Thom Kofoed: We should all look at Hastings with fresh eyes
Kirsty's back from Australia for a week.
She moved there at the end of last year, this is the first time we've seen her since.
She has a new Australian air, relaxed, easy, fresh. She seems lighter, more at ease, more comfortable in herself.
We sit down in Costa and drink fresh lemonade and nibble chocolate tiffins, more interested in each other than our stomachs. It's been more than seven months since she stepped foot in Hastings and I think she's glad to be back...for a while.
"You know, I miss this place some." She says in between talks of Kylie and faux D&G.
I don't believe it - she lives in Melbourne, catches the tram to work each morning, near a shop that sells $300 underpants for bleeding sake - I don't get it.
I interrogate her, almost lose all control. It's like a scene from Prisoner Cell Block H, ('Oi, Drongo, why do you like it here? Get your hands off of me you filthy Screw') she covers her face, flinches if I move too quickly.
We talk some more, we spend all afternoon discussing developments in our lives, how things have moved on, how we both feel about this place.
S
he tells me that she loves Hastings, that as a visitor to the town she gets its appeal. She lived here a while but got out a few years ago. Hastings is less shiny because of it. FACT.
It got me thinking, would Hastings be better if we all left?
Calm down kids, I don't mean permanently. Look, you know when you're on holiday - you've popped to Magaluf for a relaxing fortnight away from the office. Yes, you have fun; you enjoy riding the banana boat on the beach, getting felt up by a sweaty guy with wet look gel in his hair and a toothpick wedged between his teeth at The Pina Collada night club just off the strip.
You've got funny stories to tell your friends about waking up in an alley with cocktail umbrellas stuck in your hair and the word "Frangipane" written in marker across your forehead.
Yes, this is all fun but at some point you realise you miss home and can't wait to sleep in your own bed, eat marmite on toast and watch re-runs of Catchphrase on Challenge TV.
I think this could be the case with Hastings.
What if we all left Hastings for a while, set up house somewhere else? Seven months later we all come back and look at Hastings with fresh new eyes. Maybe the whole population would fall back in love with the town and we'd all respect it more.
Hastings gets a bad reputation and I think it's because we've forgotten that actually it's rather beautiful and lovely and delicious. It's homely and kind. We should all remember that and stop taking advantage of all that it is. We need to love it and it will love us.
2 hours later:
I just saw some girl standing outside a kebab shop wearing a tracksuit, smoking a cigarette and holding a bottle of cider-I wonder how much a ticket to Melbourne costs!
For more from Thom Kofoed visit www.thomatronics.com.
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Weather for Hastings
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
