The Gateway in Margate experienced an afternoon of down time and dishy firemen yesterday.

It seems a minor fire in TDCs offices at about lunchtime yesterday made life very hard for the workers in the gateway. Although the fire was quickly put out by the fire supression system fire services were on the scene and everyone got out safely.

In a side note the word from my sources tells a slightly different story from the BBC who have also reported this story. However this did not stop mentions of "diet coke" in direct reference to our emergency services being made. Clearly not everyone was having a bad time. The word on facebook is that the firemen were rather dishy but the loss of use of all computer systems in the gateway made life for staff very hard when dealing with customer inquiry. Likewise councillors were limited on what they could do too.

The gateway uses a fully automated system to manage the queue in a way that I have, in the past, been critical of. However it is often better to have a working system that can be improved than no system at all.

Loosing one building due to a small fault is understandable but to drop the entire range of services speaks to me of not understanding how to set up one's infrastructure. I consult at an affordable rate these days should TDC wish to hire someone who knows what they are doing.

I got an urgent message via Facebook today.

As you might know we almost lost the Britannia pub last year and only a concerted effort stopped that from happening (which shows what the power of Facebook can be like).

The Brit needs you!

Tonight is Jam night and there are gigs this weekend but the Britannia needs you to turn up, due to the slow death of Margate and the exodus to the Ramsgate pubs we find ouselves very close to the position we were in last year.

If we lose our local there can be no going back as the site will probably used for 'luxury' flats to accompany the Turnip Centre.

There is no charge on the door and all you are required to do is turn up and drink!

Keep Margates best live music venue alive!

If you want to talk to me face-to-face I shall be in the Britannia tonight having a few drinks and chatting to people. If it is a ghost town I might pop over to The Bracket and see what they do on a Thursday. I was there yesterday and the music was significantly better than my first visit and I was able to learn that a complimentary beer delivered by a very pretty bar made with a smile that probably doubles sales by itself tastes even better than paid for beer.

Everyone there was awesome, all the ladies looked stunning (without exception) and everyone was much more chilled out if not-too-chatty. Anyway it was cool and is improved significantly by the candles getting lit. The tiny stage still makes me laugh but in a good way. Retro gaming on a NES from 7pm to 9ish was also on offer (I remember when NES was cutting edge).

So time to see what The Brit has to offer. All this going out lately makes me think I should be asking some of these pubs to become Blog Angels.

Remind me to review The Life Boat sometime.

I'm going for a pint and some live music - want to join me?

I am thinking about returning tot he Bracket tonight to give them a second taste so to speak. I realise that the first acoustic night after New Year might not have been the one to show them in their best light. So it seems fair to go see what another night is like. Tonight might be that night I think even though I have no idea who is playing.

The Bracket is the venue that used to be called the Punch and Judy along the seafront in Margate. Doors open at 7pm and music starts officially at 9pm but more like 9:30pm. I'm going to aim for sometime between 8:30pm and 9:00pm. Hopefully I'll see a few of you there.


View Larger Map

Today I think that maybe I wailed on the poor old Bracket just a bit too hard and the young guys and gals that go there. Hopefully no one has had their sense of humour amputated (with the exception of the team of trolls that have taken it upon themselves to find everywhere I write and tell me how much I suck).

I think that next week I shall pay the Bracket another visit with the view to being a bit more upbeat and slightly less sarcastic (not that sarcastic is not fun, because it is). So I'm going to inflict another does of old guy on you lot maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and...



See you there.

Yesterday I took myself for midweek beer to The Bracket where live acoustic music would be playing. Of all my expectations about what I might find The Bracket met none at all. It was a cultural and generational experience to be sure.

Familiar as I was with the range of people one can find inside The Bracket's sister (nightclub) event Totally Wired (given my very infrequent visits) I was not entirely prepared for what I found. Mainly this was because The Bracket and Wired have about as much in common as a beaver and a duck (not counting the embarrassing shared relative the platypus).

For starters early on in the night it felt as though my new title should be Granddad which was a very strange feeling. I was starting to think I'd accidentally walked into the worlds coolest youth club. Alas this was not the case and soon I was able to spot those guys old enough to shave.

Okay so this might be a little harsh. I was clearly the oldest guy in the room and at 34 I still see myself as young. Perhaps not as young as these guys (and a few girls).

The venue itself is like the badly advised mating between an old west saloon and a funky living room with retro-cool arcade games. This seems to work.

When I entered the venue seemed to be segregated into three cliques. Two major groupings of teens (and/or preteens with quality fake ID) and the rif-raf stuck at the bar for lack of anywhere else to go. I joined the rif-raf at the bar as clearly I had not yet earned my membership of the more exclusive gangs whose average age would double should I try to join.

...

» Continue Reading: The Bracket Margate (Review)

Okay it's time for one of those street cred gambles whereby if I am right I will look very cool. Here are my 10 guesses as to what will happen in 2011 in Thanet.

1. The Turner Centre will open to much press releases and filler news stories. Uninformed bloggers elsewhere in the UK will repeat the official line. Due to the massive invested effort and over blown hype the initial turn out will be big and everything will be billed as a huge success. However that success will unexpectedly fail and someone will be fired as a result. Thanet will see no change from having the centre.

2. The debate about free parking in Margate will reopen as the summer gets going and there will be a few free Saturdays that will be badly publicized as a half arsed effort to curry favour prior to the elections.

3. The big vote: The conservative group will take a pounding in the elections, Liberal Democrats will make a big effort and get a seat or two and more due to the other side's losses than anything else Labour will take control of the council. They will claim the credit rather than recognizing the failure of the other team - in the next four to ten years they will fail in much the same way. China Gateway will not go away as predicted by the council members that voted for it thinking we would forget by voting time and it will cause a lot of shouting.

...

» Continue Reading: 10 Predictions for Thanet 2011