Some old pictures of Ramsgate and Margate, possible ramble

 I think all of the pictures should expand if you click on them from the blog.

 So wet today here in Ramsgate, I have been working on my minor adjustments to the bookshop to try and make it work better in the ever changing retail environment. Basically this is fiddling around with the very cheap end of the business - books priced between 5p and 50p.

 We seem to be in that strange impasse between Christmas and the new year, so what to say?

On the whole the local internet seems to be a bit tricky, the local newspaper sites seem to have taken the “How does anyone get paid for writing anything?” problem down the advertising road so far that the news isn’t there in an easy balance with the ads. I went on the Gazette site and got “if you want to read the rest of the article then fill in an online survey aka go to spam website.

Reading the article on the KM website is an arcade game of adverts for women's undies that can only be bought in the USA.

Of course our very own Kathy Bailes has a manageable website for local news but there is a point about paper papers managing in the web environment.

I think the web is basically becoming fiercer and more focused on taking money off you, legitimately or otherwise.

 With credit card and website security outside of giants Like Amazon I am now taking the approach that if the website I don't know doesn’t accept Paypal then it doesn’t get my card details. Now I am wondering about the card acquirers used by physical businesses and whether we need some sort of universal proof so we know our details are safe.

I have just bought some concert tickets online, the top sites to come up were reseller ticket sites and the concert website clearly states that you won’t get in with tickets bought from reseller sites.   

 The previous picture, this one and the next one Show Moses's Shipyard here in Ramsgate, a significant local business 100 years ago.

 Next these strange pictures of Margate Ambulance Corps, these make me wonder how ambulances worked in the days before the motorised ambulance.

I think assumed the doctor came to the patient by horse, the sort of wheeled barrow ambulance makes me wonder how and where they were used, if you collapsed on the seafront did they push you to Margate Hospital in one? Was there a doctor riding along in front on a horse? I suppose a further question would be is a moustache mandatory?