One Of The Many Things I Love About The UK,

is the old traditions that we have and cherish, 

like the Britannia Coconutters that I love and support, keeping our British heritage alive for future generations to enjoy, from their history page:

'in 1857, William Hargreaves created a “Tunstead Mill” carnival dance troupe and the dancers delighted thousands of people annually at Easter week by their dancing in the street. A two-day tour on Good Friday and Easter Saturday often travelled as far as Rochdale and Crawshawbooth. Inevitably, objections from church-goers led to stopping the Friday perambulations, the early references to  “Moorish Pirate Dance” recorded by one-time leader Arthur Bracewell in 1948 has frequently been seen as just a fanciful description by the creators of the dance but recently found correspondence from these originators reveal a surprising knowledge of “Cornish History”.  An element of English history untaught at school it seems, but familiar to these individuals… reference to “Moorish” marauders who, for centuries  searched  the Cornish coastline and seized people as slaves. Descriptions of the kilts and turbans all relate to the Moorish Pirates  and their “Dance of Mad Revelry”  which certainly sums up the extravagant activity of our dancers'. as unusual as this is',

and here they are, and yes we have the beer, mugs and tea towels all from the Coconutters!

well speaking of unusual many will not have heard of another great UK tradition, penny throwing, and it hurts! it all started like this, in Honiton, a town in East Devon, there is a tradition, Honiton had a celebration after being granted a Royal Charter in the year 1221, which became an annual festival, in the early days, the landed gentry would climb to the upper stories of its buildings and throw hot chestnuts to the poor people below, but really was not much fun as they could be picked up easily, so what to do for some fun? throw red hot pennies instead! Because the elite found it amusing to see desperate people scramble for the pennies and risk burning their hands to catch them, in the video above Tom Scott made it to Honiton this year to witness the Honiton Hot Pennies ceremony for himself, when I mention it hurts, people have been scared by the pennies as they are so hot, and this is fun? well it appears to be!

Another Day Of Only One Post,

because I took so many photographs,

first thing we were out, so glad rags on,

have chair will travel,

looking at the sky it was a bit cloudy,

the passenger bridge over the tracks still not completed,

from Beckenham Junction,

to Orpington, a change of trains,

and we finally arrived in Folkstone,

we made our way past the art work at the side of the station,

the sign says it all,

one of the hands,

we had been here before but did not pass this way, this art deco building caught my eye,

and here we are at the Leas,

it is the area overlooking the beach with a promenade and bandstand amongst other attractions,

the home owners here with a grandstand view,

there was a military display,

with Second World War jeeps,

and aircraft,

this one a Hawker Hurricane,

we stopped for a few moments as Diana was asked to take a fellow tourists photograph,

there were staff on hand to answer peoples questions about the exhibits,

a Supermarine Spitfire,

I have just had a chat with Mr. Tony in Thailand, I remember many years ago he owned one of these jeeps, great fun driving around, getting sunburnt heads of course!

we made our way along the Leas,

past the Red Arrows souvenir stall,

it was a tad chilly, I almost bought a fleece top,

the cliff top restaurant I think it is,

a sign maker with a sense of humor!

this is for young artist, a competition to draw a seagull,

at the front of the cliff there were lots of stalls selling handicrafts,

like these,

at the rear the food and drinks stalls,

we found the bandstand,

the band it has to be said were remarkably good,

so we stopped for a while to listen to them,

making our way to the food and drinks stalls a group of Morris dancers were getting ready for their performance,

Diana joined the queue for food,

I joined the drinks queue,

the Morris dancers,

started to strut their stuff,

as Diana enjoyed her hamburger and chips,

it was a bit of a shame really, the loudspeakers were turned on, the voice of the commentator describing what was going to happen completely drowning out the Morris dancers music and the story of each dance, but it was fun to watch, if only my favorite Morris dancing group could have made it, the Britannia Coconutters,

then 'Ouch!', for the first time in my life I had been stung by a wasp!

the first display started,

by a Chinook helicopter,

and very impressive it was too,

I brought the small pocket camera with me today,

hence the marks on the photographs,

the problem being that the Lumix does not have a telephoto lens, so the helicopter would not have photographed well, the camera I used that last time we were here had ceased to be and was way too expensive to repair,

time for a quick 'Cheers!', the next display was by a Huey helicopter, that flew past and just kept going! so that was that, we had plenty of time as it happens, we had almost 3 hours to kill before the Red Arrows were due to fly in, unlike other airshows we have been to where there is a continuous display of aircraft, here there was not, after the Huey that was it,

so we decided on a walk to the beach,

along with many others,

like many seaside towns,

buildings are going up along many seafronts,

under the arch,

and past the poppy fence,

each poppy hand woven and placed on the fence as a tribute to the War dead,

a quick pose,

then I found this on the ground,

so I stuck him on a fence post,

we were half way, a long way up,

and a long way down,

we were soon on the shingle,

and heading towards the building site,

a few more months and it should be finished,

time,

for a couple of poses,

I have to say these beachside properties in a crescent shape do look nice,

not sure about these though,

we were up there,

a Inuit at Folkstone, 

we sat on the sea wall,

well Diana did I brought along a chair but Diana did not want one,

it really was a tad too cold to swim, but it did not put some people off of the idea,

the area was by now stating to fill up, it was at this time I wish I had bought the Red Arrows fleece!

and speaking of the Red Arrows here they are! they entered from behind us inland and rocketed out to sea, the noise was wonderful,

in a flash the wait was all worthwhile,

as they started their manoeuvres,

in what only can be described as a aerial ballet,

at death defying speeds,

it was just so nice to watch,

especially when the aircraft started on their major set pieces,

two aircraft barrel rolling around the other five,

amazing,

next,

the red, white and blue of Great Britain,

filled the sky,

and the show continued,

as two pilots heading towards each other,

whilst the other five continued to also thrill the crowds,

as they began a new formation,

next a final turn,

as again two aircraft performed a real crowd-pleaser,

a red heart in the sky,

I was busy snapping away as the last stunt took place right in front of us,

I dread to think what the closing speed must have been, what an incredible performance, and it lasted so long, a huge Thank You and Well Done to the magical Red Arrows,

next the long uphill walk to the Leas,

the pathway,

zig-zagging up the cliff face,

we were down there!

a slight rest as the path leveled out,

but we were soon climbing again,

not far now,

and here we were,

joining the queues to the station and car parks,

speaking of which whilst chatting to Mr. Tony he mention one of his children took their family to Beachy Head to watch the display, the car park charge was £15.00, a nice little earning for someone!

Diana was exhausted, so a few ZZZZZ's on the train,

as it was late we decided on a takeaway,

a kebab it was then!

9.30 in the evening and it was still light,

we shared the kebab it was huge,

'Cheers!', I have put a small video below, 

of the Morris dancers and a small part of the Red Arrows, after our meal it was feet up for one from Endeavour before we were off to bed.