When we get snow – or even just the threat of it – we somehow seem to go into panic mode. We stock up on enough milk and bread to see us through the next month and wonder when life will ever be the same again.

I’ve just come back from a week skiing and when it comes to snow, the French (or anyone who lives with the white stuff on the ground for about four months of the year) can definitely teach us a thing or two.

It’s a simple solution. They just shrug their shoulders and get on with it. If they can’t go anywhere, they stay in and crack open a bottle or two.

Take, for instance, the day we were all supposed to be going tobogganing. Not just any old tobogganing but down a 6km run.

We’d been gearing up for it all week, so you can imagine how disappointed we were when the snow arrived and just kept falling. Visibility was down to just a few metres and they cancelled the trip.

“No probleme!” declared the hotel staff. We had been promised tobogganing and that’s what we were going to get. They then spent the next half an hour gathering all the soft furnishings they could lay their hands on to build a giant cushion at the foot of the lobby stairs. They covered the stairs and cushions with a giant tarpaulin and then started shovelling snow from outside.

After much whacking down with a shovel, the run was complete and so we spent the next half an hour watching one person after another shoot down the staircase on a sledge.

Now, if I’m honest, it probably wasn’t the safest thing in the world to do (particularly for the man who tried to come down standing up) and I really wouldn’t recommend that you try it at home, but there were no broken bones, just a few dented egos and plenty of laughs.

So at the very least, I’ve got my own toboggan ready and I’ll be challenging the neighbours to a race down the nearby hill.

Good morning.

While out and about in town I had to smile as for the past few days as all the conversations you hear when walking past people is the talk of snow. "They are saying snow's on the way this weekend". We've all done it - some of us have even done it today I would imagine.

But yes we do have snow on the way as fronts push in from the West with milder air so falling as rain for the most part. But much of the UK is still very cold (overnight low's of -11°C for parts of the UK) and as these rain bearing fronts push into the cold air we will be seeing plenty of snowfall to come. Kent-Online news rightly already have picked up on the story too 

As of now, Kent is struggling in temperatures with 2°C generally the best we can hope for. Today there are some very very light flurries reported across parts of Medway and also parts of East Kent.  And this evening through to early tomorrow morning areas towards the East of the county will see some light snow, possibly with a small covering by tomorrow morning. But it really is the evening through to Sunday morning which promotes most interest.

Saturday's temperatures again will not reach much above freezing and with the arrival of the fronts into Kent from around 7-9pm we can expect plenty of snow to come. Right now current projections read around 2inches (5cm) but this may be under-estimated accounting for higher elevations which Kent does have quite a few.

The snow is likely to last into Sunday and quite possibly Monday as the front bringing the snow effectively grinds to a halt over us.

Stay tuned to local forecasts, news and of course Kent-Weather. I'll be providing updates on my Facebook / Twitter / Website and by Saturday evening, a live interactive Chatroom!

Woke up this morning to a flood of tweets and Facebook posts showing concern of a big freeze/siberian snowstorm to hit the UK and naturally any snow that comes with it. This is generating a lot of excitement and for some, concern which I would expect. So I shall try and explain what is happening right now and for the next couple of days to ease any worries, fears caused by the national tabloids.

As I posted last time, for the past week minimum, the infamous forecast data has been on a knife edge as to whether or not UK weather will be influenced from the West or from the East, and has really been a very difficult decision to make. The problem in making such a call stems from a "fight" for territory and who could push into the UK with the bigger influence - the cold from the East or the milder weather from the West.

As of now, for us in Kent (and the South-East generally) we look pretty confident to be influenced by colder temperatures brought in from the East. However, the colder weather currently is not able to push West far enough to affect the UK as there is high pressure to the W/SW. So we currently have a colder, drier setup.  What we need are weather front's to push in from the East (which they are having problems doing = high pressure). So the other alternative is for fronts to push into the cold air from the West... But this is also having trouble as it's high pressure to our NE trying to move in from the East and blocking any fronts. So we are almost in "no mans land" with cold temperatures certainly! A big freeze as hyped by national newspapers? Unlikely.

Until either high pressure gives in we remain at a sort of stalemate, plus the colder weather influence is only really just beginning anyway so it is still difficult which one will win out. It is from Sunday/Monday onwards that the decision is likely to be officially made but until then feel free to follow my Kent-Weather Twitter and Facebook as I shall be posting occasional weather ramblings there.

OK. We all know there is change afoot in Medway, but what's with the changing of names?

My long-time favourite has been the absorption of Rainham Mark by Rainham. (Anyone unfamiliar with the tale should look at the boundary between the Men of Kent and the Kentish Men. It is as historic as the Great one of China and Hadrian's Wall, or Offa's Dyke…. except to Medway Council which ripped down the sign when it merged Rochester and Gillingham boroughs.)

There are others.

For example, the Lords Wood (shades of cricketing amid the beeches?), Weeds Wood (gardeners' on hands and knees, perhaps?) and Park Wood (now minus Rainham Park, of course, but don't let that stop the Renaming of Parts.).

The latest travesty is the Tesco roundabout on the A2.

It was originally called Bowaters after the paper and packaging company that was enticed to set up in business on land acquired by the supermarket.

Depending whether you believe the press office (which spells it Bowwaters) or the highways engineers (who have put out signs reading Bow Waters roundabout) more changes are afoot.

It is all part of a subtle exercise in changing the image of the Medway Towns to a great, good, welcome place where everyone wants to live and work. It just might sucker some people into believing the balmy life is to be enjoyed on the North Kent mudflats.

Where will it end?

Someone suggested to me this week Rochester-upon-Wales (clearly influenced by the new movie about King John's 1215 siege of the castle which hits the cinema trail next week having been filmed in South Wales).

Then there's Cheatham, Stroud, Hoe St Wear Borough, Whig Moor, Cookstown, Hauling….where will it all end?

The answer, of course, is Hempstead…. near Maidstone.

***

Talking of Bowaters, it has been suggested by at least one wit that the mountain of crushed debris next to the enlarged store is being prepared as a new ski slope. The way winters are going, you wouldn't need to create the snow for a couple of months each year.

***

There was chaos around the old Gillingham borough today after a serious road accident in Rainham.

As is increasingly the norm, the police sealed off the site of the accident and began forensic examination of the area for future court or coroner's use.

In the meantime we were left with non-existent signposting of alternative routes, Wigmore seized up, the Lower Rainham Road at a standstill, traffic being turned about on the A2 and Bloors Lane.

Thankfully there wasn't any accident on the M2 or some people wouldn't get home until the start of next week.

I do wonder whether anything extra will be learned by the police that will benefit anyone in the future. Compare what now happens with the former processes of photographs, examinations, measurements, sweeping up and road reopening...

We may still not be sure what the Big Society means to us in our everyday lives - but some of our local businesses didn't sit wondering about this and together they made a real difference to homeless people in Folkestone throughout what has been an usually severe winter.

Way back in early December - at the start of the bad weather - it didn't take Di and Louie Burns long to start planning a series of events to raise the focus of the plight of the homeless so that people could donate items of warm clothing (gloves, coats, etc) and raise funds which would go directly to some of the homeless shelters in Folkestone.

If you don't know Di and Louie - you may know the local phenomenon known as Bluesky Pie [ http://www.blueskypie.co.uk ] whose tagline 'Regeneration and empowerment in communities through music' says it all.

On 10^th December Bluesky Pie staged two gigs, one at Googies Art Cafe and the other at Homeground – featuring comedy, musicians, rappers...all coming to play and give their time for free!! Raffles were run at both venues with goods donated from as far afield as Liverpool. With Googies and Homeground donating 10% of their bar takings and TESS donating his fee for playing at Homeground – together they raised a grand total of £575 for the Winter Shelter run by the 7 churches of Folkestone.

Louie Burns also created a film to raise awareness for the Folkestone homeless cause and to make people more sympathetic to those that find themselves on the streets, often through no fault of their own.

Colin the manager of the shelter had said that funding would run out mid February so to keep the shelter open Di and Louie decided to do more fundraising events. One in Stones featuring rock bands and local hip hop artists followed by 4 DJ’s who all played and performed for free. There was also an acoustic chilled out night in Googies featuring some wonderful performers and musicians who again performed for free. Googies has continued to fundraise between the last gig and now with Keith Holland handing over more monies that customers of Googies have donated since December 10^th.  Alongside this there was an appeal for toothpaste, flannels, food items, scarves  etc.  – all for the Rainbow Centre for the homeless and those in need. All of these events, activities and fundraising brilliantly co-ordinated by Bluesky Pie.

Di Burns said:

“To borrow a phrase from Tesco, 'Every little helps' and we feel privileged to know such lovely talented people who will play for free for such a worthwhile cause, in fact we were inundated with performers all willing to give of their time and felt that the homeless were a very worthy cause to raise funds for which shows the tremendous community spirit here in Folkestone, we feel we're just facilitators.”

I have said before that there is something magic about this part of Folkestone .. because there is definitely something very good going on down there - and with Bluesky Pies help the magic may just spread much further. 

Di Burns tells us a little more about Bluesky Pie:

The ethos behind Bluesky Pie is that little acts of random kindness can change the world. We reached a mid life crisis nearly two years ago where we realized we were giving nothing back into the community. We resolved to change this and started to do things for others, first staging a gig for Amnesty International and Greenpeace, we found a plethora of highly skilled musicians and bands who had nowhere to play. We started to put gigs on, maintaining a spirit of love. We started What's on Folkestone as we were sick of missing high quality gigs and events that no one knew were on, and were brilliant. Our idea behind that was to actively promote and share everyones events so that no one felt excluded.

We have tried to show people how incredible and amazing they are by offering them mentoring gigs, putting them on at small intimate venues and building confidence then by making the venues larger. We also have volunteers working in film, stage management, photography who work for free to get valuable experience in the industry. Many of the people that we have helped have then gone on to make a career,  got more confidence and started to put their own gigs on.

It has had an incredible impact on the local community with people joining together and making alliances when they didn't know each other before. Networking is a big key to this, this results in a more cohesive community that actively support each others events.

As a non for profit company we don't make any money from what we do, but we get enormous satisfaction from knowing that a random act of kindness we may have shown has then spread like a ripple effect on a pond to reach so many others.

It also acts in the law of attraction, through what we have done has brought like minded people to us like the charity 'Last night a DJ saved my life' who are of the same ethos as us but work in the global community, things just seem to be getting bigger and better bit like a snowball effect through a little effort of our own. It is a really happy place to be. =)

Bluesky Pie  | Googies Art Cafe | Homeground | Whats On Folkestone (FB)

Well, now the Christmas period is over and the ice and snow are finally melting, I can get back to interviewing you fine people of Kent.

This is Mark Wickens, 25 from Maidstone.

Mark is an Airline Pilot and has spent time abroad training.

In his free time he enjoys visiting the gym and most recently Horse Racing.

"This is largely down to my brother who is an avid fan."

Unfortunately he is also a big Arsenal fan so rightly he receives a ribbing from his mates about their weekly performance.  What must be more sickening is that their London rivals Tottenham have notched up a victory against them, meaning one of Mark's Spurs supporting mates has bragging rights.

Kent, in Mark's opinion, is in a good location and is far away enough from major cities for it to be a calm place.

"Kent is relatively quiet and tranquil but equally there is lots to see and do in the vicinity should you want to make the short trip from home."

Again, like Katie a few weeks ago, Mark has selected a Bearsted eating spot as his first choice when eating out.

"I am a fan of The Oak on the Green.  The food is all freshly cooked and very tasty."

In his free time he claims not to be a film buff but after reading his quote, I would question it.

"I am slightly ashamed to admit that I have not been to the cinema for about 4 years. However, I really liked the original Matrix and Closer. I also enjoy a bit of James Bond (don't we all).  I've also seen Top Gun more times than I can remember.

Mark has great determination to succeed and the story he has told me about himself only proves that.

"About 4 or 5 years ago, I was working as a Store Designer for a large retail company which I very much enjoyed but I decided that I wanted to do something really rewarding with my life and move in a completely different direction."

"I decided that I wanted to follow my aspirations of becoming an Airline Pilot. It was a big decision and a massive commitment from both a training point of view and a financial aspect.  But some three years down the road and I have been very fortunate to have recently landed a job with one of Europe's largest airlines."

I am with Mark on this one as this blog is one of my steps towards being a writer. Mark has some good advice for anyone chasing a dream.

"I am a big fan of making your own luck in life and like to encourage others to follow their dreams and do whatever it is that they want to do.  As long as you are prepared to give up pretty much everything else, and maybe a bit more, as well as the resolve to keep going whatever the circumstances then you will make it!"

As always, I like to find out what the people of Kent think about improvement to our county and more importantly, ways to implement them.

"I personally think that Kent and Maidstone's public transport leaves a lot to be desired. Being a car person, naturally I am reluctant to get out and onto public transport. Why does it still take over an hour to get to London Victoria."

"It's also not particularly flexible or practical for lots of journeys."

Mark's suggestion is a good one and I also believe that our public transport should be refreshed and updated.

"I would like to see a vast improvement in this area as I would like to do my bit for the environment but I don't want to be out of pocket as a result of choosing to use public transport."

As always at this stage of the interview, I like to round it off with a random question of the week and this one is in-keeping with the festive season.

If you could have any Christmas present, exempt expense, what would be and why?

"Well, my weakness is cars and my favourite car ever is the Ferrari F50. I absolutely love it! I have wanted one as long as I can remember and I was fortunate enough to sit in one many years ago, however I never could afford one so I would definitely ask Santa for one of those."

I would like to thank Mark for his time in talking to me and I would like to wish my fellow Kentish men (and women) a very Happy New Year!  

If you live in Kent, let's talk!

If you would like to appear on my blog, all I ask is that you live in Kent and that you are willing to talk to me for 10 - 15 minutes about yourself.

If you think you'd like to give it a try, drop me an email on millendauthor@gmail.com and we will see what we can do!

COUNCIL chiefs are working on two programmes to cut their spending plans at Medway over the next few weeks.

In a letter to councillors, chief executive Neil Davies said this week they were looking for at least £23.5 million.

"...when announcing the grants ministers said that the drop in funding resulted in a 3.6 per cent cut in Medway’s spending power – and that no council will see a drop greater than 8.9 per cent. Our figures show that the reduction in funding to Medway is clearly greater than this," he wrote.

"Earlier this year we had forecast a shortfall of around £19.5million so this news means our budget challenge for next year is even greater than we had expected."

Travelling on the high speed train from London to Kent this week with the fields covered in thick snow I could have been in Switzerland or even Narnia. Even North Kent looks beautiful in the snow…

I was reading in the Kent Gazette that our MP Julian Brazier has gone from the lowest claimer of expenses to the highest in the county. Here lies my issue: I had great respect for this man before the election as he was allegedly slaving away in a room above a pub in south London, which was not expensive. However, with the advent of the high speed train there is no excuse to now claim for a second home on the off chance that on a handful of occasions Parliament might end that night after the trains have stopped. Tough. If that is going to happen then drive up and park the car. I am sorry but Whitstable to London is easily commutable and I think there is little need to claim for a second home on the few off chances of a late finish.

My wife (www.lynnettepeck.com) has always wanted to open a vintage fashion shop after being a fashion and beauty magazine journalist for many years. By chance we were in Margate Old Town (an oasis in the middle of the Margate desert) and we noticed in the window of an estate agent a shop for rent in the Old Town. To cut a long story short the agent was not great and had little idea of the underlying property rental values for retail in the area. To cap it all, the landlord wanted to raise the current rent by 20% for the first year, only for it be raised a further 10% the following year. The landlords reason being that the Turner Contemporary Gallery is opening in April 2011 near by. You would not need an abacus to work out that this kind of rent is priced too high and that start up businesses could then fail. If the previous business failed on the current lower rent, then what is the point? Needless to say we passed on this terrible deal and are now looking in Sandwich instead.

I hear that BBC South East did a special TV report on how Margate has one of the highest amounts of vacant retail units in the country and The Sun newspaper did a piece on Margate’s ‘dole culture’ and the fact that next year is going to be just as tough financially. The landlord in Margate Old Town should check these investigations out and have a re-think! He is banking on the fact the Turner Contemporary Gallery is going to metaphorically turn one of the Ugly Sisters into Cinderella (and that is not the version of the story I remember) and that all the bars in Margate will suddenly be filled with people drinking Chardonnay. This will not happen overnight. I love Margate, I have a few flats there I rent out, but I also know parts of it are currently still a dump and having a new gallery and the high speed train is not going to transform this town overnight into something that its not. I am not saying it will not happen, because it will eventually,and the huge white elephant might become Margate’s saving grace - but do not hold your breath.