Kentish Express Ashford & District
Highways agency has really lost its way
If any organisation should know where places are then you’d think that should be Highways England. But, it seems they don’t know that Ashford is in Kent and NOT Sussex.
The organisation which keeps our roads in tip-top shape sends out weekly emails detailing roadworks taking place or about to start.
For two weeks on the trot they’ve mentioned road marking replacement work being undertaken on the A2070 Ashford… in EAST SUSSEX.
Let’s just hope the contractors don’t follow Highways England’s directions and put some white lines down in somewhere like Brighton rather than Ashford.
On a similar vein, have you ever wondered why, whenever you are lost in a car and stop to ask someone for directions, they either have no idea where the place you are looking for is, or send you off in completely the wrong direction.
There’s obviously no scientific proof of this but we all know it happens.
Thus one night last week a member of the Nuts and Bolts team travelled to the Kentish Riviera (Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs area) to visit someone who lived in Margate Road and got hopelessly lost around the Westwood Cross shopping centre.
Without a sat nav and with no phone signal he was forced to ask someone in a car showroom if he was near Margate Road.
The obliging salesman gave him directions which he followed, but which took him nowhere near where he needed to go.
Moral of the story: either buy a sat nav or print off a route map before leaving.
There’s only one Ashford Designer Outlet… or is there?
By chance an email dropped into our email basket last week promoting a big music event taking place at Butlin’s in Bognor Regis, West Sussex later this year.
When we looked at the image of the seaside resort’s entertainment complex we couldn’t help but think it looks remarkably like the Ashford Designer Outlet.
Ours was designed by renowned architect Sir Richard Rogers, who also created the Millennium Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula in south east London.
We’re not sure who was responsible for the Butlin’s building but there are definite similarities.
But then again we’ve always thought there a hint of the stunning Sydney Opera House about the Ashford Designer Outlet.
It’s No Smoking Day next Wednesday.
So if you’re a smoker (and you’re a dying breed… literally) do yourself a favour and use it as the inspiration to dump cigarettes, once and for all.
Promoted by the British Heart Foundation, the day will encourage smokers to either quit or certainly give serious consideration to quitting.
Apart from the health benefits, think of the financial ones (especially now that many popular cigarette brands are around £9 for a packet of 20).
We know it’s difficult to stop but how sad is it when you visit the William Harvey Hospital and see seriously ill patients in their pyjamas, some of them sitting in wheelchairs and wheeling drips along with them, gathered near the main entrance for a smoke.
And that’s despite the fact the whole hospital site, for obvious reasons, is supposed to be a complete no-smoking area.
If you want to get all the info on quitting then log on to https://nosmokingday.org. uk/i-want-to-quit/
Why is it that repairs to some items are almost as expensive as buying a new version of whatever product needs repairing?
Thus the cost of getting shoes soled or heeled is often more expensive than buying a new pair.
A member of the N&B team has a portable radio he listens to on long walks. It cost about £50 and has a rechargeable battery. But the battery has been playing up recently so he looked at buying a new one from the manufacturer but quickly changed his mind when he went on the maker’s website and saw the new battery would cost £31.50!