I don't know about the rest of the 125,000 odd of Thanet but I love to watch movies. New ones, old ones - it's all the same to me. Obviously new ones have the added advantage of being new (and hopefully fresh) but to be honest the mainstream has been fairly weak these last four years or so.

With the loss of Margates cinema and the rather uninspired range of soulless money spinners on offer at the Vue at Westwood Cross

I'd been meaning to try out some rent by post services since my local video shop changed hands and the new owner was unable to keep it profitable. As I'm an iPoints member I checked out what partners they offered so I could get extra points for doing what I was going to do anyway. I discovered when I logged in that I am 20% of the way to running off with a PSP with iPoints now - which means of course that there is a whole load of free goodies I could claim if I wanted to. (more on free stuff later.

I found a few services worth a look and look I did. Read on to find out more.

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» Continue Reading: Renting Movies in Thanet (and elsewhere in the UK)

I took off for london to see my little sister's graduation cerimony yesterday. Given allt he set backs and disadvantagres she faced getting that degree I was realy proud of my little sister. However I got to bed at midnight as a result and am too sleepy to construct much of any insight.

Regular programming shall resume shortly (probably after the announcements from the council today...)

The Eleven Plus (otherwise known as the Kent Test) has started to change. As of this year the test took place in September with the results due towards the end of October. For the first time ever parents could well have two clear weeks to make their schools applications knowing the results of the test.

This decision which was rubber stamped by the Secretary of State and welcomed by KCC Cabinet Member for Education Operations, Resources and Skills (Mark Dance), finally addresses a long standing criticism of the test. That parents had to guess what the outcome might be causing both chaos and frustration if things did not go as expected.

Even so the proposal which was very popular with parents found significant reservations from some admissions authorities. So much so that proposal was referred to the Secretary of State for the a formal rubber stamping.

(You can read more from Kent.gov.uk for the full timetable of events for this year's school selection process.)

If you are feeling brainy you can try your hand at a Verbal Reasoning paper from the Eleven Plus. The BBC have an online version you can try your hand at. I managed to be correct on just 37 out of 50 (apparently this is "good" which is above "average") which means I got 13 of the questions wrong. I confess I feel "totally wiped out" now and need to stop and put the kettle on.

The eleven plus (aka the Kent Test) is a heavy duty test. What are your feelings about it?