Today, we are taking photos of a street for Photography 101. Again there is to be no fancy editing or anything, just the photo, preferably a wide angle shot. (I decided that I should black out the number plates, but that is the only editing I did)!
Armed with my Samsung S6 phone (aka my camera) I took this photo of the street which leads up to the square where I live.
As it was early in the morning, the cars still had the frost on the windows, and it was pretty quiet around. The blue sky promised a sunny day, which it delivered although it was still pretty chilly.
This town where I have lived off and on since I was 13 years old has grown considerably over the years, and new housing developments are springing up all over the place. So much so, that I often have to rely on my Sat Nav when going out on my visits, as I am unfamiliar with some of the new areas in town!
This is an unusual assignment for Writing 101 today, in that we are to use a map as our muse for a post. I ummed and ahhed over this for some time as I wasn’t sure of where to go with it (ahem, rubbish pun alert)!
I decided that I would take you on a trip of my ‘home’ town centre as it will only take five minutes. Although I wasn’t born in Kent, this is the place where I have lived (off and on) ever since I was thirteen years old and is the longest I have ever lived anywhere.
So, let’s go! Let me just give you a little background as to what it was like when I first came here. Our town centre comprises mainly of two roads, Bank Street which then goes into High street (upper and lower). In Upper High street there is a small row of little old buildings which are now mostly shops named Middle Row. At the very top of the High Street there was enclosed shopping centre, County Square, and that was it.
Actually, there was the most important thing that I forgot! We had a market right at the bottom of Bank Street, which was what this town was all about originally. There were livestock auctions, car auctions (I got a car from there once), a cafe, and a few other shops in the main building. On Saturdays, the huge open air area was filled with all types of stalls from bread and cheeses to clothes and bags.
It has moved to another site out on the outskirts of town, and the old place is derelict now. Some of it has been incorporated onto the new ring road and ‘shared space’ that the town is so proud of.
The old market was on the left hand side of this picture.
Now, we have another shopping centre, Park Mall, plus County Square has been extended at the Bank Street end to house a load more of the larger stores.
Park Mall
County Square
These all look shiny and new, and very fancy, but in order to extend County Square. some of the old buildings were knocked down in order to accommodate them. We do, however still have some character left to our town.
Lower High Street
Upper High Street
Not least the 13th Century church that is hidden away (well ok you can see the clock tower), down a little passage. It is in the middle of a square of little old buildings which are still there.
St Mary’s Church
The town has changed considerably in the 36 years that I have been here. It used to be filled with shoe shops and estate agents, now it is all mobile phone shops and vapour cigarette places, things that I had never even heard of in 1979!
Miss Hap wanted to go into town today as she was pretty fortunate in getting some money for her birthday. We still had one of her friends with us from last night’ s sleepover, and off we all headed off.
As is the norm, we headed straight for Starbucks when we got there, which was packed, as it was mid-morning. The girls went in to get the drinks whilst myself and Mr Grump tried to find a table outside. We ended up sharing a table with a young woman as it was so busy. The girls of course, did not want to be seen with us so they sat inside.
Directly opposite us, a few feet away, UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) had set up a small stall. As we are voting in the General Election in less than a week. some of the candidates are still trying to persuade as many people as they can to vote for them.
They had a load of balloons tied to their stall, leaflets to give to the public, and cardboard placards with information on for those that were interested. Their actual candidate wore a rumpled cream suit, and there were a couple of older women there giving out leaflets to passers-by. An old man hunched over, and a rather heavy-set middle-aged man were also milling about.
I didn’t really pay that much attention to them as I talked to Mr Grump, but a couple of ‘bangs’ had me looking over in that direction. Some gangly young man decided that he would enjoy himself by popping the balloons and knocking down the placards. Crumpled suit was nowhere in sight, but the old guy was straight in there pushing and shoving the young one around and getting irate. It looked as though he was going to swing for him and do himself an injury, as he was pretty unsteady on his feet.
Sensing a bit of action might take place, the heavy-set man waddled over and started wading in. From out of nowhere another youngish man joined them who was wearing a natty suit and tie. He too was trying to talk the youth out of destroying the stall, as it appeared that the young man objected to UKIP’s policies and he decided that it would be a good idea to show his displeasure by trashing the stall!
What made me laugh though, was it turned out that the man in the suit that had come over, was actually one of the ‘Green Party’ who had set their stall up a few feet further down the road. He had seen the disturbance, and thought that it would be a great opportunity for him to go over and persuade the balloon popper to vote for his party instead!
Rhyme and No Reason! 
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