Those of you who are familiar with this blog may have noticed that I have changed my ‘gravatar’ .. or .. should that be ‘avatar’ .. No, I think that’s a tall blue person from the movie of that name, although I could be wrong.
Anyway the new shot of me is from the photograph below, which shows me in my best “Man at C & A” pose in the grounds of Whitstable Castle, which is just down the road from where I live.
“Gee !” .. I hear my American readers cry … “You live near a real care-sell”. 🙂
Well, not exactly, as it’s a bit of a fake which used to be known as Tankerton Tower, when it was the residence of the Lords of the Manor of Whitstable. A man named Charles Pearson acquired the property in 1792. It is thought that he was the person who added the castellations which gave the building the appearance of a castle.
Recently three million quid ($4.7 million) was spent restoring the old place, and a very nice job they made of it, as I discovered on a recent visit with ‘she who must be obeyed’ my dear wife. We strolled around the grounds for awhile and then stuck our heads through a door where some men were delivering furniture … “Can we look inside ?” I asked .. “Sure mate” .. came the reply, so we wandered through the hallway into a large, but empty, room.
Suddenly a voice boomed out … “Can I help you ?”
“Just looking around” I replied.
“Did you report to the reception desk ? … we can’t have people just wandering around you know. It’s against health and safety regulations” intoned the ‘jobsworth’.
“There wasn’t anyone at the reception desk” I replied “but the bloke outside said that it was OK”.
He stormed off and was last seen bollocking the furniture delivery man in true ‘jobsworth’ fashion.
Just the man to …
… welcome the tourists !
bigjohn 
