Do you ever look at the clock and think "That's great I've got a couple of hours before I need to set off for x or y?"
I certainly do and on Saturday morning I had nothing scheduled until 11 a.m. But I ended up having to rush around to get ready in time. And the reasons were threefold and my personal thieves of time - writing a blog, doing Wordle and playing the piano.
"Loads of time," I told myself. "I'll just do today's Wordle." Well it was a tough one. I only got it on my sixth and final go and it was an unusual and quite difficult word. For those who don't do Wordle let me explain. This word game has been going for some time. It was devised by a guy during lockdown and then sold to the New York Times newspaper. Not sure why the New York Times bought it for over a million dollars as it remains a free game and doesn't have advertising. I'm sure at some time in the future it will have one or both of those things. At that point I will probably give up doing it.
Each day there is a five letter word which you have to find. You start by putting in a five letter word on a grid. If a letter turns green it means you have got the right letter in the right place. If it turns yellowy/orange it means you have got a right letter but in the wrong place. If it goes grey/black it means that letter isn't in the word.
Over the months I have been doing this game I have learnt a lot about the formation of letters and the patterns they make.
So after taking time to find the word, I wrote a long and involved blog which you will probably have read. Then I decided to have a tinkle of the ivories.
On our latest visit to North Norfolk I re-visited a charity shop in Holt. I went there about six months ago when I found a piano book of sheet music that I should have bought there and then but didn't bother despite the fact that it was just £1. Does anyone else do that? See something you want but then can't be bothered to buy it? I'm always doing that. So I went back to the same charity shop hoping it would still be there and it was.
It was a book of summer songs like Summer Holiday, In The Summertime and A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square which is a particular favourite of mine.
Before I knew it, my other threequarters was asking me if I was ready to go out. No need to hurry I thought, that is until I looked at my watch and saw it was five minutes to 11.
I felt the best part of three hours had been stolen. Well not actually stolen nor squandered. It was just that with the three enjoyable activities the time had flown by and I had been completely oblivious about how fast it was going.
Strange how it doesn't go anywhere near as fast when you are doing something less enjoyable or something you really don't want to do. But an hour is still 60 minutes and a minute is still 60 seconds.
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Saturday night our grandchildren had a sleep over and it was a lot of fun, playing games, doing puzzles and reading books. Had an interesting book of "facts you didn't know" - things like Boxing Day doesn't have to be on December 26th and Christmas Trees weren't brought to England initially by Prince Albert.
It’s commonly believed in Britain that Prince Albert, the German-born husband of Queen Victoria, first brought the Christmas tree to Britain - but this isn’t the case. Actually, it appears that Queen Charlotte - wife of George III, who was herself born in Germany - may have been the first to introduce the Christmas tree to Britain.
The Boxing Day one isn't so clear-cut. The book suggests that Boxing Day should be a holiday on the first working day after Christmas Day. In other words if December 25th is say a Wednesday then Boxing Day will be on December 26th a Thursday. But if Christmas Day is on December 25th a Saturday then Boxing Day won't be until the next working day which will be the Monday - in other words the 27th. If the 25th is on a Friday then Boxing Day will be 28th. This all seems to be mad as every indication is that Boxing Day is the name given to the day after Christmas Day i.e the 26th irrespective of what day of the week that is.
Interestingly the name Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of pugilism. It is named after the ancient practice of giving boxes of money to all those who had given good service throughout the year. Boxing Day was the day these boxes were opened.
This led me to think about the area of Norwich called Tombland which many people throughout the country will have heard of thanks to the novel by C J Sansom entitled Tombland which is about Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk. This rebellion was mainly about the enclosure of common land but there were many other smaller reasons as well.
Sansom's book is historically extremely well researched and factually correct and quite a bit of the action takes place in the Norwich area close to the Cathedral which is known as Tombland but which has absolutely nothing to do with graves, tombs or burial grounds. The word Tombland simply means an open space or area.
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On Sunday morning we took granddaughter Poppy and granddog Reggie to the Station Bistro at Wymondham for coffee and scones (admittedly not the best - lacking in cheese and falling apart). We then spent the afternoon watching Hethersett Players' production of two short plays - Last Tango in Little Grimley and Lockdown in Little Grimley. It was a fun afternoon.
Hethersett Players re-formed in 2019 but were thwarted in their attempts to bring live drama back to the village by lockdown.
It was good to see live drama again and I will have more details of the group in a coming blog, along with an article on the Hethersett Pantomime Group which is closely associated with the Players.
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Today I will reach a milestone in my marathon walk for 2022 in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance. I will almost certainly reach the midway point i.e 750 miles and that puts me at least 10 days ahead of schedule.
The hardest walk so far was definitely Friday when I walked just over two miles. That's well under my four miles plus a day needed, but the problem was the heat. Walking in over 30 degrees made two miles harder than eight or nine when the temperatures are reasonable.
I'm now very confident of reaching my target both mileage-wise and money-wise. Thankfully at no time since I started the marathon have I fallen behind schedule but I'm still looking forward to the time when I don't have to go out and walk four miles just to keep up with a target.