This week I’ve been happy to see that my good friend Hannah has started a blog and that it has got past the all too familiar ‘single post then forget about it’ stage that many blogs get too. In fact she has been rather prolific these past few days and it’s great to see someone so animated when it comes to the wonders of blogging when I’ve been doing it for almost six years (started May 2004).
Hannah’s start to blogging has also inspired the return of another good friend Andy who last blogged in 2007, but we shall have to see if he gets past the initial first post.
This all takes me to the Thanet Blog List, which I took over from Kevin in September 2006 and initially spent quite a lot of time on, including the switchover to WordPress which allowed more scope for development. One of the big developments was a live feed from listed blogs as a sub page and this proved to be very popular, so much so that many people would by-pass the home page to go to the live feed. Last year Blogger, the company that hosts many local blogs, introduced a feed-widget for users to show pretty-much the same on their blogs with whatever blogs they wanted, and so it was time for the TBL to step up.
Last year I moved the live-feed to the front page, which meant the focus was on blogs that were actually updating rather than those who gave-up the ghost and were maybe still listed but not updating. This went well but there were still-hiccups until I used new plugins for WordPress which offered better options for the huge amount of blogs that were listed. I also edited the template so that readers would only be faced with a short excerpt from the blog feed which would entice them to click the links to visit the actual blog, directing visitors to Thanet blogs which of course was the main aim of the Thanet Blog List to start with.
Now all I need to get new Thanet blogs listed is add the URL of a blog to the back-end of the TBL and everything else is automated. If you have a blog that isn’t listed then let me know and get more exposure for your blog.
Tonight Euroferries were featured on BBC 1′s Inside Out programme in an investigation by Glenn Campbell under the title of ‘Will Euroferries start a new ferry service?‘
You will shortly be able to watch the programme on BBC iPlayer on this link.
I’m not sure of the viewing figures for the programme but I’m sure that quite a few people in the South-East watch it so it really could be seen as a good PR opportunity to set the record straight and let the public know what is happening, something the blogging community has been asking for the past year, but Euroferries declined to be filmed and instead released another press release (some of which contradicted what Thanet Council were saying.)
Glenn went down to their ‘offices’ at the Port of Ramsgate to find that there weren’t any, and then went to find Adrian Gillan (Director of Euroferries), but he wasn’t available either, so yet again it was left to the viewer to speculate and grow even more pessimistic about the chance of a cross channel ferry from Ramsgate to Boulogne.
Announcement was made today at 1pm. Norman Spirit to run out of Ramsgate and to be renamed Ostend Spirit. LD Lines in partnership with TEF, service to start approx 15th March !!! Whats next ? perhaps a fast craft to Boulogne or Ostend ??? – Auntymoo 8th Feb 2010 @ 2:29 pm
So Ramsgate does get a new passenger ferry, but not to Boulogne. I somehow have more confidence with this than with you know who. There will be two return crossings a day which will be 4 hours each way, and single tickets will cost £24 for a car and five passengers.
As I mentioned in this post Euroferries will be the subject of tonight’s Inside Out programme (7:30pm on BBC1 South-East or Sky 983) where Glenn Campbell asks whether Euroferries will ever start a new ferry service from Ramsgate. It should make good viewing.
I’ve never really watched American Football before and have only got tastes of it from the movies (Last Boy Scout anyone?) which I doubt really gives a true representation of the sport. I do however know the basic rules of the game and always liken it to Rugby League for simplicities sake. Of course there are lots of ‘time-outs’ too which seem to be integral to American sports.
So anyway, I found myself watching the Super Bowl match between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts and I quite enjoyed it, although I only made it to halftime before having to get to bed (just before 1am). This morning I found out the Saints had won the match 31-17. We Brits usually dismiss the game as rugby but with padding, but I guess that’s because we don’t know a great deal about the game. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is still very ‘different’ to sports I’ve played but I guess I’ve got a little more respect for it now having actually watched a real game.
The only thing that would annoy me though is the adverts which come on at every possible moment, but luckily for me I was watching the match on BBC1 so when the adverts came up they just went back to the studio for some more insight from the pundits (and from @Aravis and @LegalEagle).
I’ve always fancied growing my own fruit and veg, and here in the South of England we get enough good weather to make this possible. Quite a lot of seeds need to be planted in February/March time and what normally happens is that it gets to May, gets sunny, and then I start thinking about planting seeds, which means by the time I get around to it most of the good weather has gone. With this in mind I’ve just bought myself a mini-greenhouse from Wilkinsons for £12.
It’s 157cm in height, 69cm wide, and 49cm deep, so it’s not too big, but big enough for me to start growing my seeds. I’m going to focus on smaller crops like spring onions, radish, parsley, herbs, etc as they need less space and I will also get quicker results. Of course these won’t fulfil all my needs and I’ll still get my fruit and veg from Ramsgate town, but it will give me a hobby over the coming months heading into summer.
n.b. It’ll be interesting to see how my grapes cope after a cold winter too, although my chillies are doing well indoors.
p.s. My friend Hannah has just started her own blog, Yummy Mummy, so pop along and say hello.
This is another appeal for a subject for me to write about after my last effort about ‘Lost and Forgotten Sweets‘ suggested by @skinofstars via twitter.
Just send me a title of a post and I’ll pick one and do my best to write an interesting article.
Either leave a comment below or reply to me on twitter (@adem). Obviously it’s better if it’s something I might actually know a bit about.
Also, if you fancy writing a guest blog and would like it to appear here then let me know.
