faustus | Entries tagged with ramsgate

It seemed like a good idea at the time: I would buy an Explorer ticket and go and photograph the beach shelter at Margate and pick up a book by Levinas in Whitstable. To fill up the rest of the day I could check out Horseclans novels in Ramsgate and maybe have a coffee at Westwood Chaos or in Ramsgate. The only thing was to be at the campus on the hill for Sean Hughes.

First - after chatting with my elderly neighbour's daughter - was to go to Boots to pick up this month's pills, and catch a bus out to Margate. It might have made more sense to go to Ramsgate first - but I'm not sure how early the bookshop would open, and the light was with me. Against the law that the bus you catch is late and the one you miss is early, this one kept stopping to mesh with its timetable. Curses.

( Margate )

( November is the cruelest month )

( 'I share all your antipathy to the noisy Plebeian excursionist. A visit to Ramsgate during the season and the vision of the crowded, howling sands has left in me feelings which all my Radicalism cannot allay. At the same time I think that the lower orders are seen unfavourably when enjoying themselves. In labour and trouble they are more dignified and less noisy.' )

( Westgate on Sea )

( Herne Bay )

( Whitstable )

( The Carbuncle )

( The Last Leg )

Yesterday I wanted to go out - although I should have stayed in to a) mark, b) tidy, c) research the conference paper. But sometimes getting out is what's needed.

And curious it was that Planet Thanet was the answer.

First on the Explorer to Margate, which is closing down brick by brick. Like Ramsgate it has a KFC and so, as I can't usually have one, I indulge. Ten minutes after arriving I'm served, and as always it's not as good as I imagine. I pop next door to a charity shop, do the Turner ("The Sound of Music" - rather dull in the end), and raid the charity shops and Julian Graves.

On to Broadstairs, and I discover that Time and Space has closed down - ah, no, in fact it has moved down the hill. That's lucky! (I have photographic evidence.) Past Ballard's the Florists and to the Broadstairs Bookshop, which smells of dust and cat pee. Or is that me? Some cheap hits. Albion is still open - but closed for lunch. Eventually they reopen. Again the smell of cat pee. Maybe it is me. This is a piled bookshop, so it's not so much browsing as archaeology. I skip out on too close a look.

Thence Ramsgate - charity shops and a second hand shop. A little pricey, but no smell of cat pee. Locate tapioca starch - but the recipient has some already and disbelieves it's the same as tapioca flour. We'll see. I have no time for Cafe Nerd and pop into Waitrose. No tapioca flour there; poor choice of safe flours in fact. Buy batteries once I've worked out which stickers apply to which.

The final stop is Westgate Shopping centre and I check my timings - 17.07 or 18.20. No time for coffee - I browse a couple of shops, and decide a sub for the bus is appropriate. I make the second (or third) discovery of the day, in Subway:

a BLT need not include lettuce nor tomato.

Or, rather, includes bacon but you have to specify lettuce and tomato when you are asked about salad.

That's not a BLT; that's a B.

The 17.07 is only going to Margate, it appears; the 18.20 is Mon-Fri only. This is not a shopping centre that welcomes the carless. I catch the loop back to Margate, and I've time to buy some butter and a packet of crisps from Somerfield. The shop is closing. Another slice of Margate going.

A long journey home - and the cats can hang, I'll go to the pub now, feed them later.

Damn - no ice cream as well as no coffee.

Why This Is Hell

Nor Am I Out of It

Andy of the Five Towns

Expotition - and Discovery about Time and Space

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