A busy week this week, having finally managed
to get the repricing sorted I am having what could loosely be called a sale, as
the actual process of taking about 25,000 books to the till desk, looking them
up on the internet, knocking them down out or sideways took ages, I am not
really sure what falls into the sale legislation.
Anyway I have put up a sign, and after
several people, coming into the shop and telling me it was upside down, did I know
and having to explain that bookshopassistants had literacy problems, had to put another sign
in the window explaining myself.
Here is a picture of the first 25 King
Penguins, mentioned in the previous post and I though there were stylistic similarities
with Robert Onion’s work in York Street Gallery, which I managed to visit at
lunchtime. Here is the link to the pictures of the pictures https://plus.google.com/photos/103118335852639233427/albums/5925733933896154961?banner=pwa&partnerid=gplp0
Morrisons in Ramsgate is coming on fast and
looks as though it will soon be open.
We had a light lunch in Margate
Last Sunday we did Café G in Margate
We did pass the natives of St Peter in the
stocks yesterday too, but as I hadn’t any rotten fruit I took a photo instead.
I may ramble on here
Thanks for the Margate mentions. Next time you should try Bentley's [almost opposite Sands Hotel in lower High Street. Great coffee at a very fair price in a comfortable lounge and the food is good too. About 50p per Americano cheaper that Café G!
ReplyDeleteNow that you've done your book sorting, do you have a list of your folio editions ... and other books searchable on the internet?
Thanks for entertaining blogs.
Col Peter I did a post about Bentley’s 29th April, frankly I don’t often eat out, we normally get a French stick and a lump of cheese. However last week was excessively busy, two of my children have just started secondary school and as they are in different classes, each of them gets about three sets of homework a day, this can mean six different lots an evening, so as a family we are treating ourselves at the moment.
DeleteThe paninis and drinks we had in Café G, that is four drinks and four paninis came to about £25, it normally costs the four of us about £20 to get lunch at MacDonald’s.
For me though it is Morgans, I couldn’t fault it and as I sketch when we eat out it is the view that tips the balance.
Col on the Folio front, the answer is no we don’t list them online, well not quite true, the scenario is we put them out in the bookshop at what seems a reasonable price and most of them sell. Then we take the one that don’t sell and try them on the internet.
DeleteMy primary objective is to have a bookshop for as long as possible, putting stock on the internet is basically counter to this, so none of the King Penguins in the picture are on the internet and I think about three of the Folios in Wednesdays picture are.
I guess out of the 35,000ish books in the shop only a few hundred are listed on the net, I also have about 1,000 other books which are listed on Amazon which are not in the shop, these are mostly specialist items that need an international market.
Oh dearie dearie me. After all the nonsense from Holyer and Checksfield about anonymous posters, I see from the Gazette it being suggested that John Hamilton is not a real person. I see it is even suggested that he might be a councillor. Presumably, if John Hamilton IS a real person, he will be contacting the Gazette forthwith to threaten them with m'learned friends. Should he not do so we will be free to draw our own conclusions.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:23 pm,
DeleteA few decent people are having a pleasant and sometimes erudite conversation and then you butt in with you ubiquitous and inane remarks. I realise that you do this deliberatly and that you derive enjoyment from upsetting others. It excites you. Is it any wonder that I hold you in contempt. But to be fair I get the impression that you are suffering from a personalty disorder. For this I pity you.
You're the one who made a big issue out of anonymous posters. You aren't usually shy of giving your opinions. Having been so supportive of John Hamilton I'm just asking how you are going to feel if it turns out that he isn't real and is every bit as anonymous as I am?
DeleteBut he is not as anonymous as you, 1:53, for he has a name, a Google account and a blog site and his contributions are identifiable. You, on the other hand, frequently deny you are an anon who commented before when we can all recognise the style and content as yours. Huge difference!
DeleteHard to believe that people have elected you. Do you really defend the right of somebody to invent a false name and to post insulting comments about other people?
DeleteIn the same way I defend your right to have no name at all and to post insulting comments about people you don't even know. Tell me, what is the difference?
DeleteThe difference is that I have not posted ANY insulting comments about anybody. I appreciate that some anonymous posters have done so but that wasn't me. Personally, I wouldn't defend the right to post insulting comments anonymously but I guess I just have higher standards than you.
Delete"It wasn't me, guv, honest." "It was that other anonymous who called you an old duffer, described other bloggers as old farts and told you that you are irrelevant as a councillor." Please, pull the other one, it's got bells on!
DeleteHow mature you are.
DeleteNot as mature as you, 7:31, I will admit for I can whiff your maturity even from Broadstairs, and it is not cheddar.
DeleteSeems my fame and ability to root out BS spreads. Perhaps someone would like to post the article.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit to being with John Hoyler on this one.
ReplyDeleteThis is a post about Thanet cafes and shops with a little info about book collecting thrown in, I have just spammed a LTP comment about mercenaries or some such thing, frankly if you have no interest or understanding related to book collecting, eating out in Thanet or new shops opening here, lay off will you.
If things are going ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa to the extent that the mercenaries are coming over the top, poison is coming out of your tap or you want to change the law of the land, please appreciate that this has little to do with eating out in Thanet or book collecting and put it all elsewhere on the internet, preferably your own website or blog.
For all I know it may be true or it may false, my problem is that I have no way of telling, it is, I do know that in the context of this post it is just as much spam as someone selling the very best Blackberry, it may well be the best however I neither know nor do I care.
With you on this one, Michael, though I did enjoy the bit about the mercenary who avoided eyeball contact with some old chap in Margate. Having met a few of the Mike Hoare clan whilst in Africa, they did not strike me as the type who avoided eyeball, or any other kind of contact for that matter, with anyone.
DeleteGoing back to the thread, have you ever read 'The New Mercenaries' and in particular the account in there of the attempted coup in the Seychelles. But for one silly slip, they might just have pulled it off which demonstrates how a few good troops can overthrow a regime in the smaller nations. Yet another book that fits loosely into my Rhodesia collection, as several of the party were ex-Rhodesian security forces.
If I get down to your sale next week I will say 'hello.'
William I guess with the way things have gone in the bookshop world we now have what I think is the largest military book section in the southeast, I have to admit I have never noticed any of the military customers eyeballing me, but will try a few thing this afternoon.
DeleteLook forward to seeing you, don’t forget my bookshop is closed on Thursdays and of course Sundays and generally has a bit of a shut look even when it’s open.
Have to say, I LOVE your military book section! I and my family have bought the vast majority of my books from you over the years! Do you also have an ebay presence these days, would be nice to have a scan through what you have when I have some down time, but not able to get down to your shop.
DeleteJohn sorry missed this one, normally I only put the local books we publish on Ebay.
DeleteOn the whole I avoid putting decent stock online, because if I did it would make the shop stock pretty awful.
My primary objective is to go on as long as I can having a physical bookshop, such use as I make of the internet is to this end.
No problem Michael, just meant I could get more from you, as sadly, I don;t get enough opportunities to spend a couple of hours in your shop, as that is usually the inevitable consequence of me "popping down for a book" lol
DeleteOne of my favourite places is the Custom House Cafe by Ramsgate Harbour. The food tastes good and is enticingly presented. Their pots of tea are excellent. [see my profile picture].
ReplyDeleteBig bit of cake you have there John, perhaps like Peter you should be watching the old cholesterol. Frankly living in Ramsgate I seldom eat out there, we usually have a minimum of two children with us so it gets too expensive. Lunch time I only get an hour, so if I don’t do myself lunch at home I generally get a £1.99 baguette from Rooks and eat it while wandering around. I sometimes get a cuppa 80p at the beach café and sketch something.
DeleteIf we do eat out in Ramsgate, then because I sketch the view is a major factor, this combined with finding something the children will eat and a price we can afford is fairly tricky.
Michael,
DeleteI'm OK with the cholesterol because I keep taking the pills (I wish Anon would take his).
But, as you remark, it was a rather large slice of cake however I eat it as a rare treat. I'll have another one in a couple of months.
Peter,
DeleteI take your point. Cholesterol, hypertension and even type two diabetes can be controlled by a strict diet. A diet that can take the fun out of life, which is why some sufferers choose pills.
Peter,
DeleteYou're right. To paraphase Tim Rice: What is fun, is my fun the same as yours?
However, as Michael has already mentioned him here is Terry Pratchett's definition of fun:
"My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.
My dream holiday would be a) a ticket to Amsterdam b) immunity from prosecution and c) a baseball bat.”
― Terry Pratchett
William,
ReplyDeleteInspired by your mention of eye contact I recall an incident in 1960 at RAF Unit Schelswigland. A couple of SAS Officers wandered into the Airman's' NAFFI, bought a tea and a pie and sat down. We looked at them and were trying to decide who of us should remind them that as Officers they should not be there. It was clear from the look on their faces that they already knew this. However, from the look in their eyes we decided that it would be wiser to just ignore them, and this was not just out of respect for the Queen's Commission.
Old farts wittering on about the good old days
ReplyDeleteAt least we have some good old days to witter on about, 1:50, rather than nothing to do but whinge like a total loser like you.
DeleteAnon 1:50 pm,
DeleteOh come on, you must have your own good old days to remember. Surely Parkhurst cannot have been that bad. Or maybe you were locked up in a nice hospital with others of your peculiar persuasion?
This blog is quite dull if we only have Michael, Epps, Holyer and Hamilton.
DeleteOh dear. Holyer is throwing his rattle out of the pram again.
DeleteIs that the best you can come up with, 6:47, hardly witty is it?
DeleteBut we don't only have Michael, Epps, Holyer and Hamilton do we, you unobservant little chappie? Hamilton has only appeared briefly here on this item, whilst so have Checksfield, Col and you.
ReplyDeleteNow what exactly do you propose to brighten it up? Are you going to treat us to some well constructed piece of enlightened prose? Perhaps you have a poet in you waiting to enthral us all with the depth of your vision or maybe you will produce your usual whining one liner rubbishing everybody else? Come on, 5:26, show us what you are made of and why Michael, whose blog it is anyway, should give you any space at all.
A Thanetian called Epps had a ruse
ReplyDeleteTo take over a blog with his views
His boring long chats
With some other old prats
Drew nothing but yawns and abuse.
Now you are trying and whilst it is not exactly Wordsworth, it is a great improvement on your usual ageist insults. The only flaw in this rhyme is that I am a DFL, not a Thanetian, but I will excuse it as poetic licence.
DeleteAnyway, having launched a limerick idea, how about this one:
A hermit from outside Belgrave,
kept a dead prostitute in a cave,
he said "I'll admit, I'm a bit of a twit."
"But think of the money I save."
Anon 6:57pm
DeleteYout infantile offering neither scans nor rhymes. I suggest you go back to writing on toilet walls.
Peter my mother, myself and my bothers moved to Ramsgate in about 1966 when I was 13, I still haven’t received the brown envelope.
DeleteFrom the toilet wall:
ReplyDeleteA poster called Holyer feared
That his pitch on the blog had been queered
He moaned to the throng
That anons don't belong
And only his views should appear.
Watch out 7:26 or your epitaph could be:
DeleteShithouse poets,
when the die,
have erected in the sky,
in tribute to their splendid wit,
a monument of solid shit.
Copyright - Chatham House School toilets
Nope, anon 7:26 PM, it still neither scans nor rhymes. You really are a pathetic case.
DeleteYour talent(?) is up there with McGonagall.
Do you mean McGonigal? Does she write limericks as well?
ReplyDeleteDifficult if you are a bit narrowly focused, William Topaz McGonagall Scottish doggerel poet, famous for being probably the worse poet ever.
DeleteThank you Michael. The anon 9:58am is confused by the Harry Potter stories.
DeleteAt least William Topaz McGonagall was proud enough to use his own name unlike the pusillanimous anon.
I read recently that there are moves afoot to revive McGonagall's poetry on the grounds that it is so bad that it is good. Rather like if English Heritage listed Arlington House.
This has already happened because of Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men children’s book series about fighting pixties, they have a turn of phrase, sic "Vis-ne faciem capite repleta" ("Would you like a face that is full of head?") or of course "Does your mother have the ability to sew, friend?"
DeleteThe clans mcgonagall, or battle poet, renders enemies helpless by reciting terrible poetry.
To quote the nonfictional Mcgonagall
From The Tay Bridge Disaster which recounts the events of the evening of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, the Tay Rail Bridge near Dundee collapsed as a train was passing over it. The first verse reads:
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
I don't find it in the least bit strange that I have never heard of "the worst ever poet." I do have quite a lot to do with my time and so, reading terrible poetry wouldn't be high on my list of priorities.
DeleteAnon 12:36 pm,
DeleteI take your point but then you do write terrible poetry.
Ah tricky anon, comment on post about that is partly book collecting, in thread about humorous writing, with the inference you have a grammar education, then not to have heard of the poet parodied in the four books by the UK’s best selling humorist the past thirty years. It does suggest you have been missing out on a flowering of literature evident in your own lifetime. It’s this one tracked thing I mentioned earlier, books do broaden the mind as well as furnish the room, don’t you know!
DeleteI have tried to get this one across to several of the commentators, particularly the ones who are more anon than not anon, if you can’t keep up then it is very difficult to be taken. What? Seriously, even if what you say makes sense in some way.
No grammar education for me Michael and I've no idea who you are talking about. If you don't play Dungeons and Dragons you probably aren't geeky enough to know who Kaijudo the Dragonmaster is. If you don't run a bookshop you probably won't know anything about an obscure poet. I wonder how many languages you speak. We are all ignorant in many spheres so it is a brave man who claims to be better educated than others.
DeleteAnon this does beg the rather awkward question of what you were doing loitering in a children’s toilet if you weren’t educated there. Or perhaps you are another anon, it’s hard to tell really. I don’t think it’s a case of an obscure poet, just very famous for being very bad.
DeleteSorry Michael, but you've been sucked into Holyer's world of paranoia. I didn't post the bit about the Chatham House toilets. That was a different person. As I keep saying, there is more than one anonymous person posting on your blog.
DeleteHi 7:50. I guess your contribution only goes to prove that the eleven-plus is no good measure of intelligence.
ReplyDeleteI think it is probably more literate than the toilet graffiti of lesser schools which invariably consists of little more than crude drawings of parts of the human anatomy supplemented with four letter words.
ReplyDelete