We seem to have gone to so many different places over the past few weeks from Great Yarmouth to Southend and Spain to Portugal. We are currently taking stock.
"Any more holidays booked?" is a regular question we are asked. And for once the answer is not really.
All we have on the horizon at the moment is a family wedding in Sussex towards the end of August. So time to look back and reflect and today's photographs are of our visit to the Royal Norfolk Show where I went for floral colour as taking photographs was difficult due to heavy rain for much of the day.
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I have been writing for ever (or so it seems) and I keep coming across snippets of stuff written well before the Internet. When I was in my twenties (so so long ago) I wrote a silly little novel which still has no title other than "The Seaside Novel". It was about my early days working in a coastal town and for the life of me I can't remember what I have done with it. I know it's somewhere on the Internet but you can think yourselves fortunate that at the moment I can't locate it and that's going to save you a considerable amount of hurt as I would have posted bits on here.
But a warning. When I do eventually find it, I will be posting!!!!
I came across some waffly writing that fits in as it's a kind of an early blog. So I thought I would publish bits of that for your delicatessen (sorry delectation). Here's the first bit which was written in 1997.
"Sometimes in life the most simplistic event can lead one to re-assess a position, a situation and an outlook.
At the age of 44 I find myself often frustrated by not being able to influence certain major areas of my life whilst being able to make my mark in a number of others.
My frustrations in certain areas has led to depression, anger and disillusionment.
This in turn leads to feelings of inadequacy and almost helplessness.
Then along comes a simple event to change one's attitude. I have always prided myself on my enthusiasm. This has taken me in my private life into many exciting and worthwhile areas which have given me the opportunity to serve the local community and have a particular bearing on the lives of young people as they grow up.
This contrasts starkly with the passive areas I have already mentioned where I feel my contribution is not valued.
It was in the middle of these feelings that I went to a simple quiz organised by the youth football team of which I am chairman. Apart from the fact that it was an extremely enjoyable evening, the event left me to ponder on the importance of giving everything and attacking life.
Basically the team of which I was a member was a mixture of my sons and other friends. We began the evening disastrously and after the first round - naming shipping areas on a map - were lying rock bottom of the 16 teams taking part. After the second round we had hoisted ourselves up to a non too healthy 14th place and were taking "some stick" from certain areas of the room.
We struggled on towards the interval by which time we had improved up to joint sixth place and were thinking of finishing in a respectable position after having faced what seemed definite humiliation.
Sipping at a pint at half-time we realised that our best rounds were still to come and there was no need for pessimism, nor need for self doubt. Liberation came in the form of questions on sport and music and thanks to an in depth knowledge of classic comedy we began the steep climb upwards and forced our way into third and then second place. With two rounds to go we were 10 points behind the leaders but, thanks to some inspired playing of our double points joker, we took the lead going into the last round and held off all challengers to win by three points.
Now this may all seem pretty pointless. We were overjoyed and it had been a fun evening. But later that night it set me thinking.
We never gave up and I began to realise that by concentrating strongly and by reasoning out answers, we managed to come top of the pile and silence all the critics who by the end were reduced to throwing crumpled up answer sheets at us.
We had made things happen by grasping the nettle and believing in our ability although the scoreboard told otherwise early on. We were involved in a marathon and not just a sprint.
Memories came flooding back of other organisations I had been involved in where I had struggled to make a mark, struggled to have my views listened to only to eventually climb to the top and be treated with respect.
It told me that if at first you do not succeed just keep on plugging solidly away. And it taught me that we must convey this message to our children. My sons learned that lesson that night from the quiz. The previous week I had watched my junior football team hammered 8-2 after just giving up. Maybe I will tell them the story of the quiz and maybe they will realise that life has to be viewed as a whole and not a thing of bit parts. You may not always succeed but success can be the result of many overlapping parts which blend into something out of the ordinary. It's a kind of, never mind taking two steps back if you can take three forward syndrome. It's only when you take two steps forward and three back that you have to worry!"
Well as they say in cricket "How Was That."
And I warn you there will be more of this drivel over the next few days. You might like to do something more reqarding like cutting your fingernails.