I wasn't being awkward but was being helpful. How so?
Our village is currently putting together what is known as a parish profile to attract a new Rector.
The writers of that document thought I might have some photos of the new development to add to the document. But I hadn't, but immediately realised that gave me the reason and opportunity for a lengthy walk round the village, taking photos of the main buildings etc and some of the new development.
I'm not a greatly organised person. I take thousands of photographs each year. I download them but the problem is some are on my desktop, some on my laptop, some on usb sticks, some on portable drives and some confused and lost. One day I will round them all up into the same place. I love the phrase one day. It covers everything including procrastination which I mentioned yesterday.
But one day I will get all my photos together and then spend the day scratching my head and trying to remember where and when they were taken.
I mention this because over the years I have undertaken numerous walks round the village, always with the same aim - to produce what are in the trade known as stock photos that can be trotted out at any point on the future to illustrate a story.
That's how when a story appears on a newspaper or magazine the accompanying photo can be 20 years out of date.
So I have been out on numerous occasions to take village pics and, without exception, have misplaced them, put them in lost folders etc and when I need them they just aren't where I expect them to be.
So the request gave me the chance to do it all again and this time I've put all the shots in a folder named Hethersett 2023. If only I could remember on which machine I downloaded them.
Anyway before losing them, I sent them on their way. I plotted a walk of about four miles taking in the sights of Hethersett (or should that be sites?)
I started on the memorial field to take a panorama and the new pavilion along with some old timers playing cricket. These are all retired gentlemen of an advanced age who still enjoy playing the game. There is no running, each shot is accessed by a scorer and awarded runs according to where the ball ends up and a number of other factors like whether the batter is likely to have a heart attack. Actually I made that bit up.
Then it was a trot round the village taking photos of charity shops, gardens, churches, developments, cafes, pubs, shops, public buildings and roads and I got it all done in two hours as I was in a hurry.
The thing about taking photos of our village is you aren't looking for beauty. Frankly there's not a lot of that about. What you are looking for is facilities. I don't think anyone would claim Hethersett to be a beautiful village. But as I've said many times in the past, it's a village with a solid beating golden heart.
I would share some of my photos with you if I could only remember where I've put them. When I find them I will post a few to illustrate my point.
*. *. *
Off to North Norfolk for a few more days of r and r. On the way I listened to what has become my radio station of choice now that Ken Bruce is no longer on Radio Two.
A couple of things concerned me about Greatest Hits Radio. Perhaps concern is a bit strong.
The presenter seemed obsessed with the fact it wasn't the weekend. "It's only Wednesday" she kept informing us. "That's closer to the weekend than Monday but it's still not here." Then she informed us that on Greatest Hits Radio the weekend starts on Friday. "Just because we can, " she adds.
Presuming she's the afternoon DJ on Greatest Hits Radio, it doesn't speak well for her love of the job. "I am the morning DJ at WOLD."
Then this DJ has the world's worst feature. It's called cheese or crackers. The idea is they put forward two songs. One is cheesy and the other (yes you've guessed it) is a cracker - a classic song. The idea is the listeners have to chose which one should be played. I'm far from impressed, just thinking "why don't they just play both?"
As I write this there's an appalling advert on ITV likening a woman's period to rain with a different Tampax depending on whether it's a shower, a flood or drizzle. Honestly I didn't make that up. It was followed by a very large lady shaking everything to the "we buy any car" advert. Is this genuinely appalling or am I just into old codgerdom?
In the morning they have a show where they play numerous songs from a specific year and you have to tell them the year. People actually get this wrong when all you have to do is look it up on the internet.
"Enough, no more they said."