Oh the unbridled excitement of living in Kent

[Tango589]

The intrigue and mystery never stops (http://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/kebab-nearly-kills-dog#3sv4acv)

[Sailor Steve]

The horror! The horror!

I'm glad I don't live in that hotbed of danger and insanity!

[Tango589]

The horror! The horror!

I'm glad I don't live in that hotbed of danger and insanity!
:haha:

Other people, feel free to post similar headlines from your local area, the more the merrier!

[DragonRider]

There is no way to top this collection of sex violence and brutality and those dam seagulls dreadful :o

[AndyJWest]

Seagulls? Fight them on the beaches! Fight them on the landing grounds! Never surrender!

[Sailor Steve]

Seagulls? Fight them on the beaches! Fight them on the landing grounds! Never surrender!
Are you insane? There is no defense against a dedicated aerial bombardment like that! I say make for the shelters, or at least the local pub.



I don't have a headline, but a great many years ago we had a big to-do in the small town of Magna, on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. They still had hitching posts in front of the bars and the fast-food places in those days, and still might for all I know. One day the Salt Lake Tribune's local section carried a story about two friends who were having a few too many in a bar and got into an argument. One of them went outside, unhitched his friends horse and tried to sell it to people walking by on the sidewalk. The other man called the police and demanded his friend be arrested. The local Assistant District Attorney reported that he spent several hours searching the law books for some inoffensive charge, since Horse Theft was still a "hanging offense". He finally charged him with "Attempting to sell property that was not rightfully his." The whole thing blew over when the pair sobered up and the charges were dropped. It wasn't long after that Horse Theft was removed from the books.

[Tango589]

Are you insane? There is no defense against a dedicated aerial bombardment like that! I say make for the shelters, or at least the local pub.



I don't have a headline, but a great many years ago we had a big to-do in the small town of Magna, on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley. They still had hitching posts in front of the bars and the fast-food places in those days, and still might for all I know. One day the Salt Lake Tribune's local section carried a story about two friends who were having a few too many in a bar and got into an argument. One of them went outside, unhitched his friends horse and tried to sell it to people walking by on the sidewalk. The other man called the police and demanded his friend be arrested. The local Assistant District Attorney reported that he spent several hours searching the law books for some inoffensive charge, since Horse Theft was still a "hanging offense". He finally charged him with "Attempting to sell property that was not rightfully his." The whole thing blew over when the pair sobered up and the charges were dropped. It wasn't long after that Horse Theft was removed from the books.
Alcohol. The cause of (and solution to) many of life's problems.:()1:

[Wolferz]

Seagulls are easy. All you need is a few Alka-Seltzer tablets.:huh:

[Oberon]

Haha, Kent, gotta love it. :haha:

You know why it's all kicking off in Whitstable, it's because this guy used to live there:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Peter_Cushing.jpg

[Eichhörnchen]

He's an all-time favourite of mine: I never saw him give anything except the best performance, whatever he was in.

When I lived in Kent we had some brilliant pubs to choose from: The Ivy House in Tonbridge (where I grew up... not in the pub I mean, well almost); The Man of Kent, also in Tonbridge, and which we usually referred to as The Can of Meat; the legendary Artichoke inn near Hadlow; The Kentish Rifleman in Plaxtol and many more.

[Oberon]

The Kentish Rifleman in Plaxtol

:yeah:

The Bakers in Plaxtol was also pretty top notch, Mum used to get me a sweet or two from them from time to time. We spent a lot of time in Plaxtol, we had a friend who lived there, and we also kept our horses in a paddock there next to the home of Air Chief Marshall Hodges:

http://www.theclassicpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Hodges.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hodges

A lovely gentleman he was. :yep:

I remember a day...it must have been in the early 1990s, probably somewhere between 1990-1991, a rather hefty thunderstorm developed not far from Maidstone and moved across Plaxtol. We were driving in the Land Rover to Plaxtol to check on the ponies, and it absolutely hammered down with rain, and some hefty crashes of thunder, one of which was when a nearby barn was hit and collapsed around the ears of two blokes who were taking shelter in it! After navigating our way around two blocked roads (landslides) we made it into Plaxtol and the water there must have been about a foot or two deep in places, the manhole covers were off, our friends cars had been moved by the water, and the fish from her pond (including some rather expensive Koi Carp) had made their escape, never to be seen again.
It would be nearly three decades before I'd see another storm that was as fierce. :doh: It was quite some excitement for a seven year old! :haha:

[Jimbuna]

http://s23.postimg.org/6g24z2fzf/image.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

[Oberon]

Well...that and I was a bit too young to drink in pubs back then...although I did used to watch 'Wacaday' on the telly in the Black Horse at Borough Green while my Mum did the cleaning. :yep:

(in reply to the post below...which was above...)

[Eichhörnchen]

http://i.imgur.com/aEJgIA5.jpg?1

(Edited post)

Oberon was too kind to point out that the Rifleman is, in fact, in Dunks Green, the next village. I took this photo in about 1986

[Eichhörnchen]

http://i.imgur.com/wAozNkB.jpg?1

The Forge at Plaxtol; that's my missus sitting at left.

[Oberon]

Nice :D What year was that? I always remember the deep snows we used to get in Kent with fondness, lucky if a few inches fall in a year on the Suffolk coastline here. :haha:

[Eichhörnchen]

That would have been either 1984 or 1985. We got married August '86 at nearby Shipbourne Church.

[Betonov]

Showed this to my friend that lives in Deal, Kent.
She was not surprised :doh:

[Aktungbby]

Seagulls? Fight them on the beaches! Fight them on the landing grounds! Never surrender!

REALLY! we were at the San Francisco zoo one day and had just ordered burgers when one swooped and stole the burger patty right off my brothers plate in his hand! No refunds on the burger!:doh:

[Eichhörnchen]

I'll bet that made you laff, didn't it? Different if it had been yours, though...:haha:

[Aktungbby]

NAH! With my cholesterol and anti-messiah complex...I'd have seen it as a sign from Wakan Tanka :rock: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?pictureid=7048&albumid=815&dl=1381536131&thumb=1 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/album.php?albumid=815)u-666 :/\\!!

[Eichhörnchen]

http://i.imgur.com/ou5KbsT.jpg?1

Tonbridge Castle: long in the memory for me.

I took this photo of the gatehouse about eight years ago; the little squirrel fella on the left was snapped in the grounds on the same day.

[Oberon]

Always enjoyed a trip to Bodiam castle, and Hever was quite lovely too, the fish in the moat were very impressive and had to have been worth a few grand.

Meanwhile, getting a bit back to the OPs intentions, feast your eyes upon this journalistic masterpiece:

http://www.courier.co.uk/Pheeeeweeee-Kent-avoids-worst-Hurricane-Gonzales/story-23309228-detail/story.html

Including such awe-inspiring journalism as:

"Kent did suffer some damage from the volcano..."

http://fast.swide.com/wp-content/uploads/top-5-volcano-disaster-films-cover3.jpg
Ashford high street...

[Eichhörnchen]

http://i.imgur.com/3EniZ0T.jpg?1

A favourite place to visit for me too: most people's idea of what a medieval castle should be. The castle featured in the 1954 film "Men of Sherwood Forest" with Don Taylor, described by one reviewer as "humdrum", but which is in fact one of my favourites.

It's very eerie now to move around within the walls and see, for instance, the place where Robin Hood dropped down and made his dramatic escape after dark along with Friar Tuck.

Now, incongruosly in the bright sunshine of a warm Summer afternoon, an old lady sits on the same spot, nibbling on her sandwich, while nearby stands a little boy, my son, picking his nose...