Well not exactly, but I have just signed up my 600th person to this blog. I popped a message on the All Things Hethersett Facebook page in order to try and get up to 600, having been stuck at 598 for weeks and it worked. I now have 604.
I keep promoting the All Things Hethersett site. On Monday evening we wandered down to see my old friend Richard Headicar at Woodcote Sheltered Housing complex. He broke out the Rioja and we had a very pleasant evening on what was a very balmy night. Richard had a couple of friends there including Chris Poole who is one of my bloggettes. Of course I would rather have supped with Richard alone but Chris was there!
Quick aside here. Chris is a good mate of mine (I hope) but we do insult each other and so the words above aren't meant. I was very happy that he was there but don't tell him and perhaps he won't read this.
Anyway another of Richard's friends was asking how she could find out what was happening in the village and I told her she needed the All Things Hethersett Facebook page along with my monthly Hethersett Herald and hopefully those would keep her informed.
Woodcote has its own magazine and Richard and I had a discussion about his latest article which is on culture and how the arts are for everyone. It takes in seaside holidays and much more apparently and I'm looking forward to reading it and pinching it for the Hethersett Herald (with his permission of course). It seems inconceivable that Richard will be 89 later this month. To what does he put his long life down to - well I suspect regular glasses of good quality Rioja helps.
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In a strange way I'm celebrating. Yesterday saw my final read through of my book on Le Paradis Massacre. It's a weight off my mind to have finished the book I can tell you. Now all I have to do is get the comments of a few people and then send it off to the publishers
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On breakfast TV, they had a piece about the new play/entertainment featuring impressionist Jon Culshaw. He's taking his Les Dawson show on the road and they had Les' second wife and daughter on the sofa and it was pretty much a fun time.
Apparently Culshaw looks and sounds exactly like lugubrious Dawson. I loved Dawson. He was always funny in a gruff kind of way and I heard stories about what a good man he was. One surrounded a reporter who was giving Les a lift home after a show. This may have been when he was appearing in summer season at Great Yarmouth. Apparently Dawson was as funny on the way home as he was on stage - continually telling jokes and winding the window down to wave to people.
I have a similar story about somebody less famous than Les Dawson. This was Norwich City football captain Duncan Forbes who sadly is no longer with us. I knew Duncan quite well for a time. He was loud and brash and if he saw you in the street he would shout over in his broad Scottish accent.
On the field Big Dunc was an animal. He was once voted by listeners of Radio Trent the dirtiest player they ever came across. For Norwich supporters he epitomised what we wanted - 100% effort and a great leader, arguably the best skipper Norwich have ever had.
A reporter friend had just seen Duncan lead the Canaries to a 2-0 win over big rivals Ipswich at Ipswich. This reporter was giving Duncan a lift back to Norwich. Duncan asked for a slight detour through the town of Diss which is practically halfway between Norwich and Ipswich. When he saw a group of Ipswich fans on the street he wound down the window and asked them in a put on posh voice if they knew the score of the match that evening.
I have no idea whether they realised who was asking.
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Yesterday was one of our regular twice-monthly forget-me-not club meetings. We were expecting a speaker but they couldn't make it which left us in a bit of a hole.
But an 11-year-old youngster who is the great grandson of one of our members stepped into the breach with songs from his recent school performance of The Lion King.
I took a picture of the four generations of the Brettingham/Maddams family which is included here. The ages range from nine to 92. I have a tenuous link to the family as Viv Mountain (formerly Maddams) is the wife of my third cousin (sadly no longer with us). So the young boy Dylan, whose performance was much appreciated by the cafe members, is technically grandson of the wife of my third cousin (get your mind round that one).
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My other photo may not look much but it is an important one for me. It shows work starting on the new pavilion on Hethersett Memorial Playing Field. The first day was spent fencing off the old pavilion ahead of its demolition. For me it was a day of celebration and relief that at last something positive is happening. Just one small step to a new community pavilion. I will be taking regular photographs to illustrate the progress being taken on the project.