The most exciting news (allegedly) in Thanet, since the opening of Dreamland in the 1950’s, is the opening of Turner Contemporary in Margate. I was lucky enough to go the press opening on Wednesday 13^th April ahead of the official opening.

Whilst what is on exhibited is quite beautiful, although sparse, the most dramatic scene is the view of the sea from the various galleries which is rather special especially when the sun sets.  

I cannot but feel that this is the wrong location for the right project. This should have been in Whitstable, where it would have been more at home with the population, rather than the still down-at-heel Margate.

Building Turner Contemporary in Margate, is akin to deciding to re-build the iconic Indian Taj Mahal mausoleum in Leytonstone, East London.

I do love Thanet, and in particular Margate, as I have fond childhood memories from the 1970s. But the memories of what Margate was then and is now and what it could be is so contrasting that it could be fiction.

I make an exception though for the following: the outstanding boutique B&B The Reading Rooms, (www.thereadingroomsmargate.co.uk) the Harbour Café Bar, restaurant, The Ambrette (www.theambrette.co.uk), The Lifeboat Ale & Cider House (www.thelifeboat-margate.com), the boutiques and galleries in the Old Town and of course the mildly eccentric  Walpole Bay Hotel, (www.walpolebayhotel.co.uk). I worry that apart from these places, Margate has little to offer the 400 people a day expected to visit Turner Contemporary.

If the not-great attitude I encountered on the telephone with the receptionist, at Turner, is mixed with the ineptitude of the Visit Kent staff (who I feel have ignored Thanet for years) then Margate’s school report should be downgraded from ‘could do better’ to ‘there is little or no improvement here, just yet’.

Margate needs as huge facelift: for starters why not knock that hideous high rise on the seafront down or at least paint it. In fact, why not give grants to paint the entire seafront.  Remove the tacky arcades, and replace them with Victorian-style shopping fronts and make Margate, Margate again.

Then inform certain London local authorities that Thanet will no longer tolerate housing their addicts or delinquents and push hard for a high-speed link to Canterbury - and only then might Margate rise from the ashes and I hope it does, as I love the place.

But as I write this blog, it appears that the Margate’s Big Event, the one with the Red Arrows, might not happen as the money has gone on the Turner, but then again it might have gone on a dozen street football coordinators…

“Boris Island”, or the construction of an airport in the Thames Estuary, is the most controversial design in history – apart from Emperor's Palpatine's Death Star. As we can see (from the image I've included) the whole design is deeply flawed and a logistical nightmare. I cannot fathom the words to describe the idea of the terminals located on land and, yet, the runways to be stationed at sea.

I foresee transportation problems, especially when we experience bad weather. And planes might be rather sophisticated machines -ability to operate unaided- but I admire the pilots navigating towards two tiny runaways in the Thames Estuary. In fact, the tiny “ditch” in the Estuary reminds me of the Death Star. Which lead to the inevitable destruction of the space station....His Greatness, the Mayor of London, has perpetuated the environmental benefits towards this devilish scheme – including a potential flood barrier. Yes, that is correct. An airport substituting as a flood barrier. The word “fear” comes to mind....

When this revelation made its début and gleefully graced my presence, I did study the economic argument at great lengths. Kent does require significant upgrades to infrastructures and investment, too. An airport would provide jobs to the economy, including an influx of tourist to sections of Kent. But, after careful meditation on the matter, this airport is a very bad idea – and the majority of Kent agree.

Boris metamorphose into Lex Luthor is quite hilarious, yet alarming too. Both envision bizarre and ludicrous concepts; with a passionate thirst for world domination and terrorising cities in their spare time. Leaving facetious comparisons aside, a message to Boris: politicians don't make good architects

(Below, the "Design". Credit to London Evening Standard)

I didn't get to visit the Folkestone InShore Rescue crew doing training today as planned - the boat training had to be abandoned due to forecast 40 knot winds - so I spent the afternoon taking down and washing curtains and other 'rainy day' chores whilst monitoring what my facebook friends were doing which was sure to be more interesting than what I was doing.

One of my mates posted this picture which was taken on his mobile....the caption was something along the lines of 'nutters!' - but it started off the conversation about what these 'nutters' were doing in the sea on a day like today.

But just to back track for a moment so I can tell you a little about the Folkestone Inshore Rescue organisation - it is what is known as an 'Independant' rescue organisation - in other words it is not affiliated to the RNLI. There are many such organisations around the coast of Britain all of them manned by highly trained volunteers but financially dependent on fundraising events and collections held locally to keep operational.

The Folkestone Inshore Rescue team provide cover  from SunnySands Beach, west along the coast up to and including Sandgate beach. The type of incident they could be called to ranges from : jelly fish sting incidents (recently a young man dived right into the middle of a huge jelly fish - more frightening than life threatening) - to saving lives of people whose blow up lilo, with them precariously balanced on it, is being swept out to sea - and everything in between.

What I didn't know until this picture was posted was that Folkestone Inshore Rescue which is affiliated to the Channel Swiming Assn. is helping to build quite a reputation for Folkestone as being a 'world class centre for endurance swimmers' - and this reputation is spreading across the UK and even across the world too!!

Going back to the picture - Folkestone Inshore Rescue spokesman Steve Thompson tells me that one of the swimmers in the photo (with the fabulous name of Dan Earthquake) is training for next year when he intends to run from London to Dover, swim the channel, then cycle to Paris - and yesterday these guys had just swum from Dover to Folkestone. Others, like these guys, come from all over the country (and the rest of the world too) to train here in Folkestone with the Folkestone Inshore Rescue. This last few months they have had swimmers and lifeguards over from Australia, America, India, South Africa and Libya - including Olympic swimmers and champion lifeguards.

I asked Steve why they came here and he said:

"it is partly because we can offer mid channel swimming conditions quite close in to shore, plus we have the safety boat cover they need as well as skippers and observers experienced with Channel Swimmers. People come here for cold water training which is very important for those intending to swim the channel who come from warmer climes. We also have a couple of top trainers who travel down here from the Midlands almost every weekend who not only train the channel swimmers but also work with Folkestone Inshore Rescue personnel. We are very proud to have them as members. The Libyans are coming back - their coach is also their Olympic team manager and another member of Folkestone Inshore Rescue. They were a lot of fun and we really enjoyed having them here in the summer."

So there you have it - Folkestone Inshore Rescue - another jewell in Folkestones crown.

http://www.i-lifeboat.org.uk/

http://www.i-lifeboat.org.uk/news/i-lifeboat-news/82-folkestone-inshore-rescue-launch-new-boat

http://coldwaterculture.blogspot.com/