Some good information on the history of Tonbridge as well as some very nice old piccies. Membership information also available, take a look at the new and improved site....

This is one of the best summer fete activities I've ever seen. It was 50p a bet and drew a large crowd of eager people keen to bet on the "horses" at the St. Minver church fete, which I stumbled across during my recent excusrsion to Cornwall. I've never seen it before so it could be a one off; I'm definitely going to try to get hold of one for the Tonbridge Summer fete next year; come to think of it they should market it as a national game....(You may have to play the video clip by clicking on the pic above and then clicking play over on Alternative T blog, which seems to be far more technically advanced... or is it just me who can't work it out?! Either way it's certainly worth the extra bit of effort....

Did anyone see the closing ceremony of the Olympics; having been away for most of the Games I felt obliged to catch up as best I could and ended up watching most of it. Yes it was a bit embarrassing when all we could offer was a shiney red double decker London bus, Boris Johnson, an old rocker and an X-factor reject, plus of course Becks kicking a football into the crowd. But at least we didn't turn any children away for not being pretty enough or shoot any students! So as our thoughts turn to 2012 (or at least that's what the media would have us believe, personally I'm avoiding all mention of it as I'll be 50 that year) but here's one for you; if Tonbridge were hosting the Olympics what would we have put into our eight minute slot at this year's closing ceremony? How about Kelly Holmes arriving half an hour late in an Arriva bus singing with Keane with the 2012 GB skateboarding team in hoodies doing trick jumps outside a makeshift Sainsbury's! Any other thoughts?...

This is what someone said to us when we were ready to return home. The weather had been so dreadful that you could see why he was saying this. Don't give on on Cornwall! In other words don't bother going to Spain or Portugal, the South of France or Italy. Why would we when we have everything we need, lovely seafood, weird and wonderful real ales, Cornish Pasties (these days in every flavour you could possibly dream of) sea, surf, sand, beautiful people, quaint towns and cottages. Everything really except the weather (this year anyway) I won't be giving up on Cornwall despite having been rained on 12 days out of 14, despite having just about survived force ten gales (in a tent), having the tent collapse on us having returned from a trip to Padstow, and despite being woken up several times each night by either a flapping fly sheet or else a herd of cows in the next field. Isn't that after all what holidays are all about? In fact I was rather tempted by a nice little cottage/shop in Mullion Cove on the market for a mere £395,000, with sea views (only snag was it's right next to the public toilets, good for trade but not so good to live next to) Imagine getting up at 8-30 every morning, nipping down to the picturesque harbour for a swim, swallow diving off the harbour wall a few times, going back for breakfast and opening the shop to the first wave of never ending tourists who are keen to spend their hard earned pennies on everything from a child's tiddler fishing net to a copy of Cornish Fishing Folklore. Probably a good time to buy in Cornwall at the moment as prices have plummeted over the last six months or so. You can now pick up a three bed terrace in Rock for under £2 million I'm told! Anyway Tonbridge blog is back, maybe not as refreshed as I'd ike to be, but back all the same. It's been very encouraging to see that the blogging has continued without me posting my two-pen'w'th. Parking charges being introduced at Hayesden Country park being the most popular subject (or unpopular) It is an outrage but frankly why is anyone in the least bit suprised; the council should be encouraging people into Tonbridge and all they do is over charge people for shopping, nick cars if they're five minutes over in the car park, harrass tradesmen who sometimes have no choice but to park in restricted zones and now they charge us to go and look at the swans and geese at Barden Lake. They'll keep doing it because it's easy money; what they don't seem to grasp is the negative long term effect of all this on visitors to the town and locals simply going elsewhere for their shopping and entertainment. I'm afraid it's the same old problem repeating itself over and over again: "the council" doesn't know it's butt from its elbow. On the one hand they have departments to encourage business and trade and down the corridor they have another to put them off. They need a complete strategy it's as simple as that....

Tonbridge blog will blog again soon but don't let me stop you....

Friends of Tunbridge Wells Boys School will be delighted to hear that a certain Mr. Dereck Barnard, who was Head Master at the school for nigh on a hundred years, will be available for a chat at Mr. Books Bookshop in Bank Street, Tonbridge tomorrow and Friday and again next week so long as you don't distract him from selling books that is! During his teaching years his private dream was to work in a bookshop, apparently, so I'm calling his bluff. Let's see how keen he still is after a couple of weeks of dealing with some of the weirder and wonderful customers....

How dare Crest Nicholson park one of their own vehicles outside their award winning town centre development. Just as well our friendly Civil Gestapo Enforcement Officer was on hand to put the blighter to rights!....

Tonbridge is fast resembling an Agatha Christie novel: deaths and murders going on, seemingly, all around us. The latest may have happened on Saturday night; I'm afraid T blog hasn't exactly been what you would call on the ball on this one. I have seen the flowers tied to the bridge railings, so clearly there has been a death and most probably in the river Medway below and I've heard about the helicopters circling the scene on Saturday night and seen the Police tape around the scene. Beyond that I'm in the dark but I will endeavour to find out a few more facts about the case. All I can say for now is that it seems to be another death in Tonbridge in dodgy circumstances, the third in around six months and that's surely more than our fair share. Condolences to the family concerned in this latest sorry episode....

Now as some of you may know Tonbridge blog is a big fan of poetry. You must know by now that, my alta ego, Mr. Books, organises regular poetry nights at The Ivy House pub in Tonbridge. The range of styles there has been amazingly varied, in fact everything from the Dafodils of Wordsworth to the Hip Hop of Dr. Wottrich. That's about as wide apart as it's possible to go, or so I thought until I saw and heard two artists/poets/musicians/talkers (actually I don't think they fit into any genre, which is probably part of the point (without getting too pseudo and deep.) You can hear them both, and there are probably many others, on YouTube of course, and MySpace, of course again. They have to have weird names like Sroobius pip and PolarBear, cos t goes with the territory. They call it Spoken Word and I guess if you analyse it people have been performing this kind of thing for at least a thousand years in one form or another. So it is reinventing the wheel a bit; anyway I like them, see what you think....

Huge sigh of relief as your favourite local blog comes back online. Have a look below to see what you've been missing due to the greed of the site admin people. Actually you can always look at alternative Tonbridge blog for a slightly different perspective: it is always up even when this site is down and what's more it's free, doesn't cost me a penny, gratis. Why then, I hear some of you say, don't I simply transfer everything to that site then it would never go down. I have no real answer to that other than I don't like change all that much. Simply click on the top link to the right, which is accessable even when the rest of the blog is down....

Apparently 300 dogs have escaped from Battersea Dogs home after thieves broke into the charity's offices. At present the police have no strong leads!!! They can't stop us laughing, it's the only thing we've got left....

Come to think of it I watched a film called "Unfaithful" again last night, with Richard Gere and a lovely female actress who's name escapes me. Anyway by chance she meets a good looking and slightly weird bookseller, which ends up in a passionate and slightly violent affair. She is wracked with guilt but has fallen for him utterly, husband gets suspicious and hires a PI who gets photographic evidence of the affair. The husband secretly goes to see the bookseller, to warn him off but this turns into a murderous meeting when the jealous husband (Gere) spots a collectable snow ball, which is also very heavy, which he has given to his wife and now the wife has clearly given it to the bookseller as a love token. Result: sudden loss of control on the part of Gere's character and a whack over the head with the thick glass snowball, which almost instantaneously kills the bookseller. Then a cover up and later guilt and all the rest of it. The snow ball having been returned to the family home gives the game away. So let's recap: a bookseller gets murdered, then a black witch moth flies into my shop this morning; and I didn't even get to have the affair! Surely just my imagination running away with me!....

I swear to you a bloody great big black moth floated past me and into my shop today as I was opening up. It had to be at least four inches across its wing span. Brief research leads me to think that it may be a Black Witch Moth which is often mistaken for a small bat, which was my first reaction. If it is then there is all sorts of mythology attached to this insect ranging from a bringer of death, to a loved one departed coming to say goodbye, through to a bringer of wealth. If I've got a choice I'll take the latter please! The thing is these particular winged creatures are native to Mexico and occasionally Texas, so what the hell is it doing in my shop in Tonbridge?! Anyway I hope to bring you some piccies later if I can spot the little blighter. It's here somewhere still, lurking behind an old tome, perhaps it's looking for its friends in Britiash Butterflies and Moths! The good news is that they are completely harmless to humans.