I walked to Canterbury today, to make the most of the snow and its hated enemy, the sun. A lot of my life is staring at slightly differently sized rectangles of light. I sleep surrounded by them, and I spent my days pressing bits of them with my thumbs. I’m sure this is a lifestyleContinue reading “I walked to Canterbury in the snow by mistake”
Category Archives: Places
Snow falls on Herne Bay: midnight edition
I went back out, because the snow was still falling. I haven’t experienced many snowy beaches in my lifetime, so it felt good and right to run along this one while it is conveniently a few streets away. I ran to the pier along the shoreline, and then beyond, to the clock tower, before headingContinue reading “Snow falls on Herne Bay: midnight edition”
Snow falls on Herne Bay
I am told it doesn’t snow very often in the Bay, so here are some photographs for the public record, so that future historians can pore over the dusty pages of WordPress for evidence of such an event. And while you’re here, future historians: how do websites gather dust, exactly? Or is this a knowingContinue reading “Snow falls on Herne Bay”
Further up and further in
I wrote up a blog post about going for a walk, climbing a tree, nationalising the golf courses, poorly maintained public footpaths, and how leaving a town or city via any means other than the car makes you feel like a second class citizen. Unfortunately all of this was lost, thanks to the vagaries ofContinue reading “Further up and further in”
Walthamstow Wassail 2021
Sunday was the 11th Walthamstow Wassail: online this year, like so many other events and traditions that break up the year and help give life some narrative and meaning. Conspiracy theorists view Covid as an agent of state control, and vaccines as containing microchips designed by billionaires to make the masses more pliant. These peopleContinue reading “Walthamstow Wassail 2021”
Walking to Sainsbury’s
After a few days of not leaving the house, I went to the Sainsbury’s on the other side of town. A big box by the dual carriageway [1], the trip to this mahoosive shop felt a bit like a holiday, or at least a day trip. Such are the narrowing of one’s expectations during aContinue reading “Walking to Sainsbury’s”
Ramsgate International Hoverport
Hovercrafts exist in the British postwar imagination alongside Concorde and the Post Office Tower as avatars of the rapidly arriving future. These ludicrous metal beasts, dreamed up by some archetypal crackpot inventor, brought Europe closer, but were also a symbol of British exceptionalism. Sure, the French have some nice wines, but do they have planesContinue reading “Ramsgate International Hoverport”
As rare as shark’s teeth
There’s a girl I know who rolls her eyes at the Gok Wan Acolytes / Underneath her bed there lies a collection of ammonites Fix it so she dreams of me, Half Man Half Biscuit A Sunday morning spent seeking fossils at low tide. A quick cycle along the front, past dogs and families andContinue reading “As rare as shark’s teeth”
Whitstable
Today I took a break from seeking jobs and gazing into the fire to walk along the coast to Whitstable and back. The path was busy with dog walkers and cyclists, so I stuck to the shore line and stared at the egrets and oystercatchers. Whitstable itself isn’t designed for cars, but is inundated withContinue reading “Whitstable”
Cliffe
On Friday I went to the estuary to meet a dog. We met at the village of Cliffe, which feels like a village at the end of the world. The road ends at the church, and then there’s mud, and marsh, and channels of water leading down to the grey old Thames. But humans haveContinue reading “Cliffe”
