Dodgy horses and cars.

We had a good evening at Emma's 30th Party last night. It was held at the Roffen in Rochester, a club I last went to in the 80's as a guest of my neighbour when I lived in Strood. Back then when I was thinner I used to play squash down there and I should have joined as it was so cheap and the facilities were second to none. Unfortunately I moved away soon after. The thing I found surprising is it is still reasonably cheap to join, and the club offers gym, squash, sauna, fine dining and nice bars. I wish Ashford had a club like that, Medway is just a little too far to travel.

So we went into town this morning. There is a bit of a horse race going on today so I had a flutter on 'Shakalakaboomboom'.  I'm finding less and less to like about the town centre. It really needs more shops to attract the punters, and cheaper or free parking regardless of what the council leaders said this week. They are only thinking about lost revenue from cheap or free parking. I hope this 'Portas Pilot' scheme is won by Ashford. We need a long term plan to stop the town centre from becoming a ghost town. I popped into the model shop on the way home and picked up some OO gauge figures for my station, including a guy on a Lambretta. We lunched at Dobbies, then stopped at Sainsbury's where AHBS were doing an Outside Broadcast for the 'Find a Voice' Charity. I had a chat with one of the presenters and we talked about Hospital radio and mutual friends. Obviously the news of my application to them has been mentioned as he had heard of me. It was good to see presenter John 'Webbo' Webster down there. The guy is a bit of a local legend after getting a strong following of listeners on the Breakfast Show. Then he and a few others were unceremoniously dumped from the  KMFM schedules. John is involved with Find a Voice and was there to lend his support. I also caught a glimpse of Jan Francis, the actress who appeared opposite Paul Nicholas in 'Just Good Friends'.

Well my 'orse lasted the course, then faded towards the end and came in 9th. You can't win them all.

Sunday.

I got up early to watch the Chinese Grand Prix.  What a great race, The Beeb chose the right one to show live. After showering and dressing we did our weekly shop at Asda, then decided to go down to Folkestone market. I drove up to the Leas to find a parking space  and use the Water Lift. Having no luck parking on the road, we drove into the car park and payed for 2 hours worth. I was astounded to find the machine didn't recognise a 10p and gave me 1 hour for £2.30. What a rip-off, I was fuming! Then having seen from the top what was at the market (hardly anything) we didn't bother going down there. After a quick McD break and a look in Debenhams we drove round the coast via Hythe and went home, stopping off at the Mazda garage to see if there were any cheapies in there (There wasn't). After a quick trawl on line I saw a cheap MGF at a garage in Challock. So we drove down there to have a quick look. There was a reason why it was so cheap, the thing was a rust bucket, with holes in the rag top as well as the leather seats totally knackered from the water leaks. A quick look in garages down the A28 toward Canterbury turned out to be fruitless as well.
I'm still on the look out for a cheap (less than 3 grand) Mazda MX-5 so if anyone spots one, let me know.

Until next week then...
Horse