We seem to veer from the disappointingly cold to the raging heat with little or no transition. For me a temperature of 20 degrees is about right. Anything more and I become a slobbering wreck for the day, hiding in the shade.
It was a hot afternoon
The last day of June
And the sun was a demon
The clouds were afraid
One-ten in the shade
And the pavement was steaming
Mind you there wasn't a lot of hiding on Saturday. Started off the day with a visit to Wymondham. I apologies to all the other towns of Norfolk, but Wymondham is by far the most attractive. On Saturday they had a small farmers' market and there were floral displays everywhere. Particularly impressive were those outside the Green Dragon and the Cross Keys pubs.
We managed to get a table at the courtyard cafe for one of their wonderful cheese scones - the cheesiest of the cheesy!. Then had a wander down to the Mid Norfolk steam railway at Wymondham Abbey Station. Didn't have to wait too long for the 11.30 am to Dereham to arrive and set-off and took some photos of that.
Sadly I could never describe the journey between Wymondham and Dereham as particularly picturesque, but a steam train is a steam train. Which reminded me that we must take a journey on the Wells to Walsingham light railway next time we are up in North Norfolk.
The trip is only four miles but takes half an hour - so goes very slowly. The railway follows the course of the old Great Eastern line and began life on 6th April 1982. It is the longest 10¼" narrow gauge steam railway in the world, although at just four miles it's not that long. But it is something to be able to boast that you have been on the longest railway in the world and it's all in good old Norfolk. And there's tea rooms at Wells!
The only disappointing thing is they charge £2.50 to park your car (that's with a train ticket as it's £5 without one). At times I think this old car parking charge lark is getting out of hand. I mentioned recently about the extortionate fees to park your car in Windsor.
Every Thursday I play tennis at Eaton Park in Norwich. There's a large car park there which often gets full to overflowing in the school holidays and at weekends. At present you can park there for three hours free which in itself is an imposition if you are playing a couple of hours tennis and then having lunch in the cafe.
But now Norwich City Council in its infinite wisdom (not) is planning on charging for car parking. My initial reaction was that this would drive cars out onto the surrounding streets but I believe that the council have covered its bases on this and plan to make these permit holders only!
So in essence what we have here is a tax and charge on fitness and recreation that to me is money grabbing and disgusting. The council will be the first to say that it supports exercise, health and well-being but, in reality, it just gives lip service to this. When it comes to money the old moular wins every time. So now I can play tennis for up to three times a week for an annual fee of just £35. Now it looks as if it is going to cost me many times this to park my car. I will not be paying to park my car in the park and will look for alternatives. I am sure many other park users will share my frustration and anger at this.
It has always angered me that employees are sometimes charged to park their car for work. This almost happened when I worked at County Hall where there was a big move to charge people to park there. This would have been a tax on working. The County Council's chief executive informed us of this intention in a letter which began "Dear Colleague". Most of us just tore it up. As far as I know those charges were never implemented.
Anyway back to my day on Saturday. From Wymondham (where incidentally you can park free in the car parks for one hour) we drove to Swardeston Common to see some of the match between Hethersett and Tas Valley and Swardeston Seconds. This was an important game for Hethersett. With five consecutive wins, we have gone from mid-table into the top two in Division One of the Norfolk Alliance. This is big boys cricket and the third highest league for local cricket after the East Anglian Premier League (which pits Norfolk teams against top teams from Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and North Essex and for which Norfolk has currently three representatives in Great Witchingham, Swardeston and Horsford).
After the EAPL comes the Premier Division of the Norfolk Alliance and then Division One. So technically our club is now ranked 15th in the whole of Norfolk and is upwardly mobile. It's taken us many years to get this far - beginning by going through all the Norfolk Leagues, being accepted into the Norfolk Alliance and then working our way into Division One.
It looked as if this season would consolidate our position in that division but then things began to happen and Saturday saw our sixth consecutive win with a stunning 145 run victory over Swardeston Seconds. We batted first and scored an impressive 301-4 in our 50 overs and then bowled Swardeston out for 156. It was a personal triumph for our captain and coach Ben France who scored a majestic 133 not out and then took four wickets for just 17 runs. With the current COVID restrictions in Europe in place I thought of a heading for this performance.
France in Isolation
We are now just nine points behind leaders Bradfield with six games to go. It's a very interesting situation because Bradfield were promoted along with us two seasons ago from Division Two (last season was more or less wiped out by COVID).
I am very proud to be a vice-president of the club having in the past served as a player, development officer and chairman.
We couldn't stay for all of the game, however, but there's a clever little phone app that now updates scores as live. So I was able to keep up to date with how things were going as we set-off for a birthday meal with a friend at the Buckinghamshire Arms at Blickling.
This used to be a really posh pub back in the day (never sure whether I like that phrase but it does serve some vague purpose). Now it's just another watering hole with a large garden. But first we went for a walk around the parkland skirting Blickling Hall and running past its lake and I took a number of photographs of that and the other places visited during a very busy but very enjoyable day and I hope you enjoy at least some of them. See you tomorrow morning.