All I found was cigarettes and alcohol - It doesn't seem that many years ago when vending machines like these were a common sight on walls outside of newsagents and corner shops. This old Senior Service cigarette vending machine is in Deal, Kent. The most impressive vending machine that I can remember was at Canterbury swimming pool in the early 1970s. You inserted some coins and after a short wait a portion of hot salted chips was dispensed. Discovering this machine after living on the edge of a cliff in Cornwall was like being promoted from The Flintstones to The Jetsons.
Squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg - Both Lin and myself have had colds all over Christmas, but today mine has taken a turn for the worse and developed into the deadly Man Flu virus (no, I'm not exaggerating, it is deadly!). So all week, fresh lemons and root ginger have been our best friends, and probably because I've also been adding raw garlic to the mixture they have been our only friends.
Bird bird bird, the bird is the word - I listen to nearly all my music either directly from my computer or with my iPod. At home my computer is connected to my hi-fi and if I'm out walking I use the iPod, even in the van the iPod connects to the van's radio. I do still buy vinyl, both new and second hand, but don't get around to listening to it very often. I recently bought this box set by The Cramps, it contains ten 7" 45s all pressed on nice thick vinyl. When I played them it was a revelation, almost like hearing the songs for the first time again. It's really worth the effort to get up every three minutes and flip the record over. I really hope vinyl will be here for a few more decades yet.
But when that certain look comes on her face - It's official, if you like sprouts with your Christmas lunch you no long have to worry about the consequences, well not too much anyway. Sainsbury's have published a list of the worst (or maybe that should be the best) vegetables for making you fart. The humble Brussel sprout only makes it to third spot. Second is parsnip and top of the pops are these little beauties the Jerusalem artichoke. Perhaps this is why they are widely known as fartichokes!
Each night I ask the stars up above - It's nice to see that love makes a 21 year old feel like a teenager again. Wait until they hit their forties and we'll see how they feel then!
He was some mother's darlin', he was some mother's son - Could this be the first victim of Christmas 2011? Dumped on the streets of Margate, I always thought a dog was for life. At least his ex owners gave him a piece of carpet before sending him off to a life on the streets with Special Brew and crack.
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell - I'm certainly not a big fan of Tesco and their plan for world domination, they take far too much of my money as it is. But, it's got to be better than what's here at the moment, hasn't it?
A team o' wild horses couldn't tear us apart - If something needs sticking or filling these days there's a tube of sealant that you can put into a skeleton gun and squeeze. I've even come across one that will stick two surfaces together when they are wet.
What did I do to deserve such a fate I didn't really want to get involved in this thing - Whilst out for a walk this afternoon I saw this graffiti on the old lift shaft above the Port Of Ramsgate. At the moment the Port is still running ships with live animals being sent to Europe for slaughter.
But tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun - After a day of continuos rain the sun broke through the clouds for the last hour of daylight giving a dramatic end to the day.
We must have beer, we must have beer, we must have beer today! - Allbright Pale Ale was brewed by the Ramsgate brewers Tomson & Wotton. They were taken over by Whitbread in 1969. The site of the brewery is now where Waitrose stands.
Well, it's Christmas time pretty baby - It's that time of year again when we fall over the pile of mail on the door mat when we come home. Another stack of Christmas cards, often from people that we haven't had any contact with since swapping Christmas cards last year.
This year I've noticed one supermarket has been printing on the back of their cards that they expect to give up to £700,000 to various charities, but as they pat themselves on the back they neglect to tell us how many millions of pounds they expect to be making from selling Christmas cards, decorations, crackers and everything thing else seasonal.
Down by the sea - I did catch a few glimpses of it and did pass under it twice, but being away from the sea for any length of time, even a few days makes me miss it. So this morning I walked down to Dumpton Gap to watch and smell the sea.
Farewell, so long and goodbye - We said goodbye to Le Vaublanc and Brittany this morning and headed back to England via the Channel Tunnel. This was the view as we left the house where we were staying, you can just see the mist coming in from the forest.
We got no pane in this old window - The part of Brittany where we are staying is full of the most fantastic, rundown buildings that are crying out to be refurbished. This one is in the hamlet of Saint-Sauveur Le Haut.
Jumpin' like a catfish on a pole - We went into Loudéac today and I found this building. To start with I only saw the side view of it up a side street, but I found the entrance to the courtyard through a archway. It reminded me of the buildings in the Elvis movie King Creole which was set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
It's called a dog's life - We spent hour after hour today sitting in a car travelling from Kent down to Brittany. On one of the few breaks that we took I spotted this little dog in the front of a very big lorry.
It's the needing and the sharing that makes the meal complete - We're off to France tomorrow for a few days. One of the best things about France is the bread, just about anywhere you go you can buy fantastic bread. It's not the same in England, over here it's very hard (but not impossible) to find decent bread, this was the best I could find today in Ramsgate and I had to go to Waitrose to find that.
All he ever needs is love and that he knows he'll get - Lin and I went with a friend, Chrissy to the Bull Terrier Welfare Trust's Christmas fund raiser or as it's better known the Bulllie Rescue Christmas Party in Milford, Surrey. Neither of us had ever seen so many bull terriers in one place before. It was a great day out and hopefully they raised a lot of money, but as you can see it was a bit too much for some of the dogs. You can read more about the Bull Terrier Welfare Trust on their own website by clicking here and see some more photos here.
It ain't no big thing (but it's growing) - Most of the vegetables that we grow on our allotment are reasonably successful, but we do have a bit of a problem with garlic. It's not that we can't grow it, it just doesn't grow very big. We've tried garlic from the garden centre and garlic from the greengrocer, but it's always the same. This year we've found some large cloves from a farm shop so hopefully this will give us a good result.
Bad skin, bad eyes, gay and fatty - Lin and I drove to Bexhill-On-Sea this afternoon to see the Warhol Is Here exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion. Here you can see the rear of the pavilion bathed in the glorious late afternoon sunshine that we enjoyed before going into the show.
And wishing on the stars up above - Driving home through Margate a couple of hours ago in the pouring rain I couldn't resist stopping and photographing the lights reflected in the seafront puddles.
