Great Yarmouth With Crissy

So my dear friend Crissy (who I used to work with) moved to live in Perth in Australia a few years ago but she came to visit England so we had a few days of cross over before I moved away and we managed to fit in a little visit. We started off doing some regular things like picking out a dress for a wedding she had to go to and I popped into the bank to shut down my credit card and ISA account.

Then we stopped for a coffee, have you noticed all the ‘vape’ shops about lately? Is there any need for so many? And flavoured too… who the fuck is buying ‘vapes’ in “dinner lady” flavour… how is that appealing?? There is nothing about a dinner lady that sounds like it’d be tasty, not even the dinner being served.

So after that it was on, we stopped off by a tat shop and browsed and found lovely feather flapper style headdresses which we wore about the town with gangster necklaces (they had a costume shop section).

We got a photo of the puppet man for Crissy and we went to the diner for burgers.

Then it was time for some air hockey.

And basketball.

Then we got drenched in the rain, got some photos taken and played guitar hero. The guy at the arcade took a lot of convincing to cut the photo strips in two because he was worried we would sue him if he cut it wrong… yes actually. I mean I don’t know how much time and disposable income he thinks we have to fund this imaginary lawsuit but we had to reassure him several times.

Then we sunk about £10 in 2ps into this 2p machine to win two paddingtons for Crissy’s mum, we had to get both because we had a sneaking suspicion they were brothers!

Bookend brothers.

After that it was time for Crissy to see other friends and me to cram shut my cases but one of our pimp necklaces made a nice car decoration for Crissy’s rental car. I gave my headdress to her to save for Jim to wear (he was away on a stag do in Prague but I wouldn’t want him to miss out).

Angles Way Bank Holiday

Hey readers, so I had two days off from work together at the bank holiday (shocker) and decided I’d embrace the daylight and venture out for a walk just down the road from my house in Cobholm.

Early morning along Angle’s Way… it was gorgeous.

It was pretty early morning so hardly anyone was out, no dog walkers but lots and lots of wildlife. Kim’s nemesis: swans. And also a couple herons.

It was my favourite weather of all time – grey. Yes this is actually my favourite weather. Grey is perfect, it’s not too hot or cold or wet or windy… just grey. The perfect weather for any activity one might want to partake in. Sadly on the way home my lovely grey was usurped by bright sunshine leaving me with a slightly red neck (good preparation for going to live with the Americans?).

There were zillions of butterflies out, these are just the slow ones I could take photos of.

Also I saw a golden snail… I like to think he won some sort of race.

I’m really going to miss living right next door to the broads but Kimmy just completed on our first house (finally!) so I’ll be swapping the broads and the sea for a lake in just 36 days.

 

The Broads & Fireworks

 We had a chilled out day Wednesday, there’s a walk along the Norfolk Broads by our house we explored and did some Pokemon catching along the way (gotta catch em all).

And then after some dinner we went to do some arcading. Kim forced some little kids off the dance machine so she could dance to Cotton Eye Joe (alone, I was a spectator only). We got a photo strip done and then we sucked at basketball. When I say sucked, I mean we were really terrible.

And we played skeeball for the first time which we hadn’t tried, we weren’t so bad actually. I beat Kim at air hockey by a very slim margin.

And then we had a little walk along the beach.

Before setting up camp in Goldie. We had strategically parked Goldie to watch the fireworks that are on in Great Yarmouth every Wednesday night. It was absolutely packed but we were all set up with the radio and comfy seats, coffee and a blanket. And when the fireworks were over we zoomed out back home missing the traffic. Ingenious.

Return Of The Kimmy

So after 6 months Kim has returned to England for a visit. I got back home the day before from my latest agency stint and as Kimberly would get into Norwich for about 4pm it meant I spent the morning feverishly vacuuming the house in a half assed attempt to prove to my wife that I’m not a slob (although I am). All this cleaning was carried out whilst the kitties loped about watching me which I thought unfair as they cause most of the mess by shedding. My boy cat Barclay seemed a little distressed, he doesn’t like it when I behave unusually. I even took my car Goldie to the car wash, and they cleaned the inside of her too (I don’t have a hose so washing her myself is a bit of a problem). I did not know the footwell mats were black, I thought they were just old and worn not caked it dirt!

 

So Kim got held up in customs as per usual for about half an hour because that’s what our country does best instead of catching actual criminals, obviously. Luckily we foresaw this and she was armed with all sorts of paperwork and there was no issue. Kim was thrilled to be back, the cats were less thrilled when Kim ran after them trilling “babies!!” with her hands outstretched. Poor things.

The next day we decided to take a small trip to Pleasure Beach because my Mum had left us tokens and there was a Groupon offer. We went on the big wheel.

You could see pretty far over Yarmouth actually.

Of all the rides the pirate ship was particularly unpleasant as Kim gripped my arm and screamed the entire way through it until the end where I gingerly pried her claws out from my skin… This is still a kids ride right? There were mostly kids on it.

She did redeem herself with very good dodgem skills though.

All the spinny rides I sat on the outside because Kim is tiny but then the gravity throws you out and I was thoroughly squashed. But all in all the rides were fun.

Then we went for fish and chips which was tasty. And then…

We walked up tat street to the bank because somebody (cough, Kim) divulged to me that she had brought all of the money she exchanged for her dollars out with her. Yes. She had a small handbag full of one thousand pounds which she had even left on the floor during one ride. My face looked like Edvard Munch’s The Scream. We changed all her 50 pound notes for 20s (because no where likes accepting 50s) and then clutched the bag tightly for the rest of the day.

Before we went home we played mini golf where for a change I didn’t have to double the par, I think the key is not to keep score, I do a lot better when we don’t keep score. I was interested to see that the family ahead of us were some lesbians and their kids and they were terrible at golf too, I thought lesbians were meant to be good at golf? Why aren’t my special skills shining through?

In other news I’ve become very disgusting and have a small cold where I sniffle pretty much continually, I even bought a sniffy stick (my Mum’s terminology) which Kim thinks is really gross.

For dinner we finally got to drink our prosecco Tasha got us back in February when we got married.

And Kim’s dinner choice was a make your own pizza from ASDA… Simple things…

Mum & Charles’ Visit

My Mum and brother Charles came to visit me for my graduation last week and we had such a good visit. I knew it was going to be a good day already when they came because I found a good Pokemon in Tescos.

They arrived with about a million bags (all but one belonging to my mother) which Charles carried in (bitching all the way). And the next day we were up and about to have a day out in Yarmouth. We started off with a nice walk in and a coffee. We’re a Starbucks family, I think you get your favourite brand of coffee shop but none of us are that keen on Costa and Yarmouth doesn’t have a Pret (Kim’s favourite).

We browsed along the shops and the sea front. Mum broke her reading glasses but luckily we found some cheapy ones to tide her over in a tat shop.  Covent Garden Soups had a promotion on so we all got some soup and sat in a very large deckchair for photo postcards to be printed out so that was nice.  My Mum loves free things so she went back for seconds!

Then we went for a trip on a boat.

It was so hot that day I got a bit burnt without realising and so did my brother but luckily it browned out before graduation. I don’t know who these random people are. Do you ever think about how many hundreds of photos you must be in the background of?

Anyway we were headed to Scroby Sands, a sandbank where seals live just off the coast of Yarmouth. They were all there sunbathing on the beach and swimming about.

After that we went for some tasty fish and chips.

And played the arcades, I won the air hockey tournament and the basket ball hoops. Then we played the 2p machines and won lots of fabulous prizes (I may be exaggerating).

After some serious arcading we got ice creams for the walk home.

And we we got home we played that Heads Up app game together and Charles insisted he could complete the impossible puzzle. This is how the puzzle looked after their visit… Charles still insists that he could finish it, I still insist that it’s impossible.

Mum’s Visit Part 1

So my Mumma came to visit for the bank holiday, most of my immediate family lives in Wiltshire so I don’t really see them very often. She arrived late at night so the next day after a comfy gossip/lie in and a trip to the dentist for a quick check up (I know, I’m just so glamorous) we kicked off with some tasty fish and chips – as you can see there wasn’t much left over.

Then we hit the arcades for some serious gaming, first this bizarre air hockey game (my mother is the queen of air hockey) where you’d just play normal air hockey until the machine would release 20 small air hockey pucks at random intervals creating chaos. I did not know what the hell was going on but I do know that I won the first game.

Next it was the basketball hoops and then it was on to penny falls. Now, not to brag but, my family is exceedingly talented at the 2p machines in arcades. I don’t think any of us could work a fruit machine but 2p machines – we’re your people. It’s all about playing for the prizes not the 2ps and selecting machines where the prizes are close enough to the edge, and after surveying about 5 arcades we went for it.

Just look at our victorious prizes. The sheer skill it took to get these.

The next day we took a trip to Fairhaven Woodland & Water Garden which is not too far from Brundall. It was just beautiful.

We ambled about the place having a gossip and taking photos.

There was a map which I could not for the life of me read but we seemed to end up in the correct places eventually.

We had some very nice lunch at a sweet old person like cafe.

And I got the monster of all french fancies.

Life is always better with a French Fancy.

Waiting

It seems like Kimberly’s visa is taking forever since the wedding but back home I’ve been busy with work.  I’ve also been doing a few home improvements here and there ready for when Kim gets back, especially the garden. Our garden is a paved square affair so I’ve been getting a few pots and plants.

I also took a trip to IKEA on the way back from visiting my Great Aunt in Essex and, after falling over in the rush to get nearer to discount furniture and scraping up my knee (ouch), selected this table and chairs for 35 pounds. Bargain. My gardening assistant is pictured left, unseen is our supervisor who prefers to watch from the doorway.

Particularly difficult to find has been a pot for a herb garden, so I gave up my search and bought this bin thing from IKEA which I hammered drainage holes into the bottom of (much to the annoyance of my poor neighbours).  And it seems to be doing the job tolerably. I got a wind up washing line too in case the sun ever shines… ha. ha. ha.

In other news tourist season is beginning again and places are starting to open.

Tasha from work and I took a nice stroll in Gorleston with ice creams after a training day last week and successfully didn’t get rained on.

The weird tat shops are open again in Yarmouth for my perusal.

But it’s still a long way off until I brave my first ever dip in the Yarmouth sea.

Also, in unrelated news I finally  got some curtains… off eBay… why don’t we just buy everything online? It’s just better. But anyway now I can feel like a grown up and draw the curtains of an evening… only joking I’ve still never actually used them. Or ironed them. Once upon a time I didn’t mind ironing too much until my ex-military Dad starting getting a little crazy about ironed creases down the middle of my school trousers in the conviction that it would “impress my teachers” (it didn’t). Now I try to follow my mum’s philosophy of if it needs ironing I’m not buying it but I’m hoping the curtains will just sort them selves out… either that or Kim will fix them when she gets home.

 I think even the cats are bored that Kim isn’t home yet.

Christmas Preparation

It’s been very christmassy as we enter December here in Great Yarmouth. Kim and I went to the Yarmouth Christmas Market that was on in town. They had a large snow globe that gave off an air of suffocation and people were having photos taken inside of it.

And there were different market stalls which we browsed around.

We got some tasty spiced apple juice to keep us warm.

The Minister was full of stalls and children singing carols which was sweet.

Then Kim went ice skating and I cheered her on. I’m dreadful at skating and have a fear that I’ll break a bone ice skating and won’t be able to work or do anything. Anyway Kimberly survived intact and as she was the first person on the skating rink got a little video of herself put onto BBC Radio Norfolk’s Facebook page.

Our tree is up in pride of place and the kitties love scratching their faces against the prickles.

We also went for a big Christmas shop with a festive afternoon tea at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich (with a voucher my lovely friends got me for my birthday). I’m almost all shopped out… just a few more last bits to do.

And to top it all off the Christmas off duty on my ward says I have Christmas and Boxing day off, hurrah!

Wherryman’s Way

Kimberly and I live really close to the Norfolk Broads, and we decided we’d walk part of Wherryman’s Way marked on this route.

The walk was really pretty but we needed to wear wellies because the grass was damp.

The broads are in a national park and there are all sorts of different birds and wildlife around. Kim and I even saw a barn owl out as it got a bit darker.

Half way through the walk (the part where you turn back or take the railway back to Yarmouth) is a strange pub that time forgot called the Berney Arms. You can’t get to the pub by road so you can only reach it by walking, railway or by boat. There were a few old men at the bar discussing their love for teenage and young girls so after a drink we headed back because as Kim put it, the atmosphere was a bit “rapey”.

    

Luckily we got home safe as we had a tasty lemon meringue pie stashed in the fridge.

Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival

I haven’t updated my blog in very timely fashion lately so let us rewind a couple of weeks to the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival. Yarmouth has a lot of ships about and is next to the sea, there’s a lot of things named after Admiral Lord Nelson or with a nautical theme; there’s also a lot of toursists so I suppose it makes sense to have a nice event. It was free to get in but for a pound you got a sticker (which we obviously got, duh). We saw the Mayor out strolling (I think? Either that or they’re just loving the fancy dress..?).

 

There were lots of different tents along the Quay with craft stuff and food and drink.

There were also several groups in different tents singing sea shanties which I think Kim thought was pretty funny.

A huge restored ship came too from Sweden called the Götheborg and you could pay to go on it which we did.

They had a blacksmith making nails outside in the old fashioned way and all the nails in the ship were made like this because they’d tried to restore it using old fashioned techniques.

I think the front of it could have looked a bit more piratey though, I think the lion kind of looks like a dog begging for treats… but that’s just me.

We got lucky with the weather, it looked like it was about to rain all day.

So that was all jolly nice. That week we also did a nice beach walk from Gorleston.

It was pretty windy but really nice because we wrapped up.

I took some Earl Grey too and rations (fyi – the rock they’re on looks just like my old kitchen counter).

And we walked to Hopton on Sea and back and got to be nosey and look at everyone’s luxury holiday caravans.

Living it up Great Yarmouth Style!