket is quite central – in Queens Road. The loos are on the right as you go in, near the cafe. Level access, all single gender. Ladies was bit cramped and obviously very heavily used. 3 cubicles, all clean but very faintly pongy. Well equipped. Rating 5.