Is twitter pointless?...

This from a local twitterer, Nova Gowers, 3 comments in quick succession:

In the car wash giving the car it's very first shower!

Forgotten how much toddlers find car washes scary. :0S

Gulp! Now he's crying in the car wash! :0/

My tweet reply is going to be: Well flippin well look after your toddler then!

Does Tonbridge need to order in those sand bags?...

I exchanged pleasantries with an elderly fella near the small wooden bridge next to the Angel Centre car park that takes you around the back of the High Street next to the old Benn building, Sovereign House. Are you following me? Only half joking I asked him whether he thought Tonbridge was going to flood again; he replied, again only half joking, that he thought I might be right. This gentleman was probably a young man if he lived in the town in 1968; this was the last time we had serious flooding in Tonbridge and the main reason the flood barrier at Leigh was given the go ahead. You can see pictures of it in local history books: policemen helping stranded residents and shopkeepers who tried in vain to stop the waters from coming into their buildings and had to be rescued by rowing boat; you know the sort of thing. The Medway has been bursting its banks throughout its history but we only really hear about the more recent ones. We had a close shave around the year 2000 when the newly built swimming pool, built next to the river, had to close for a million pound refurbishment and installation of flood protection walls. Without scare mongering too much TonbridgeBlog asks are we in for another close shave? Is global warming to blame? Or is it just that eventually the forces of nature always have and always will conquer our best man made efforts? I can't remember ever having seen the river level at the Little Bridge quite as high as this. Gulp!...

Are Oxfam the Tesco of the secondhand book trade?...

I'm not going to complain about the Oxfam book and music shop that's about to open in Tonbridge High Street. There'd be no point; it's all been said before by other members of the book trade who complain that their sales have halved in the face of such unfair competition and that they've held on as long as they could before being forced to close their doors for good. I won't even complain, no really I won't, that they pay only 20% of business rates and that their staff are volunteers. They have been described, not by me, as the Tesco of the secondhand book trade, with over 700 shops in the UK selling books and over 130 (and growing) dedicated to books only. They are the biggest secondhand book chain in Europe if not the world, but I'm not going to complain like many others, including the PBFA, the booksellers trade body. Like I said it's all been said before like in this Guardian report last year about what effect the Salisbury shop has had. There's no doubt about it that it will effect Mr. Books' trade probably more so at the bottom end of the market, less so on the more collectable books but I won't lose sleep over it;. After all Oxfam are a great cause and do alot of brilliant work in third world countries as has been demonstated with the recent Haiti emergency. Competitition is good, it sharpens you up, it makes you think how you have to improve your services to do better than the competition. I can always buy their best stock from them, look at how they price their books and learn from them. If all else fails I can always go and offer my services to them or go back and work in the media again if they'll still have me

Happy to always live in Tonbridge....

There have been quite a few negative and moaning comments appearing of late. TonbridgeBlog puts this down to the depressingly long and cold winter causing us all to feel a bit down and I dare say, in some cases, worse than that. So I thought I'd highlight a nice cheery one from a Tonbridge resident who would never leave the town:

"I'm never going be an expat, as I love living in Tonbridge. It's a great place to be. We moved here 30 years ago, brought up a family, and have never looked back. The town has a nice tight centre, which is adjacent to marvelous parks and leisure facilities. We have many cultural clubs and societies,and are surrounded by beautiful walking countryside. Within 40 minutes the train delivers us to the west end of london, and for holidays abroad, gatwick and the channel tunnel are less than an hour away.As long as our council resists siren calls to turn us into a bland 'anytown', and builds to our character (castle, river etc) Tonbridge will continue to be a wonderful place to live. " by Hallum.

Tonbridge Expats where are you?...

Right there are around 60,000 residents of Tonbridge (although that probably includes the 'and Malling') Then, I'd estimate, there are around 10,000 or so who have lived in the town and have moved away. Add to that the ones who have relatives or know someone who lives in the town, around another 280,000 at a conservative estimate, and you have a staggering 350,000 people who have a direct interest in Tonbridge and therefore indeed TonbridgeBlog. So it would be especially nice if we heard from some of those Tonbridge expats strung across the globe. The odd comment does come in from Australia, Canada and the States so lets have more. What are you missing about your days in the town?....

Tonbridge goes 99p crazy!...

The beat of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" blasting out across Tonbridge High Street seemed particularly inapropriate to promote the latest shop to open it's doors in the town. There were balloons aplenty and sweets being handed out to passers-by, luring us in; in fact they were making a right song and dance about it. Yes the new 99p stores is open for business. I had to go in of course strictly for research purposes you understand! Being fair to them it is a vast improvement on the temporary Pound Store which has just closed its doors on the same premises, the old Woolworth's premises, the shelves look better, there's a uniformity about the corporate colours and everything seems tidier. I certainly wasn't the only person in the large store either at 9-55 this morning. Oh no the place was nearly jammed full of bargain hunters buying their gardening gloves, bags of sweets dust bin bags and plastic boxes (Poundstretcher must be fuming!) I felt a mixture of excitement that a new business had opened and obviously would bring more people into the High Street and yet saddened that the world had come to this. Quantity not quality, who cares who makes it! Is it under a pound? Then I'll take it. Do you need it? No but it was a bargain! (Reminds me of an old Monty Python sketch which still rings true about the lady who bought a piston engine not cos she needed it but because it was a bargain!) But then again I did buy a dozen envelopes for £1.98 (that's two lots of 99p) which I did need, so these stores maybe have their place after all....

Tonbridge Priory....

It's amazing how many people who see the coloured print of Tonbridge Priory, which hangs proudly on the wall in Mr. Books express disbelief that there ever was one and are amazed when I inform them that it used to stand roughly between the railway bridge and Sainsbury's petrol station. Once upon a time (actually around the year 1250) all you'd have been able to see from the top of Quarry Hill, walking down to towards Tonbridge would have been the Priory and it's grounds, then further along the Castle and its fortifications, which made up the very small hill fort town of Tonbridge, or was it Tunbridge or Tonebrigge in those days? The clues of course are all there: Priory Street, Priory Road, St. Augustine's Home for the elderly Priory vets etc. but we often just take all these place and street names for granted and don't really give them any significance. I've blogged about it before so I won't go on at length in this post but it was, by all accounts quite a structure; probably much bigger than the parish church, set in it's own sizeable grounds. It started to fall into ruin after its deconsecration (at the hands of Henry VIII and his hatchet man Cardinal Wollesey) and was left to the elements and local farmers until the 1840s when along came a new King, The Railway. What was left of it was then uncermoniously pulled down, foundations (and coffins) dug up to build the track, station and shunting yards. There's a good description and brief history here on the Tonbridge Historical Society web site....

A nice comment from TonbridgeBlog....

What a lovely sunny moaning, I mean morning it is today. Makes you want to go to the top of Tonbridge Castle and shout to the world with your arms in the air: "It's a beautiful day!" (You see, I can do it!)

Moaning versus nice comments on TonbridgeBlog....

One recent comment hit the nail on the head when they said that it's much easier to write negative things than positive. I have had a go at many things over the three or four years that this blog has been running. I hope though that it's never been done gratuitously but rather with good reason. You see it's also easy to write positive things about the flowers and the few lovely Spring like days we are having or about the lovely snowy days we had sledging and larking about throwing snow balls at our children and friends. Why does no one remember those posts? I guess because ultimately they are just nice comments on the world around us and, just like the national news, become the "And finally" type stories. What people really want to see is a place to vent their frustrations and sense of injustice about the inertia in local government, the miss-spending of our money, corruptness of politicians, cases of traffic wardens' officiousness, and yes shops which give a bad service. This is clearly shown by the number of comments, demonstrating that people are moved enough to put finger to keyboard, against moaning-type stories versus the positive stories or nice photos. As a blogger I guess I'm influenced by what people seem to like reading and commenting about. If anything I try not to be too much so but it's a tricky road to walk along. I'll continue to write some nice positive stories and commnets but on the other hand, as I've said before, I'll only stop moaning when there's nothing left to moan about....

Spare a few pence for a huge newspaper group....

It seems that someone else is trying to muscle in on TonbridgeBlog's patch! I had a visit from a nice young lady called Karen, who tells me she is a free lance journo. She came armed with a bundle of promo cards for a web site called Tonbridge people, sub heading "Your Place. Your People." Sounds a bit puke-making to me but I'm sure she'll do her best. It seems that the site is a commercial one; that is to say it has to attract ads from local businesses in order to keep going. Take a look at it yourselves; it promises to "keep you in touch with local like minded people, read- and write! all the local news that's relevant to YOU, (I hate it when the do that in UPPER CASE don't you?) be first to know what's on locally etc etc etc etc...." the same old tawdry rubbish that all these local commercial sites churn out. And who's behind this great venture? Why Northcliffe newspapers, owners of the Courier and hundreds of other failing local rags of course. If they were so bothered about giving the good folk of Tonbridge a voice then why did they close down their offices on Tonbridge High Street at the first whiff of an economic downturn? They left the town without a newspaper office for the first time in over 100 years and their paper goes ever more Tunbridge Wells-centric every week but now we're being asked (very nicely mind) to help them out!

Welcome aboard Liz Simpson, Lib Dem PPC....

We had a comment from, no less than, Liz Simpson the Parliamentary candidate from Tonbridge and Malling about "It's no joke" TonbridgeBlog's recent posting on the state of our highways during the cold snap. (Scroll down to see the post and all comments) Liz is a bit behind the pace here but better late than never and let's hope we have new convert to TBlog! I thought that it was worth highlighting so here it is in full for you to read. No doubt this will rekindle the political comments as well! I'm still waiting on Sir John Satnley's contribution to the debate!...

" Hi I have only just discovered the Tonbridge Blogger - makes interesting reading. Your first blogger was absolutely right - the blame for lack of coordinated response can be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of Mr Chard Cabinet Member for Highways. Borough Councils were offering to provide staff to help with the snow clearance before Christmas but KCC refused. KCC staff were telling people who phoned in asking for roads and pavement to be gritted that it was a Parish Council responsibility to provide salt bins - when the decision had been made last Autumn that KCC were not going to allow Parish Councils to provide bins (and of course Tonbridge is not parished anyway - so goodness knows where the good folk of Tonbridge were supposed to get theirs from). Following the huge public outcry Mr Chard was forced to apologise for having said it was their responsibility and after Christmas did accept help from the Boroughs. Has now decided that County Councillors can provide salt bins out of their Highways Grant Budgets they all hold - but at over £500 a pop - suggest you look at websites to see how much they cost wholesale. So complete about face. So why not contact your County Councillor and ask for a bin for places like Deakin Leas - that is steep enough at the best of times - must only have been passable by Eddie the Eagle in the snow.And please do remember when you next come to vote that KKC have £50 million people tied up in Iceland, a highways department in chaos, an internet TV station (now dumped) that no-one watched and cost over a million pounds to set up, millions of pounds spent on reorganisation after reorganisation and a demoralised workforce .... the list is almost endless.

Liz Simpson Lib Dem PPC Tonbridge and Malling
PS. Absolute scandal - casualty departments over-run, elderly marooned in their homes for up to three weeks."

Millets boys should go on a sales course....

I've just been in Millets on Tonbridge High Street and have discovered just how little those salesmen know about their products. They must be either very bored or on a high incentive commission scheme because both of them wouldn't leave me alone. I'd only been in the shop a minute or so and I swear the same guy asked me if I needed any help twice. Then he saw me looking at the walkers sticks and came over to see if I knew about Leki sticks and I said yes I did and I'm happy to just browse. I wouldn't have minded so much if he'd actually known what he was talking about. Salesmen should always beware of spouting rubbish to customers who might be more knowledgable than them. Far better to back off if the customer is happy browsing than to intimidate them with a heavy sell. That guy gave up in the end after I repeated that I was alright and thanked him for his help. A minute later his colleague came bounding over and asked me did I need help with the Leki sticks and did I know that Millets were also doing a similar one on a two-for-one offer but without the "Leki guarantees" When I inquired what these guarantees were he started fumbling around with the label on one of the sticks and, rather than just admit that he didn't know, started to bullshit (that's the only word for it I'm afraid) about it being 6o years, oh no that's how long they've been in business, it might be a lifetime guarantee, or a year or maybe three. What utter crap! Did I know that you need two sticks instead of just the one? Doctors have proved this that people who only use one stick become unbalanced which leads to back problems. Oh my God! I only went in for a look at the sticks now I'm going to go out with the threat of getting arthritis or some other hideous disfigurement. In the end I had to get quite blunt and say that I'm happy to decide for myself from here. When I finally wanted to pay for something, they were nowhere to be seen and I had to almost beg them to let them have my money. Millets boys: go on a sales course and if you've already been on one, go on a better one! Stop being so desparate to sell something, it shows and it puts people off. Actually in the end I made my choice of stick and I'm very happy with it, you see being quite an experienced hill walker, which they failed to get out of me, I kind of knew what I was looking for all along. I nearly walked out deliberately so as not to give them the sale but I bought the stick because I wanted it in spite of their pathetic sales pitch....

Tonbridge Arts Festival update....

Organising of the very first Tonbridge Arts Festival is moving on at a pace. I'll declare my interest in this early on as having been involved in the drive to make it happen at the concept stage and, more recently, sitting on the literary sub committee of the festival, so there you go. I didn't read it but I heard that the Courier ran a piece about it in last Fridays issue of the paper. You can read about it here on the This Is Kent site if you wish. Suffice it to say that it'll be worth being around for ten days in October (15-24th) as there'll be lots of arty things going on if you like that sort of thing. A big name author is being sought and I have approached Anthony Horowitz (who happens to be a mate of mine. Ok a twitter mate but a mate nonetheless!) Also being approached are Ian Rankin, Victoria Hislop, Carol Ann Duffy, Jools Holland and the Rolling Stones. Alright I made the last one up just to see if you're still paying attention! The commedian, Arthur Smith (of Grumpy Old Men fame) has signed up I think as a patron of the festival already and they'll be lots more to follow. Many venues around the town are being considered including West Kent College's new theatre (which we are assured will be finished by then!) Tonbridge School's many facilities, Angel Centre, libraries, Castle, Adult Ed Centre and the pubs and restaurants of the town. Personally I think that we need a focal point, such as a marquee on the Castle lawn, but that looks to be a bit too ambitious for the first year's festival, we'll wait and see. The most eye catching idea so far, and the most reported, is the possibility of having a Tonbridge Plinth (that was my idea so I would say that) somewhere around the Bridge/Water Gate which would, rather like the Trafalgar Square effort, run continuously throughout the festival and would-be artists, poets, entertainers, musicians, dancers, show offs, advertsers and just plain strange people could have their hour of fame. Get involved if you can but at the very least put the dates in your diary. Come on how often does Tonbridge host something as big as this?!..

The Digital Revolution....

Great programme called The Digital Revolution running on BBC Four. Last night's programme, presented by the rather dishy Aleks Krotoski, was all about how big names like Twitter, You Tube and Facebook have revolutonized people-reporting in the last five years. Not very long ago, although light years in cyber time, it would have been impossible for this blog, and an estimate 60 million like it, to exist and for all of us to instantaneously share views with like minded folk on the other side of the globe. Incredible if you stop to think about it, and yet, here we are taking it all for granted! There are a number of real experts on the programme, not just the usual array of academics which everyone trawls out, but the likes of Bill Gates and Tim Berners Lee (the founding father of the internet. By the way how cool must that be if someone asks "What do you do then?" and to be able to reply "Oh yes I er invented the internet!") Ms Krotoski, actually I think it's Dr. Krotoski, apart from being dishy, holds the whole thing together superbly as she pops up in London, then a second later in San Francisco, then Tokyo, then Shanghai and so on. She listens to these boffin internet pioneers intensely and you're always left with the impression that she could quite easily hold her own amongst them. Great programme. Click on the link to the beeb site to get a flavour of it....

Safe as houses....

I had a bit of a shock last Thursday when I arrived at my shop in the morning there was a circular scratch which, on closer inspection, had been done with a sharp knife or more likely a glass cutter, right next to the yale lock. This obviously had the effect of making me feel insecure and wondering if I'm due a break in; apart from anything else it looks a bit unsightly and I may have to replace the glass in the door for cosmetic reasons. It is toughened, wire reinforced glass so, whilst not inpenetrable, the thieves would have had a job on trying to get through. In fact it would probably have been alot easier to kick the door in or use a jammy knife (not that I want to give potential burglars any clues! I didn't think much more of it for the next hour or two until, low and behold, I got a telesales cold call from a residential security company calling themselves Landmark Security (I'm pretty sure that's what they said) saying that my address had been selected as a show home for their services and would I consider a representative coming around to explain the deal. You know the sort of thing. I explained that I'm a business address and the lady said something like she was so sorry to have troubled me. Now am I jumping to huge conclusions here, is it just my imagination running away with me (like in the Rolling Stones song) or this this more than a coincidence? Are there security firms out there so desparate and unscrupulous that they'll send someone round to given addresses in advance of the sale call to, let's just say give them a little bit of an emotional advantage. The more I think about it, since I've never before in the five years I've been here and, come to think of it, in the twenty five that I've been a home owner either, had such a cold call before this raises too many questions for it to be mere coincidence. Anyone else had such an experience?...

Tonbridge Has Talent....

Had a fantastic night last night being a judge at Tonbridge Has Talent. Held in Tonbridge School's Big School hall the event included performances from most of the senior schools in Tonbridge and a few from Tunbidge Wells. And did Tonbridge have talent? I'll let you judge for yourselves, that is if this link works properly! If you didn't agree with the judges decisions then you try it sometime. Do you upgrade them for technical ability? Do you go hard on them if they're nervous? Do they have star quality? What is star quality anyway! Did they performe it or just sing it? Can you persuade the other judges to see it your way if they disagree with your choices? All this has to be taken into account in the world of Simon Cowell, er sorry TonbridgeBlog....

More Tonbridge businesses to go west?...

It's tough being in business at the moment; particularly if you're a start up or new in retail. Even more so if you happen to have a shop in or around Tonbridge High Street; even more so if you happen to be North of the big town bridge. No I'm not feeling sorry for myself as you were all thinking, I don't want you to get the violins out for me; although, come to think of it, business could be brisker. No I'm thinking more about those businesses that have set up in the last year or two, who have probably made their plans before the recession hit, who've invested in leases, shop fittings and equipment. The Ivy House is probably one of those; I hear that they are struggling to keep their upmarket positioning and have wisely reverted to having some of the pub as, well, a pub instead of a gastro, bistro restauranty place, not sure whether it's a pub or what. I'm sure that some of the independent restaurants and a few of the hairdressers at this end of town must also be feeling the pinch. I hear that the new key cutter/shoe repairers below the Medway School of Dance is also struggling to cover its costs. Maybe it's the credit crunch, maybe there just isn't enough trade at this end of town for that type of business, maybe the guy running it just needs to be patient and build up his trade by steadily but surely giving a good service. So, if you need heels repaired, a new front door key, even a trophy engraving and you want to save yourself the bother of going down the south end of town then give the man a break before another shop in the north of the High Street goes west....

Mor on Politics....

And here's what our dear friend Mr. Clegg of the Lib Dems has got to say in his latest bit of e-mithering (good phrase that!)
"One of our four key pledges at this year's General Election will be our call for fairness and reform in the political system. This has been a rallying cry of our party for generations, and we have proud record on it. After the recent scandals it is needed now more than ever.
The excellent Power 2010 campaign group have been working hard to push these issues up the political agenda. I know many Liberal Democrats have been involved in their work and support their campaigning – as do I. That is why I am asking you to vote in their current poll to decide what their top five campaigning pledges should be for this election.
Needless to say I’m delighted to see that fair votes is currently topping the poll, along with a number of our other policies and I’ve already voted for them. I’ve also voted to give constituents the chance to kick out corrupt MPs, because after the recent expenses scandal I believe making MPs accountable should be a top priority in our reform of the political system.
Political reform is a hugely important issue for our country and our party; so I hope you will find a moment to take part in this campaign.
Best wishes,
Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats"

Don't all rush at once!...

Any old rags for Latvian childen: Charity clothing collections in Tonbridge....

I don't wish to sound uncharitable, and I'm aware that this is a bit of a sensitive topic but I've always wondered about some of those, so called, charities who drop plastic bags through your letter box. One came through my door this morning asking for clothing collections for Latvia. I'm sure it's a worthy cause, and they do look legitimate enough with a web site, professional looking packaging and, crucially, a registered UK charity number. The only thing that caught my eye and made me wonder was the line in the text on the clothing bag which mentioned that Retexa, who presumably are the distribution company who work for Children Our Future, will donate "...at least 60 pounds from every tonne collected... to Children Our Future." It's a funny way of putting it and possibly could be put down to the language barrier if they are Latvians. I'm not worried that they mixed their imperial weights with their metrics so much as the meagre amount. By my calculations of 2.2 pounds to a kilogramme that's 27.3 kg out of 1,000 kg or only 2.7% guaranteed to be donated. What happens to the other 972.7 kg of every tonne collected? Is that the distribution company's to sell? If so how and where do they sell it? Do they pick out all the designer label gear before they send the rest off to Latvia? I'm singling this charity out as an example, although I'm quite sure there are others in the same boat. Maybe this is normal, maybe all the charities operate on a 2.7% ratio and maybe 2.7 kg in every 1,000 is better than nothing but it did strike me as very low....

Great Entertainment in Tonbridge....

I'm having a bit of an arty week this week. What with being a judge on Friday night's Tonbridge Has Talent (Tonbridge School, Big School, 7-30pm) I'll be doing my best Simon Cowell impression, giving my honest, positive, and hopefully witty criticism of the acts. There's prize money and school reputations at stake and so the whole thing is taken fairly seriously by the entrants. If last year's event is anything to go by the audience is in for a right old treat. Mind you they'll have to go some to beat the night's entertainment, not as a judge this time, I had on Monday evening at Hillview School for Girls' Stars In Their Eyes Celebration of Talent held at the Angel Centre. There was Cheryl Cole, S Club, Rhiana, Myria Carey to name just a few. There were solo singers, duets, quartet, rock groups, dancers, you name it. They were all superb, and I'm not just saying this because my daughter goes to the school, if you ever get the chance to go to their perfomance evening you really should make the effort. The vast majority of the girls are genuinely enthusiastic about performing arts and quite a few of them West End Standard, I kid you not. There's are always one or two outstanding perfomances and, if I was forced to single them out, apart from my daughter's dance routine of course, I'd say that the Witney Houston "I Will Always Love You ou a ou a hooo" was technically the best and the Nina Simone A New Dawn, A New Day and I'm Feeeeling Goooooooooooooooooood! just brought the house down. And incidentally the two comperes, sorry I'm rubbish with names but I know they were the dance and drama teachers at the school, held the whole night together with their larking about which is actually quite tricky to do without straying into stretching and straining the jokes. They always knew how far they could push it with the audience and when to introduce the next act. In fact I'd much rather see them than Horne And Corden presenting the Brit Awards this year. And as if that weren't enough, on TV last night I was treated to a double bill of the new series of Shameless, which I never even knew they'd made, and then there's all new Mad Men this evening. How much better can it get! I wish every week could be as packed full of quality entertainment as this week....