Battleaxe is doing this quick post because she has a very busy time coming up… What’s new you may say, but honestly, have tried to take it easy. Last time I mentioned our lunch at Rules and the tadpoles? Well, other things have happened too, and best of all, the weather has improved. Spring looks like it has arrived in Hastings! My two books continue to sell steadily if not fantastically – have not done enough marketing over the past few months. Worst of all is the world situation – Trump’s lunatic war in the Middle East. Battleaxe just prays Starmer can withstand pressure from Trump himself and the brain-dead warmongering idiots on the British right who are presumably all in Trump’s pocket. Mind you, what is Starmer to do? He can see whatever infintesimal goodwill with the electorate he might have gained slipping away in the face of rising oil prices… Ah, never mind all that. Here’s a heron minding its own business in Alexandra Park.
They are clearing silt from the old Boating Lake, hence the arty reflections of orange netting. The pool is mostly drained. What happened to the fish?
So, first, Rules. Philosopher and I have been there before with our old friend Alan from Birmingham (here’s the most recent post about it). Last weekend Alan had a significant birthday, so off we went again, plus his old friend Mike. I’ve written enough about the restaurant already – see the link above, and it was very much as expected. Good food and service, interesting, blessedly peaceful, but well above our usual preferred price range. Just one change, they have created a new bar upstairs in an old conservatory – the Winter Garden. We started with champagne in there – very civilised. Pic is from their website.
Downstairs, we were seated at a table by an elderly couple. His voice caught my attention first – fruity, and positively royally upper-class. Then he looked very familiar, but very old. I whispered to Philosopher ‘See that man?’ ‘Ssssh,’ he hissed back. ‘It’s the Duke of Kent.’ And so it was. Looking old, because he is – 90. I was very well-behaved. No shrieking at him: ‘Abolish the monarchy!’ or even: ‘Can I take a photo of you for my Battleaxe blog?’ It just shows you what sort of customers Rules attracts. Not really our thing at all, but nice once in a while. Thanks to Alan for taking us.
Anyway, here he is, snapped unobtrusively, and here are the four of us, taken rather wonkily by the waiter. You can see the Duke’s lady companion in the background.
We had another much more relaxed meal out later in the week, in the Crown in Hastings, with friends Michael and David and their beautiful dog. Very good, but eating-out prices are rising far too quickly for Battleaxe’s liking. We’ll soon be reduced to the caff in Morrisons. Yesterday there was free cake for Mother’s Day. We’d been for our favoured Sunday outing of a walk in the Park (hence the heron above), followed bya visit to Morrisons.
What of the tadpoles? You can legally buy live ‘captive-bred’ tadpoles from this place in Scotland, Wildlife Pond and Aquarium, and I wanted some for my pond. They came down Special Delivery through the post, but quelle surprise, Royal Mail didn’t deliver them… and then they did… Oh do you know, I can’t be bothered to write about it. You see, I have a bit lost heart – eventually they arrived, all alive and wriggling. Put them in the pond, they looked fine for a bit but I fear they might have all now died because the temperature dropped and the water is probably too cold. Sigh.
And finally, here’s Battleaxe signing books at the last WI meeting, face carefully turned away to hide bandage – stitches are now out and it’s fine.
