Whilst my blogging has suffered I have been tweeting a lot more and I guess micro-blogging suits me a lot more at this current time. I have taken extending breaks from this blog before but this one does seem a lot more permanent although I’ve not said ‘The End’ yet. The blog has just had its 6th Birthday which is fairly substantial but if you want to keep up with me then follow me on http://twitter.com/Adem.

I hope you’re all fine too and I’ll see you around.

• 27th March – Had first BBQ of the year, and then went greyhound racing at Sittingbourne.
• 30th March – 1st April - Went to York. A very nice place indeed, although quite far away (274 miles). It shares a lot of features and history with Canterbury although it seems to have retained a lot more of its individuality. York Minster is pretty amazing and I went up to the top of the tower which gave great panoramic views of the City. I also did plenty of other sightseeing things too.
• 1st April – Went to Alton Towers. A nice day out although there was still plenty of queuing and the new ‘Thirteen’ ride was a great disappointment.
• 3rd April – Went to the Planet Thanet Easter Beer Festival. I had half pints of: Dark Mild, Old Legover, Celtica, Stud, Spinnaker, White  Dwarf Wheat Beer, Pompey Royal, Gadds No.5, Uberhop, King Alfred’s Gold, and Wold Gold.
• My car died – My Renault Megane of the last 7 years looks to have finally died. I’m not sure what to do really.

Obviously other things have happened too, but these are things that stood out. I hope you’ve had a good week too

It was around this time two years back that I took an extended break from blogging (March-November 2008) and in the end I came back stronger and more committed.

I’m not sure what I really want to blog about. Do I write about myself? Do I write about the local area? I’ve really not got much of a focus so I’m going to wait it out and see what happens. I’m not giving up on this blog but you just need to know that I won’t be around that much (subject to change).

I have got a few more things planned that will help with my Targets for 2010 so maybe I’ll report back on those some time soon.

See you around.

I had some time off work and cocooned myself indoors, took my antibiotics, watched TV, and that has been my life for the past week. I fell ill due to not eating properly, not getting enough sleep, getting too stressed, and generally not looking after myself properly.

I am better now and thought I’d better post to the blog to let you know I’m still around. I’ve not actually missed blogging so we’ll see when I blog next (cue blogging loads).

I hope you are all well.

We can go a lot more into that historical line but I’m more interested in 1949 rather that 449 and I’ve come across these great videos from British Pathe that show the Hugin arriving at Viking Bay (originally known as Main Sands until this event), the thousands who celebrated its arrival, and the presentation ceremony in 1950 by Prince Georg of Denmark with the ship on display at Pegwell Bay.

Just click on the photo and you’ll be taken to the relevant video.

VIKING SHIP ARRIVES

KENT GREETS VIKING INVADERS

THE VIKING SHIP ‘HUGIN’ AT RAMSGATE

It really is amazing having such a link into the past. Yes it’s a relic that’s only 60 years old but it signifies something a lot older and normally gets me spouting off about Vikings et al.

The throat is feeling a lot better now but I still have white spots on my tonsils so still some way to full recovery but lots of soluble aspirin, throat spray, and throat sweets are doing their job. I’ve not got much else to blog about yet so bear with me.

Along with the throat infection, other symptoms were fatigue, aching joints, and also mouth ulcers, which seem to point to my body just getting a bit rundown. More rest and more healthy living is called for I think.

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.

I also brought in Twitter and now the live feeds from Thanet Blogs goes out on http://www.twitter.com/thanetbloglist so people can keep in touch.

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.

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

This has also been corroborated by Your Thanet via twitter and also by the Thanet Extra.

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.

Useful Links:

• LD Lines
• Trans Europa Ferries
• The Noman Spirit