Admittedly it may not have been the best decision ever to go to the seaside (Great Yarmouth) without a coat.
But Tuesday is our weekly date day and so we had to go somewhere. My idea was to visit a new gallery on South Quay, have coffee in author Anna Sewell's birthplace, have a good look round St Nicholas Church and then have chips on the market. Well as Meatloaf once sang "two out of four aint bad."
On Monday I got very hot walking around Norwich and so the decision had to be made. The weather forecast suggested temperatures in Great Yarmouth would be 12 degrees with sunny spells. And so it seemed a good idea to leave the coat at home. Unfortunately the weather left the sunny spells at home as well.
In the words of Ian Dury "it was f----n freezen." Those were the words he used to describe the Norfolk coast in a gig at the University of East Anglia which I believe was his penultimate concert before his death.
So I soon regretted leaving the coat at home to visit shiversville. There's a bus every 15 minutes from Norwich Bus Station to Great Yarmouth and it only takes 40 minutes to get there. Last time we visited GY we had a look at a new gallery on the South Quay. So we decided to visit the Yare Gallery again. Last time they had a very strange and strangely off-putting exhibition of Infanta art which I featured in one of my blogs. It was garish and quite horrid. This time it was portraits around the subject of empowering. Interesting but it didn't float my boat.
We have missed an exhibition of circus artefacts and one called Why is Yarmouth Great? We were hoping that there would be a coffee bar as we know one is planned but it's still not a reality although we were told it is still on the cards.
So we went to the Westwick Coffee Shop at the back of the historic Yarmouth Rows which I have also written about at length in the past. Many of my ancestors lived in the rows which could be best described as alleyways with houses so close together that the inhabitants could reach out of the upstairs windows and shake hands with their neighbours opposite. There's a very good reproduction of houses in a Row in the Time and Tide museum which also looks at the town's legendary herring industry.
When I go anywhere in Norfolk I try to find out two things: 1/ What makes the heart of our county beat and 2/ what makes a town or village what it is? These are not questions that are easily answered. Getting to the heart of real Norfolk is a difficult one as there are so many facets to find.
But Andy and Marjorie in the Westwick Coffee Shop helped a bit. This shop is small and intimate and we had been there before. The prices are what I would call Great Yarmouth prices - considerably lower than the norm. Fancy coffees (cappuccinos, skinny do dahs or flat whites) are now either approaching or in excess of £3 in most places. In the Westwick, the cappuccinos were £1.90. Where other cafes battle with pushing the coffee through the £3 barrier, the Westwick is keeping away from the £2 mark. The cakes were equally inexpensive (I refuse to use the word cheap as today we talk about expensive and less expensive).
Andy was either the owner or the man in charge. His customers were all of a certain age and Marjorie sounded like a regular who admitted herself that "she had seen better days."
"I can't even stand up straight now," she told Andy.
Andy who sounded as if he came from London rather than Norfolk replied "Yeah but your old back has seen some action Marjorie." I'm not quite sure what he meant by that but I got the general idea. Andy was what you might call a rough diamond while Marjorie was what you might call typically Norfolk.
"My friend won't go on a bus. She's too scared now. I saw the weather today and thought if I'm gonna go out I better put me skates on and so here I am," said Marjorie. Strange phrase "putting your skates on." How many people actually do that?
When we left Marjorie was still there enjoying her third coffee. I suspect she gets special rates.
Having had morning coffee there was no need to pop into Anna Sewell's house so we went straight to St Nicholas Church which is now a Minster. What's the difference between a church and Minster I hear you ask?
Well a minster is a loose term given to a number of medieval English cathedrals and major churches. Originally it implied a monastery and monastic church. St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth is large and magnificent and reminds me of Norwich's Catholic Cathedral. Probably the best known Minster in England is at York.
St Nicholas is the largest parish church in the country which is reason enough to visit it. But it is the place where many of my ancestors are either buried or were christened or married. St Nicholas was built in 1101. In 1942 it was completely gutted by a German air raid during the Second World War leaving only the Norman tower and the walls standing. It was subsequently completely re-built. Unfortunately it is currently only open for two hours each day and we were too late. So will have to re-visit at a later date. The only photos I could take were of the exterior.
We the had a very quick walk along the front and through St George's Park and onto the market place for the best chips in Norfolk if not the whole of East Anglia. Then it was time to get the bus back. Some of the double deckers have wonderful leather seats that you just sink into.
Great Yarmouth is still a strange mix of the good, the bad and the downright ugly and hopefully I have captured some of these aspects in my photos. A new Marina Centre (swimming pool etc) is due to open along the Golden Mile this year. It's looking very smart behind the boards it is currently encased in. The boards contain a number of pictures of old Yarmouth - a couple of which I've reproduced. One is of the crowds in the early 1970s and the other a couple with their very young daughter which is from 1952. That youngster will now be over 70! Makes you think - tempus fugit and all that.