The Old Gaffers in the swim, in Ramsgate

Ramsgate’s new swimming pool opened today, with the official opening by Olympian Steve Backley tomorrow.

Here is the link to the swimming times http://yourleisure.uk.com/swimming/pools/

As you can see from the photos the old gaffers are arriving for the weekend, here is the link https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5906763522686901201

A few photos around North Foreland

Here is the link to the photos taken yesterday during our evening walk  https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5906697142432649601 my children were curious about the mixture of horses and sheep in the field behind the lighthouse. Anyone got any thoughts on mixing sheep and horses in one field?

Powerboat pictures and a ramble

Here is the link to the pictures from my mobile phone https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5906064065186528705?banner=pwa&partnerid=gplp0

The Ramsgate issues at the moment seem to start with Will Scobie being selected to represent Thanet South as Labour parliamentary candidate, I would say overall a good choice by Labour as Will has a proven record for getting elected when others haven’t.

My take is that for all the UKIP success at the KCC elections Thanet South is like likely to be a Labour/Conservative marginal come May 2015 when the election is fought. I am assuming that Laura Sandys will be standing for the Conservatives so it should be an interesting contest.

Talking to people in my bookshop the general consensus seems to be that both candidates are OK, I am certainly not getting any of the too young business from the locals.

As a floating voter myself I have an open mind at the moment, in terms of prediction I would expect if we have a swing to Labour then Will will get in and if we don’t Laura will. The other factors are that Will got in at county despite the swing to UKIP and the boundary changes which I am told give the Conservatives a small advantage over the previous position.

Here are the maps of the boundary changes.

 before

after

I will ramble on

As you can see the boundary goes all the way to Margate, I don’t have a detailed enough map to tell if Will lives in the constituency or not, I think he is just outside, does anyone know? 

Sorry I didn’t get to Thanet at War, my day revolved around commitments to my children.

One interesting issue yesterday was that the lights at the bottom of the tunnel to Port Ramsgate were flashing red, when this happens no one knows what to do and after a considerable time the drivers gave up and went through the tunnel anyway.

I would have thought displaying a phone number to ring when this happens would probably be a good idea. 

The two big Ramsgate issues, Pleasurama and the Pavillion are still rumbling on and I don’t know who one would vote for at any level to get some resolution there.

With Manston Airport engaged in trying to achieve about 300 flights a day over Ramsgate, there may be an election issue there too, although which election, well once again it’s a bit difficult to tell.   

Where was I, Pegwell this evening, surprisingly bad on the dog poo front for a fairly out of the way place with no signs of vandalism, very good children’s play area too. Park for nothing just before the petrol station of pay a quid in the car park a little further on, but remember they close the gate a 7.30.

Anyway here are the pictures https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5906124960336028273?banner=pwa  

John Hawke at the York Street Art Gallery in Ramsgate, a ramble and some pictures.

Here are the pictures of John Hawke’s pictures and he painting one in the gallery, they should expand if clicked on.

I am still; busy on my bookshop pricing up the mother of all book sales and have now done about half the stock, unfortunately this doesn’t give me much time for other things, blogging painting and so on.

I did visit Margate and Cliftonville yesterday and here are some of the pictures.

 Manston Airport is in the news with expansion plans see http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Manston-chasing-20-million-passengers/story-19574682-detail/story.html#axzz2aA5OkGpf the 20 million passengers a year would seem to equate to about 100,000 flights a year or about 270 a day, which seems rather unlikely.

My understanding is that KCC have given Cardy Construction 30 days to remove the hording from the  public promenade in front of the Pleasurama site, how this will impact on the replacement of the Great Wall of Ramsgate pictures, I don’t really know.   

Ramsgate Powerboat Grand Prix 2013 this weekend 27 Jul 2013 - 28 Jul 2013

With European and National Offshore Powerboat Racing. We are hosting the 2013 UIM European V-24 Championships alongside an International Cross Channel Marathon & RYA British National Powerboat Championships, so I hope the rather uncertain weather forecast doesn’t mean we are in for difficulties. 

Court Stairs in Ramsgate, one of the local wedding venues appears to have gone under, as you see from the photos.   

and the pram shop in King Street Ramsgate has closed.

There are quite a few May or perhaps July bugs around at dusk in the Westcliff Pegwell area and these may best avoided. 

although as you see dusk in this area can be attractive.