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NeilClasper

Tag Archives: Whitstable

A Week in Whitstable – August 2020

16 Sunday Aug 2020

Posted by Neil Clasper in Diversions

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Kent, Summer holiday, Whitstable

There was a spectacular sunset 5 out of 7 nights we were in Whitstable. I’m not sure why it’s not more famous for them given they’re not usually a feature of the east coast.

Away to Whitstable for the week: a summer holiday so unambitious we could have popped home to put the bins out without too much inconvenience. But still, away from home for the first time since March and with low risk of ending up in quarantine immediately afterwards. The weather was too hot for us during the day for much of the time, but the chance to swim in the sea seven days running – with high tide conveniently arriving with the warm evenings – made up for it.

We’d originally thought we’d use the place as a base to explore other parts of Kent, but in the end didn’t get much further than Canterbury and Margate, and found enough to do around Whitstable with various friends either living nearby or visiting for the holiday.

We had no real idea of how busy it would be or how it would feel pandemic-wise, but the weather meant we were outdoors almost all the time we weren’t in the rental cottage and didn’t need to linger in shops or restaurants. How this all works when the weather changes, I don’t know. It was clear that the Eat Out To Help Out scheme was really generating business Monday to Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday felt much quieter, particularly in Margate which felt subdued compared to past visits. Dreamland being closed seemed significant; we saw one amusement arcade open but gave it a very wide berth.

In Canterbury the restaurants seemed busy but the shops were largely deserted. From what I saw this week, I think the food and drink part of our service economy will return fairly strongly unless we have a new surge of coronavirus cases, but the future for retail looks pretty bleak and it’s hard to be optimistic about the future of our high streets and town centres as a result.

It was interesting seeing all the different adaptions to the new way of ordering and paying: standing outside a fish’n’chip shop on the high street trying to phone in an order while four other parties stood next to us attempting to do the same was novel, but not particularly effective. Elsewhere, places were using a mixture of JustEat/Deliveroo and their own homegrown apps; eventually I guess some of these will become standardised and second nature but it all feels a little interim at the moment.

Flowers and cards are so passé: say it with a wheelie bin in 2020

Whitstable beach: groynes, oyster beds, sea forts and wind turbines

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Neil Clasper in Photography

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beach, Fuji X100T, Whitstable

Low, low tide at Whitstable beach on Easter Sunday morning; the sky changing every few seconds as the weather hurtled by (though not as quickly as it did 12 hours later when Storm Katie arrived). A photo snatched as I followed my daughter as she cycled along the sea front. I suspect she’s only a few weeks away from getting the confidence to cycle at speeds which will make it harder for me to follow on foot taking photos as I go.

September Diversions

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Neil Clasper in Antidotes, Music

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autumn, Charlton Lido, conkers, Glenn Tilbrook, Ronnie RIpple and the Ripchords, Squeeze, White Swan, Whitstable

September 2015: a particularly good month for conkers.

 

A month of wet weeks and surprisingly balmy weekends. A day trip to Whitstable saw unexpected high temperatures – ideal for oysters and fish’n’chips on the beach, followed by a walk to Tankerton and back.

 

Closer to home, the people behind the excellent Pelton Arms in Greenwich took over the White Swan in Charlton Village: a dismal pub turned pretty quickly into the best pub in the neighbourhood. I was lucky enough to get an invite to the soft launch evening, which seemed like a great success; there’d have been plenty of sore heads around SE7 the following morning.

After doing what felt like too many gigs with my band in June and July I swore we’d do no more than two a month for the rest of the year…then immediately agreed to three in a row in September. It proved worthwhile, though: a charity gig at my local; an amazing night at the White Swan with Simon Hanson from Squeeze depping on drums, and Glenn Tilbrook joining us for most of the second set on guitar and vocals; finally, a great night at the Pelton with a new sax player onboard.


I managed to spend more time than usual at Charlton Lido, with my daughter having swimming lessons there for the first time allowing me a quick ‘extra’ swim on Saturday mornings. One Sunday morning I achieved a life goal that’s been eluding me since the lido reopened in 2012: first into the pool. Swimming under a blue sky in a quiet, heated pool, with just a hint of a chill in the air: pretty much perfect conditions.

Beach

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Neil Clasper in Photography

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beach, dusk, Neptune, north Kent coast, Skyline, Whitstable

An early evening walk down to the beach at Whitstable. Sun breaking though the clouds to the west, rain approaching from the north east. A flock of oystercatchers flew past: sadly neither of the cameras I was carrying was up to the job of catching them. The birdsong here is fantastic, and the air noticeably cleaner than my corner of south east London has been recently.

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