message query for hall

RE: Hibbett's Edinburgh festival show confirmed for The Medina

Blimey, that's going to be an interesting gig in there. I wonder if they keep the beds...

I shall be there for a performance, he'd better be good!

Yesterday's house hunt

A trip to Canterbury yesterday, an early start, four houses to see. First one was a bit further out than we first thought, up Whitstable Road, though not an insurmountable distance to Canterbury West. The house is at the end of a cul-de-sac, so you have to eye up every other house on the street before you arrive. Unfortunately, the house immediately adjacent has some eccentric types living there, who keep all of their rubbish. There was a car in the garden, stuffed full of and covered by bags of rubbish. The only thing I can remember about the house we went to see was what the neighbours' house was like. I can't see anyone buying it until the council have been in and cleared the place next door. Good luck if you go and visit!

Number two was very nice. 1930s build I think, up in the St Martins area of Canterbury, so still only a ten minute walk to the town centre, further to either of the stations. Huge hallway downstairs, a room in its own right, like the entrance to a much grander house. All big rooms and some good modern features like kitchen and upstairs bathroom, with separate modern shower. Very rare for Canterbury it seems, not sure they go in for bathing much there at all... All rooms upstairs were big, and the upstairs landing was big enough to double up as an office too, handy. 90ft rear garden, and bonus conservatory, but no space out the front, so no chance of parking, though that was the case in the best three houses we saw today. Quirky decor in the front room, done in a wacky retro style, I suspect it was the adults only sitting room, as all other rooms in the house were given over to toys and kids drawings. Clare especially liked this house. Got some pictures here.

Next house was a similar area, but a terrace closer to town. Very smart inside, the owner had moved all the internal walls around which made it look quite cool. Oddly an upstairs bathroom, but no toilet, that was downstairs, probably that and the mini back garden were the only offputting bits.

The last house was amazing, and just reduced to within our price range, so it must have been available for a while but we'd not bothered to see it before. Four bedrooms, though only one downstairs bathroom, real cast iron open fires in four of the rooms and great wonky old oak floorboards everywhere. There's a trapdoor from the lounge and the kitchen down to a big cellar room, not sure if it was pool table sized or not but it was close. Clare wouldn't go down there and wouldn't like to live there, too spidery and a bit cold, but I thought it was fantastic. Bit impractical, looks like the windows need replacing and it's in a conservation area, so some expense ther. Also tiny backgarden and the front is right on the road, similar to the first place we looked at. No idea where you'd keep your bin, the agent didn't know either, so that's probably a no then. Got some pictures here.

All houses were a bit expensive really, I'm a bit nervous about prices coming down further and us not being able to let the flat out, though we still don't want to do the obvious thing in flogging it and putting our equity towards the new house and sitting comfortably for years. The flat upstairs from where we are now is still not let, not sure there have even been any viewings, though maybe they line those up for the day time when we're not here. Or, maybe in all the renovations they put some soundproofing in and we just can't hear people up there.

Lunch in Boho again, lovely. Stayed in last night.

Folkestone camera club update

Recently our 5th Print competition of the season was held and judged by Kevin Harvey a member of St. Mary�;s Bay Camera Club and , a very experienced photographer with excellent tips on how we can improve our photography. Winners (points our of 20) of each section were as follows:-
OPEN SUBJECT

Novice:- Steam power from Leeds by David Connell 20
(8 entries) Underneath the spreading chestnut tree by Jan Mackay 19

Intermediate:- Morning mist by Eve Wilson 20
(10 entries) Otter by Derek Green 19

Advanced:- Kingfisher with fish by Marie-Laure Stone DPAGB 20
(11 entries)

PORTRAITS:-

Novice:- Bird of prey by David Connell 17 17
(3 entries) I�m in charge bt Chris Willis 17
A day in the woods bt Martin Aylett 17

Intermediate:- Rosie & Josie by Derek Green 18

(4 entriies)

Advanced:- Amur Ghurka Veteran by Frank Barraclough 20

(8 entries) Africa the land of my fathers by Marie-Laure Stone DPAGB 19

The above winning photographs, scoring 20 points, can be seen on our website at

We are now fast approaching the end of our season, with only a few more meetings, Projected Image Competition No. 6, the Clay Cross Exhibition, Peter Heritage (set subject) cup competition,combined with the Reg Walker Cup (best of last seasons digital images), and the St. Aubyn Trophy competition (Landscape Prints), and the final evening of the season our 6th Print Competition. These meetings and results will then lead to our Annual Dinner and Awards Night in May.

In addition to these meetings we will be holding our monthly Practical Evening and our Special Event of the Kent County Photographic Associations Bi-Annual Audio Visual Competition, which is being held at the St. Andrews Methodist Church Hall, Surrenden Road, on Saturday 19th April at 2 p.m. Further information can be obtained on our website.

We have had a very successful season with many new members joining us.

Our programme covers many aspects of photography and we try to suit everyones taste, age and ability Our motto is �We don�t Teach, But You Learn�. Our new season will commence in September, and the Programme will be on our website for viewing from late August.

Our meetings are held at the St. Georges Church, Audley Road, Folkestone (on the corner of Shorncliffe Road, opposite West Station) on Mondays at 7.45pm. New members are always welcome, if interested please phone Mrs Jenny Barraclough (Press Officer) 01303 245399, or e mail jenny-bar@btconnect.com

House hunt

Two houses today in Canterbury, different parts of town, but with things in common. For starters, both too expensive really at 250k each. If the market really is tumbling we might be able to make a cheeky offer on just about anything we see now though I suppose. Also, they were both currently let, and we'd be seeing them with the tenants in situ. Also, both sets of tenants were entirely unprepared for our visits; the first were hastily tidying up, the place was a proper studenty sprawl with bottles and things scattered everywhere, and also what appeared to be a rolled up ten dollar bill left on a mirror, probably some sort of crazy art installation. It was a nice interesting characterful house in a nice old part of town, three big bedrooms, two cellar rooms and two knocked through reception rooms with just the raw brickwork of the chimney left standing in the middle of the property. It needed decorating, but the thing that makes it no good for us is the kitchen, which was too small. If it wasn't at the top of our budget we could have thought about rearranging things, maybe moving the kitchen or extending a bit, but we'd have no money left over for that.

Property two within the city walls is in the ideal location for us, right by The Dolphin. The tenants this time were even less prepared for our visit, they didn't want to let the agent in, they heard nothing from their landlord. We offered to come back next week but in the end they were unhappy but convinced, and the viewing continued. Surprisingly large three bedroom property, all of the downstairs was one big open plan space including the kitchen. I liked this, but it might need some thought. What would it be like living in a house where you can't close the kitchen off from the living room? At a squeeze we might even fit the pool table in this one, if we lived all around it. No garden, and being where it is no parking, but it's on a quiet street so stopping outside for deliveries and removals wouldn't be a problem. There are residents parking spaces right next door, but we know from previous enquiries that there's a waiting list for a permit. There is a small patio out the back, with the river adjacent. It's very shallow at this point, not even really deep enough for the ducks and moorhens to swim in, and is not quite as lovely as it sounds, but I liked it. Clare is less convinced, and at this credit crunching stage in the national economy I don't think we're going to be taking any risks on a place we don't absolutely love. I wouldn't mind seeing this one again though.

Some quick stats, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of todays properties were being offloaded by professional landlords. Possibly in a hurry. If that doesn't tell you the property market is plummetting I don't know what will.

Lunch was at Boho, my first time of eating there and it was lovely, I recommend it. Tea was at Escondido for the first time in ages. Nice, but as with the last several visits they got my order wrong. They recovered quickly, so unfortunately we had no reason to demand a discount. I think that place is a bit expensive now really, but it was full again, I guess there is very little competition in the area. As it was Jen's birthday, we went on for drinks in The Sandgate Hotel for a change, nice but didn't feel all that welcoming. We made our excuses and left before closing time, but the party continued back at Dean's house until 4am apparently.

Nice day today, got our shopping out of the way early so are having a lazy afternoon. Midsomer Murders and chilli later, GREAT!

Bizz-Art Exhibition at the Leas

The Folkestone Arts Society is planning an exhibition at the Leas Cliff Hall. If you are interesting in displaying your work, or have something you wish to bring to the party, please let me know.

Paul
Rated 4.36/10 on Folkestone Gerald

leas cliff hall 1974

Hi Gerald, do you have any details of the Summer Season show at the Leas Cliff in 1974 with Gordon & Bunny Jay?

I spent a fab season with them staying in Sandgate and wanted reminding of the variety show acts.

Thanks

Phil
Rated 4.36/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Folkestone camera club update

On 30th March was our 5th digital image competition of the season when our members learn from the judges comments, tips, advice and experience. Our judge was Mr Dave Mason who came to us from Woolwich, a very experienced photographer, and his results (out of 20) were:-

Monochrome: GEMMA by Dave Turner 20

(21 emtroes) LOCAL TIKI by Paul Gavin LRPS 20

WALL OF WATER by Alice Gosling 20

BEACH, BOAT, SKY by Sue Cowell 19
WAITING FOR THE TIDE by John Mitchell 19
Open Group 2; MORNING MIST OVER HAWKSHEAD by Jan Mackay 20

(18 entries WINCHELSEA AT DUSK by Paul Melia 20

SUNSET OVER WESTMINSTER by Pam Wraight 18

THE PATH THROUGH THE WOODS by Tony Reeves18

Portrait Group 2: STEPHANIE by John Mitchell 20

(13 entries) PRINCESS STELLA by Monica Stringer 19 EMMA by Paul Melia 19

LIBBY by Jim Wraight 19

Open Group 1:- ROBIN (ERITHACUS RUBECULA) by Trevor Page 20

(16 entries) GERMAN PALIAMENT BERLIN by Paul Gavin LRPS 19

THREE RED CHAIRS by Bob Brisley LRPS DPAGB 19

PINK RUDBEKIA by Melanie Chalk 19

KINGS COLLEGE FRESHMAN by Arthur Bailey 19

Portrait Group 1: OLIVIA 3 by Paul Gavin LRPS 20

(9 entries) THOMAS by Keith Green 20

JESS AND LEAH by Sue Cowell 19

SU THAILAND by Alan Meek 19

Creative:- BENEATH THE WAVES by Dave Turner CPAGB 20

(15 entries) LOST SOLES by John Mitchell 20

AEROSPACE by Paul Gavin LRPS 19

NIGHTMARE by Bob Brisley LRPS DPAGB 19

WATER MUSIC by Alice Gosling 1

Although we are coming to the end of our season we still have 5 more competitions to see. New members are still coming along too, so we hope they will continue into the next season.

Saturday 19th April is the Kent County Photographic Association Biennial Audio Visual Competition which Folkestone is proud to be hosting this year. It is being held at the St. Andrews Methodist Church Hall, Surrenden Road, Cheriton from 2 p.m. Further details can be found on our website.

Many photographs taken by members, including the above with 20 points, can be seen on our website at www.folkestonecameraclub.co.uk

Our meetings are held at the St Georges Church, Audley Road, (on the corner of Shorncliffe Road opposite West Station) Folkestone September to May, on Mondays at 7.45pm. New members are always welcome, if interested please phone Mrs Jenny Barraclough (Press Officer) 01303 245399. E mail: jenny-bar@btconnect.com

Folkestone camera clcub forthcoming events

NOTICE OF FUTURE EVENTS:-

KENT COUNTY PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION BI-ANNUAL AUDIO VISUAL COMPETITION
Folkestone Camera Club are proud to be hosting this event, in this our Centenary year.
We have received 26 entries from several Kent Camera Clubs. and they will be shown on Saturday 19th April at St. Andrews Methodist Church Hall, Surrenden Road, Cheriton starting at 2 p.m.

FOLKESTONE CAMERA CLUB ANNUAL EXHIBITION
is to be held in Sandgate Library on Saturday 17th May from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
An opportunity to see our past seasons Prints from many of our members.

Further information on both these events can be found on our website
www.folkestonecameraclub.co.uk

Mighty Boosh tickets

Fight at David Gray!

The gig on Friday was halted apparently because of fighting in the crowd! When the scrappers were eventually removed from the hall they were shouting threats back at Mr Gray.

Were you there? Did you see anything? Call Folkestone Gerald in confidence on 0800 fg@folkestonegerald.com. Or post it up on youtube, I just posted up my footage from The Cure at Wembley...
Rated 4.36/10 on Folkestone Gerald

RE: MJ Hibbett at Edinburgh Fringe

Excellent, I shall make him top of my list of shows to go and see this year. I wonder where he's going to be....

looking for suitable venue in Folkestone

Hi,

We are looking for suitable venue in Folkestone one of our gigs.

We are an 8-piece live band called The Vintage Corporation and we organise our own 60�s and 70�s gigs. We are looking for halls in London and the South East to perform in.

Requirements for the halls .

- Must have a stage suitable for an 8-piece band.

- Must have a dance floor .

- Must have a bar.

- Must have some seating available.

- Must hold 300 + people.

How do we operate ?

- We book the hall.

- We put up posters around your area.

- We advertise in local papers.

- We sell tickets in advance and at the door.

- We have our own professional PA system, lights,engineer, insurance,etc...

- ....we hope to fill the hall and give everybody a good night out.

How long are the gigs for and when are the gigs?

Most gigs we organise are on Fridays or Saturdays. Times : From 7PM or 8PM till Midnight .

Would it be a one-off event in your hall ?

If the first gig is a success in your hall, we plan to organise one in the same hall every 4 to 6 months.

What do we expect from you ?

If your hall is suitable for our requirements, please e-mail or fax us price to hire the hall on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, availability in 2008/2009, capacity, etc...

If you have a brochure available, please post is to the address below.

Would you be so kind to e-mail us back even if your hall/venue is not suitable for us in order for us to take you of the �potential-hall list�.

Please don�t hesitate to call me for any further information.

Regards

Peter ,

Band leader

Contact details : Ask for Peter or Chris.

Tel. 01233 733 993 day time

Tel. 01233 733 161 evening and weekends.

Fax 01233 733 608

www.TheVintageCorporation.co.uk

e-mail : info@thevintagecorporation.co.uk

Address for brochures :

The Vintage Corporation

St. Margarets

Bromley Green Road

Ashford

Kent TN26 2EF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE VINTAGE CORPORATION :

Re-live the Sixties and Seventies with The Vintage Corporation

The Vintage Corporation is the ultimate 60�s and 70�s, uniquely versatile Top Class 8-piece live band. Ideal for all your private parties, functions, charity balls, corporate events, private parties, award ceremonies, weddings, fundraising events, Xmas parties, office parties, annual celebrations or any other type of event.

The Vintage Corporation plays tribute to the best bands of the 60�s and 70�s playing carefully selected motown, disco, soul, rock and pop. Staged totally live.

We encourage 60�s and 70�s fancy dress costumes at our dances in order to create a fantastic retro ambience and the perfect night out.

With a total emphasis on entertainment and an infectious dance play-list, we aim to pack the dance floor.

We are based in the South East and perform all over the UK. Our standard performance is made up of 2 x 1 hour sets with recorded music (60�s and 70�s) played before and between the sets if required or with a DJ between the sets.

The Vintage Corporation personnel consists of 8 talented, experienced, passionate musicians: 1 male vocalist - 2 female vocalists - 1 drummer - 1 bass guitarist - 1 rhythm guitarist � 1 lead guitarist - 1 keyboard player + front of house technician.

Staged totally live with no miming, tapes, drum machines or backing tracks.

KISS meet and greet

Tour Dates Announced February 12, 2008

May
11 Munich Olympiahalle GERMANY
13 Verona Arena ITALY
15 Belgrade USCE Stadium SERBIA
24 Moscow Olympissky RUSSIA
26 St Petersburg Newarena RUSSIA

June
4 Hamburg Color Line Arena GERMANY
6 Prague Saska Arena CZECH REPUBLIC
9 Berlin Velodrom GERMANY
10 Mannheim SAP Arena GERMANY
11 Oberhausen Arena GERMANY
Download Festival UK
15 Arrow Festival HOLLAND
17 Paris Bercy FRANCE
18 Stuttgart Schleyerhalle GERMANY
21 Bilbao Kobetamendi SPAIN

KISS Meet & Greet and KISS Pre-Show Soundcheck Packages

In addition to KISS Army member only presales, www.KISSontour.com will be exclusively offering KISS Meet & Greet and KISS Pre-Show Soundcheck packages. Below are package details.

KISS Meet and Greet and Pre-show Soundcheck Package *
- Exclusive Meet and Greet with KISS
- Exclusive Pre-show Soundcheck
- Personal photograph with the band
- 8X10 photo
- KISS Tour Program
- KISS Europe '08 Shirt
- Official KISS VIP Laminate
- $50 coupon good for the official KISS on-line store

No prices yet, I think these were ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS when they last did it in the US, that was possibly including concert ticket itself though, these European packages do not. If we weren't going to Kev's wedding, we could spend the money on this!

(PS, joking. Paying to meet a band you like, what's that all about?)

Beer festival on today in Dover

Mmmm, beer festival, at the town hall, starts today but is also on tomorrow, hope there's some beer left.

The Easter Ales Festival is back in Chambers in a few weeks too, over the, uh, Easter weekend. See you there.
Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Two completely different properties this week

Saw two houses yesterday in Canterbury, wildly different, and they highlight the fact that we want somewhere exactly in between, which is something that does not exist, at least within our budget...

First house was in Vernon Place, and though we're ideally looking for three bedrooms, this one has two bedrooms and a converted basement, so we had to check it out. Location is good, right at the Dover Road entrance to Canterbury, just two minutes walk to the town centre, and the house itself is just the sort of place I thought we'd get. It's mid / late Victorian, all period features, floorboard and fireplaces, quite small but full of character. There's a small lounge, dining room, kitchent and downstairs (practically outside) loo, and stairs up and down. The basement is cool, I'd really like one, and it makes a great study, not big enough for a full on games room though. Upstairs we have a bit of a problem though. The main bedroom at the front of the house is great, but at the back of the house the only way to the bathroom is through the second bedroom. This makes the second bedroom more of a generously sized hallway, so it's basically a one bed house. It's a terrace in a conservation area, so not possible to extend, nor enough room to rearrange things I don't think, so this one's a write-off. Bah, it was lovely.

House number two doesn't look like much from the outside but it's three bedrooms, right by Canterbury West and has a garage, had to be worth checking out. It's huge really, three good sized bedrooms, proper garden, detached garage next to the house, a driveway, a workshop attached to the garage, big lounge, downstairs cloakroom, and big old built in cupboards at every turn. It's old lady decorated right now, the kitchen definitely needs replacing, and it's at the top end of our budget, but the main problem is just that it's so dull. It's 1960's built, and everything else we've seen has been so much older that the lack of character in this place really lets it down. We should probably buy this house, modernise it, and then move into a character property in a few years, but I really want beams and fireplaces and wonky walls right now. Not sure what to do...

Black Griffin Lane is still on the market, I expect everyone's hanging around waiting to see if the market crashes. If it does, we're in a good position and will be able to take our pick of properties. If it doesn't, both of the places we're into will be snapped up by someone else.

Check out the map, I will upload some pictures to it later, we're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer right now. Season six (bad Willow!), to ease us into season seven (which we hardly remember), so then we can read the season eight comics that we bought yesterday.

[map]2008-01-26[/map]

The rest of yesterday was lovely, it was only stressing about non-existent property worries that spoiled it a bit. We had lunch in Wagamama and the noodles in my yasai itame weren't really cooked properly again, hmm, it's put me off going back there for a while. We went to The Dolphin for beers and Trivial Pursuit, it was heaving, and I beat Clare twice, again. She's not won against me in a while, maybe I've memorised all the questions now? We got the bus back just after seven and checked out The Bank Bar under Kalala. It's nice enough, a nightclub sort of vibe though, and full of let's say "fresh faced" punters. Nice inside though, we were sat on a sofa in what was once the bank vault. Then on to The Frenchman, quite a good covers band on, then we got a smashing takeaway from Hop Kweng.

The Bergerac oak dining table has been relisted, it didn't make its reserve. Bids on it already it's sure to sell this time.
Rated 7.86/10 on Folkestone Gerald

[Crystal maze themed headline here]

Got home yesterday to find a new front door being fitted, it's amazing what you miss when you don't go to any of the residents meetings. So firstly, we have the inconvenience of only getting one key with this door, and new ones are fifteen pounds each, bah. Secondly, in a fit of security consciousness one of the neighbours double locked the door, so when Clare was running for her train this morning she SLAMMED into the front door. Well, metaphorically anyway, she didn't actually hit the door but it slowed her right down as she was wekk and truly locked in, had to phone up for me, and I had to run down with the only key. In my pants.

Got to have a word with the neighbour, no-one can lock that door like that, in case there's a fire. Reminds me of the time in Stokey when I got locked in the hallway all afternoon, I must have blogged it, yes there it is.

Here is the new front door:

Ooh, new feature, now getting comments on a picture direct from flickr.com, if I've posted one of my pictures that is hosted on flick. See those comments just above this paragraph. They'll be updated automatically when someone inevitably adds an obscene comment to that picture... Now if only I could get notes for a picture too.

UPDATE: Removed this from the main blog page but if you click through you get the full effect.

Second house-hunting trip around Canterbury

Saw five houses today in Canterbury, have a map with details of the things we saw. Clare's out tonight with Jenny, so it's a prime opportunity for me to do some fiddling about with maps and things, so sorry if it breaks. Not that you'll be on the computer on a Saturday night.

[map]2008-01-19[/map]

Some new icons on the maps now that I quite like... The monkey is Clare, the house is a house, the pint is a pub, and so on... Well, I saw "and so on" but that's the only three I've put in so far, any suggestions?

As I said, we saw five places yesterday in Canterbury, the first was only a two bedder, but on a good street within the city walls, it was nice but far too small for us. Odd layout too, the entrance hallway was bigger than all the other rooms, so it gave the impression of going into a much bigger place than you were. The second had potential, claims to be a three bedroom but the third bedroom was off the second, so more a study type area. Very small kitchen and bathroom, a potential though I thought. The third was student let, just around the corner from the Whitstable Road place we saw last week. Very cluttered (had three students in situ) but had some good space that we could make use of with some rearranging. So getting better as we went on! Then, number four, we went to a four bedroom terrace on Black Griffin Lane, really a good location for us within the city walls again, the street leads to the side of The Hobgoblin pub (though we are not basing our move entirely on pubs). From the outside it doesn't look much, but inside the current owners have done a fantastic job. It's not quite four bedrooms, one is more like an upstairs lounge, but the decor was quite fab, lots of exposed brickwork next to very modern features. It's hard not to be wooed by the decor, but I am trying to see past these things. It is at the top end of our budget at �225,000, and I found out when I got home that it was only just sold in August for �189,000. We did see the vendor though and she told us she'd only just bought the place and done it up, so best of luck to her. It's less of a percentage increase than the person who sold us this flat made, even if it does sell for that amount. No garage and parking is tricky within the city walls, but we don't have a car so not actually a deal breaker. Had a garden and shed and nice features like that, and a view of the cathedral which is apparently a plus. Definitely a contender, but I don't like the idea that someone's made all the profit out of it already and that it looks like the highest price house on the street. Would be nice to look at an unmodernised house on the same street and see if we could do the same "property ladder" on it.

The Mystery of the Secret Room

The last house was in Wincheap, out the other side of Canterbury past Canterbury East station, so not such a prime location, but you do get more for your money out there. It was an unassuming terrace from the front, but there was LOADS of space inside. Separate lounge and dining room, huge kitchen, and three big bedrooms upstairs. The dining room would just about have room to play the pool table in, but we're not basing this move on that either... I had a look outside to see if any of the neighbours had extended either out the back or into the loft, and saw some of them had, but then noticed a dormer window in the roof of this house. Confusing, as I know we didn't go up another flight of stairs in this house. The agent knew nothing about this, it wasn't in the particulars or anything, but we found a ladder and went up for a look. I was half expecting to find a radio transmitter or something up in this secret room, it was empty, but decorated, with lights, power points, radiators and everything you'd expect in a real room. All it needs is stairs, and there's room for that too.

So, if we go out to Wincheap, we get a lot more room for our money. Going to look at more in the area we really want next week.

Crikey spikey

Best off for the console table was �150 in the end, I think someone paid too much for that. It comes down to where you live though, I could pay fifty pounds more for a piece of furniture I wanted that was in Kent than I would if it was not, just to save on the delivery costs.

Speaking of Spike (well kind of), watched Torchwood last night, it's only OK isn't it. We will watch again next week though I think.

No more furniture talk for a while. Probably.

Buy it now, �175?

We got our one of these for about �110 in the end... I guess that one will go to offers, not bought anything like that before.

Is the time right to sell my pushbike? I want rid of it, I've never used it, do you want an as new Raleigh Chopper and can you collect it from Folkestone?

�175 is the price someone's asking for these, not the money I want for the bike!

Been quiet for a few days

No I've not been out on the larry-large every day over christmas, been a bit under the weather actually, though that's not what's kept me off the computer. When I'm not at work and Clare's home too I never get to sit in front of the computer, she's playing Spider Solitaire all day, and that's the truth...

Had a fairly active weekend, I was working the last two days of last week (when did I last write anything?) and went straight to Hythe after work on Friday. Met the wife, Jenny, and Emma in The Butt Of Sherry for one, then off to meet others in Everest for a splendid early curry. This was Kevin and Guiselle's last night before heading back to the USA so we were replete with friends and family. The food is pretty good there, it's probably my favourite of the local sit-in curry houses. After, on to Earl Brownes. Not sure what it is but I can hardly be bothered with that place. Maybe it was just me, but they didn't even seem that keen to serve us.

Sort of a normal weekend for me, working the Friday and the Monday, and not just running it into one huge festive holiday like everyone else, but not quite normal - no trip to Wagamama. We saw Kev and Guiselle off about lunchtime, then took our festive recycling to the tip, plus some other bits that have been cluttering the house up for ages. I had a broken flat screen monitor that I wondered about getting fixed, and a spare kitchen cabinet that have been sat in our hallway for a year or more. I did intend to freecycle them, but never quite got round to it. Now, they are gone! We have some spare space for a wine rack or something - the hallway would be just about the right temperature, but I can't be sure who'll be coming and going past our front door, especially while the flat upstairs is about to be re-let... Can't find it online, but it's reassuring to see our street is at the top end of rental values, good to know for when we want to rent out, but also not so good to see there's quite a lot of competition out there... maybe renting the flat out with the pool table in-situ will give us that edge?

Enough of the future plans, back to the weekend. Almost walked to Dover yesterday. I got a GPS thing for my camera for christmas, so our entire walk is logged and plotted, and I took some photos along the route, and they look good on my desktop software, I'll figure out a way to plot the route and the pictures easily here on the blog, without having to use www.everytrail.com or anything else like that. I say "nearly walked" because we didn't set out until after lunch, and it was starting to get dark by the time we'd got to Capel, so we went for a cheeky half in The Lighthouse and headed back. You'll be able to see all this when I plot the map later. As soon as I've uploaded my pictures you'll be able to get a nice map view of them, because the coordinates of where each picture was taken are now stored in the meta data of the image file itself, but to combine this with the route of our walk etc I need to convert a data file like this:

@Sonygps/ver1.0/wgs-84
$GPGGA,124840,5104.7582,N,00110.0559,E,1,03,06.8,00037.1,M,047.0,M,,*43
$GPGSA,A,2,03,18,19,,,,,,,,,,06.8,06.8,00.9*08
$GPGSV,3,1,12,03,82,280,42,08,12,330,29,15,08,033,29,16,39,178,35*7F
$GPGSV,3,2,12,18,42,073,44,19,49,288,49,21,22,061,32,22,45,131,35*7B
$GPGSV,3,3,12,25,15,285,33,26,07,023,00,27,16,304,29,32,30,158,00*74
$GPRMC,124840,A,5104.7582,N,00110.0559,E,003.3,059.7,301207,,,A*76
$GPVTG,059.7,T,,M,003.3,N,006.2,K,A*02
$GPGGA,124900,5104.7572,N,00110.0835,E,1,03,06.7,00037.1,M,047.0,M,,*41
$GPGSA,A,2,03,18,19,,,,,,,,,,06.8,06.7,00.9*07
$GPGSV,3,1,12,03,82,279,48,08,12,330,29,15,08,033,33,16,39,178,42*78
$GPGSV,3,2,12,18,42,073,51,19,49,288,46,21,22,061,50,22,45,131,41*77
$GPGSV,3,3,12,25,15,285,29,26,07,023,00,27,16,304,30,32,30,158,00*77
$GPRMC,124900,A,5104.7572,N,00110.0835,E,003.5,081.1,301207,,,A*7E
$GPVTG,081.1,T,,M,003.5,N,006.6,K,A*03

into just the latitude and longitudes, and then javascript them up to put them on to a map like this.

Looks like it will be quite easy, strangely there's no date info in there that I can see, maybe it's in the file name, but if I just use the lines beginning $GPGGA like so:

$GPGGA,124840,5104.7582,N,00110.0559,E,1,03,06.8,00037.1,M,047.0

124840 is the time (12:48:40), and the location looks like roughly 51 degrees 4 minutes North and 11 minutes East and I can ignore the rest. Except, there's a spare zero in there, I need to investigate this NMEA format further... I need to revisit my maps generally, I've changed the way I store a lot of things, I bet they're broke.

New year plans? I'm in work today, and we're staying in tonight, quietest new year EVER! A big chilli pie feast for tea, fingers crossed something good is on TV, then a quiet day tomorrow too I hope.
Rated 7.16/10 on Folkestone Gerald

A festive update from Hibbett

Hmm, this newsletter is called "The Last Working Day Of The Month" (from one of his songs), but he's practically a civil servant and finished work for the year a week ago at least, I'm still working...

welcome to this SUPER CHRISTMASSY edition of our monthly newsletter, let's do it quick and GET TO THE PUB!

GIGS TO COME

This month I shall be bringing festive cheer to the following places:

Saturday December 22 - Fox & Firkin, London (GIG 60! On first supporting JD & The Longfellows) you've missed this one

Tuesday January 22 - The Lamb, London (First Totally Acoustic night of 2008!)

Saturday January 26 - The Fishtank, Durham (With Pete Green and Man Is Slapped.)

Check www.mjhibbett.net/gigs/gigs.htm for further details.

GIGS WE'VE DONE

It's been a month of GRATE gigs, all with The Validators, all with GRATE bands to play with. We kicked off in Birmingham with The Icicles
and Winston Echo - Frankie had train doom, Ray The Promoter got hassled by The Man, but the rest of us had a LOVELY time. Next the Cleator Moor Validators had one of the best gigs of the year, with the 10p Mixes and The Deirdres in Sheffield, and we finished off with Horowitz, The Deirdres again, and some MINCE PIES in Stoke on another
SMASHING night, helped along its festive way by the semi-annual VALIDATORS' CURRY.

Fifty nine down, one to go!

RECORDS

Two Christmas Albums for you this month - first up, our song "The Advent Calendar Of FACT" appears on Cherryade's "A Very Cherry Christmas (volume 3)" along with The Bobby McGees, The Gresham Flyers, The Deirdres and many other TOP COMBOS. It's available from www.cherryademusic.co.uk. Meanwhile our cover of "Songs About You" by The Language Of Flowers has just come out on the PopArt "Covered At Christmas" compilation. It's a download album available from www.popartlondon.co.uk/pal002.htm, and it's all in aid of St Mungo's. There's also my JAZZ version of "Little Donkey" available
TONIGHT ONLY to the first 50 people who turn up to Don't Start Feeling All Romantic in Nottingham - RARITIES AHOY!

OTHER THINGS

Carrying on from last month, we're still SLASHING (slashing!) prices over in the online shop, and I'm keeping on keeping on with "My Exciting Life In ROCK" articles for the
PopArt Digest. Meanwhile, plans are afoot to re-start sessions for the NEXT album, and there's even a couple of new songs emerging to slip onto it.

And that's the lot - all that's left is to say thanks very much to everyone who's put us on this year, or been to a gig, or bought a record, or been to look at the blog, or sat and read through any of these messages. As I always say, we're not in this for the money (luckily), we're here for the fun and - HEY! - the love of it, so thanks VERY much for supplying us with so much of BOTH. Have a fantastic Christmas and see you in the New Year for a freshly baked slice of ROCK!

Cheers,

Mark

Things I didn't buy in Brussels (part one)

Sticky Fingers, with the zipper cover, saw it in a record shop in mint condition for thirty euros. One here for a tenner, guess they're not that hard to get hold of, maybe I'll have this one for our hallway LP gallery...

Hell yeah, encouragement, that's what I need!

Well it was a lunch more than an actual party, and there's really not a huge amount to report, and you're not interested anyway, but HELLO TO ME IN THE FUTURE, how's it going five years from now? Do you remember that day, about five years ago, when you were sat at work one afternoon and it was pretty quiet because all the people on your projects had taken holiday? You were doing some API research for work, and fixing that embedded form javascript for www.londonbreaks.com? You were watching the clock a bit and looking forward to your folks arriving for the weekend.

Anyway, the previous Friday to this day you had your work christmas lunch, at the Brewery Tavern in Canterbury. We packed in work nice and early at about 12.30 and drove over there, I got a lift in John's car. We parked at his flat, on the far outskirts of Canterbury near the hospital, nice building his flat is in, and walked in from there. We had a new starter at work that week called Craig, he was meant to be following us, got lost somehow, didn't have anyone's number, we didn't have his number and he missed the whole affair, oops.

Food was OK (at least they remembered my vegan meal. Starter was a sort of tomato salad with balsamic dressing, main was just roast vegetables (but with no potatoes, can you believe it?), and pud was probably fruit. The drink was flowing, had a few pints of 'Storm Warning" which is very nice indeed, very dark, and also some wine with the meal. We dished out our "secret santa" work presents, I got a QI type book of facts for smart arses. There was a departmental award thing going on, voted for by members of the team, and I didn't win anything. The only one I would have been in with a chance of was some kind of "know it all" award, so sort of glad not to have been nominated there. I was hardly in with a chance of the "Mr / Ms Sunshine" prize.

After lunch, people started to bail, though I carried on with a fairly large core of partiers. We went to The Boudoir Bar, which I've not been to before, and then to another bar opposite The Boudoir Bar that I can't remember the name of. I am pretty sure it said "Oddfellows Hall" on the outside, but it was called something different.

At some point in the early evening I tried to be sensible and get the bus home, but I got to the bus stop just at the lull in the timetable, there wasn't another due for about an hour, so I went back to the bar again. They nearly didn't let me in (because I was wearing trainers, not because I was too drunk, of course) but then remembered me from earlier. I must have got one of the last busses home of the evening, pretty impressive stuff, I must have been sat on that bus for an hour with a belly full of beer.

I got chips when I got back to Folkestone, and then sat up with Clare for a bit. The end.
Rated 4.71/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Magic Numbers every bit as good as I predicted

OK my prediction of Morrissey joining them on stage was a complete fabrication, but we did get Bernard Butler appearing with them to perform "Love's a Game", which then medleyed on into "People Get Ready". They did another wacky ending of another of their songs, turning it into Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". Great gig, really good, having a string section added a dimension I expect (though I've not seen The 'Numbers before, and getting other artists up to join in was cool (The Smoke Fairies, nope me either, apparently they were at Meltdown though). We had to leave during the encore, think they were overrunning. Our seats weren't great, about as far back as you can be, but you get a good view in the Festival Hall anyway. A few pictures up already, I'm just working on a bit of video footage of Bernard on stage, I didn't get a whole song, maybe two minutes though. Still waiting for the full sized memory stick to arrive.

UPDATE: Video up now. It really does focus after 20 seconds or so:

Nice tea in Pizza Express before the show, we did try a few other places on the South Bank but they were all queued out the door. Mitchell and Webb were in there with a big party, all in tuxedos, think they were just on their way to or from the Comedy Awards, where they won.

Got decorators in at the moment, everything's covered in dust but they made good progress on their first day, they've repaired more of the walls and ceiling than were actually caused by the earthquake, and we get a fresh coat on all walls and ceilings.

Work Christmas lunch today, in Canterbury. I'm kind of hoping The Brewery Tavern get my food wrong so I have an excuse to nip out to Wagamama :-)

The only way Morrissey can save his reputation now

Quick, get on the phone to Johnny Marr and perform a hasty gig as support to the Magic Numbers at Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday. I'm not just saying this because we're going (get us, out at a gig like it's 1997 or something, and in the week too), I really do think this is the best PR you can possibly do.

Go on.

Captain Jack

I got a ticketmaster email today to tell me John Barrowman is playing Portsmouth Guildhall... doing what? Acting out scenes from Doctor Who, or a medley of songs from his West End showdays? Intriguing, I might go if it was local. And if it wasn �27. In fact, no, I probably wouldn't go.

Very much enjoyed The Mighty Boosh last night, not quite as good as the first one of the new series, but still great.

Done more JSON messing about, you can now get A javascript feed of venues by town. Fascinating.

Going to be busy at work today, just starting an interesting new short project last thing yesterday, to run alongside my normal work, something I've been hinting that I should do for a while now, hope I don't mess it up...

Fullsome weekender

Well I say full, full of pubs really. Friday night we stayed in, so as to have more energy for going out on Saturday. We had a trip to Canterbury in the day (and you'll never guess where we had lunch), no actual christmas shopping, but we went in a couple of different pubs for a change, the Cherry Tree and the Buttermarket. Both are nice enough, the Cherry Tree feels a bit dated and rough really for Canterbury, there are plenty of better places to go but it was worth checking out for a change. The Buttermarket is much nicer, no decent beers on unfortunately but we sat and had coffee and read their newspapers until it was time to head off for the bus.

Saturday night we went to Hythe for the first time in a long time, and it turned into a bit of a crawl. We decided to make the most of our Canterbury bus tickets (an "Explorer" ticket is the same price as a return and takes you all over Kent and Sussex, as if you would have time to go very far in one day) and get the bus out to Hythe, the timing of which meant time for one in Folkestone. We tried Keppels, but it was shut for a private do so we tried out The Bay Tree (the bar underThe Burlington) for the first time ever. Deathly quiet, but very nice, and really no quieter than any of the hotel bars nearby (like The Clifton or Keppels in The Grand), I'd go back again.

The bus to Hythe was full of kids, being kids, actually being quite awful kids. They were skaters and of some indeterminate alternative youth cult, and Clare and I would both love to believe that this makes you OK and a better person than if they were more mainstream in appearance, but it's just not true. I suspect that alternative is the new mainstream now, or something. They weren't just annoying and loud and spread over several seats making other people stand (though they were annoying and loud and spread over several seats), I forgave their youthful high spirits until they made racist remarks about another passenger, very poor.

Hythe was quite good, we looked in The Globe which was dated and working-mans-club-like like The Cherry Tree was earlier, but it gave it a feel of traditional pub. Then on to Earl Brownes to meet people, nice to sit around and chat, but that bar closed early, not because of us I'm sure, t seems to have declined in popularity since it first opened. A couple of other pubs along the street also stopped serving when they saw us coming, only The Kings Head was brave enough to stay open, and I think that's where all the pictures are from.

Sunday didn't do much, but did spend a stack of money. Booked a hotel for Brussels where we're off to in December for a christmas market weekender. Thought at first that we could easily get a five star hotel there at a knock down price, but on a second look it seems all these cheap places are in the EU district, half an hour's walk from the town centre, so we've gone for a Novotel right in the centre of town instead. Also booked tickets to see the Magic Numbers at Festival Hall in a couple of weeks. It's a midweeker, but I think I can do it easily leaving right after work, as it's so handy for Waterloo. Will be bleary eyed the next day, but what's new.

Got lots lined up before christmas now, we are busy bees...

RE: I don't even know why I said it, a bit of Friday afternoon frivolity is all

I did have plans for the weekend, mostly involving getting my hair cut and drinking (in that order).

I'm pleased to tell you that the plan was a great success. Plus the usualy Halloween frivolities, I'm still trying to recover - I think I lost a day somewhere but I'm not sure.

Mulled wine! And BEER!

This one's mostly for Dean, I know he likes to hear about how hard we're working at work. We're having another one of our fun days tomorrow, one last barbecue to celebrate a big deal working out, and everyone working hard to make it happen. Also, you would have to say that it's pretty much the end of the summer now. It's dark outside now but I'm sure it was quite a nice day, but hey just the fact that it's DARK at this time tells you that not even global warming can stop us slipping into winter. We were already told that there would be mulled wine tomorrow at the barbie, and an excess of puddings, but even better I just saw someone wheeling a barrel of beer through the office. Happy halloween everyone.

This one's not so much for Dean, it is an annoying programming thing that I've just sort of worked out. Been having an issue today where a really simple javascript thing was failing, on Safari only. I just wanted to trigger an onclick event on a link, make as if someone had clicked a link if something happened. I'm using jQuery so I ought to be able to do just

$(this).click()

and that works fine, but not in Safari (the shit Mac browser that people use by default at work)... This is how I'm getting around it, but I shouldn't have to do this, should I?

if ( $.browser.safari ) { eval( $( this ).attr( 'onclick' )) } else { $( this ).click() }

The Smiths and The Stone Roses, live in Folkestone!

Andy Rourke (of the Smiths) joined Ian Brown (of the Stone Roses live on stage at the Leas Cliff Hall last night by all accounts (I think I first read this on kentnews.co.uk, but it's gone now). Also, someone got chucked out. Was it you?
Rated 4.36/10 on Folkestone Gerald