Nice weekend, quiet weekend

Nice weekend. Changed our Friday night outgoing plans and had a quiet one in. Saturday went to a 92nd birthday tea for Clare's gran over in Tenterden, home for a brief siesta, and then out to The Guildhall with visiting family and friends. Took a brief break from there to go to The British Lion before its last orders (it closes a bit earlier), then back to The Guildhall for their last orders. Then home, in the drizzle.

Felt a bit sniffly when I woke up on Sunday, could be that damn rain, but fine again now. Went to a bootfair, did the shopping, ate, watched TV and even played a bit of Scrabble. All quite relaxing.

Threw in a few mad bids for this apothecary cabinet but there are fellow bidders who are staying one step ahead of me. It's gone up in price but is still currently listed at about 10% of its retail price.

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History in my day

Another bright and breezy morning, just cool enough to stop me walking down town in just a t-shirt, but warm enough not to stop me walking down town at all. I headed the usual route past the courts and the DSS (all the nice scenic points), to what I’m starting to think is my favourite residential part of town, Millfield / Victoria Grove / Copthal Gardens. There’s nothing special about these roads (apologies if you live there), but they do seem to have enormous potential – the houses are huge, lots of them are tired and sad looking, and not all of it's yet been gentrified. Actually as I’ve been thinking more while writing, the further down the road you head, the nicer it gets, Copthal Gardens does seem quite fab. They’re all [em]just[/em] on the not-town side of town, in a ghetto of Folkestone that's separated from all the action by the smash and grab of the "new road"¹. Past all the houses and the first point of interest is the nursery school that looks like a pub... Yes, it was a pub, it was The Bouverie Arms opened in 1855, was run by the wife’s grandparents in the 1960's, and finally closed in 1977. See, dates and everything, now we’re getting on to the history...

Next I’m down onto Grace Hill, look down the road to the left, there’s legendary Folkestone venue Toft's on your left and the Foord viaduct in the distance. This was completed in 1844 and means there was no need for a big ramp to jump trains over Folkestone to the harbour. This section of track is mostly closed now I think, though the Orient Express does come somewhere down this way once a week, so who knows…

I’ve turned back into town now, passing by Wetherspoons (see my restraint), a converted Baptist church, though I notice it now has a real name all of it’s own; The Samuel Peto. Samuel Morton Peto was a Victorian entrepreneur, who built clubs, theatres, railways, and Nelson's Column of all things, not sure of any connection to Folkestone though…

On into the centre of town, after a book, Ottakers can’t help me, though Waterstones has it... This is very impressive, the becolumned town hall built 1860, from this date on the clock tower, it has a real Back to the Future feel to it. The building also housed a police station, with six jail cells, which I understand are used by Waterstones as some kind of national data store.

Three more stops on the way home, a cup of coffee in Cooks, which I'd not previously have bothered with, but they’ve recently put some effort in. It was a regular bakery type shop until recently I'm sure, but since the threat of a Costa moving to town, they've seriously upped their game. It now has a huge lounge area, decorated in modern coffee shop style, with free internet access and bonus terrace style garden. Really very nice indeed, the original customers seem a bit out of place there now. Then two stops of historical note. One is St Eanswthe's church yard, which I mentioned yesterday. There’s been something religious or other on this site since 630, that's far too early in the morning for me. I was not afeared of nutters today, as I saw a friend there, we call him Terry. Finally, out the other side of the church and past this house where Charles Dickens once lived. As everyone points out, Dickens lived in a lot of houses; most towns have seem to have some blue plaque or other relating to him. This one is (now) called "Copperfield’s", and we do get a mention in that book

Peggotty's answer soon arrived, and was, as usual, full of affectionate devotion. She enclosed the half guinea (I was afraid she must have had a world of trouble to get it out of Mr. Barkis's box), and told me that Miss Betsey lived near Dover, but whether at Dover itself, at Hythe, Sandgate, or Folkestone, she could not say.

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Yesterday's news

BAH, wrote a huge posting, to compensate for several days of blog neglect, and Firefox only done went and crashed on me didn't it... that's literally several paragraphs of finely thought out prose that are now lost forever. I need to write an "autosave" type feature like Google Mail does. So where was I? Ah, LOVELY day today, I took an early stroll down town, and it was a delight. Usually the town centre is a bit cluttered with pushchairs and loonies, but being a bit early today, I seem to have missed most of them. I headed back via The Bayle and the churchyard, and that too had a lovely silvery quality to it, a mix of the bright sunlight and the barely-there mist. Only the sudden thought that a) there were no loonies in town and b) this church yard is were the bad element might well hang out quickened my step at all. I took to The Leas, and found a tiding of magpies:



Yes, that's only two and not really a collective noun's worth, but that was just the picture I happened to grab, there really were a lot about. I tried to video some, but it seems I didn't catch much other than wind noise, I need a spoffle. They seemed to be arguing to me, but that doesn't really show up.



On spoffles and collective nouns, we've been watching lots of QI the last few days, it's great, but I picked up on some of their research that I thought was a bit off. Fry mentioned how the joke collective noun a flange of baboons was now overtaking the official term, and referenced a review on Amazon as proof of this. Amazon reviews can be written by anyone and say anything, does that really count as an official review? I formulated these thoughts without checking though, and it seems there really are a lot of mentions out there, perhaps it will take over. Good work Not the Nine O'Clock News. Spoffle of course is the name for a sponge microphone cover that was invented by Hugh Laurie and then became law.

Weekend, great, we had a visitor from London, so took in The Ship Inn (Sandgate), Escondido, The Ship Inn (the harbour), The British Lion, and Chambers though none of them were that great. Played a lot of pool this weekend too, here and in the pub, I've still got it...

On pubs, I had a rare night out in London last week, met The Ushers in Gordon's wine bar, a new one on me. This is a great place, proper cosy cellar bar, and couldn't be handier for Charing Cross. I tried to get a pint in The Sherlock Holmes before this, a pub confusingly signed "Est 1732" or some other such date long before the Sherlock Holmes books were written. But it was closed for refurbishment. Seems the pub was renamed this in some modern year, though it's on or near to the site of a hotel mentioned in the books.

Watching: Apart from QI, How Do You Want Me, as recommended by bro-in-law Dom, and it's actually very good. A medium gentle comedy starring Dylan Moran and Charlotte Coleman. There's only two series of it so I hope we don't get really into it. Also about to start Dexter, some crime thing set in Miami.
Reading: Just finished a Rebus, The Falls, and am debating wether to plough back into the Reg Hill / Dalziel and Pascoe novels that I'm really enjoying, or to give Cryptonomicon a go. Looks a bit intimidating...
Listening: Pioneer Soundtracks, I just heard it's getting reissued, that's one of my favourite albums.
Eating: Sausage and mash for tea, I'd better get on with it...

2006 :: Comment / reply