I know this because of our day out in North Norfolk. At last it didn't rain apart from an early morning shower and a passing dribble in late afternoon (you might call my blogs passing dribbles). My rain dance must have worked.
Yesterday we checked the times of the Coast Hopper bus from Weybourne and so decided to catch the 10.17 am. Got down there at just past 10 am and decided just to check the bus times and found out that the 10.17 doesn't start operation until May 1st. It says this on the timetable. So we had over half an hour to wait. Good job there's a coffee shop the other side of the bus stop.
Value for money - two cups of coffee which last a couple of hours £6.50. A copy of Hell in Paradise which lasts a lifetime £10. I'll park that there.
Before going out I fiddled around with Facebook and came across 10CC talking about the making of their classic song "I'm Not In Love." The word classic was the one used by them and a few other musicians. Personally I've never liked it that much but it was interesting how many hours it took to put together. Rather like Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys which took eons to put together.
After a description of the lyrics I will have to return to the song and re-appraise it. I now understand the title line. How many times does this happen? You read the lyrics of a song or a poem and don't fully understand them until somebody explains and you see them in a totally different light.
I won't bother to go into the meaning of "I'm Not In Love" other than ask if it has a particular place in anyone's heart?
But back to the bus timetables. We got the bus to Wells with the intention of deciding whether to get on again in half an hour or an hour and a half. "Seems they go on the hour" the other four-fifths said helpfully. I concurred. We decided to make it an hour and a half and so had time for a poke around the art centre and a look round a craft fa.ir where we have bought lots in the past.
One shop had a boast - "all the things you can buy that you never thought you needed." That is the essence of shopping in gift shops for me. They are full of overpriced stuff that you just don't need. After all who wants to pay £7 for a painted stone when you can get a copy of Hell in Paradise for £10? Whoops sorry I've already mentioned that.
We had a walk along the harbour and I took lots of photos and then it was time for the bus with the intention of going to Blakeney Church for their monthly lunch. We did this before and the bread and butter pudding was simply the best.
We had left a reasonable amount of time to catch the bus but we missed it. Did we dawdle? No. Did we get side-tracked in a gift shop? No. What we did was read the timetable for Sunday and not the weekdays. Roll on May 1st when there's only half an hour between buses rather than an hour. That way we can waste just half an hour reading them wrongly.
We decided to go to a fish restaurant we have been eyeing up for some time. It turned out to be quite expensive for what it was and my basic fish and chips were pretty tasteless. Let's talk about peas. Mushy peas I love... garden peas not so much. Garden peas are too often like bullets. These were just served up in a small dish. If you must serve garden peas please put some butter on them and serve them with mint vinegar and a sprig of mint. That way they might just pass muster.
Hooray we got the bus - too late to go to Blakeney though. The other four fifths bought a pair of green trousers. Those two comments aren't linked by the way. She didn't buy the trousers on the bus. Now I'm sure you probably aren't interested in the colour of the trousers but stay with me on this one.
The shop assistant/manager or whatever else they are called was very friendly and helpful but a bit off the wall. The other four-fifths looked along a rack which was red trousers, red blouses etc.
"Can I help you at all," inquired the assistant?
"I really wanted a pair of green trousers," said the other.
"Oh you'll find them over there with all the other green things. I got so fed up with colours being mixed up that one day I came into the shop in the morning and decided to colour co-ordinate," she said.
Well I don't know about you but if I'm looking for trousers I rather expect them to be in the section with other trousers rather than a section dictated by colours.
There was a rude greetings card in the shop and a piece of card containing the word censored was popped in front of it. Of course that's like a red rag to a bull for me. So I had a look. The message was so boring that I can't remember what it was although it did contain a couple of four letter words.
I had time during the day to go to a couple of old bookshops - the kind you don't come across very often these days, the kind that think because they are an old fashioned bookshop that you want to pay £6 for a book that you would pay £1 or less for in a charity shop. Have I mentioned that for £10 you can have a brand spanking new signed copy of "Hell in Paradise"? It wont help you sleep, in fact it might keep you awake, I promise not to mention it again in this blog. Actually I'm fast coming towards the end anyhow.
The bus back was pretty jovial with a lot of people talking to each other. I tried to listen in but it was difficult, although I did here somebody up front talking about having his hand amputated. Not sure whether this was something he had already had done or something that was a possibility in his past. I tried to get a crafty look as we got off but couldn't see.
I took a load of photos and for once are quite happy with at least some of them. Hope you enjoy them.