This morning was our Henry’s choices, a quick visit to Mickcleborough Millitary Collection, but 10 mins drive from Holt, where we are staying.
Memories of my childhood visiting Duxford Musseum in Cambridgeshire, making Airfix kits, and idolising war.
We used to alternate between Hunstanston, NW Norfolk, and various places in the Cotswolds for family holidays. Last time we were in Hunstanton was summer 2016. It also has history with my dad’s side of the family who lived in this neck of the woods, and used to visit Hunstanton for holidays.
So as Evelyn’s choice, first off it was Norfolk Lavender Farm, then Hunstanston itself, for a walk along the proman to Sealife to see the seals.
After a quick whizz around Holt centre where we are stayng, Evie wanted to see the beach so up the road to the seaside town of Cromer
Rest, Recuperation, Recreation and Consolidation.
Well, that’s what I’m hoping to get out of this here family summer holiday, which I’m now on. We are staying in a Georgian Town House in the North Norfolk town of Holt, a place that I bet we’ve either visited or been through many times before. Since we had many holidays in this neck of the woods when the children were small. Mainly because of the beaches, and it’s amongst the driest parts of the country, which was a big draw for my wife Rachel in the 2010s when we came regularly when summers in the North West were almost constant rain! The house is big and spacious, and slightly quirky in layout because of its age. Its also very white and beige, which is a nightmare for clumsy old me. I’ve already broken a toilet seat! But it also brought to mind, the episode of Dr Who from the 80s, where the Dr is regenerating into Peter Davidson and most of the episode is spent putting the recovering Doctor into a very white neutral space, to get a definite sense of who this new incarnation is. That’s where I’m at. In a spotless environment, without my pack of animals (we now have yet another cat, for reasons I’ll go into) and the distractions of my daily life. There’s been a five major family crises in the last 6-7 months, and while it’s left me stronger overall, I’m still catching up with myself. Hence Consolidation.
More about the actual holiday, since the weather is gorgeous and I’m in the heart of historic Norfolk, so there will be all manner of photos and holiday journaling!
Me with hot weather, fecking Tory Leadership Circus, kittens pooping in corner of H’s Bedroom (and he only noticing tonight, after it’s been doing it for five days ), and listening to goth music.
To expand…
Hot Weather – Last couple of days its been 34-37 degrees celsius. Yesterday was a record-breaking high. Apparently, we are going to have heatwaves like this every three years now, unless we get the Climate Emergency sorted.
Tory Leadership. So Boris has resigned, and we have to put up with a leadership contest splashed across the Media, in to appoint yet another unelected Primeminster – of dubious character. Whoopee.
Kittens pooping. We have a new cat, Max, who everyone loves dearly, but needs to do its poos outside!
Listening to goth music…it was an accident, sometimes the YouTube algorithm gets it so wrong.
Posistive thing, I learnt that there’s a movie from 2011 that mixes Sean Penn being an ageing Robert Smith Goth with Talking Heads music, called This Must Be the Place.
So New Year’s Eve 2017 is Callie’s official Gotcha Day. We’d wanted a dog earlier that year. If I remember, the hunt started in September, and the initial idea was to get a family-friendly rescue dog. The problem with that scenario so does everyone else. Our local Dog Trust centre told us that such dogs are put up on the website in the morning and then there’s a queue for them when the centre opens at 11 am! It was a pretty emotionally exhausting search, so by the start of Christmas 2017, I put my foot down and said no more searching until the second week of 2018. Of course, no one listens to me, and on New Year’s Eve, our Evie had seen Callie advertised locally, and just before tea, we were off to see her. Just to have a look, even if we like her, we sleep on it. Right? Wrong, everyone falls in love with this black and white pup, and an hour later, I’m at home looking after her as Rach goes off to do a night shift at the hospital.
Callie is a Sprolie, which is half Border Collie and half Springer Spaniel. Oh, and Callie’s Spaniel mother is half whippet, to add to the “hey look at the fat middle-aged man run after his dog rapidly disappearing” fun on walks. It’s a very energetic breed, which is better suited to being a working breed, but it is popular as a family pet due to its good nature. My dad, raised in the Norfolk countryside, had two Border Collies when I was growing up. There’s a picture of me as a babe, the first one who decided to go and live in another home when my dad went abroad with work, and we had a second called Tinker, which was given up to the RPSCA when my mother fell pregnant with my brother when I was eight. Since in those days, if they couldn’t rehome the dog within two weeks, they put Tinker down. I was there when my mum took the phone call from the RSPCA and refused to have him back. I understood why we couldn’t keep the dog (it needed long walks), but I was devastated. I was quite a lonely child, and this dog was my best friend and who was always pleased to see me no matter how rough my day had been at school. So when we drove home with Callie on my lap, I wept big man tears (until Rachel dug me in the ribs) thinking, I’ve got my dog back.
Even though I’m the main owner, because I’m around all day and walk and feed her, she’s very much a family dog and is happiest when we are all here. She’s noticeably downbeat when everyone leaves for school/work in the morning and greets them all when they return in the evening. Quite often, she will disappear to spend time with each of the children and Rachel during the evening. So she’s not clingy to me unless its an imminent walk or scheduled feed time 🙂 We can leave her on her own. She just goes upstairs and has a kip. I joked when we were struggling to get a dog that it would be just perfect for our family when we finally found one, and she is.
The last four years have been an adventure with her. She’s very active and needs a good two-kilometre walk, once or twice a day, regular social interaction (which she gets from the family and my Mother-in-Law across the road) and playing with for mental stimulation. But it’s all fun, and working from home as I do easy enough to fit in most days. We only have difficulty when it’s blowing a gale and raining constantly, and she sits by the window looking mournful. She understands, though, and we give her a bit more hugs, playing indoor with toys. The day after, when we can get out, all that pent up energy goes whooooooooooooooosh round the park. If she needs a break from us, or we are away for a full day or holiday, we are very fortunate that she can go and stay with her Auntie T, the local lady who raised her as a pup, and her mum, dad and sister (from a latter litter) plus the rest of the pack.
So happy Gotcha Day our Callie 🙂
As a family, we are easing out of Covid 19 Lockdown. Which personally, as I work from home and don’t drive, seems to have gone on since the end of March last year. There’s a draft of what’s happened in that time, which I’ll get round to finishing off soonish. But I thought I’d post this as a quick return to blogging.
We went to Bury yesterday afternoon, and it was a time of great excitement. Our first proper family out since we returned from our Lanzarote Holiday last March (one for another catch-up post). We’ve had small outs, a trip out to the local garden centre to pick up a spade, and the girls have been out shopping a couple of times, but with the opening of food places inside, this was a return to the classic Newport family out.
Food first, since it was lunchtime, so did family favourite Pizza Express. I was especially happy since I thought it had closed down during the 1st lockdown. The pizza was grand and quick to come out (always important when small impatient bellies need filling) and one of the increased number of vegan/veggie options.
Then while the girls did shopping at the Rock, I and H went to the Arcade Club (arcadeclub.co.uk) – three floors of arcade classics, before they joined us later. Everyone agreed that level three with its collection of old machines was the best, although I was a big fan of the Japanese game where cats rode pigs in a mad race. 
When we got home, the weather was gorgeous, so Callie dog got a second walk.
I’ve missed this over the last year or so, and I feel somewhat shallow for saying that, given some of the big huge things going on in the world at the moment. I’m noticeably more bouncy and content today. I’ve tried to stay positive during the lockdown, but I’ve had moments of depression and rage. Each time we go out to the outside world (strangely, my local dog-walks don’t count, they are like green corridors ending in large living rooms where we play ball), it’s like I’m a child again, gleefully running about rediscovering stuff.
Next up is a weekend away either in a cottage, city-Premier Inn or perhaps even the return of camping WITH THE DOG!
Oh my poor hearties, the excitement! 😀
One of the things that reinforces my faith in the fundamental goodness of reality when it waivers is the adventures of our Henry’s Jess the Cat. This black and white soft-toy has been with Henry since his first Christmas, courtesy of my brother George. He/she (I and Rachel aren’t exactly sure) is his constant companion (excepting school and the occasions where we or Henry decide its best to leave her at home). I’ve lost count the number of times that we’ve lost her on trips out. When he was really young I was forever having to retrace our steps and ask shopkeepers or customer care people “have you seen our Jess?” Sometimes it’s an overnight stay as we have already left the attraction, and we ring them when we get home. But every time, and I mean every time, Jess is returned to us. Noone takes a fancy to her, throws her in the bin, or just can’t be arsed to look for her when we ask and shes be found on some sites that are frankly staggering in size and super busy. Consider the odds of that for a moment.
Her latest adventure was at the Heights of Abraham (which fits the big and super duper busy category), which we visited last week on Thursday on our way home from our short holiday in the Peak District. Henry had wandered off to play in a playground without telling us (which was an anxious 20 minutes in itself) and left Jess on a nearby table. We only realised a couple of hours later when we reached the car, and for a variety of reasons couldn’t simply go back up the cable car to look for her. So Rachel contacted customer care there and then and left our contact details. I politely chased up over the bank holiday weekend, but they were so insanely busy I didn’t actually get through to a human being until Sunday! In parallel, I had also emailed them, and this started a conversation with their office when it opened on Monday. On Tuesday despite a search, they hadn’t found her, and I politely thanked them for their time especially in light of Henry’s attachment to Jess.
Notice at all times I (and Rachel) were polite. No point being otherwise, but it really is part of the magic. People really go the extra mile for you and some really magical things happen as a result. So I send my email conceding defeat in this instance and then five minutes later the nice lady got back to me saying that the park rangers had found Jess in some brambles, a bit soggy but otherwise ok. She then got her washed popped her in the post and she arrived first thing this morning so that when Henry got up he was able to give her a big hug 
It seems so long ago, but I had a cracking end of 2016 with the family.
First off was Dragonmeet, a RPG Convention/Trade show/Shopping Day down in London at the beginning of the month 🙂
I wrote more about Dragonmeet over on my D101 Games Blog.
Then the endless parade of school concerts/nativity plays that dominated weeks 2-3. My favorite was the Christmas Concert held at Oldham Parish Church, which Evie’s school choir was invited to sing at.
Christmas itself was a quiet affair. I got loads of presents (which I still haven’t played with all of them), but me George and Evie did manage to get out on a cold and blustery Boxing Day to do the traditional walk thing 🙂
Rach and Henry went to Guliver’s World in Warrington with our H’s Beaver group in October, and were keen to go back to this themepark/fairground aimed at 6-preteens. Just before Christmas Rachel noticed that they did a New Year’s celebration, so we signed up and spent from about 4-9 in the park before retiring to a nearby Premier Inn. As well as being fun in itself its the first time I’ve celebrated New Years in the last ten years or so!
November was a quiet month. Work was briefly a bit bonkers. A sink hole opened up down the road. Other than that life just pottered on.
