REVIEW: Taking the plunge with Eastbourne Alive
Silent concentration was interspersed with ‘oooh’s of delight and ‘oh’s of resignation as a group of us gathered for a printing workshop in the empty Motcombe Pool caretaker’s house in Eastbourne Old Town. We were experiencing the unpredictable process of printing using a flexible silicone gel plate rollered with paint then imprinted with images or […]
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REVIEW: The Good Grub
I may have reached Peak Smug on a recent Sunday, eating lunch at The Good Grub restaurant at the back of the very grand Grand Hotel building. Not only was I eating vegan and saving a tiny cloud of farmed animal emissions, I watched torrential rain cascade off the green striped canopy onto Compton Road […]
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REVIEW: Mad Catter Cat Café
The first item on the agenda to note is … this place has a lot of cats. In fact, there are 16 featured on the website, not all of which are visible to the naked eye inside the café. I forgot to count how many were draped across hammocks, tucked inside cat igloos and festooned […]
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REVIEW: Battle Abbey
Is this where the Brexit vote came from? The spot where King Harold was slain by the invading Norman French 957 years ago. William of Normandy was respectful of where his enemy died, so a stone tablet marks the place. Standing on the ridge of Senlac Hill, one strains to imagine thousands of Anglo-Saxon […]
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REVIEW: Déjà Vu restaurant
There are probably many corners of Eastbourne still redolent of the 1950s, despite the shiny allure of 2023 with its new-fangled shopping centre and block-paved bus lanes. And there’s nothing wrong with a solid bit of yesteryear when it’s bathed in a golden glow. That was when you had conversations with people while looking at […]
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REVIEW: Bistrot Pierre
The mantra ‘location, location, location’ does not only apply to where you live, as Kirsty and Phil of the Channel 4 house-hunting show of the same name stipulate. It’s pretty crucial with eating out too. Whether it’s handy for public transport if you’re well refreshed or not overlooking a row of bins down a dark […]
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REVIEW: DQ Terrace Bar & Café
It often seems moaning about ‘the council’ is Britain’s national pastime. Most Facebook groups would be tumbleweed-quiet (apart from the missing cat notices) if you stripped out all the “Why don’t they…?” comments complaining about Wherevertown Council. I’m all for local authority scrutiny and impartial reports by journalists about what is going on: the good, […]
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REVIEW: Polegate High Street
Polegate High Street should be a delightful place to shop and linger. It could feature in a classic Ladybird illustration of Shopping with Mother, wholesome girl and boy at her side on a sunny day as they visit the bakery, the greengrocers and butchers. There’s a mainline railway station, a church (below) opposite Victorian villas […]
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REVIEW: Little Elephant
When you’re away from home seeking a refuel at lunchtime, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid ‘smashed avocado’. This culinary totem of Britain of the 2020s possibly started when people realised that the chances of getting neat slices out of a slightly over-ripe avocado were slim to zero. And it sounds better than ‘oops, I-mushed-it-to-bits-by-mistake’ […]
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REVIEW: Where the grass is always greener
There is one modest oasis of green among the baked yellow-brown lawns which lie dormant under the relentless sun. The grass at Motcombe Gardens is still the correct English summer green. It is a startling sight to drought-weary visitors as a hosepipe ban comes into force. I only noticed this verdant phenomenon, pictured below, when looking […]
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