Two of my Bloggettes will now be cheering with glee. The other 617 will be groaning.
So where to start. Well how about:
When the rain came, I thought you'd leave
'Cause I knew how much you loved the sun
But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm
Through the darkest nights, I've ever known
That's a quote from a Rod Stewart song (indeed my favourite Rod Stewart song) entitled Mandolin Wind. It's a song I sing whenever it rains and hallelujah it rained. It rained for the first time in living memory (well for a couple of months). I woke up to hear it hammering down on the roof and so we cut our stay in North Norfolk short by half a day and set off for home.
As we drove home the rain stopped and so we decided to go for a cup of coffee to the tearooms at Heydon. I have spoken about Heydon before. There's one road in and one road out (the same one as it happens). The pub is very cheap with meals for just £7. The tea rooms isn't cheap and there was a scary woman there who seemed to be in charge and who was ordering a young member of staff to clean cups and saucers on a ledge. I think she was trying to find her something to do.
Next time we go we will take out a mortgage first.
After a coffee, we went for a walk on the Heydon estate where there are permissive paths. Didn't get very far when the rain came again and it hammered down.
Talking about scary things. Well on Wednesday night in the Ship Inn at Weybourne I came across.
I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like coca cola
C-O-L-A, Cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola
The Lola I came across was another Killer Dog. Yes she looked innocent and friendly but I wasn't taken in by the outward appearance of this Cockapoo despite the fact that she did the paw trick (shaking hands with her paw).
I recognised a killer dog when I see one. That night I saved the lives of numerous people in that pub. But will I get any thanks for so doing? Mind you I was able to identify a piece of music for Lola's owners. It was "Once in a Lifetime". You know the one:
You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"
It's by Talking Heads. Ironically last time I had grandson Elliot in the car he was playing me some of his favourite music - much of which involved Rap. So I played him "Once in a Lifetime" which opens with a rap section. I thought he might like it. He listened for about 20 seconds and then said "it's rubbish grandad."
Incidentally Lola by The Kinks was banned by the BBC because of advertising. So they changed the lyrics from Coca Cola to Cherry Cola and that was ok.
* * *
So let's change the subject as I feel I've subjected you to enough song lyrics.
One of my dearest contributors said that for the photographs I included yesterday I had been channelling my inner Michael Portillo. It was a kind of compliment. I looked at the photo and saw that I was wearing blue shorts and a reddish T-shirt and yes it did look colourful which surprised me.
I have no fashion sense whatsoever. Usually I just put on whatever is laying around and on that day that happened to be a pair of blue shorts and a reddish T-shirt. It wasn't really a conscious decision. If I was a fashionista I would probably chose bright colours a la Michael Portillo.
Portillo wears clothes that are so left field that they actually work. Bright reds or yellows, strange coats and hats. They all tend to give him a rather eccentric look.
I remember a teacher many years ago at Hethersett Middle School when I was chair of governors. His name was David Murtagh and I believe I was on the panel that appointed him. David had a certain style of dress which involved wearing his hair in a pony tail and wearing very bright clothes that often clashed but somehow worked. David was a much liked teacher who I believe went to New Zealand. Ever since then I've thought seriously about wearing bright colours but never quite got round to it.
I have always admired people that have dressed in a certain way colourwise. Those who wear nothing but white or those like legendary golfer Gary Player who dress all in black.
I still can't think of Michael Portillo though without that image of his election defeat coming into my mind. I'm sure you can still view it on You Tube. I once stood for Hethersett Parish Council, did no publicity and ended up coming last with very few votes. Later when I wanted to become a school governor I put in some effort and came top of the poll. Not sure what that says. Guess it just proves that if you want to be successful you have to put in the hard yards (back to the ruler thing again).
* * *
Yesterday I posed the question: "Is Sunday Special Anymore" and said I would expand on this today.
I have mentioned that I'm currently reading a book entitled "The BBC - A People's History" which I'm finding very interesting. I'm just up to the point where the BBC are putting resources into a new invention called television. It's well written and researched.
Up to that point the BBC had concentrated on wireless. John Reith the Director General wanted Sunday observed as a religious day. He therefore brought gravitas to Sunday programming to include church services, devotional classical music and readings etc and a healthy slice of being off the air.
The majority of listeners decided to turn off before Reith turned it off and they turned to Radio Luxemburg which broadcast dance and other popular music but which was difficult to hear clearly.
For me Sunday used to be a different day to the other six. For a start as a boy it was the only day when I didn't go to school (yes I went to school on Saturday mornings). So it was a day of playing sport with my mates down the local recreation ground. It was also a day for going to my grandparents for Sunday lunch. I still remember my grandmother's huge roast potatoes (the largest in the universe. I wonder of she ever made the Guinness Book of Records)?
But Sunday was also the day when I was expected to be home around 4 pm and certainly not go out to play or go anywhere on Sunday evenings. In those days shops weren't open. I was ruminating a few days' ago about visiting my other grandmother and going to the newsagents near hers to get a Sunday paper. That's all they sold on Sunday - papers. You couldn't buy stationery or sweets or anything else. I think I tried once and was told in no uncertain terms that only papers could be bought on the Sabbath.
How things have changed, but I still have Sundays imprinted on my mind. I rarely go out on Sunday evenings and also, as my boys were growing up, encouraged them to stay in on Sunday evenings, although they did go to a kind of youth gathering at the home of the then Methodist Minister. This of course was quite allowable.
Everything about Sunday seems to have changed. Now it's just another day in the week. Not sure whether this is a good thing or not.
* * *
Sometimes I want to write about a subject but find it difficult to express what I want to say. I call it getting word tied. So I'm not sure if I can express myself here.
I return to the picture of myself at Hunstanton (the one wearing colours I threw on because they were in my drawer).
I have a picture in my mind of how I look and if I look in a mirror (which I try not to do very often) it usually confirms how I believe I look. Then I see a photograph such as that taken in Hunstanton and I look completely different. Does that make sense?
The person in the photo is often how I would like to be seen and then I remember that's probably how I do look and are seen (the camera doesn't lie as they say - except of course when you use filters etc).
So perhaps that person in bright colours (my Portillo look) is the real me. I have no idea whether that makes any sense. It might be a theme I return to sometime.
* * *
As the rain was hammering down yesterday I stayed in bed much longer than usual and found quite a difficult quiz about the Beatles. I scored 82 out of 100 which according to them makes me a Beatles nut. I was annoyed that I still got 18 wrong. More homework needed obviously.
* * *
I have to say I'm struggling a bit with the walking challenge. You will recall I have set myself a target of 1,500 miles in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Yesterday I broke through the 1,000 mile mark. By the end of August to be on target I should have completed 8/12ths or 2/3rds of my target. That means 1,000 miles. So I am seven days ahead of my target but things are getting more difficult as I continue to have do do an average of over four miles a day - every day. But I will get there!
I told you this was going to be a long and rambling blog. Perhaps your luck tomorrow may be in and it will be a short one. Then again perhaps not.
I took a very limited number of photographs of Heydon before the rain returned. They are included here. Please excuse the standard as the rain played havoc with focussing.