Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Folkestone, England: A Seaside Town for Foodies and Art Lovers (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

When tourists visit England, most miss the beautiful coastal towns south of the London, and almost none of them have heard of Folkestone, the magical town in which my guest Tony Quarrington and I live. But we’re letting you in on the secret! (visit postcard academy.co for our list of recommendations.)   In the last episode, you heard about the history of Folkestone — it’s Victorian splendor and the important role the town played in World Wars I and II. Tony and I also talked about the two families that have had the greatest impact on the town over the last few centuries: the Radnors and the de Haans.    Tony left off speaking about Roger de Hann, who’s father was a prisoner of war during WWII and then went on to become a billionaire by founding the travel company Saga right here in Folkestone.    Roger has spent millions revitalizing the town where his father earned his fortune. I’m actually living in one of the refurbished buildings in the Creative Quarter.    In this episode, I jump back into my conversation with Tony, who will talk more about Roger de Hann’s influence on Folkestone and how the town has changed in the last few decades. Then Tony and I will share our favorite places to eat, drink, and do fun things in Folkestone.   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Did you know I host another show called Podcasting Step by Step? Check it out if you’ve been wanting to start a podcast. Every week, I break down ‘how to podcast’ with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams.   Ready to travel? Get your free guide to cheap airfare.   Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insurance  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host Sarah Micatel, and today I am continuing my conversation with Fokston Tour Guide, Tony Quarrington. When tourists visit England, London is the prime destination, and for good reason, it's a city rich with history and culture. I lived there for years, and it's still my favorite city. But travelers don't usually venture out of it, or maybe they'll do a trip to Stonehenge or the Cotswolds. but most travelers miss the beautiful coastal town south of London, and almost none of them have heard of Fogston, the magical town in which Tony and I now live, but we are letting you in on The Secret. In the last episode, you heard about the history of Fokston,

it's Victorian splendor and the important role that it played in World Wars 1 and 2. Tony and I also talked about the two families that have had the greatest impact on the town over the last few centuries, the Radnors and the Dahan's. Tony left off speaking about Roger Dahan, whose father was a prisoner of war during World War II, then went on to become a billionaire by founding the travel company saga right here in Fokston. Roger has spent millions revitalizing Fokston where his father earns his fortune, and I'm actually living in one of the refurbished buildings here in the creative corner,

and that's where Tony and I are speaking. I'm going to jump right back into our conversation, where Tony left off talking about Roger and the changes that Fokston has seen. seen in the last few decades. And then Tony and I will share our favorite places to eat, drink and do fun things here in Fokston. Enjoy. 1978, first of all, the Roger DeHan Charitable Trust was set up. It was a charity that gave money to particularly arts and education and also health and

well-being initiatives, if you like. Although he's primarily known now for the way he has quite subsisting. substantially funded the arts development in folks over the last 10, 12 years. It shouldn't be forgotten that he's also contributed to a lot of education, new schools, sports facilities and so on. But it is the arts area. So he conceived of this idea of regenerating folks and doing it through artistic endeavour. And one thrust of that was by up a significant proportion of what was known as the old town, which which is the street, Tonne Street, we're sitting in now, and the old High Street,

buy up a lot of the decaying, decrepit buildings that they were hundreds of years old that had been sort of renovated in a very slapdash way in the past, to buy those up, to spend money on refurbishing and renovating them, and then making them available to creative people, both in terms of shops and galleries on the ground floors of these buildings, but also upstairs galleries and studios. And sometimes people who charge down the old high street, for example, to the sandy beach, don't appreciate there are hundreds of people in that little street alone working at their art in rooms upstairs. Painters, graphic designers, podcasters.

Even podcasts. So that was his idea. And if you were to ask, and perhaps a future podcast, you might like to have a chat with some like Shane Record, who is an artist at the top of the old high street, he was the first artist to actually get one of Roger DeHan's newly refurbished buildings. And he's been here since, I think it's about 2007. And he will tell you the story, because a lot of people will say, particularly old-timey people in Vokeson, will say, oh, the old high street, there's nothing there. It's all these yuppies down from London and America and places.

You know, and it was much better 10 years ago. Well, he would tell the story that when he moved in to his gallery, three quarters of the shops and buildings on that street were boarded up. It was a no-go area at night. And now, I mean, there's always building going on. So there's always scaffolding. But now it is a vibrant, colourful street, full of, say, great galleries and studios, two or three nice restaurants and coffee shops now.

So many. In fact, let's get into our favorite folks and things because, yes, thanks to this regeneration, thanks to like the De Haan's like patron money. It's literally transformed this town, as you said. And the buildings look fantastic. There's lots of local shops, great restaurants. I'm stunned at how many vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Or it's like a paradise plus regular pubs. I could go on. All right, let's get into it. You did mention we might talk about this.

And I've got a long, long list written down, but I'm not looking at them. Oh, yes. You can have my favorites. There's a lot of others I like as well. Well, I mean, we can start at the old high street. I'm going to jump in with some of my favorites, too. I'm bursting. So I think for coffee, my favorite local coffee shop,

is on the old high street. You know what I'm talking about? Steve Street, our favorite best cappuccino I've ever had in my life. Wow. That's what I had this morning. Yes. A good almond croissant. We've shared that before.

Yeah. And I just love how the walls are just lined with books. Like, I love how this town can sustain independent places at still reasonable prices compared to London where you would be paying double everything here. Absolutely. Everyone loves Steve Street. It's a victim movie. own success in a way because although I can spend three, four, five hours in there, my favorite

table by the window, many is the time where even I've walked past and you can't get in. Yeah. I mean, it's quite small. It's all very close together and so popular. Not only is the coffee great, but they do amazing cakes. Yeah. And they've got their own chocolate range as well. And as you say, they've got 10,000 books on the shelves.

Yeah. The interesting story behind that is when they opened up, it's a young couple from Brighton, who had this idea of creating a Parisian-style coffee shop. So if you know Paris, all the best independent coffee shops have got books on the shelves. It's all part of the sort of French literary culture. And they wanted to create something in this country there. And somebody bought them a weekend voucher to stay in Fokston. And they actually stayed in the Grand Burst in Hotel by the seafront.

And they were looking around and they saw this property that was being renovated. and they just fell in love with it. Not really been to Folkton before. They thought, that's where we want to be. So that opened up in November 2015. The week before they opened, a local book collector announced that he was getting rid of his collection. And so it just fell into their lap, literally. So they said, well, have it.

You know, it was open just in time for the book festival that year. Right next door to Steve Street is one of our favorite restaurants. Marley's also opened. by a young couple, all local stuff. Great Hulumi Burger. What do you like getting there? I like the breakfast. Breakfast is great.

They do some nice seafood at lunchtime, lunchtime snack. Yeah, great fan of Marley's. They're lovely people, charming people. Everything is locally sourced, tasty. The thing I like most about them is if you make a booking, they've got, I don't know how many listeners are familiar with the board game, Scrabble. but they put a little scrabble tiles on your table,

spelling out your name. So when you're looking, rather than seeing a reserved sign or a little card saying your name, you've actually got a little set of scrabble tiles with T-O-N-Y on them or whatever. I think that's really cool, but they're just so nice.

Food is fabulous. A lot of cute little touches. Yeah, and that's Charlie and Mark. Charlie and Mark, my name, as therefore Marley's. Right now, Arbor Arm is still alive and kicking. So I think not really much going on in the winter,

but in the summer it's rammed. That's where the outdoor cinema is. And this is just sort of like an outdoor pier. Lots of food trucks, bands on the weekend, even a champagne bar in the lighthouse, which can't get much cooler than that. I agree. Yeah, I mean, the Harbour Arm,

I mean, on a warm July afternoon, there isn't a busier place in the whole of the county of Kent than there is on that harbour arm. Well, the other thing I do mainly apart from my tours and talking and writing about Fokston is I'm poet. One poem I wrote quite recently was about the harbour arm and it was about the fact that it's possibly the one place in Fokston where you see all of the people of Fokston together enjoying what's on offer. Otherwise, a lot of it, there is sort of quite a dividing line between the traditional, urban,

working class part of folks, if you like, and the more creative, middle class, sophisticated area, if you like, that we're sitting in now. But Harbour arm is where everybody goes. And you've described most of its attraction. The champagne bar is fantastic. All the food trucks.

One I haven't tried yet, and I hope they haven't finished for the season. It's an old railway carriage that they've converted into a little, mainly seafood restaurant called Platform 3. And that's one I've walked past several times now, but haven't eaten on. You've got all the bands.

You've got some great little pop-up restaurants inside as well. You've got Follies, which is a local institutions, pizza restaurant. You've got a Basque, Spanish Basque tapas place that recently, I think it's Sunday Times restaurant critic, who's about the best restaurant critic or best known restaurant, Charles Corrin went to visit and he said it was the best Basque food he's ever eaten in his life. and one I particularly like in the new the renovated railway station

the old signal box has been converted into a really cute cafe now that does bagels and they serve your wine and coffee and so on and you sit in the station it's really cool we've had like you just said we've had the harbour screen all through the summer showing films and also sports events like the recent cricket and Wimbledon and so on it's a shame that that kind of

can't go on all through the year, but obviously the weather will stop that because we do get some pretty fearful storms that close down the harbour arm during that time of the year. It's a good time for a cozy pub. Yeah, out of season, I think possibly only at weekends, but you can probably still get in the champagne bar, although you'd have to sit inside the lighthouse, which is pretty cool as well. They have a nice fire and they do little snacks. So it's still a cool place to go. And Follies has always opened the pizza place.

But most of it will be very soon shut down. So do you have a favourite pub? Favorite pub? Well, I have to say, I mean, to be honest, don't go to a lot of pubs. He says, but it has to be the Pullman, I think. Now, the Pullman is, it's just up a little street called Church Street, which leads up from the beginning of the creative quarter up to the Paris Church. And on the outside, it looks pretty typical English pub.

Nothing spectacular, apart from all the blackboards outside, telling all the stuff that's on their menu and so on. But I don't know anybody that doesn't like the Pullman because it has everything. It's a nice, cozy, typical English pub inside, quite dark wood, hops and the ceiling. They've got a separate restaurant, the food is great, a nice bar area, different tables, different chairs.

And then you've got a patio outside, which is possibly the biggest sunspot in Fokston during the summer. And you get, again, that's on a couple of levels. It just sort of seems to work for everybody that place. So I love the Pullman. One or two others, I suppose the other one, and isn't showing my sort of middle-class roots here? The other one I really like is the Harbour Inn.

Yes, but it's beautiful. Which is owned by the same guy that owns the Pullman, who also owns Lubin's pizza restaurant, which is fabulous. and also owns number four now a new bar called Market Square. Have you tried it yet? I just saw that it was open. Okay. Yeah.

I haven't had a meal there. I haven't got a big menu, to be honest. It's more like a hangout bar really than anything I would have said. A new little local for me. I also love the Radnor Arms. Have you been in there? Yeah, I've been to Radnor. Well, that's up near where I live.

So delicious. Great Hulumi burger there as well. Yeah. What I like there is they do all their own gins. that's a popular place for gin and they infuse it with various herbs and plants and so on. So it's quite

funny actually because whenever you go in there you ask what's on this week, you're going to say, oh, we've got a pomegranate gin, you know, or the orange gin will be ready in a couple of days. They have these vast vats of gin and different tonics, I mean, that's a big thing anyway. But yeah, the Radnar Arms is good and they've got a lovely, it's quite small, but they've got a lovely little sun trap patio again outside.

I mean, you could be in Italy. or Spain sitting out there. So they're probably as far as... There's a couple of smaller bars. I like the place called Home, which is just over the road from where we're sitting now, which is a nice, cool vibe hangout bar. I didn't even know that was a bar.

I thought it was like a furniture store or something. Yeah, I know what you mean. Well, I used to... It used to be called the Trubodore a few months ago. It's still owned by the people who live upstairs, but the actual place is now. And the Trubador was interesting, because it was the one place probably in Focston where you could go in and literally have a quiet pint.

The bar area for what it was worth was at the back of the public area and it's like a kitchen. So there was no bar area, so there was no noise from that. The Poets Corner Group used to meet regularly there and there's a great space for that, acoustic music as well. Really sort of nice, relaxing vibe. And it's the same now. I like it, although I think Saturday and Sunday there's a couple of bands on there. this weekend. So that's really good. We're sitting virtually next door to what used to be the lime bar, which is a shame is no longer there because that was the place for me, but is now a Belgian

muscle and beer place, which I have to confess, I haven't been in up to now. Another really cool mini bar, if you like, is the Bouvri Tap, which is literally round the corner from the Radnor Arms on the little row of shops and restaurants that are there. And there's some great places on that little stretch there as well. So, yeah. So, yeah, I like more bars than I thought going through that, thinking through that. It's probably one to do more as well. What else do you like to do at night here?

Do you go to the events at Quarter House at all? Yeah, we do. We've been to a number of plays there. What we like going to, particularly there, is the live screenings of theatre performances. from places like the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House. They have this live screening where you're watching a filming of the live performance that night in Common Garden or whatever. And of course, coming up in November is the annual book festival. That's been going for a few years now. Last year was really good because the second weekend,

it runs, it's two weekends with the week in between. So that's nine days. and last year the second weekend was devoted to an examination of the USA today. And so I went to in two days, I went to, I think it was eight separate talks by authors who'd recently published a book about American society. So it might be, it was one about language that was really in difference between English and American English. But there were also several about Trump's America and America's role in the world and everything. And they're absolutely great.

There's always something going on here in Fokston. Every day you'll see flyers up for something new that's cool. We've talked about the art scene, but we actually didn't mention that. There's art everywhere in Fokston, art installations everywhere. Can we talk a little bit about the triennial and... Back to Roger Dahan. And what some of these famous pieces are because they're very iconic. Yeah, well, back to Roger Dahan, because I mentioned earlier about his role in

renovating the old town. And a lot of money spent on that. And of course, a lot of money shouldn't forget that he's invested already on redeveloping the seafront area. And obviously, a major development is scheduled to start very soon on the seafront, although news has gone a bit quiet on that recently. But the other thing, when Roger Dahan got involved in promoting the art scene in Fokston, he funded did up front the first three what are known as triennials. And he gave to that first three, which was 2008, 2011, 2014. He gave $4.5 million of funding towards those. Now, what he's been clever with as well, I said earlier about inheriting all this money. At that 1.4 billion pound, by the way, that he and his brother got for Saga, is now, according to the Sunday Times rich list, down to

890 million. Poor thing. So, yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I say. Poor thing, yeah. So he's getting a bit low, low in funds at the moment. But what he is clever at doing,

he's not stupid, he's not just throwing his money at these things. He does work hard to get partnerships with other organisations like the Arts Council, like the Kent County Council, like the Focston and Hithe District Council, like the old development authorities. So he works to get partners to come in

and part fund it. as well. But the conceived of the triennial, which was this three-yearly, the next one's coming up next year, which is really exciting. Do you know when? No, not yet. Sometime in 2020. Probably late-tish summer. It was last time. I think it was too late, but we'll see. Yeah, the next one's 2020, which will be the fifth. Now, what it is, is every three years with a curator, a committee, looks at commissioning, usually pretty well-known artists to come up with a mainly outdoor artwork

that reflects a certain theme that they want each year. The last one was called Outside Edge, for example. Another one, I think one of the early ones, it's called Looking Out. You can interpret that in whichever way you like. So what folks have now has, having had those four triennials, we have now, I think it's an over,

over 70 public artworks that you will literally bump into as you walk around the town and sometimes in the most obscure places. I don't know who coined the phrase, but I love it. It's known as a gallery without walls. And it is the biggest open air, outdoor art gallery in the UK. And it's astonishing. And among the sort of artists that listeners might be aware of, One of the early ones is from Yoko Ono. And that's a great story there because in 1966,

Yoko Ono exhibited in Fokeston at the Metropolitan Hotel, which had by then become an art gallery. And she was impressed by Fokston, so she says. And in 2000, oh, I think it's 11, she came back and produced two artworks for the Fokeston Triennial then. the prominent one being called Earthpiece, which was a dual installation where you have a searchlight which flashes in Morse code the words Earthpiece. And it does that permanently from the top of the Grand Hotel. And if you walk from that, the front of the hotel below that, and walk to almost

the very edge of the cliff, there is a stone slab there which again has Earthpiece on it. and YO 2011, I think it is. And she actually did an interview last year where she actually spoke about how much she loved folks. So you've got Yokoana. It's pretty big. Talk about British artists.

You've got Anthony Gormley, famous for the iron men that are dotted all over the world now. We had two of those in Focon for the 2017 triennial. Unfortunately, we've only got the one now. Because what happens after the trianiels? Because obviously these artists want money for them. they're going to let the town have them.

They don't just give them. It's not a charity. So the town, obviously Roger DeHan's got some involvement in the financial side here, will make a judgment on which artworks to keep. And sometimes they keep the ones you want them to have kept. And sometimes they don't. Like we lost the Gormley and we lost three of the little coloured houses that we had, three out of the six.

So we still have three of the colourful houses. And for me, that's like the most iconic thing. that I've seen in boxing because when I first got here, I was like, what is this? There's one that's not. I tell people every day what they are. There's one not far from the lighthouse, like right overlooking the sea. And I remember, yeah, I remember like, I think the first night I got here, I just went for a walk. It was already kind of dark out. And I'm like, walking, walking. I'm like, what is this thing? This is before I knew about all these art installations. I'm like, what is the function of this thing?

I couldn't figure it out. And then I'm like, oh, this is. Art. What's the story behind that? Even a couple of days ago, there was a couple who were obviously staying at the Burson, who were just wandering around, not knowing what they were looking at. What's that? Looking at the pink house, which is centered right in the middle of the harbour. And I'll tell a bit of story about that one in particular a minute.

But yes, these were part of an installation by a chat called Richard Woods in 2017, the last train of all. And they were six part. And they were these houses, each in a very, loud, primary colour. There was pink, red, purple, blue, yellow and orange. We only now have the pink, the orange and the red left, which is a shame. They were meant to be exactly a third of the size of the average English residents. They are completely hollow, by the way, painted in these vibrant colours. And the idea behind them was they were meant to highlight the

the issue of people buying second homes in coastal towns in the UK. Now, that isn't, isn't at the moment, an issue for folks and as such, but it is an issue in places like Wales and Cornwall, where most of the houses now have been bought up by people from London who've already got a place in London. And they don't really spend time there, right? Yeah. I mean, they might do Airbnbs for some, but most of them are left empty. Well, that's the story.

Now, possibly more than any other triennial piece during that year, excited so much debate, argument, abuse, as things do on social media. And a lot of people were saying, how dare they spend money on these silly little toy townhouses when we've got a homeless problem in folks? You know, you can see that. And people saying that they should make them available for homeless people. and so on. My view all along, particularly the one that sits in the harbour, is it would make such a cool coffee house that you could just row out at high side on one of those little fishing boats,

sit there, have a coffee, look out at the channel and the cliffs, and then row back when you're finished. I'm not sure how sturdy these houses are. They're just like big boxes essentially. The pink one, which is the one that tracks all the attention now, is moored right in the center of the outer harbor. Now, on two separate occasions, that has lost its moorings and floated out at night into the channel

and made its way towards the French coast. Now, my theory is it doesn't want Brexit. He wants to go and live in Europe, and I quite understand that. But both occasions, the folks in rescue, actually had to go out and basically bring it back. And I must admit, since they did that, I haven't seen it move one inch. So they must have it pretty well anchored to the seafloor now. But, yeah, one of the issues about the last triangle, which was interesting, was there's a lot of debate.

A lot of the installations, and you'll recognise this, are very colourful, very vibrant and almost loud. You've got the light bulb building at the bottom of the old high street. You've got the yellow what's called siren up on the east cliff, the old listening ear. A lot of really colorful installations, the houses, of course. And a lot of people complaining, oh, it's all a bit kindergarten. You know, it's all a bit toy town childish. But if you can't have color in your life, you know, it's not worth living, is it? Yeah, cheer up everyone who thinks it's too solemn.

And I mean, it sets folks in apart because it's not just the art installations. Now a lot of whole buildings are quite bright, especially on this street. But it sets folks in apart from the other seaside towns, which I love. I love Kent and the seaside towns are so charming. But a lot of them, it's like quite pastel, very like soothing, calming. Here, there's a bit more lively. Yeah, it's in your face. Yeah, come on.

That's a thumb. No, it's brilliant. I guess I have to ask you your favorite place for a full English breakfast. Oh, my God. That is really difficult. I think it's, oh dear. It's sort of given me an idea of some of these questions before and I sort of sat and thought about And the English breakfast one was the one where I've got most names because there are some great breakfast.

We can just list them off. Okay. Right. I'm going to list the ones that are sort of the runners up. Okay. The captain's table on the fish market is enormous. And it has everything you can imagine, even things like black pudding and cash browns. That is amazing, a bit more expensive than the others, but it is huge.

Marley's does a great breakfast. There is a place near where I live by Radna Park called the Bridge Coffee House, which is a tiny little place. That is a real traditional English breakfast. But again, all the ingredients are locally sourced. It's fantastic. There's another place which isn't very well-known. I call the little place next door.

My favourite place. Oh my God. Best veggie breakfast in England. There you go. There you go. Any others? Okay. We'll lead to the favourite now.

And it has to be Djangoes. Jangoes. Okay. Massive. Absolutely massive. And for anyone... Oh, and another one, sorry. There's one more because it's quite a new one and you may not know it called the Hideaway.

Great vegan cheesecake there, actually. There you go. Never had breakfast there. My writing group's going to move there in the new year. And another great couple owns that place. Yeah. Lovely, lovely people. Yeah, but I think on balance, if I had to have one, it would probably be Djangoes.

While we're on food, I don't want to miss any of your favorites. So aside from Steve Street, What's your favorite coffee shop? Hideaway. I do like the hideaway. There's a coffee shop. I do, and we haven't mentioned it yet. Is it Aletto chocolate cafe?

Okay. I remember it's probably been there a couple of years now. They had a branch in Canterbury. And I remember when it was announced that they were going to take over this vast space on Rondivou Street in folks that it got so many people excited, particularly, I have to say women,

excited about. This chocolate cafe. Oh, this is amazing. This is going to be incredible for folks. And it's a great space. It's a good place to go and work, actually, because it's, because unlike Steep Street, there's a bit of space between the tables, you know, and it's somewhere you can go for a quiet chat as well. Nice, quite dark surroundings. And I went to a really great gig. It's called the Jazz Club every Tuesday night or every other Tuesday night upstairs. Well worth going to. And the Poets Corner Group that I'm involved in, they've now moved into there as well. So a shout out for Aletto as well. And it's nice to sit outside in the sun.

They have some nice language exchanges up there. They have the language exchanges as well. That's right. How about lunch spot? Lunch spot. I suppose we're sort of going back to the same sort of place. It's definitely marlies to the seafood. Probably the harboury.

And again, as you probably gathered, I'm a fan of salt and pepper squid and prawns and shell-on prawns and stuff like that. And again, the little place next door, they do a sausage sandwich sandwich. with this mustard mayonnaise that is to die for. How about best place for a Sunday roast? So that's the British version of brunch. Oh, my God. Every week on about a Friday,

and it's probably on there today, someone will post on one of the social media sites. Where's the best roast dinner in folks? To be honest, I haven't had one for a while, but let me think of the ones that people do. They mention the Bouvary Tap, which we've already touched on, as a good bar because they have a downstairs area that's sort of a mini restaurant.

People rave about that. People rave. Let's give a shout out to the dear old Grand Burstyn Hotel, which apparently does a great roast, and they do it in the room that is the only bit of the building that's left over from the original hotel. Okay. They use that as their sort of like grand dining room. And we have to do a little aside on the Grand Burst.

Yeah, I suppose we have to do. That's another icon. iconic part of folks did now. So we have some like gorgeous Victorian architecture. We've got all of this art and then we've got the Grand Burstyn. And it's this very, how would you describe it? Well, it's meant to be. It's kind of kitschy.

It's kind of kits. It's growing on people. Is it that it gets older? I love it in a weird way. They knock down a stunning hotel, what was in the 70s and built this hotel that looks like a cruise ship. Well, it's meant to be that. It's meant to be a cruise liner. Yeah, yeah.

They've got a casino in the bottom part of it. It's like totally cheapest chips place to stay. I actually belong to their swimming pool for a little while. They've got a little, like the town can go and use the pool in the gym. I mean, I know people who live and work in this part of town who you would think would go to the gym uptown, you know, the modern sort of sexy gyms. And they go to the burst tip. They say facilities are just as good. It's right downtown, right next to the water.

I mean, why not? Yeah, so I have a fondness for that place, but they took over, as you told me before, a beautiful, like they knocked down a beautiful hotel for this. Oh, it was a beautiful building, yeah. And there's just a little, there's just a little piece now. And you said that's where they're serving the Sunday rest. I'm going to give that to try. I've not been there, and I should do.

I had somebody on a tour a little while ago, and it was two couples who'd met on a cruise holiday. and every year now they came to a different part of the UK for a weekend to explore. And one of them was from Cornwall and the other one was from Bath, Bath. And they'd chosen Fawkson and the woman said to me at the beginning of the tour, the only thing I know about Fawkeson is at hotel. I've seen photos and I'm not impressed. Of course, by the end of three-hour tour, she was in love with Fokston. And so we've got to come back and we're Facebook friends and everything now.

I mean, I talk about it is what I call the Marmite building. and that means anything to people. It means you either love it or hate it. I don't think you can have half measures with the burst in. You know, people get very angry and upset about arguing about it. But it is a bit of a monstrosity. It actually looks better, A, the further you get away, looks great from the moon, by the way. It can be seen from the moon, that is true.

And it looks better at night when the, you know, the moon's glinting on the harbour. It can look quite romantic. But it is huge. My biggest defense of it is that it provides holidays, vacations, to hundreds of people a week who might not otherwise be able to afford a seaside holiday because, as you said, it is cheap as chips. And they provide constant entertainment. Nearly every few weekends, there's a major weekender, like an 80s weekend or 60s. Country music is a big popular.

thing. Last weekend they had the annual Scarba Festival, which is like reggae music, two-tone scar music. That was the headquarters for that. And this year, I went earlier in the year to Miss Drag UK, which is the first time it was ever held. It was held in the ballroom of the burst in. And it was an amazing night. They're coming back next year. And they must have taken thousands on the bar. You know, it's just such a great evening. And so, as I say, you You can't knock it. Tony, thank you so much for talking to me today. Where can people find out more about you and sign up for your tours?

I think the best way for people really to relate to me is probably email, which is Tony Quarrington at MSN.com. I do have a website that I introduced last year or expanded last year called fokstonwalkingtours.com.com. for those who are on Facebook, particularly, you can either find me on my own page, which is Tony Quarrington or Tony's Fabulous Folks, which is my page. That's probably the easiest way to do. I think it is.

Tony's fabulous. Tony's fabulous. You can't really forget that one, can you? Or email is the best way to contact me. And I will spell out your name in the show notes. Can you spell out your email? Yeah, it's T-O-N-Y-Q-U-A. R-R-R-I-N-G-T-O-N.

Tony Corrington. Thank you very much, Tony. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Absolutely pleasure. Thank you. Do you see why I love living here so much? And Tony and I have barely scratched the surface.

I've got to give a shout out to my friend Finn, who owns Yo-Yo Street Food. Definitely have to say hello to Mama Kay at the Rum Clinic. Seriously, the list of great local businesses here is so long. I am going to have to do another episode. And I really hope that you come visit. I would be happy to show you around my adapted town, which is starting to feel like home. I'm definitely not used to living on my own. I've really enjoyed flat sharing for pretty much my entire adult life, having that freedom to leave whenever I want, not have to buy furniture. I've met

some really fantastic friends throughout all of these years of sharing apartments together. Now I've got a big empty space. I'm waiting for my bed to arrive today, actually. And all I've got is a couch so far, so one thing at a time. But as you may have heard on previous episodes of this show with Brexit looming and all of this uncertainty around the world, I was really feeling the need to have more official ties here. And also to offer a place for my friends to stay. I have so many great friends from around the world who have hosted me. I really want to give back and be able to host them.

And the last place that I was living in was pretty random with a family in two random guys. And so that didn't accommodate for guests. So here's to the next chapter, a home in England, but with plans to spend more time visiting friends and family in the States, and of course to travel everywhere else. That's all for now. Thank you so much for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.