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A few people have asked me for an update on my charity walk in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance and thank you for the two additional contributions since my last update. I have raised £350 of my £500 target. I am confident of achieving the target as we will be having another significant push to co-incide with a significant birthday later in the year.
Distance-wise I am being hampered by the hot weather. Usually on a Monday I walk to Wymondham and back to have lunch with my cousin. We often walk round Wymondham as well and I look upon Monday as my "big walking day" when I do up to 10 miles.
Today I only managed a one-way walk and a total of just over three miles. I turned up a dripping mess and when I say a dripping mess, I mean a dripping mess. I may have mentioned this a few hundred times. Yesterday the temperature peaked at 31 degrees and hovered around the 28 or 29 which isn't conducive for walking or much else for that matter.
That affects the distance I have walked. Here come the statistics. This month so far it's under four miles a day. Overall for the entire year I need to do an average of 4.11 miles every day. My current average is 4.36 miles per day. So I am well on target and can easily pile some miles on once the hot weather goes.
It's still a nuisance rocking up somewhere with a shirt that can be wrung out and I won't tell you about what Cousin Belinda's new puppy did with another part of my clothing that I just don't want to mention. They will continue to be my unmentionables.
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Many people have turned to Facebook to say how disappointed they were that Nick Kyrgios didn't win Wimbledon. Am I missing something here?
Kyrgios used a number of expletives aimed at his team and the crowd during the match. That should have been enough to have him at least receive a warning. But no, nothing happened and he just continued. The man needs serious anger management lessons. If a footballer behaved in this way they would be sent off and, as we know, football isn't the most gentle of games. What other sport would put up with Kyrgios' antics? I bet you can't name one, although ice hockey gets quite close at times.
Still on a kind of Wymondham theme. It is sad that Sue Barker will no longer be leading the presenting team. I think everyone will miss her, as we do now that she no longer asks the questions on Question of Sport. I have stopped watching since Paddy McGuinness took over and it became a lads show.
I seem to remember Sue Barker when she was a sports presenter on Sky TV or have I made that up. She was always laughing and cheery and it was no surprise when the BBC picked her up. The interesting thing is I found out that she lives in a place in the Cotswolds by the name of Stanton.
That's just a mile or so from where we stay and we regularly visit the Mount Inn when we are over that way. Haven't seen Sue pop in for a cheeky pint yet though. She was probably far too busy. Perhaps next time. She might be a reader of my blogs and want to buy me a drink (dream on).
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Yesterday and today my wee and poo have been red. Cause for concern - off you go to the doctors I hear you say. But no need to do that. It's because I have been eating beetroot over the past few days and this is what it does. It's a well known side-effect of beetroot. The first time it happened I did panic, thinking all kinds of terrible things, but then it subsided and I soon worked out it happened every time I had beetroot. I'm sure some of you have experienced the same kind of thing.
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I'm always congratulated about remembering names of people from my past. It saddens me therefore when I hear that people I worked with have passed away.
The latest is Steve Thacker who was a police superintendent when I worked for Norfolk Constabulary. Steve was a lovely guy, always smiling, always friendly and always with a wicked sense of humour.
When I joined the police to work in the press office there was almost a stand off between the Media and King's Lynn Police. The superintendent who was in charge of policing in Lynn at the time wasn't Media savvy or accepting. In fact I believe he either did or got close to banning the Media from the police station. That made life difficult for us. Then Steve Thacker took over as divisional commander and welcomed the Media with open arms and that changed everything. One of the first things he did was have them all in for a chat and cup of tea and to tell them that things had changed,
On one occasion Steve faced a very hostile meeting of local people and the media in a village hall. He was put under tremendous pressure and we were sure afterwards that he would be angry or upset.
"Hope you're ok. That wasn't very pleasant for you," we said.
Steve beamed in his usual way. "No that was great," he said. It somehow summed up the sunny attitude of a good copper.
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My piece on the new community garden has appeared in the EDP online site and you can read it at:
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/disused-skate-park-in-hethersett-could-become-garden-9134690
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There seems to be a new scam doing the rounds in our road. This happened to me many months ago and it's still going round. It's not aimed at residents but goes something like this.
A member of the public responds to a sale on social media of bike parts. Sends over the money and are given an address in our road to pick the goods up from. Of course the goods don't exist and the money has been sent elsewhere.
Somebody in our road will then get a knock on the door.
"I've come to pick up the bike parts"
And of course they don't exist.
By that time it's too late as money will have changed hands and, of course, there are no bike parts.
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Such is the togetherness of the Conservative Party that there are 11 candidates who want to become the new leader and therefore the new Prime Minister!
So much for all pulling together. But did we expect anything else? There is such a high prize at stake. Whoever takes over will be one of the most interesting PMs in history. Can they re-unite the party? Can they cut taxes and stop the steep rise in the cost of living? Can they win a General Election? Get the right candidate and the answer just might be yes. Get the wrong one and the answer will be a resounding no. But who is the right candidate? Well that's anyone's guess.
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Yesterday I published a photograph of a former Methodist Chapel in Holt in North Norfolk. I did a little research on this and found that inside it's a very modern home. Just thought you might like to know that.
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And finally today. I have mentioned my Monday walks to Wymondham and back. Well there is a new public seat on the walking/cycling path at the back of the historic Kett's Oak. This has been provided by Hethersett Parish Council following a request from residents who walk that path. It's certainly a bench I will be using on Mondays, particularly on the return journey. There's a picture of the bench with this blog.
Incidentally I heard a weather heatwave warning on television stating that the current ultra hot weather could seriously affect children and old people. I just wondered what the definition of an "old person" is and why they are not referred to by the much kinder term "the elderly."