This week

Since coming back from Dorset we have been very busy enjoying the rest of the time that Martin has had off on holiday. A bit of a run down on what we have been up to - just to show we can have just as much fun holidaying at home.

Friday - washing, shopping, gardening, ironing, ...

Saturday - popped out to buy me a new pair of trainers (£15 for a pair of Rebok Classics!!) and then went to see Kelly (who was not doing her kitchen as it was raining and they needed to get outside to cut wood) The neighbours had a domestic ending with the police being called.

Sunday - Martin played golf for most of the morning and saw his dad in the afternoon. We were going to have the kids over for a BBQ but ...it rained.

Monday - We live right on the coast so I wanted a day at the seaside doing all the seaside things, candy floss, fish and chips, ice-creams, sandcastles, paddling etc. I also wanted to give Mart a go at pitch and putt golf so we headed out to Margate. What a huge huge dissappointment. The pitch and putt had long been shut down (although it is a public park and the council still own it so we couldnt see why, since they need little upkeep), the dreamland site was a building site/car park, most if not nearly all of the shops on the seafront had been boarded up and then covered in grafitti, there was rubbish blowing down the street, and the place, which is usually heaving in August was all but deserted. We couldnt believe how a place could deteriate in such a short time. Dreamland going can not be the only cause as many of the seaside towns we had visited lately do not have that attraction, but it did seam as if the local council had just given up on the place.

Disgusted we continued around the coast line to Palm Bay were a new (to us) pitch and putt had sprung up. It prooved fairly popular too and although the wind was blowing in off the sea, the rain clouds meneced overhead and I was pretty useless, we had a brilliant time.

It wasn't the right place to get the fish and chips though, being practically all there was there was a few beach huts and a pitch and putt course so we got in the car and drove on to Broadstairs. We hadn't realised that last week was the Folk Week in Broadstairs, so this was one seaside town that was packed to the gills with hippy types and those enjoying the Morris men and folky music. We had some really tasty fish and chips on the prom looking out to sea, walked round the craft stalls on the cliff, ate an ice cream and then decided to complete the coast line by buying our doughnuts in Ramsgate.

Encouraged by Broadstairs we were devastated to discover Ramsgate was in much the same state as Margate. The huge arcade and fun fair on the front had been knocked down to make way for apartment and luxury hotel development but was nothing but a pile of rubble, the casino now replaced by two others in the nearby locality, was boarded up and looking very sad - a beautiful Victorian building going to rack and ruin.

Tuesday - we were going to go out for a picnic with Laura but she wasnt feeling too good. Not liking the look of the weather we decided to stay home. I scrapped all day and Martin watched cricket and football and the olympics.

Wednesday - Ollie had given us a new shower head for the shower but when I put it on we discovered the old shower did have a leak and we needed a new one after all. I was off to the flicks with mum and Laura to see Mamma mia although Laura was still ill so didnt come in the end) so left dad and Martin putting it in. They were still putting it in when we came home 3 hours later, only to discover it was faulty and they had to take it off, take it back and start all over again.

Thursday - Again Laura was feeling too ill to join us on a picnic so we decided to go pick up some leaflets from our threatened Tourist Information Center to see where we could go. (Please go sign the petition on the prime minister's web site to sav e our TI centre). Biddenden Vineyard looked good on the leaflet and was free. It wasnt that brilliant when we got there, as there was no tour, you had to walk round the vines on your own, no information notices, only the names of some of the grapes and when they were planted, and no promised look at the cider making or bottling. The woman in the shop, although helpful was not really interested in her customers, most of the stuff in the shop was bought in and not made on the premises, and as we turned to leave and eat our lunch the heavens opened.




No good for a picnic because even when the rain eventually stopped, the ground was way too wet. We drove for nearly an hour round the countryside looking for a place to stop. Not that many years back you could stop anywhere to take a picnic but not so nowadays. Anyway eventually the sun came out, and we stopped in Beneden by the church

and sat in the car eating our goodies and watching the learner car drivers practice their three point turns.

Today - another doing nothing day, as we bought Laura, still feeling ill, over to us just to get her out the house and to get some food in her, and sortedout most of the 'Save the date' cards for the wedding, ready to be posted.