HOW WAS IT FOR YOU...

This glorious weekend I mean, of course!
We have been very busy, cricket match on Friday evening, T20 and our team Notts won...... wahay!
Bus trip to Norfolk on Saturday and a car boot and antique fair at Wicksteed park on Sunday, culminating in a lovely picnic in the sunshine....what could be better.......well....

....No don't get me wrong we are very lucky DH and I to be so fit and able and this is in no way a poke at those less able than ourselves, but I have to say Saturday was an eye opener! It is a long time since we have been on a bus trip and when we saw the advert for a trip to the Bure Valley steam railway followed by a two hour cruise on the Norfolk broads we thought what fun. No driving for Mr WB and everything organised for us. It would be a lovely change.
So we arrived at the designated pick up point, our local bus station, on time to find not some swish modern coach, but a mini bus!.....an hour later having driven round umpteen villages via what felt like cart tracks we eventually liaised with our proper coach to finally set off.. So a journey which we expected to take just over 2 hours actually took over 3!! Not such a good start.
At this point I should say that 'we' consisted of Mr WB about to be OAP proper, me OAP for nearly five years now and friend a young thing in her middle fifties.I should also state that we were by far the youngest on the bus!.....
We arrived at Aylsham, a pretty well kept station on the Bure Valley Steam railway with an hour to spare before our trip on the longest stretch of 15 inch guage railway in Norfolk. The plan was to get some lunch at the station cafe.

Well it is at this point that I will say I hope I never become this rude as I get older. Just getting off the bus was a performance with everyone determined to get out of their seats first and the first indication that their Ps and Qs had certainly not been a priority in their packing! Probably left behind along with their humour!
Once in the cafe we stood in the queue waiting to order our meals and were jostled and pushed by our fellow passengers. Hands pushed in front of your face to reach things out of cabinets, handbags thrust over shoulders regardless of the fact that they had almost knocked your glasses off. Even as you tried to order, the poor girl serving found it hard to hear what you were saying for people pushing forward and worse still actually arguing among themselves.
Eventually though we got on the train and traveled the 9 miles to Wroxham where we were to pick up the boat to cruise the broads. Great we thought, an upper deck, if we nip up quick we will most certainly avoid a repeat of the cafe episode. But no, I don't know how they managed it considering how unsteady some of them had been on their feet, but before you knew it we were again surrounded by senior citizens who thought it was perfectly OK to crowd round you, remove seats from your table even before you had actually sat down, talk over you and just be generally rude. Talk about Victor Meldrews!!
If I ever hear another 'older' person lament to me about young people's manners I will certainly tell them that it's time they set them a better example then!
OK rant over.....sorry!!
Now for the nice bit....and the cruise really was.....

The captain gave a very informative commentary, and the views were stunning.  I now have cottage with river frontage envy!! (Although when he told us the price tags of some of them, it did wain a bit).

This one has 'me' written all over it...sigh.....

We were even lucky enough to see one of the old Norfolk wherries. This was one of the sailing ones with the white sails as opposed to the working ones which had black sails, but she was still quite a sight.I believe there are now only about eight still in existence.

On Sunday we went off to Wicksteed Park in Northants.

There is now a regular car boot here on a Sunday morning. No goodies found today I'm afraid but I did find a little gem at the antique fair.....

Beautiful glass spice jars on a metal shelf by Tala. The green is perfect for my kitchen, although where I am going to hang it is another thing. But I couldn't leave it could I?

So we ended the day with a lovely picnic and a glass of wine and returned home feeling that summer had arrived at last.

I hope yours was good too and that we keep a bit of this weather for a while longer...

Now what shall we do about that bus trip we booked in September.................

TTFN

Jenny xx