It was always so when I was a boy - a mere stripling. I may have told this story before but I can't remember whether I have and that probably means you can't remember whether you have read it before.
That's the trouble with age. Every Thursday we play tennis doubles and every week without fail we get to a point where nobody can remember the score. Sometimes we can't even remember who is serving or what the overall score is in games. I'm often surprised that we all turn up roughly at the same time and in the same place.
But I digress (as I so often do). This month's Barclaycard has been paid so I can settle down to write this blog.
As a boy my maternal grandmother lived in Rupert Street in Norwich. The house was a basic terraced house with no indoor bathroom but it was cosy. And on Bank Holiday Mondays we popped round for lunch which was usually preceded by a visit to the Garden House Pub where I invariably had a Vimto. No idea why because I tried it a few months ago and it was horrid - full of chemicals.
We would watch the bowls (never play, always watch) and then go home to hers for lunch. Now the thing I remember about my maternal grandmother's cooking is the Yorkshire puddings which were massive. The things I remember about my paternal grandmother's cooking is the roast potatoes which were massive. When it comes to food I seem to like massive.
The afternoon seemed to revolve around watching motorbike racing on TV. I had no interest in this but always sat and watched it. Then we would go home.
Around the corner from my grandmother's was an old bike shop called Dodgers which is now a part of Norwich folklore and someone has written a book about the shop which I must get hold of sometime.
Whilst I'm talking about books, I popped into Jarrolds Department store in Norwich on Saturday as they have a good display of local books. I found that Frances and Michael Holmes have a new tome out.
Every couple of years the Norwich Heritage Project brings out a new volume and it's always worth reading. The married couple pick a Norwich-related subject and then spend numerous months researching and interviewing before producing a book.
Previous volumes have looked at Norwich pubs, Norwich Market, The Old Courts and Yards of Norwich, Norwich Boot and Shoe Industry and a few more. Now they have a new one out on Norwich trams which ran in the city from 1900 and which caused quite a stir when they appeared. Those were the days before any form of mass media so many people would have been unaware of their existence I guess until the lines started being put down. There is some interesting old footage of Norwich trams on You Tube via the East Anglian Film Archives. A few years ago there was some suggestion that they should be brought back but I don't think anything came of the idea.
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Finally today a big hello to Martin Chilcott whom I mentioned in a previous blog after meeting him in Cambridge and finding out that we have a vaguely similar taste in music. Chilli promised he would give us a mention on his Sunday show and he was good to his word in the second half of his programme on Peterborough Community Radio during a two hour special on Charlie Watts - the Rolling Stones drummer who died recently.
I will be listening in again next week interested to see what he will be playing when not doing a tribute programme (mind you he did manage to get a piece from honky tonk pianist Mrs Mills into the programme and not a lot of DJs can say that).