Boxing Day Hunt Tenterden

An enthusiastic turnout once again for the Boxing Day hunt meet in Tenterden 

High Street and a lovely winter's day – crisp and clear. 

The High Street is closed to vehicular traffic for an hour whilst the horses and hounds assemble.

This obviously causes a little congestion and a certain amount of curiosity in those who are not familiar with the annual tradition.

But soon the hunt is away. For more details visit the Ashford Valley Tickham Hunt website.

Red passport or blue passport?

A blue covered British Travel Document
issued to a stateless person but not to a
British Citizen.

This story should be dead by now but let's just give it another little kick of life. 

What is amusing in all this jingoism is that a proportion of the British public resented the loss of the British blue passport and the addition of the words 'European Community' to the front cover and yet all the time that the UK was issuing its red passport for its own citizens, it was, and still is, issuing a blue covered document which does not say 'European Union' on the cover.

The only snag is that it can be issued to anybody but a British Citizen.

So what do you think of that?

Passport Portraits of Yesteryear no. 31

Continuing the series of passport portraits in my collection.
Peruse and wonder.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the British Government agreed tacitly to not object to France creating a 'zone of influence' in Morocco if France would stop stirring up trouble in Britain's Protectorate of Egypt and so in 1912 Morocco was carved up between France and Spain. France immediately began to settle its nationals in its new Protectorate of Morocco.
In 1923, an 'international zone' was created for those countries who had missed out on the party. 

This is Charles Henri Delamare, He is a French native-born farmer of 38 yrs and he lives in Morocco with his family. This is his photograph on his 'Chérifien Empire' passport of the Protectorate of Morocco which he obtained in 1921 in order to go to Kénitra. Once there, he obtained a Spanish visa and travelled on to Tangiers.

Blue passport or red passport?

Yesterday the Home Office announced that the next version of the UK passport would have a blue cover. What are the implications for the British public? 

Well, as far as I was concerned, it meant that on Friday I started work at 06.30, gave three television interviews and nine radio interviews; travelled three hundred miles making four train journeys and three taxi trips and my breakfast was a sandwich eaten on a railway platform at 16.15.

It's no wonder that I am slim.

No more apples in the orchard.

Take a last look at these apple trees in Mountfield Farm orchards opposite my house in Canterbury. They have just been grubbed out along with the windbreak of poplar trees. A developer is going to plant 4,000 houses here instead.

With a bit of luck the increased congestion will reduce the speed of the traffic going down my road to a walking pace. 

All I will need then is a gas mask.

No snow in Chillenden

Yup, there's no snow in Chillenden.

And judging by the position of the windmill, not much wind either.

When it is windy the windmill falls over.

Immigration Cyclists see the Brassiere Tree at Kingston

Every Christmas time this fir tree at the side of the road out of Kingston, Kent, acquires a set of Christmas decorations. I have no idea who affixes them or why but I utterly support the concept. It does no harm and it amuses people. 

The Highways Authority have, over the years, chopped the lower branches of the tree as it grew and so the anonymous decoration hanger has had to migrate his attachments higher and higher up the tree.

As I led the Immigration Service cyclists on our monthly ride down the hill into Barham for lunch I warned them to keep a look out for the tree.

It was covered with brassieres!

Merry Christmas!

(I'm glad I've got that off my chest.)

Just to keep me legal...

I found a sum of money in the street in Canterbury today. If I keep it with intent to deprive the owner of its use then I will be convicted of stealing. So, if any of you lost a sum of money in Canterbury today, if you would like to tell me what exactly the amount was and where you lost it, I will gladly return it to you.