Celebrated Amy’s birthday a day late last Sunday (21st) after she, Oliver and David had arrived early in the evening. Dot had baked another fine cake.
On Monday we went to Carluccio’s for lunch after discovering that Presto was shut on Mondays. Nice try. We then drove to Cley by different routes but arrived at more or less the same time. Very interesting cottage, with our bedroom leading into the bathroom, a toilet leading off that, and the children’s room leading off the other side of the bathroom. This required some care, obviously, but there were no embarrassing incidents. The children’s room had another staircase from which they could access a downstairs toilet/shower after crossing the living room and kitchen. Interesting. David’s room was opposite ours, off the main staircase. I hope that’s clear. The cottage was called Hambledon and was very comfortable.
The first three days after that were fine, if a little chilly, enabling us to do some walking. On Tuesday we walked to Blakeney – Dot and I via Wiveton Hall Farm and the others by the coastal path. Had a good lunch at The Moorings, then walked back to Cley: I took the coastal route with David and Oliver while Amy accompanied Dot the other way. Found it hard to keep up with the boys and wrote a poem about it.
Later we visited Jessie on the way to Norwich, where Dot, David and Oliver went to see Norwich beat Aston Villa, while Amy and I watched The Impossible on Netflix – a very good film about the 2004 Thai tsunami as seen through the eyes of one family. Earlier we had a takeaway from Nando’s, ordered online and fetched by Dot and myself. Unsurprisingly, the place was heaving.
We stayed at Norwich overnight after the match, and in the morning David and Oliver went to Morrisons to get some chocolate rice cakes for Amy before we all drove back to Cley – or to be more precise, David drove us back to Cley. Interesting experience – I learned a lot about driving hybrids.
Later that day we walked to the nature reserve, where we saw some art and a video and bought a book on being green for Amy – a possible coals-to-Newcastle situation. Afterwards we walked round the reserve via the East Bank and shingle beach, which became a bit wearing. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home and had a short sleep upstairs. Ate some local fish that Dot had bought next door, and played Sleeping Queens – a card game of Amy’s that I think we all liked. Early night.
I had been finding it hard to gauge how cold it was and got a bit overheated, I think. Thursday was cooler at first, but with less wind. David and Oliver went out for a very early run which they cut short. I created a quiz for Amy, using the Notes app in a way she showed me. Enjoyed the experience. Drove to the Anchor at Morston for a very good lunch (fish and chips followed by a brilliant blackberry and apple crumble). After that I walked with David, Oliver and Amy to Blakeney while Dot drove, having a bad coffee at the Manor while she waited. Then she walked to Blakeney with the others while I drove back, and eventually everyone did the quiz, which Dot won – not the plan, but what can you do? Following this some homework was done while I rested on the bed again.
Friday was very wet at first, with showers later. Much colder and windier. Drove to North Walsham with Jonathan’s season tickets, and he told me how his daughter had failed to stand up for him when he was abused at the Playhouse when he tried to take in a medicinal drink which contained a small amount of alcohol. We bought pies at the deli for lunch and some fish at the smoked fish chip, as you do. Later we checked the George for next day’s lunch.
Saturday was very wet. Lunch at the George (fish and chips again) , then Dot drove into Norwich to go to the football match (Norwich 1-0 v Brentford). David and the children left about 3pm in pouring rain, the four of us rushing their luggage up to the car, which was parked as usual on The Fairstead. Good journey home, apparently. I had intended to go for a walk while Dot was away, but it was too wet; so I had a bath instead. That was even wetter. Dot arrived back about 7, when we played patience.
During this an amazing thing happened. When I had my go, three cards disappeared completely. We searched the table and the floor, inside a magazine, under piles of stuff and couldn’t find them anywhere. It was as if they’d vanished off the face of the earth. Really mysterious. As a last resort we tried to shift the table, which looked as if it unfolded. It didn’t, but it did swing round on its support, and when that happened, the cards suddenly appeared on the floor: they must have slipped through a crack in the middle of the table as one of us shuffled.
After this we watched Match of the Day and put the clocks back. Glenn Hoddle had a heart attack and was in hospital, very ill. Meanwhile, the owner of Leicester City was killed in a helicopter crash just outside the ground.
Yesterday seemed very quiet. We drove to Morston, parked in the National Trust car park (£4) and went for a walk on the marshes out to the left. Reached Freshes Creek not far from Stiffkey, but it was too damp to walk further out, as I had stupidly left my boots in Norwich. Afterwards had ice cream in the lookout, which was very pleasant (out of the wind) and spoke to a couple who we had seen further out on the marshes. They said it was possible to do a circular walk if you timed it right and had the right footwear. It’s even possible to get out to the Point.
Had lunch back at home, and there was suddenly quite heavy rain and hail: so we were fortunate. Dot did some work and I felt exhausted again: my knee and ankle were playing up a bit. In the evening we went to the Wiveton Bell, where we each had a nice steak burger. It was quite empty when we arrived (6pm), but soon filled up, mainly with dogs, which is not really what you want. Drove home and watched TV, learning some disturbing things about the Mediterranean, particularly Ceuta and the south of Spain.
Played cards a bit and went to bed fairly early because we knew we had to leave by 10am today. We actually achieved that fairly comfortably and called in to see Jessie on the way home. While Dot visited Catfield School in the afternoon I went to the supermarket. As I write, she is meditating…