It never ceases to amaze me that as villages and communities grow with massive new developments now the norm, facilities decrease. It is absolutely ridiculous to think of Hethersett without a post office - but I fear that's what will happen if we aren't careful.
The parish council wrote to the post office authorities and received what they termed a "non committal" and confusing answer. That answer of course pointed out that the post office recognises the importance of post offices to local communities. If that's true why have so many villages and towns lost their offices over the past 10 years?
If you want to see how important the post office is to Hethersett just pop along and have a look at the queues that have built up every day in the lead up to Christmas. I know that people come . to the village from Wymondham and other surrounding areas to avail themselves of the service.
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Confusion and mayhem seem to be two words to describe our current situation. I think you have to go back to the dark days of the 1970s for a time when this country was in such a mess on all fronts.
In March we all went into lockdown expecting it to last for a few months. Now here we are 10 months on and things seem to be getting worse rather than better.
And still we have fools expecting everything to change and improve once December is out. I call this the foolishness of New Year. I have written about this in the past but it never ceases to amaze me how millions of people think that when the clock ticks over to one second past midnight and we welcome in a new year, all the problems of the old year will be banished and magically disappear. Our politicians will suddenly agree and work together, our services will be fully supported and Norwich City will be Premier League champions!
People are already talking about saying good riddance to 2020 and welcoming in 2021. Well I have news for them. This virus doesn't understand time, it doesn't understand borders, it has no rules and it won't disappear simply because we are in January and not December.
My heart goes out to the hundreds of lorry drivers stuck at Dover. An estimate yesterday suggested there are well over 1,000 vehicles stranded. Is this really due to the pandemic or is there more sinister politics at play here with the French making a point about Brexit? I suspect it's a mixture of both.
As usual it's the humble ordinary man and woman who will suffer. I felt so sorry for the lorry driver from Slovenia who took a bag of Christmas presents out of his cab. They are for his children but he has no idea whether he will make it home for Christmas Day (probably not). Even when he gets across the Channel he has a long drive ahead (probably about 800 miles).
What a horrible thought that many of these drivers will be spending Christmas in their cabs. Basic human rights come into play here. Where do they go to the toilet, where do they get food from and ultimately is this about a virus or more about politics?
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Couldn't help but smile at an item on the local television news yesterday although it isn't actually funny.
An advertised "Winter Wonderland" at Taverham just outside Norwich has been dubbed "Blunderland." The idea was for a drive through trip to see Santa in a winter wonderland setting. People queued for hours, many gave up, and when those that stayed got in everything was a huge disappointment and the character "scrooge" frightened children by telling them that Santa's sleigh had crashed. The whole thing was a debacle.
One visitor told the press: "The Scrooge guy called us all mutants, said Santa has crashed his sleigh and the presents are in the mud, and there was a man in chains by a tree just staring at the car."
Others said that Santa looked totally uninterested.
I seem to remember this same thing happening last year somewhere else in the country. It certainly was used as a scenario on Coronation Street.
It does seem that there is a "let's rip the public off by promising them something spectacular and delivering them something shambolic and charge them lots of money for it" attitude. To me this is an example of a scam