"Book lovers never go to bed alone" - Unknown

Tuesday 13th August

We'd planned to make an early start this morning because we were going to Cromer, but it proved harder than expected to get up and get organised, so it was 10am before we left the bungalow. It didn't really matter, we had an enjoyable drive and we found a parking space without too much difficulty. 

Our first port of call was the tourist information centre, it has an Internet hot spot. We have missed having a reliable Internet connection while in Norfolk, so we took the chance to catch up on email, facebook etc. While there we bought a pile of railway poster postcards - Robbie likes to collect them. 

 We wandered in the direction of Jarolds, but we didn't get that far, I had forgotten about Robbie's need to stop and photograph every bus that he sees - he even used his phone to take photos as he was crossing the road! I had also forgotten  about the hardware shop, Robbie absolutely loves that shop, he has a bit of an obsession with crockery. I waited and waited until I was so bored that I told him that I was going over the road to the second hand bookshop. I was in heaven! I had forgotten about this shop and I spent a very happy time looking at all the children's books. When Robbie saw the Ladybird books I thought he was going to burst with excitement. He bought the Ladybird book about the railway, he had a good look at the railway book section but he didn't buy any, instead he chose two hardback Snoopy books - one of them is in French!

We finally got to Jarolds where Robbie indulged his passion for pens and erasers as well as books, Playmobil, purses and postcards. We were hungry by now but Robbie still had another bookshop on his list so we walked across to the bargain bookshop and Robbie checked out the transport section - they had bus books as well as railway books so I knew I was in for a long wait! I found a fantastic book which contained all the Britains model catalogues of the 1970s. We bought that book as well as a railway book that Robbie just couldn't resist. 

At long last it was time to eat, we found a little restaurant called the Garden Street Grill. I loved the meal, the service was prompt and friendly and the toilets were excellent. It was good value and I would definitely go there again. 

A Day in Cromer

We decided that we would get up early on Monday and drive to Cromer. The early bit didn't quite work out as planned, the Norfolk air must be getting to Robbie because he has lost all sense of urgency. Even when he'd had his shave and shower, he took an age to get dressed, then when he was finally dressed he put his shoes on in slow motion - how long can it possibly take to put two shoes on!

When we got to Cromer Robbie found a hotspot and he took the chance to upload a lot of photos to Facebook. Mobile phone and internet  reception in Norfolk leave a great deal to be desired, so Robbie was determined to make the most of the hotspot - while I waited! We enjoyed wandering around Cromer, but Robbie kept vanishing, one minute he would be next to me then I would turn around to see him darting off to take yet another photo of a bus. They all look the same to me, but I don't tell Robbie that otherwise he would explain the differences in far more detail than I could cope with.

We enjoyed looking at books and jigsaws in Jarolds and our favourite book shop behind the church. We bought one or two things but we were quite restrained by Robbie's standards. It was another lovely warm, sunny day so we strolled towards the sea front. I must have taken countless photos of the pier over the years, but I couldn't resist taking more because it really is a splendid pier. When we had seen all we wanted of Cromer we drove back to Walcott in time to stroll on the beach and enjoy the garden.

Cat Wars

Since just before Christmas we have been targeted by a rather beautiful cat. It kept getting in through our cat flap and hiding in the utility room. Getting it to leave proved easier said than done, each time we thought it had gone we locked the cat flap and blocked it up but within a day the cat would reappear as if by magic. I began to think that either it was a time traveller or a ghost, but the muddy footprints and mess that betrayed it's presence suggested that it was all too real. The utility room houses an accumulation of clutter that needs to be kept but doesn't really have a home, everything from deckchairs to the cat carrier. Robbie was afraid that it would hide behind the fittings or the general clutter and die of starvation, but it is still very much alive.


It would meow at the kitchen door asking to be let in but when we opened the door to the utility room it would vanish behind the fittings again. It became a bit of a myth, we could hear it, we see it's footprints but we never saw more than the tip of it's tail vanishing behind the shelves. Then last Thursday it came back again, and it had a swearing match with Dave (the cat) through the door that connects the kitchen with the utility room. That was the last straw, my daughter decided that something had to be done, but being a busy young woman she set her brother the task of catching the cat. It took him all evening but eventually the cat was caught and found to be healthy and apparently well fed. Having made sure that it could not get back in we evicted it in the hope that it would go home, but it sat by the window all night and meowed loudly. 

The cat is a very unusual colour, from a distance it looks as if it should be a ginger tabby but it has created just in 'grey scale'. On closer inspection it has a faded ginger colour mixed with grey and black, with two white feet and white under it's chin and down it's chest. So I think that makes it a tortoiseshell of sorts. I have read that it is very unusual to get a male tortoiseshell so it is probably a girl (it is not keen to let me inspect it from that angle) but I think it looks like a male. It was too complicated to keep calling it 'the cat' because we have two cats of our own, so we have called it Bernard after Nursie in Blackadder, a woman with a man's name.


We congratulated ourselves because we could not hear the cat meowing outside on Friday night, but our celebrations proved premature. A trip to the freezer (in the utility room) on Saturday revealed the truth - the cat has got in again!! It is unbelievable, I have no idea why it has chosen us. Robbie's cousin said "This kind of thing is going to happen when Robbie and Dave start surfing the internet looking for ginger cats..."

Google in Bed

On Sunday evening I was very tired by the time I went to bed. I was already asleep by the time Robbie came to bed, but as he doesn't do anything quietly I was soon wide awake again. I really don't know why he feels compelled to talk to me (and to require an answer) when I am asleep because he doesn't get a good reaction. He doesn't seem to understand that when I am asleep I really don't want to hear about the cat's digestive problems or even the state of the railways, I just want to sleep - is that so much to ask?


On this particular occasion he had woken me to inform me that he had left the toilet set in the correct position, surely he doesn't imagine that he will get 'brownie points' for doing what any sensible person would do anyway! Seat down and lid up is the only practical option, anything else could lead to catastrophe in the dark! I tried my best 'not to be awake' but Robbie talks regardless and if he gets no response he prods me until he does. I think he enjoys living dangerously!


Somehow we got on to the subject of names and I mentioned that some names like my own enable you to have a good guess about the age of the owner. Robbie mentioned the name Wendy and I told him that it was not really a name until used by J M Barrie in Peter Pan.  It was inspired by a nickname given to him by a little girl who called him her 'friendy' but because she had trouble pronouncing the R sound it became 'fwendy'. 


I don't think I told him that there are rare examples of the name before that, or that it was once a boy's name, but it was the middle of the night and I was keen to go back to sleep. Robbie refused to believe the J M Barrie reference and he was now in confrontational mode demanding to know where the term Wendy House came from. After a deep sigh I told him that it came from the Peter Pan story, but he refused to believe me.  He turned the light on and grabbed his Blackberry, I thought he was going to 'phone a friend' but he was doing a google search. Reluctantly he confirmed that I was right (he should be used to it by now!). Then finally I was allowed to get some sleep.

Total Frustration 05.09.2007

We arrived home yesterday afternoon to find that the internet wasn't working. On closer inspection I found that our telephone was not working and my heart sank. I have had dealings with BT many times before as their service in our area seems to be very temperamental. I had to deal with the automated faults - system, press this number, press another number, stand on one leg, tell us how to contact you, tell us again, now press another button and key in all that information again just to waste a bit more of your time while you are calling from a mobile. Having done all that I was invited to transfer my calls to another number and yes, you guessed they wanted the same information all over again! Finally the dratted machine gave me the option to speak to a live human being, I pressed yet more buttons and waited, only to be told by the machine that they were very busy and if I gave them my contact number - again, I would be called back within 45 minutes. I kept my phone with me (even when I went to the bathroom) and 19 hours later I am still waiting for the elusive call back!

Much later in the evening Robbie managed to have a protracted conversation with a live human being, unfortunately she appeared to be in India, she couldn't understand what he was saying and eventually told him that she couldn't give him any information about the fault except that there was a fault - very helpful! How hard would it be to provide a real person based in UK who can speak and understand English in the way that we do?