Sunday 27 January 2013

Sunday ramble, pen and ink sketch, some photos of today’s walk in Ramsgate, nothing much really.


Once again the local blogs are being showered with spam, and a lot of it is getting through the spam filter, Don has gone for comment moderation, see http://promotethanet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/comment-moderation-again.html Simon has already got it set but the problem has not passed unnoticed by him see http://birchington.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/shark-attack.html

With this blog and the press release blog http://thanetpress.blogspot.co.uk/ I have had to delete over 100 spam comments in the last 24 hours. Apologies if I have deleted any legitimate comments, also please note if you reply to a spam comment your reply will also go when the spam is deleted.

I had a bit of a fight with a bath tap last week and pulled something in my knee, meaning that I have had some difficulty walking, today was the first day that I felt I could mange a reasonable walk, albeit slowly.

I would guess that today has been about the warmest and sunniest this year and I think there was a bit in the middle of the day when it would have been just about warm enough to sketch out of doors. I can’t sketch with gloves on or with very cold hands.

Anyway I decided we would stop somewhere with for a drink with a view where I could guarantee it would be warm enough, this is much more difficult than you would think, in the end we finished up at the café on the end of the pier http://royalharbourbrasserie.co.uk so here is the sketch.
As you see I am trying to abide by my new year resolution by putting the date and location on sketches.


Finding somewhere with a view to sketch Ramsgate from is much more difficult than you would think and with my wife and children in tow which means buying four drinks can be expensive.  

Any thoughts on this problem would be appreciated.  

The photos next, these are automatically uploaded to the internet by my mobile phone so I don’t know what order they will come up in, I will add some more text when I see how they appear.


The photos seem to have come up in reverse order, as you see Blockbuster in Ramsgate is closing, I wonder what if anything will take this very large shop premises, particularly concerning for me as it is between my shop and the centre of the town.

Retail is becoming very difficult and demanding at the moment, where I am trading most of the shop properties have either been converted to undesirable residential accommodation or are just empty.   



The restaurant at the end of Ramsgate pier was very busy, about an hours wait for a table when we got there, fortunately they also have sofas with coffee tables if you only want a drink or a snack, so we didn’t have to wait. Pot of tea for three and a hot chocolate just over £7, the quality and service was excellent, the seat comfortable, the view about as good as you are going to get in Thanet.     



On to the new shelters, it is now possible to sit in a shelter that feels and smells clean, I guess the key to this will be keeping them that way.

On to The Sailor’s Church, a free visitor attraction and well worth a 






Apologies here, still learning to use the camera in phone, boys with toys and all that. 

The roadworks to provide services to the harbour arches looks to be nearly finished, I gather there is a waiting list to rent a Harbour arch, even though the rent has gone up to about £200 per week and the activity there has to be maritime related. 









12 comments:

  1. Loving the new shelters! But is that real lead on the roofs? If so, how long will it remain there? And if not, there should be a great big sign on them to that effect!

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    Replies
    1. Not real lead anon and think anyone who would steal it for scrap is probably aware of this.

      Delete
    2. The material used on the roofs is thin zinc sheet, as the original design. It is so thin and negligible in weight to make it worthless to metal thieves. It also has far more tensile strength and is securely fixed on all edges, making it difficult to remove.

      Delete
  2. That’s a long walk around town Michael with a ‘wonky’ knee; great pictures, much appreciated and its good to see you took your sketch pad with you. What’s going on down Military Road, are they resurfacing it? And those shelters, the people in Ramsgate should be so proud.

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    Replies
    1. Alan I should have taken a break when changing the mixer tap on the bath, the furthest nut was very stiff and inaccessible, the knee seems to be much better for the walk. New services for the arches in Military Road nearly finished now. I always take the sketch pad but seldom get the opportunity, pity there wasn’t time to colour it in.

      Delete
  3. The beach shelters are terrific - but surely questions are required as to why for 10 years they remained derelict despite millions of council tax funding. And looks like a splurge of seafront work before the May elections.

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    Replies
    1. 6.56 you are obviously unaware of the situation in this area, the May elections are for the county council, the county council are responsible for roads, hospitals, schools and so on.

      The shelters are owned by the district council elections in about three years time, they cooperated with the project.

      The project to restore the shelters was a Ramsgate Society project partly funded by a Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) grant from the National Lottery and partly funded by Ramsgate Society events and local people’s donations.

      Delete
    2. 7:16 you've forgotten most of the County councilors are District and Town councillors.

      TDC simply handed responsibility for the beach shelters to the Ramsgate society with a minor payment after 10 years of not repairing them.

      The THI is taxfunds that TDC could have obtained, while Ramsgate Society members pay for TDC as well.

      The councillors should have sacked more civill servants for failure or face being voted out and pledges on actions from May - although if they could have improved things they would have by now?

      Delete
    3. 7.45 I don’t think I could extricate you from your muddled thinking here whatever I said, in the first instance HLF funding isn’t available to local authorities, in the second councillors can’t just sack civil servants. I can think of many reasons to not vote for some local councillors, but not doing something that isn’t in their power, well you are just talking nonsense.

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    4. Michael,

      I suspect that anonymous has been sacked, maybe more than once, and now he wants everyone else to be sacked as well. It makes him feel better.

      Delete
    5. 9:19 if TDC have improved the beach shelters then why have they been derelict for 10 years? HFI or no? The point being a charity like the Ramsgate Society are paying for the shelters twice through their wasted tax/ineffective council and funding it themselves.

      Councillors can't sack civil servants? What nonsense that's exactly the point of councillors - to ensure the civil service doesn't replicate indefinitely on public funds and performs excellently. Just as Samuel was sacked or at best resigned and the CEO before him.

      And a County election where the County councillors are also the District and Town councillors means their work can't be reviewed? And you think the replication of seats is acceptable or not?

      You ought to try to know what you're talking about or you'll be encouraging the town to look like a mess. The Zip comment is equally random stupidity.

      Delete
    6. anonymous 5:43pm,

      I have read your post. It is a pity that you did not do so before you sent it.

      I defer to you. You are palpably accomplished in the matter of random stupidity.

      Delete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.