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Never mind the KML

All that talk of KML yesterday got me looking at my maps again, they've not worked for ages, not since I added more tagging to all my Folkestone venues... so, not actually using the new kml version of the data, rather old georss xml versions, but at least the map is all working again now.

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.

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!

We nearly bought one of these

and perhaps should have done, half price Bergerac Oak TV stand. If you can collect from Glossop. Not worth organising a courier for really.

Been a while since I posted any furniture bargains. Will be a while again before we buy anything I suspect. All the houses we've been looking at are far smaller than the flat, so we're going to struggle to squeeze all our stuff in anywhere. The pool table will obviously have to go somewhere :-(

The flat upstairs is available to let right now, at the amount we thought, though not listed online yet. Not sure I should link to it if it was.

RE: The New Inn, Etchinghill

I absolutely agree with Chris about the New Inn. My girlfriend and I have only been there on a Sunday, but they do a great Sunday lunch. The service is friendly, the atmosphere is relaxed and the food is very good. It makes a pleasant change to see a chef who evidently enjoys meeting his customers (once all the orders have been sent out, of course). I once knew a restaurant where the chef viewed his customers with utter contempt.

If anyone reading this is thinking of going, a few words of advice. Firstly, it is much more of a restaurant than a pub, despite the name, so don't go there expecting to play pool or darts. Secondly, it's only open 12-3pm for Sunday lunch, so don't do what we did and turn up at 3.15pm hoping for a quick drink. There are no other pubs nearby either. (We were out for a walk and thought we might be able to stop off there, so we took a 20 minute detour into Etchinghill. Incidentally, I would not recommend to anyone without a death wish walking into Etchinghill from the road from Folkestone, because there's a very nasty 350yd stretch of road, with no pavement and no verges, down which some cars hurtle at about 50mph.) Finally, I'd recommend that you book, because it's very popular (at least on a Sunday). We've managed to get away without booking before but only just, and we'll be booking next time.

Bear those things in mind and you'll have a lovely time.

Queen BACK!

We're not going to this, nor going to get the album I wouldn't have thought. Went to see "Queen" before with Paul Rodgers, and it was good to hear some of the tunes live, but it's probably best just to leave it. Also Brian May seems like a bit of a miserable git to me, from reading his blog and meeting him once. John Deacon had the best idea, he had nothing to do with the show that we went to, last thing I think he was involved in was the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

The band have also announced a Queen and Paul Rodgers 14-nation European tour, starting in September.

It will include UK dates in Nottingham, Glasgow, London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Liverpool.

They will also play in Russia, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Austria.

Guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Rodgers wrote the new album in late 2007 and early this year. It will be released on 1 September.

Bassist John Deacon, who retired from the music business in the late 1990s, will not take part in the tour.

Thanks to Andy for this news piece.

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.

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

Newcomer? I've been here nearly four years now, where's my equity?

(and the wife says "I've been here nearly twenty years")

I thought Sandwich was nice from brief visits, but when I saw it on that wild food programme, I'd never seen somewhere I've wanted to visit less. And I've been to Blackpool. Are you from there?

burstin folkestone darts event

That sounds good, someone's landed here searching for burstin folkestone darts event. No idea what it is yet, it'd be great if it was some top players. The Burstin is the monstrous hotel down by the harbour, it's a strange little community all of its own, I've been in there once or twice and it's HEAVING with people that you just don't see around the town. Oddly, they seem like tourists, but what sort of tourists does a town like Folkestone get these days? People off on coach trips to the continent maybe, or people who live in Blackpool and come here for a bit of glamour.

So was anyone else reading this also at Led Zeppelin the other night?
Rated 3.57/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Stuff I want!

This bookcase and this sideboard, good starting prices on ebay, sure to go up to about 3/4 of their shop price though anyway, and how do I get them from Preston? Do I organise a courier? What's that cost? Collecting them myself would be too dangerous, as Clare points out, what if we took a wrong turn and ended up in Blackpool again by mistake? It does not bear thinking about.

Please don't bid on those items.

RE: Mayfield Suite

I remember seeing Gene Loves Jezebel at the Stour Centre in Ashford I think The Mayfield Suite was a room there, posssibly, the dates kind of fit.

Benefits of Costa Blanca apartment

2 Double Bedrooms (1 en-suite)
2 Bath / Shower room
North / West facing
Community Pool
Near to town, shops bars and restaurants etc.
Large Lounge / Dining area
Covered porch ideal for alfreso dining
Landscaped front garden
Connected garage underneath
Excellent location and ideal as holiday home or for retirement
Fully furnished
Easy access to many golf courses and beaches

RE: Dolphins in Sandgate!

Ive seen the dolphin/s on several occasions/visits to sandgate,but yesterday was amazing!i was swimming out to one of the yellow bouys,there were two canoes around,when suddenly a huge dolphin(dave?)came toward me,blew out air and swam all around me,he touched me,once!,then swam away after awhile.I found it quite scary,but SO exhilerating!im sure i'll be boring friends and family for a while by telling the story over and over!!!But it certainly made my day!(is Dave the right name for such a beautiful & glorius beast tho?? just a thought)

For sale, 2 bed apartment, Costa Blanca (South) Pinar de Campoverde

This beautifully presented property is situated on the edge of the village of Pinar de Campoverde near the town of Pilar de Horadada. A very sought after location, it has everything you may need, only a few minutes stroll away. Just 15 minutes from Murcia airport (San Javier) and 55 minutes from Alicante airport.

Just 10 mins from the stunning Mediterranean beaches of Torre de Horadada and Mil Palmeras and 15 minutes from the famous Mar Menor salt water lagoon where the sea temperature rarely drops below 20 deg. C. Ideally placed for golfers, the new course near Pilar de Horadada due to open soon is on the doorstep and there are a further 10 quality course within 20 minutes drive.

There is a good sized front garden with hard and soft landscaping designed for easy maintenance and there are uninterupted views to the rear of the apartment of the protected pine woodland.

Access to the garage is via a private gated access road and there is potential for conversion of the garage to provide additional accommodation - an option carried out by a number of neighbouring properties.

There is a large communual pool which has recently been landscaped to high standard.

Price: 165000 Euros (�114000 approx)

For more details and to arrange a viewing, call John or Diane Male on 02392 640441 (answerphone available) or email j.male@ntlworld.com

A view over the pool

Nice shot of the pool...

More pictures to come...

Just like a man....

Oh Southports lovely...... bit of an arse to get to.

Next time you should try Morecombe, bit of a dump too, but its better than Blackers. Although I do love Blackpool (and yes i know its wrong...)

I went to Sheffield week before last, its glorious there now... its so shiny and neat! I hardly recognised the place and then I almost got lost in the one way system...

Didn't go up the tower or on the ride

I'm guessing they are the only bits of Blackpool normally to bother with, but based on the rest of the town I didn't think it was going to be worth any money at all, so we just headed out of town to Liverpool instead.
Must have been WEIRD when the White Stripes played there, lots of frightened indie kids wondering how they ended up in such a place...

RE: Blackpool (being the third part of my two week holiday write up)

blackpool is indeed an awful place, you should have gone to southport which is lovely, as my friend commented to some residents when we were last there "its up north, but its still quite nice"

RE: Blackpool (being the third part of my two week holiday write up)

Have to say I totally understand what you're saying about Blackpool - I've been there a few times on days out with Em (it's half an hour from Blackburn). It's a grim old place alright - stag and hen parties spilling out onto the street at ten in the morning, nice. For me it has two redeeming features The Big One, by far the scariest roller coaster I've ever been on, and The Ketch Inn which is a rather ace eat-in fish and chip shop which does a truly fantastic line in steak pie. I did enjoy going up the tower too - you have to go right through the old ballroom.

Blackpool (being the third part of my two week holiday write up)

Have you been to Blackpool? DON'T EVER EVER GO THERE, man alive, it was the worst place I've ever been to. A few people gave me odd looks when I said I was going to Blackpool for a couple of days as part of our grand tour, but only one person got close to putting into words just how bad it was. I'd imagined a cheap and cheerful low rent imitation of Las Vegas but good grief, the very best parts of it were like the worst bits of Folkestone, the bits that have now been demolished. We met Clare's parents there - not for the first time, we already knew each other, we'd just arranged to meet there. I thought Clare's mum was messing about when they met us at the station and she was nearly in tears. I can't stress enough how little I'm overreacting here, it's not a nice place. If you've booked a trip there, just forget your deposit and cancel, stay home instead.

The weather didn't help, if it'd been bright and sunny when we got there maybe we'd have just got on with it, walked on the beach and the like, but all we could think of doing was leaving. We gave the pubs of the town a bit of a go in the evening, but couldn't find one that was worth staying in, and really struggled to find a restaurant - any restaurant - for our evening meal. Next day we headed off to Liverpool. That's about forty miles away I suppose, and that just about felt far enough. Liverpool was alright, though it's undergoing a monstrous amount of regeneration at the moment, be nice to see it when it's all done. Lots of good looking pubs, but we drove there and I thought I might do my share and drive back so I didn't go in any. I did check out Matthew Street, home to The Cavern and birthplace of The Beatles. The original Cavern is long gone, but it's been recreated somehow close to the original spot... bit of a cheesy touristy idea, might be nicer to admit they made a big bad mistake allowing this to happen, but hey, I stopped there and took a photo anyway.

We returned to Blackpool that night, it had not improved, though we found a pub with an Irish singer who was alright, Paddy Goes To Hollyhead.

RE: The wedding (being the first part of my two week holiday write up)

Now thats what I call a BBQ!

Edinburgh (being the second part of our holiday)

Edinburgh is nice. "Our kind of city" the wife wrote on her postcards, and I agree. We got a speedy train there from Carlisle into Edinburgh Haymarket, this was the side of the city we were staying on. We could have been a bit closer to the action but HEY, this was a walking holiday, and we had a serviced apartment instead of a hotel, so we had a lounge and kitchen and all sorts of extra features.

The weather was pretty monstrous to start with. I think we got to our apartment without getting wet, but the rain really started just as we were about to head out again. One of my almost-highlights of the trip was seing a drain burst open in front of me just outside the apartment. I have a fascination with sewers, it was quite cool to see the sudden downpour prove to much for the Edinburgh underpipes and cause a drain lid to shoot up in the air and a fountain of liquid spray out in the road. This was cool for only as long as it took the smell to hit me, this was a waste spurting out at my feet, an actual fountain of human shit. It was grim, but luckily all the extra rain washed this filth away in the end. Man I wish I'd had my video camera handy at this point. You'll just have to imagine it.

We did some proper touristy things, including Mary King's Close, a shut off street under the Royal Mile:

Hidden beneath the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh's deepest secret: a warren of hidden 'closes' where real people lived, worked and died. For centuries they have lain forgotten and abandoned...

I would suggest not bothering, it's not as interesting as it sounds. The streets are still technically there, but it's very hard to get an impression of most of them as living spaces as the floors and ceilings are at different levels, and there's practically no surviving decoration or artifacts, and the recreations and projections are bad and the ghost story they told was particularly lame. Lame ghost stories was a bit of a theme of the holiday, everywhere in the UK is using this kind of thing to lure tourists in and are even saying things like "as featured on TV's Most Haunted" and so on. Are we a nation of gullible muppets? Needless to say, we did not feel any ghostliness or cold patches or any kind of bump-in-the-night-ingness. Ah while I'm being negative I recall one more thing about Mark King's Close, the crassest most opportunistic part of this trap. In the last room of the tour we were told a Japanese TV psychic had felt a presence, and it was a little girl ghost, and she'd been left behind by her parents and she wanted her dolly. A runner was sent out to buy a doll and this pleased the "ghost". Now there's a big pile of toys and dolls left as offerings to this ghost. We were told that other tourists started leaving toys after hearing this story, and if we'd like to leave something "or some money" that would be nice. I'm glad no-one in our tour party of twenty fell for this, but would suggest to the tour organisers that they hire a stooge to join each party and get them to start the money giving, I'm sure they'd pay for themselves. That's what I'd do if I was cynical and grasping enough.
Eating was good in Edinburgh, we went in two dedicated vegetarian restaurants, David Bann's, and Black Bo's. Bann's was quite fancy really, and the food was great. I can't remember what I had for my main, but that's down to quite a lot of booze too. I had some kind of fake fish cakes for my starter. The only complaint was a big table of students next to us, being all studenty, the bastards.

UPDATE: On checking the menu, I think I went for

Thai fritters
Aromatic, spicy fritters of smoked tofu, peas, ginger, green chilli, lime, sesame and potato. Served with fresh mango chutney and a roast garlic tomato sauce. V
Galette of aduki and aubergine
Organic beer crepe layered with spiced aduki bean and aubergine, topped with juniper pickled cucumber . Served with chunky chips, homemade apple & tomato ketchup and cr�me fraiche and chives. [V]

Black Bo's was more relaxed, still very nice, though I chose the wrong main. Perhaps unsurprisingly my aubergine and melon soaked in midori was too sweet and melony for me. Other meals in non vege restaurants were also great, there was lots of choice for me, I even had a baked potato with haggis topping. Hots mon, och aye and pass me the deep fried heroin, could I be more Scottish?
It was my call to give up on our plan to drink a different short in every pub, we had too many whiskeys and things that I just wasn't enjoying, and getting extra hammered just for the sake of showing off. Scottish beer is not the best in the world, all served a bit too cold, but I did have a very nice pint in The Half Way House on Fleshmarket Close. Very small, but ace, deservedly a CAMRA pub of the year.

Ian Rankin has a book called Fleshmarket Close, which we bought while we were there, along with lots of others of his books, I'm sure all tourists do. We bought quite a few books while we were away, including one by another Scottish crime writer who we met there, called Quintin Jardine. We didn't see Ian Rankin around the town, but we did see The Duke of Edinburgh, us in Edinburgh and all, what are the chances? He was in jewelry shop that had closed just for him, does he think he's Michael Jackson or something? I shouted "YOU MURDERED PRINCESS DIANA" at him. Well, I thought about it. After he'd gone.

I do have more things to add about Edinburgh but thought I should post something while it's still fairly fresh. We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 while we were there. It's rubbish, don't bother.

Stay tuned for some pictures to illustrate this post, and some links, and tales of Blackpool, Keswick, and York.

Hello old friend

Been on holiday for the last two and a bit weeks, I didn't publicise this here so you didn't come and burgle my flat. Now we are back, and have to unpack and think about work tomorrow :-(

Did I miss much? Full report on Carlisle, the wedding, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Keswick, and York to come.

RE: Long weekend

SIXTY

Tip top weekend

For a change we didn't go to Canterbury, though we will be again this weekend. Made a proper session of it on Saturday to celebrate Clare's brother Kev's visit from the Miami. Lunch in Escondido, then a crawl around Hythe taking it (at least) The Bell, The Butt Of Sherry and Everest for a curry, then back to ours for some carefully non noisy pool playing.

This weekend ought to be a good one. It's kind of starting already, today, Tuesday, with a visit to The Ship Inn for the quiz. Hey, are you reading this and planning to come along with a print out of this page or anything? Why not say hello! Tomorrow: no plans, but Thursday we've got the afternoon off for a trip up to London to see an episode of QI being filmed, then also got Friday afternoon off for the long weekend to start in earnest with another trip to Canterbury. Dinner atAbode will be part of the plans, dead posh us.

Lunch is good this weekend. I made a monster casserole at the weekend, and some garlic and rosemary potatoes, and divided up a portion for every day this week.

Work is going well, if it was ever possible to do too much javascript, this might be it however, I'm getting a bit fatigued.

Ian Brown's coming to Folkestone

Tour starts in September, Ian Brown, yes the former Stone Roses front man, gigs in Folkestone at the end of October. Full dates are:

Newcastle Academy (September 27)
Hull City Hall (28)
Sheffield Octagon (29)
Middlesbrough Town Hall (October 1)
Lincoln Engine Shed (2)
Halifax Victoria Hall (3)
Leeds University (5)
Warrington Parr Hall (6)
Dundee Caird Hall (8)
Motherwell Civic Hall (9)
Edinburgh Corn Exchange (10)
Llandudno Venue Cymru Arena (12)
Preston Guildhall (13)
Derby Assembly Rooms (15)
Nottingham Rock City (16)
Reading Hexagon (18)
Birmingham Academy (19)
Cambridge Corn Exchange (20)
Southampton Guildhall (22)
Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall (23)
Bristol Academy (25)
Liverpool University (26)

UPDATE: www.monsteresandcritics.com say

Brown's tour will include dates at large academies as well as smaller venues, such as Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall which will provide the perfect opportunity for fans to see Brown in a smaller, more intimate venue

Just popping that in as an update so you know I didn't copy and paste all the dates from them... Get tickets here, when they go on sale. That doesn't earn the site any money still, it's just force of habit linking to them...
Rated 4.36/10 on Folkestone Gerald

RE: Yep, just needs a bit of redecoration really

Sticky back plastic and a bluuuue peter badge

RE: No valuables lost

can we see the cracks.
Pops

Good drinking weekend

We checked out the annual Easter Ales Festival at Chambers on Thursday and Friday nights, and have had a couple of nights back at the flat playing pool and listening to my new Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs collection, and had a day in Canterbury (including lunch at Wagamama and a pint in Simple Simon's), and still the weekends not over! Having a quiet afternoon, then off to a quiz later at Saltwood Castle. And then we still have another day left to recover!
Hope your weekend is as good.