"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. 

Walking Tall

Walking Tall Friday 17th August 2007

It was nice not to have anything too urgent to get up for this morning. We planned to go to a local car boot sale, but that didn't start until 11am so we had plenty of time to get ready without any great urgency. Sam and I managed to be ready on time, but when I was ready to go Robbie was still running around in his knickers and even when he was dressed and fit to be seen in public he decided that he absolutely had to choose that moment to stop to write a cheque and fill in an application for tickets to a Railway open day! We were 45 minutes late for the car boot sale but it was very busy with lots of stalls and there was plenty to see. We didn't intend to spend too much because we already have far too much clutter at home, but it is fun looking and I have to admit that I succumbed to temptation on a couple of things. Robbie and I bought a few old postcards for our collection and a couple of colour box cats miniature ornaments - I collect those too but I only bought these because they were ridiculously cheap.

Sam bought some stilts and spent the afternoon practising stilt walking in the back garden. I wish he had invested similar energy into keeping his bedroom tidy! His room here is bigger than his room at home so it should be easier to keep it tidy - that's the theory, but the reality is somewhat different. Over the last few days Sam has expended so much effort in avoiding the issue and hiding the mess that I was determined that it was going to be done to my satisfaction today. It took ten minutes to do it properly - he must have wasted hours in his efforts to dodge ten minutes work!!