Madness

Wandered into town, just for the fun of it. Snowing and very cold but not so bad now. People behaving with mildly controlled hysteria - the M&S food hall being particularly nasty. Fat women with facial piercings making their way through the crowds by using prams as offensive weapons.

I saw a woman - about 30, with a small child. Looked perfectly normal except for a large constellation of stars tattoo'd on her face - all over one side. There is a fashion in Hastings for large neck tattoos - generally something in florid script - occasionally pictoral. I saw one bloke with a pair of flaming dice on his neck. He was quite fat and stupid, and they were oversized - so looked more like furry dice. I bet all his mates tell him he looks cool while laughing behind his back.

In courthouse Market I heard one trader say to the other

"... they are all lesbians up Croft Road, as soon as they become one they have a couple of kids and get £1000 per week in benefits - it's true, I've been keeping my eye on them"

In HMV I saw a young teenage lad steal a DVD - it was called Candy Boy or something and looked like soft porn of the homosexual bent - I felt a bit sorry for him and let him scarper - shame that he feels the need to do that rather than go to the till - mind you, HMV have "Deep Throat" in the family film section. Talking DVD - I picked up 'My Beautiful Launderette" in the junk shop in Ore for £2 - I've not seen it for 20 years, so I wonder if it's as good as I remember. Daniel Day Lewis has done very well for himself since then - but I understand that Gordon Warneke works in 'Phones 4 You' in North London somewhere.

I went into Morrissons - I hate it in there but it's actually really cheap - I bought some vegetables, but nothing else. There was a farmers market in the main square and I bought a piece of Organic Venison as my Xmas dinner, it was quite cheap and I can't abide turkey. I have one bottle of wine in the house and I'm not planning on getting any more.

They are really milking the terrible story about the girl who has gone missing in Bristol. An almost identical thing happened about 2 years in Bexhill - but she was an elderly woman and not a sexy blonde architect with a blubbing boyfriend - so it didn't make the national news. The comments in the Daily Mail following this story are really depressing - roughly half generically supportive - the rest very snide "The police know who done it" etc - despite the fact the Boyfriend has a rock solid alibi. Amazing how many people think they are Miss Marple after reading a very badly written newspaper article " have they checked the oven, that's what I want to know" etc...

A few months ago there was an interview with a man who's wife  had literally gone to the shops and not come back - leaving him with 2 small children. For the next 20 years his life was a misery - everyone believed he had killed her - he was beaten up in the street and regularly harassed by the police. Turns out she was living in London working as a dinner lady. He broke down in the middle of the interview and couldn't continue.