Well sorry to disappoint you because here is today's blog - albeit quite a bit later than usual.
This one follows another visit to North Norfolk. Spent some hectic hours running around, playing cricket, digging on the sand and much more with the grandkiddles. At my age I really must learn how to just sit in a chair reading a newspaper!
I have been musing on local groups after we re-started the Hethersett Dementia Support Group earlier this week. I fear a number of local organisations won't be re-starting and I'm sure this is the same in other parts of the UK as well.
Does this mean that these groups were superfluous and just continuing because they were part of the fabric? I believe this may have been the case for many and this could be an example of natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
There is nothing worse than a group or association that has outlived its usefulness and no longer has the will to go on. But it is worrying when groups that provide a useful facility for its members go out of existence, usually because the previous organisers have decided to call it a day and no new ones have come forward.
Some groups I know will be streamlining or looking at their functions and again this is healthy. As I have mentioned before I am a trustee of the Norfolk Family History Society and lockdown has had a beneficial effect in as much as we have been looking closely at how we contact and make members feel a real part of the society, bearing in mind that members are spread all over the world as far away as New Zealand and Australia.
Zoom talks have allowed us to be much more inclusive and it looks as if these will continue to be a feature in the future alongside physical meetings. And while I'm on that subject can I give a plug for a coming book that I am very much looking forward to reading?
Norfolk-based author Phyllida Scrivens' third book will be published in September. Phyllida is a member of the Norfolk Family History Society and her two previous books have been delightful. One was the life of Joe Stirling who as Gunther Stern escaped from Nazi Germany and became a leading citizen of Norwich, setting up Stirling's Travel Agency. He also became Sheriff of Norwich, an honorary position. This book was entitled "Escaping Hitler" and was followed by a book on the lady Lord Mayor's of Norwich.
Her third tome will be "The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster" which looks at a rail crash that took place just outside Norwich and which saw an important change to rail travel. I am very much looking forward to reading this as I have been interested in this accident for a number of years.