Author Archives: HIP - Page 52
How To Make a Difference in Your Workplace
ROBERT RALPH Ever wondered if anyone at work gives a hoot about the impact of the workplace on climate and environment? They probably do, but hey, we’re all beavering away…
Clean Water Watch
A regular column to update readers on the damaging effects of our current management of water in Hastings, surrounding area (and nationally) and what people are doing about it. If…
Contrasting Lifestyles
SIMON ANTHONY HOBSON, Chair of Surviving Christmas, writes about how it has been fighting loneliness, homelessness, and social deprivation at Christmas for the last 40 years. In Country Life magazine,…
Happy and We Know It
A gran spends Tuesday mornings at a playgroup in St Leonards CATHERINE VALE It’s on a Tuesday morning and I’m in a gang in a church hall doing the Hokey…
Crystal Healing
ROMA CLARK For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by crystals, rocks and stones, picking them up from the pavement or the beach and digging them…
Simple Sword of Truth
KENT BARKER The Hastings Independent has published a couple of pieces recently that have come in for comment or criticism. On this Opinion page, Tin Foil Hatter, was about conspiracy…
Gaspers are Good for You
RICHARD PRICE almost choked on Inconvenient Facts (HIP 234) and urges you not to believe everything you read in the papers. Tobacco smoking alarmism has reached fever pitch. I am fuming…
Sun Swells
VICTORIA KINGHAM is awed by the talents of Corrie Dick and his ensemble at this month’s Jazz Hastings gig. There’s always an element of the unexpected in the music of…
The Big Sing
Want to join a local choir? Start here 7 October this year sees a magnificent gathering of local choirs at St John’s Church, Brittany Road, St Leonards. If you love…
Anna Erhard to Play at Kino-Teatr
Swiss-born Anna Erhard will headline the Kino-Teatr in St Leonards-on-Sea on 30 September, bringing the curtain down on her UK tour. Sonja Stadelmeier 2023 has already been a big success,…
Cindy Oswin’s Cell
ELIZABETH ALLEN on Cindy Oswin - writer, librettist, actor, academic - and her new one-act play showcasing and interrogating Julian of Norwich “All shall be well, all shall be well…
Supersound: A Legendary Local Business
JUDE MONTAGUE Jude MontagueMatt Armstrong with the Supersound Amplifier Browsing the internet on the trail of local manufacturing history, Matt Armstrong discovered an interesting early 1960s amplifier. When he noticed…
ARTS DIARY
Flatland Projects – My Assembled Selves 2 Sept-5 Nov Swelling clouds, aged turf and morphing figures populate the paintings and drawings of Martyn Cross. Within this presentation at Flatland Projects,…
HIP LOCAL BOOK REVIEW: The Invisible Women’s Club
By Helen ParisDoubleday, August 2023Hardback, pp336, £ BY VIOLA VON HARRACH If you are looking for a book to read this autumn then try local author, Helen Paris’s second novel,…
HIP LIT NEWS
Hastings Week Poetry Competition‘Hastings Women’ Theme It’s time to get writing for the annual Hastings Week Poetry Competition 2023, organised by Councillor James Bacon. This year, the theme is ‘Hastings…
Poetry Corner: Nothing Happens!
JEMIA DE BLONDEVILLE On average I delete a minimum Of about 50 emails per day 350 per week About 1,500 per month 18,000 per year And approximately 200,000 per decade…
The Grumpy Cook
STEVEN SHORT meets a man on a mission to tackle food poverty who has opened a café in the town centre. Steven Short Barry Ashley’s CV includes managing public swimming…
Plum Crumble Bars
FIONA MCGARRY There are several good reasons to eat plums: they contain a lot of vitamins and minerals; they are particularly high in antioxidants and hence reduce inflammation; also, like…
TENNIS: Men up, Ladies (mostly) down in Summer Doubles
There were mixed fortunes, as ever, for Hastings clubs in the Sussex doubles leagues over the summer, with both promotions and relegations decided by the narrowest of margins. Anthony HickeyAmherst…
FOOTBALL: Cup Exit Despite More Late Goals
9 September Isthmian League: Hastings Utd 2, Haringey Borough 116 September FA Cup: Dover Athletic 3, Hastings Utd 2 Scott WhiteFemi Akinwande celebrates with supporters after late winner Don’t go…
Artist Spotlight: Suzanne Patterson
It’s Complicated: Encaustic transfer and oil on board, 83x 66 cm Suzanne Patterson Having left Central St Martins with a first-class degree, I carried on making my own work whilst…
Listings #235
MUSIC Friday 22 September The Ultimate Boy Band Party Show White Rock Theatre, ; McNiff’s Folk Sundowner The Jenny Lind, High St, ; Rowsie + Freddie & the Scenarios +…
WHAT’S UP AT OWENS?
Mixed messages to staff and public after sudden closure HUGH SULLIVAN In the week beginning 4 September Owens, the entertainment centre operating in the former Debenhams store in Robertson Street,…
RoboPets Help People with Dementia
SALLY BURR and SAFFRON PHILLIPS A mechanical pet project to help people with early-stage dementia has been launched in East Sussex. The County Council (ESCC) RoboPets scheme aims to support…
Drop-In and Meet the Team
On the last Thursday of August, HIP held the first of its interactive monthly drop-in gatherings. A chance for us to meet readers and for them to put names to…
The Real Colin from Accounts
In homage to this summer’s word -of-mouth TV hit, TESSA BOASE investigates the lure of Brewing Brothers’ new taproom up on the Ridge. And yes, there’s a ; This summer’s…
The Ascension of Josephine Davies
VICTORIA KINGHAM meets Josephine Davies, saxophonist, bandleader, orchestrator, composer, psychotherapist, mountaineer, and anything else that takes her fancy. Monika Jakubowska Photography Josephine Davies has released two albums, called Satori and…
Ese and the Vooduu People, Kinsella
KATE SHAW I’ve been meaning to check out The Pig for months. So many people have told me it has a bit of a reputation as a music venue as…
Raising the rafters in Rye
TOM BLASS heard Laura Mvula at Rye International Jazz and Blues Festival last weekend What one wonders, did Laura Mvula think of her audience, the good burghers of Rye and…
Coastal Currents Arts Festival 2023
The organisers write: 2023 Coastal Currents is upon us and this year we have done it entirely without Arts Council funding! First, then, thanks must go out to our biggest…
New United Boss Sends Olive Branch to Council
Documents filed last week at the Companies Registry on behalf of Hastings United Football Club Limited have shown that the majority financial interest in the club is now held by…
Lines of Duty
Following a Home Office pronouncement last week that police are to follow “all reasonable lines of enquiry” in their approach to tackling crime, Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne…
Northeye: Back to Lock and Key
HUGH SULLIVAN As anticipated in HIP 232 (Changing of the Guard?), the Home Office are now proposing to use the former prison site at Northeye, Bexhill for detention of people…
New Head of Housing
Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has appointed a new Head of Housing whose previous career has straddled the charities and local government sectors. Chris Hancock started his job at HBC last…
A New GP Service: Private and Remote
HUGH SULLIVAN GPs have been the gatekeepers of the British medical system since the advent of the NHS 75 years ago. Access to medical help should come initially, save in…
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
We would love to hear from you. Please be aware we may need to edit letters for reasons of space and we will only withhold names if this is necessary…
Bringing Facts to Social Media
DR JAMES PRENTICE, a researcher at the University of Sussex, argues for more support for fact-based discussions on social media. During the 2019 election, I decided to conduct a voting…
There’s Always the Ombudsman
These days, it’s not unusual to get frustrated by the lack of accountability of our service providers. And when we try to do something about it, there doesn’t seem to…
Black Gull Flies South
ROD WEBB attended the much -delayed official opening of a new bookshop in St Leonards, and to honour its contrast with the ‘here today gone tomorrow’ nature of modern life,…
Keeping the Wheels Rolling
ROD WEBB talks to Mat McDonnell about how Bike Lab became The Bike Project and what this means. Anna SabinSketch for outside mural One of the first positive things I…