New newspaper for Tonbridge. What do we think??..

I see Tonbridge finally has a new newspaper. The Courier probably had it coming to them as they seem more and more Tunbridge Wells centric since they quit their Tonbridge offices a few years back. Difficult to keep an ear to the ground from five miles away! Anyway up steps the Times of Tonbridge, a new free weekly to give them a run for their money. Personally I doubt whether a freebie will ever take over from a paid for due to the psychology involved: if you pay for something you are going to read it whereas a freebie is likely to be glanced at and then cast aside much more quickly. That said let's see what happens. The first issue looks quite fresh and bright, it's also noticeably wider than most tabloids, including the Courier. Maybe they did that to differentiate the two but it does seem oddly wide in your hands. There's a tendency with freebie papers to cram the publication full of advertisements, advertorials and sponsorships and this one seems to be no exception. Always difficult to take a paper seriously when the whole back page is an advertisement (in this case for some up-market bedroom furniture company.) Everyone expects the sports news to be there but there isn't any. The newspaper group already publishes the Times of Tunbridge Wells, presumably successfully enough to enable them to launch the Tonbridge edition so they should know what they're doing. However, being based down the road in our sister town, will they be able to devote enough resources to make our edition any less Wells focussed than the Courier? Again, on the evidence of the first issue at least, it looks highly unlikely that they will. But, who knows? Time, or should that be Times,  will tell! It's a bold move launching any in-print newspaper or magazine at the moment what with the current mad dash for digital media and the cost savings therein, so good luck to them. Judging by the first issue though I'd say that the executives over at the Kent and Sussex Courier, with the resources of Northcliffe Newspapers behind them, won't be quaking in their boots just yet....

P'd Off with the P Off again....

The Post Office are at it again. No amount of customer friendly counter can prepare you for the outrage of being charged over ten quid for 0.087 of a kg of parcel. That's 87 grams I'm talking about. How is this possible? I can sense some of you thinking. Well here's how. A UK parcel weighing up to 2kg costs a very reasonable £2.80 BUT my package was 2.087 kg (a heavy book) with the cheapest charge being £12.93 for Parcelforce. Normal 2nd class would have been even more! You would think for all the world that the PO would have another tiered rate for, say 3kg/4kg etc. but that seems far too logical for them. The result I had no option but to cough up (short of opening up the envelope and tearing out some of the pages of the book to get it below the dreaded 2kg mark. But even my mercenary tendencies wouldn't go quite that far!) Mind you, looking on the bright side, £12.93 is still cheaper than taking the parcel up to Warwickshire myself! Unless I walked or cycled there of course, which might still be quicker than Parcelforce come to think of it!! (Now you've just gone too far with that last bit, Ed.)

Bakehouse at 124: £2.30? For a Pain au Chocolat. How can they justify that?...

A few mornings a week I tend to grab a free coffee from Waitrose on my way in to Mr. Books. Sometimes I also grab a sandwich for later and very occasionally a pastry for breakfast if I didn't have time at home. Today though, although I'd had no breakfast, I thought I'd give The Bakehouse at 124 a go. After all we are neighbours in the Tonbridge Business community so why not. Being honest, and being a bit of a skinflint, I do find their prices a little off putting. £2.30 for a pain au chocolat against 85p in Waitrose seems a little on the steep side. Nevertheless I thought I'd treat myself to a fresh baked one from a local bakery. When I'd finally set up the books outside my shop and turned the computer on ready to start the day I could finally settle down to eat my breakfast which was sitting on my desk enticing me by this time. What happened next I'm not making up.

After two or three mouthfuls I realised that by comparing a Waitrose pain au chocolat with the Bakehouse one was like trying to compare a burger from McDonalds with one made my Jamie Oliver. The difference between driving a Ford Focus on the M25 with the experience of driving a  Ferrari Testarossa into Monte Carlo! With every bite I was transported back to a holiday in France as a twenty year old with my girlfriend (now wife I hasten to add) sitting in a water front café in St. Malo, watching the waves lap up to the harbour walls. Every mouthful a buttery, sweet, chocolaty delight to my youthful taste buds. Tasting breakfast properly for the first time in my life. Bakehouse at 124 this morning helped me to relive those moments.
Now, if that's not worth £2.30 I don't know what is!

Tonbridge High Street Regeneration update....

To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Never have so many done so little for so few!...