The Last Book Shop....

Working in a secondhand bookshop you do get to meet some weird and wonderful people. I've just spent the last half an hour or so with four young guys who just chanced upon my shop and qualified on both counts as being both weird and wonderful. After a bit of sweet talking me they asked if I'd mind being filmed to express my views about the effect of the internet on the book trade (not all negative by any means by the way.) They told me that they are part of a small film production company who have embarked on a new film project based on a fictional idea of a small boy finding the last book shop in the world which never sold any books because book readers had ceased to exist. I asked them if this interview was going to turn out to be just an almighty wind-up by a fellow bookseller or someone but they assured me that they were being completely genuine. So what did I have to lose? As the Dr. Pepper ad goes: What's the worst that can happen?! I love the idea of their film, so simple and yet so deep in possibilities. Naturally they have a blog and a web site which you can look at if you are at all interested and not too busy ordering your next book group book on amazon!...

A bang on the head....

Four little beauties: Tunbridge Wells Brewery's range 

I've been out of sorts recently. Not been myself really. For the first time ever I sent an email reply to completely the wrong person which could have been very dangerous. Fortunately it was only to somebody who was chasing me up about a book they'd ordered from me which had obviously got held up in the post. The reply went to someone who was trying to order a completely different one which merely served to completely baffle him. Thankfully it wasn't an intimate one to my new lover or someone arranging a clandestine meeting that evening!(Not that I have one you understand; I ought to make that clear.) I've done a few other stupid things in the last week or so and even had heated arguments with my sister and with a neighbour, both of which have never happened before. I put this all down to one of two thngs: the stress caused by over two months of building work at home steadily taking it's toll on me as every morning I'm having to wake up and make decisions and make cups of coffee (the preferred drink of most builders these days I've discovered; builders tea is a myth!) The other cause could well be the bang on the back of the head when I was up in the loft the other day. I stood up and whacked my bonce on the lintel of a new hatch in the loft so hard it almost made me faint. The day before I'd watched the TV series Waking the Dead in which a young woman had banged her head in a similar way as she fell down some steps on a double decker bus and then had died (assumed murdered but actually not) three hours later and fell in a canal. So the next few hours after my blow on the skull were nervous ones I can tell you! Actually a third reason might be my semi detox diet of eating healthily and not drinking alcohol. It's the same as a full detox diet except mine is only self enforced from Monday to Friday. I reckon I've lost a few pounds and do feel a bit fitter but at the cost of feeling stressy and more forgetful. Maybe it's a combination of all three and it is nearly Friday so I'll be able to test out another bottle in the Tunbridge Wells Brewery's range of excellent beers. A report could follow next week on that and almost certainly in the next issue of the Tonbridge Insider as I've already written and submitted it. The things I have to do for science!...

Labouring on in Tonbridge....

The secretary of Tonbridge and Malling Labour Party, Jim Parish, had this to say about Labour's increased vote in yesterday's county council by-election:

“Yesterday’s result was a splendid one for Tonbridge Labour Party.  Our candidate, EMILY WILLIAMS, increased the Labour vote from 944 to 1,216 in a very low poll of 23% - a swing of over 12 per cent to Labour since 2009.

“This result puts us on a clear road to success in the Borough elections on 5 May.”  

Would that be the same Emily Williams who was reported in the local press as having trashed her home town Tonbridge?!..

Election Special....

I decided to vote yesterday evening after all and I'm glad I did. It always makes me feel good to exercise my democratic right; after all people die in other countries for that right so driving a few hundred yards out of my way seems a small inconvenience. Yet I'll bet when the turn out is worked out for this county council election that it'll be somewhere around 25% of the electorate. This means that around 75% of voters couldn't make it along to the polling station, thought that their vote wouldn't make any difference or, more likely, couldn't be arsed to tear themselves away from The One Show!  I can be all self righteous now because I was arsed to go and vote! Who did I vote for? How can you ask such a personal question?! As there was no Monster Raving Looney Party I had to register my protest and vote for the %$£&*~#*& party. The result can be seen on any newspaper politics page online and the unconfirmed result was posted in the comments in the last piece as The Cons having, rather predictably, romped home with Labour being the only significant gainer....

Tonbridge is struck by election fever (not)....

To say that political parties' campaigning for the county council election around Tonbridge has been low key really is an understatement. All I can think that I've had through my letter box is a black and white cheaply produced four page leaflet from the Lib Dems. But at least they made a little bit of an effort. There's been no door stepping, no speeches, no loud speaker announcements from cars, no hand shaking in the streets. Nothing at all from the other parties. Is Tonbridge so sewn up by the Conservatives that no one even bothers any more? Someone just asked me if I'd already voted and I had to be honest and say that I'd forgotten all about the election. Terrible really I ought to go out right now or on my way home. Shall I? Oh maybe. Only if I can be bothered though. It's about 200 yards out of my way though so maybe not. I should really though....

Wrong type of bulbs!...



The View along Tonbridge High Street at 4-30pm

 I know that Tonbridge Blog has had a good moan about this once or twice before but really is it acceptable to have so many street lights at the North end of the High Street out? I counted seven between the corner of Bank Street and the Ivy House alone not working the other night (around half the total on that stretch.) We are told that because this is a conservation area the lamp posts are of a different type and therefore the bulbs more difficult to obtain. Sound familiar? The wrong type of bulbs to coin a phrase! The wrong type of council more like. What the heck are they playing at, it's been like this on and off for at least two years now. Recession or not it's just not on to keep us all in the dark like this. Save money where you can but not on street lighting surely. So come on TMBC and KCC stop arguing over whose responsibility it all is and sort it. It costs shops trade in the winter months and it's probably a God send to burglars and thieves....

For the Love of God!...

Tonbridge Blog always likes to steer clear of politics and religion but I must say it's getting quite difficult to do that at the moment. Today's Courier has the story of a potentially imflatory article published in church magazine Keys. Now you wouldn't normally expect such a dear old sleepy little village like Hildenborough to be the source of a storm about anti-Islamism but it just shows you the times in which we live. You have to be careful what you say about pretty much everything these days, which can get frustrating, but you'd think this would be one area which the contributors and editor of the magazine would exercise extreme caution on. I haven't read the piece so I won't comment further on the content. It is a free country and thank God it is but surely we have to recognise that non-Christian people many of whom live and work around us, in our communities, also have the right to worship to their gods. That said it is a church magazine so why shouldn't an individual member of the community have the right to express her views however intolerant?...

The Tonbridge Insider out now...

The January issue of The Tonbridge Insider is on sale now (what's that? it's free? Well even better then.) It should be popping through your letter box any day now and there's a new page in there called Tonbridge Log. I wonder which impostor writes that! Nice front cover as well and honestly it really was only that the editor liked it and thought it summed up the big freeze weather....

Tonbridge Flooding....

Without wishing to sound alarmist isn't the Hilden Brook near the Rugby Club and the swimming pool getting a little on the high side? I know we get this every year but it has been known to burst its banks around there and submerge the road near the entrance to the Lower Castle Fields car park. You can't appreciate it very much from the picture but it is flowing really quite fast. It might make for a very quick game of Pooh Sticks if nothing else!...

Tonbridge Juddians battle against the elements....

Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Club are riding high at the moment having only lost one game all season when I last checked. Their battle with the elements however is proving less successful. Poor old TJs! Looking at the lovely scene of ducks bobbing along on that tranquil pond you'd think that it was just any old typical river picture. It's only when you look a little further that you realise that this is actually the flood waters starting to build up yet again at the back of TJs club house and towards the pitches, which are sometimes knee deep in water! After all those postponed games before Christmas due to the snow it looks like there could be some more to come. Unless those groundsmen get out there with their forks they'll be playing rugby until July this season!...

Sir John Stanley retiring?...

What's all this about a Tonbridge by election I'm hearing? Here's me getting all excited about the prospect of the smooth and debonair Sir John (Stanley) stepping down and making way for new blood in the same mould as Tunbridge Wells MP (Not Sir) Gregg Clarke and wondering why this is the first I'd heard of it. Maybe I'd missed some important news or announcement over the Christmas period. Maybe Sir John was finally swaping his sharp politician's suit for a tweed number and some wellies for the garden! But no, my hopes were dashed when I discovered that it was just a County Council by election and some young college grad is causing a stink by saying that Tonbridge is Dulls Ville. I think the average turnout for this type of polling day is around 21% and I'm sure this one won't be much different. That means that nearly four fifths of the elctorate cannot be arsed to go out and vote. I don't know about you but I can't seem to muster any kind of enthusiam for county elections....

Food Shortages in Tonbridge!...

Sainsbury's Car Park full up?

Apparently Waitrose was like a rummage at a church sale yesterday as people poured in to grab seemingly any food and drink they could lay their hands on. The reason for this temporary insanity seems to have been that the up market food retailer had decided to close its doors until Tuesday. Shock horror! That's three whole days that you'll have to manage on just the food in your, probably already overstocked, cupboards. It's fairly well known that, if push came to shove, then most households would comfortably be able to last a week and, with a bit of imagination and resourcefulness, maybe two or three weeks on the food in the house. The problem is you see we've all got too used to our cushy lifestyles. We think that the family will go to ruin if we don't have some Cars water biscuits and brie in the fridge or if we're down to our last bottle of M&S Bucks Fizz. Come on let's keep a sense of proportion, no one is going to starve just because Waitrose is closed for a few days especially since I've just heard Sainsbury's are staying open all weekend anyway. Don't blame me if there's now a riot at Sainsbury's as old grannies fight it out over who gets the last bag of frozen prawns....