In my life as a reporter I had two periods of working in seaside towns as I've mentioned numerous times. This was firstly in Lowestoft and later in Cromer. Neither were sad out of season, they just had a different feel to them. I didn't have a lot to do with the local community in Lowestoft but I did with that in Cromer. Cromer sprung to life in the summer with everything you would expect - carnivals, events, food etc etc .
Then when the crowds disappeared, local groups/organisations became very active and a real community feel took over. It's not always the case, however. Southwold in Suffolk is one of my favourite places. I love going there in the summer when it's very busy. But when the tourists have gone, the population of Southwold, which is a sizeable town in area, is under 1000. A few years ago we talked to a resident who said many local groups were struggling due to lack of membership with not enough people to keep them going.
Living just a stone's throw from the seafront in Cromer proved difficult in summer months as parking a car anywhere near my flat was impossible. In the winter parking was easy. If I had to take my car out for work in the summer, it was virtually impossible to get it back anywhere near the office or the flat. I lived next door to the coxswain of Cromer Lifeboat Richard Davies. There were three of us sharing the flat and that meant three cars. Richard would put a boat alongside our property so that when we wanted to park all we had to do was move the boat around the back of the properties. Each seaside town seems to take on its own character outside the summer months. One thing almost certain was that in winter the beaches would be deserted apart from the occasional jogger and dog walker.
can only remember going to Yarmouth a few times out of season. It was always sad to see everything shut up but it was always easy to park and there was still a distinct character to the place. One of my hatreds in life is not being able to park my car. For me it has spoilt many visits and puts me off going to events if I know it's going to take me ages to get there or ages to get away from. I really don't like crowds. They seem to suck out your energy.
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Yesterday was our fortnightly Forget Me Not Cafe. This time we chatted about old fashioned games and those we played as youngsters, anything from conkers and hopscotch to Cluedo and Monopoly. I used to have lots of games based on television programmes. Things like Concentration, Double Your Money, Take Your Pick and The Army Game and many more, often based on quizzes. I can't say I greatly enjoy board games or should that be bored games.
I particularly dislike Monopoly and Cluedo doesn't float my boat. But I do like Uno which is a card game. One of the older games we played yesterday was a card game called WHOT. For all the world it looked like the forerunner of Uno, but quite a bit simpler. WHOT was founded in 1935 by a William Storey from Southend. It was eventually acquired by Waddingtons and was popular in Britain of the 1950s and 1960s. Would you believe that WHOT is the national card game of Nigeria (and no I didn't make that up).
ou can still buy a more colourful modern game and even a retro set of cards. The Nigerian game is a little more complicated than the basic game but not by much. Until yesterday I had never heard of WHOT. Being sick and farting is the way ahead for new card games where being gross is part of the game play. For Christmas last year, grandson Elliot got a card game entitled "kids against maturity" which is designed with the idea of having children tittering at some rather rude consequences. It is fun. For his birthday he got a variation of this game. The title eludes me at the present but once again it's quite rude in a childish sort of way.
There's an adult game called "cards against humanity" which apparently is along the same lines but for adults. I have seen screen shots and can't say it looks like a game I'm desperate to play anytime soon. I hate it when somebody gets an idea for a game and then variation after variation comes along on the same theme. This happens in literature. The world is introduced to Harry Potter and suddenly hundreds of novels come out about Wizards. People read the risque goings on in the 50 Shades series and suddenly a plethora of similar books come out, somebody writes a detective series set in the Cotswolds and suddenly we get a series set in Norfolk and Suffolk and virtually every other corner of the UK, not to mention a detective series set in my mate's toilet (I said not to mention it). This one is called "Time Off in Loo."
But back to the games. We had Uno and now we have super Uno with more special cards. We enjoy a dice game called Farkle which is simple but seems to have contrasting rules depending on where you are playing it. It's a deceptively easy game but there's decision making to be done. I also enjoy playing yahtzee and you won't be surprised to hear I still enjoy playing Scrabble. Over to you. What are the games you used to enjoy playing and what games do you enjoy playing today?
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Surprise quote of the week came yesterday from Elliot. "Granddad it might surprise you but I'm actually looking forward to going back to school because I'm getting a bit bored with the holiday." He's due to go back today.