Had a gorgeous weekend in Norfolk/Suffolk. Friday night, Mark and I got a reasonably early night and pulled some stuff together for camping on Saturday. We booked our big trip on Saturday morning, as Mark's Mum got the all clear on her tests from the hospital. We have slightly mixed feelings about this; while it is fantastic to hear that she doesn't have Bells Palsy, a tumour, trapped facial nerves, or has had another stroke, no diagnosis means no treatment, which means that she has to endure having a permanently numb face.
Saturday morning we drove over to Martham boat yard and tried to get a half deck sailing boat hired. However, the boat they offered us was pretty grotty looking and they wanted a whopping £65 for half a day's use of it. So we ended up in Potter Heigham, and hired a motor cruiser for the afternoon. Although this felt like second best (chugging up the broads in a noisy tub, instead of elegantly sailing), as it turns out we made a good choice. There were enormous thunder storms throughout the afternoon, and we gazed smugly from the comfort of our cabin at couples shouting at each other in the downpour whilst they struggled with their sails.
Late afternoon, we set up camp at Clippesby Hall camp site. Gorgeous site - large area, but nicely chopped up into little glades. Wasn't too muddy, and the shower blocks were comfortingly close to the tent (my pet hate: a long trek to the loo in the night after having imbibed too many beers). We spent the evening chatting and drinking in the pub on site; The Muskett Arms, which served a mean whitebait starter and Ham, Eggs and Chips. Yummm.... drank a few too many Lady Evelyn beers (good ghost story attached to it), and spent a night being rained on... bliss ;-) The stars, as ever in that part of the world, were amazing - or so I thought as I bobbed down for a wee behind the car for the 'nth' time during the night... it may well have been spots before my eyes though, as trying to balance in a muddy puddle and keep your pyjamas dry is no mean feat.
Sunday we got up fairly early, supped coffee in the cafe on site, and then went over to Great Yarmouth with the specific intention of visitingg the rather splendid Time and Tide museum, which had had rave reviews in The Sunday Times. For reference, Great Yarmouth is not a place to get lost in the rain in... the locals are not exactly welcoming, and we ended up wandering down Regent Street (words cannot describe the full horreur of this tackville) looking like a pair of drowned rats.
Sunday lunch time we went to see Tracy's new house in Kirkley. Amazing place; full of "potential", and will be gorgeous when complete. Tracy seemed in surprisingly good spirits; she has had a pretty rough week... turns out that Sam has been seeing a local woman with kids all along, who has left her husband for him (quelle surprise!). She and Tracy ended up talking on the phone on Friday, and it seems that Sam has been lying to her (other woman) in fairly equal portions too. I hope Tracy really gets to stick the knife into the lying bastard...
The rest of Sunday was spent at my Mum's place, being fed gorgeous fish pie (a la Jamie Oliver), and looking at kitchen/bathroom catalogues with Tracy. What colour Aga to have? ;-) Henry had us in stitches with his latest dance routines... I swear he is becoming more like his Aunty Poo Poo every day!!!! He inists that he is Angelina Ballerina (??!!!) and was trying to teach me a few moves... he then proceeded to his old fave, the 'river dance' (hilarious), and then we sampled his 'new dance', which believe me has to be seen to be believed... I can only describe it as Bez doing Apsara dancing... :-)
Anyway... that's enough for today, have work to do!!!
Hayls
xxx
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