by Tiago Pinheiro
Tiago studied at Hilderstone College thirty years ago, yet he still has treasured memories of his time here, as you will see!
I first visited Broadstairs in January 1991. I stayed for a month while studying at Hilderstone College. I was obviously mesmerised by the architecture and the beautiful beaches. But there was something far more beautiful about the town: the people!
On my very first night in town, I got lost! No matter how people tried to help me, I just could not find my way back to Callis Court Road, where I was staying. Suddenly, a man that had tried to help me earlier, whose name I will never know, stopped his Mini Cooper and took me to the house where I was staying for that month. I still don’t know how that guy, his girlfriend or wife and I could fit in that car! It may seem like a simple act of goodwill to all of you, but you won’t see that happening in any small town in my country!
During that January, I also had a salesman running after me because he had given me the wrong change two days earlier. A friend of mine could exchange a broken Walkman she had bought a week earlier without having to show the receipt. AND she was told that she could exchange it if it was defective again!
I was so in love with the town that I managed to visit it again two years later just to spend an afternoon there! The more I read your posts here, the more I love the BRITISH PEOPLE AND CULTURE! It is unbelievable that, until this day, people can find things they lost in Broadstairs because the goodness of the people has remained the same. You actually look for the owners of things you find! It is like there is a place far, far away from here where people are naturally nice and generous. You are all wonderful to me, sorry! If I could pick a place to live in the world, it would definitely be here!