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Work rather kindly arranged a trip to Folkestone for those of us interested in relocating (see a previous thread for circumstances/dilemma on this subject).

Friday

Arrived in the pouring rain at about 7pm (rush hour M25 was less than thrilling). Checked into the Holiday Inn Express at Cheriton Park greeted by happy and friendly staff. Dumped our stuff in the room, had a quick shower and then off to the bar for a few drinks.

When I came down to the bar a few people commented on how bad my eye looked. It did hurt I must admit. As it happens I got some shampoo in my eye and it was really painful.
I had a few beers and then had to go and wash my eye out for about 10 minutes before the pain subsided enough to rejoin the bar.

A few drinks later and the eye had stopped bothering me, I was fairly drunk and we were having some divinely hilarious conversations. "Who is your man-crush?" being the foremost amusing gambit.

A few more beers and it was nearly 1am so time for bed.
Promise of a full English breakfast in the morning set me in good spirits and so I began my peaceful slumber...



Saturday

I slept like a log. That was on fire and needed to be rotated frequently.
Felt ok when I first woke up, had a shower and felt a little worse for wear. Not even a proper hangover but a bit sluggish.
Mmm Full English Breakfast.

Except there wasn't.
Cereal and croissants!!!
Anyone who has ever heard my opinion on continental breakfast will appreciate how outraged I was at being offered croissants for breakfast.
Too late to go to Tesco for an all day breakfast so I soldiered on.

A three minute walk took me to the new building which is lovely.
A quick tour and a brief Q+A (not that sort, for all you mentalist bods) and I was feeling pretty good about the move.

A 5 minute drive to the other building, which it turns out is the head office (and previous Eurostar building) of the company. Very nice!

A quick presentation on the history of the company (including why Folkestone even exists on maps!) and then a discussion about the jobs available in my company and the ones available in the parent company.
There's a LOT to look at so even if I don't get exactly what I don't want from my company there's a lot of other prospects.

I know the presentation was selling the move, but if they can deliver on even 10% of what they say then this could be an excellent career move.


A few local companies (estate agents, removal firms, schools and the like) were available for chats so I managed to get a lot of information about moving etc.

Then for the tour of Folkestone (I say tour but it was me, the missus and two friends driving around aimlessly for a while).
Folkestone (as with the rest of Kent) is absolutely lovely and I can really see myself living there.
There's also a hardware store and stationers so I'm well away!

We got some food in and then headed back to the hotel for a few more beers.

So the Folkestone adventure is nearly at an end - tomorrow afternoon I go home but I've had a great time.
I'm really looking forward to coming down here to work for a fortnight and I'm really hoping that everything works out so I can move.

I've had a few beers tonight so it's nearly time for bed now.
I'll keep you updated on tomorrows going ons, but if everything is as good as it's been since I arrived, I'll be seeing you Kentonians soon!

did you see the Apprentice? They were re-branding Margate.

Irony is that the woman who got 'fired' came from Sittingbourne.

There's a most excellent sandy pirate ship and play ground in folkestone: i hope you had chance to have a go. the only problem is you need to take children with you.

aporia wrote:There's a most excellent sandy pirate ship and play ground in folkestone: i hope you had chance to have a go. the only problem is you need to take children with you.

Oh don't worry about Children, I've spent more than one drunken evening on those climbing frames on the way home from the boozer.

Ecko, when you're next down here give me the heads up and we'll see if we can sort out a Folkestone TM get together.

EckoZero wrote:When I came down to the bar a few people commented on how bad my eye looked. It did hurt I must admit. As it happens I got some shampoo in my eye and it was really painful.
I had a few beers and then had to go and wash my eye out for about 10 minutes before the pain subsided enough to rejoin the bar.

I feel your pain, mate. I did that earlier this year. I flipped the top of the Head and Shoulders shut and a blob shot straight into my eye. Not good. I could taste the damned stuff for hours. What with that and getting a blob of hot flux in the same eye, it's a wonder I'm not a cyclops!

And you will also need to bear in mind a very important 'decision clincher' ... you'll be minutes from Alakazam so you will need at least a £10k per annum pay rise as Pete Nardi will be benefitting if your anything like me ... i start with all good intentions, just spend a couple of quid in there and ....whoops, thats another battering for the bank account!!

The only thing worse than getting shampoo in your eye is getting chilli powder in your eye. To cut a long story short, the pain was excrutiating. It felt like lots of hot needles were piercing my eyeball.

Anyway, the fish in Folkestone is very nice. Particularly the mackerel. I may have mentioned that previously; I forget.

Well Sunday is upon us and I've returned home to Newmarket.
The final day was ok - we got up at a sensible time (and I was chased by what should have been Saturday's hangover into today) and managed to head off to Tesco for a proper breakfast.

It was raining so we decided to have a quick drive around Folkestone for another look.
It was exactly the same as yesterday so we buggered off to Cheriton and Hythe before heading along the mst winding country roads you could ever imagine so that we could find a roundabout to take us M20-ward and on to Ashford.

Ashford is strange - can anyone explain the metal trees?

Also the pedestrian area (which is also a road on Sundays) has a terrifying moment where it appears you're driving on the wrong side of the road, and a roundabout that probably should be a roundabout but doesn't have anything to go around or any signposts.
Looks nice though and it was a shame we didn't have too much time to get to grips with Ashford.

Never mind though because I'm going back there for a fortnight in June or July so I can have a proper look around Ashford on a day off.
Metal trees indeed.



All in all, Kent was really nice.
I really like the area and the jobs seem ok... let's hope it all goes smoothly from here!

Dya know I did the same thing in ashford at the last kent meet and got totally lost and ended up having to reverse down the pedestrian only bit.... which was scary lol...

Ashford is wierd lol.. end of ... lol..

F x