Lazy for me, that is. It was somewhat less lazy for my friend of many years, recently retired [congratulations], who rode his motorcycle up from Suffolk to visit me during my stay in Norfolk. I spent a casual morning on camp duties preparing Guillaume for a visitor and carefully avoiding breakfast since we planned to have lunch together.
We were reunited at 11:00 AM and, after the obligatory catch-up natter, sauntered down to Ludham Bridge to enjoy the local scenery. [This is an evening shot rather than midday, to get better light quality, but it gives you the idea.]
Then the worms were biting so we drove the five miles or so into Horning in search of a favourable hostelry. Bingo! Not only was there one with tables beside the river but it also sold both Adnams Bitter (for the motorcyclist) and Adnams Broadside, which is one of my personal great favourites. The curly kale accompanying my fish pie was decidedly cool but, hey, I was eating out in the sun on the last day of September and it was one of my five-a-day. 😀
Our afternoon entertainment was a return (for me) to Thurne to see the classic Norfolk scenery of boats and windmills/pumps. We also were entertained by a pair of tourists attempting to dock one of the many rental bath tubs pleasure boats.
Mr Tourist was at the helm (is that the correct term?) while Mrs Tourist sat on the bow armed with the bow line. Mrs Tourist was, shall we say, a little lumpy and seemed incapable of jumping onto shore in order to tie off the bow line. Ever the gentleman, I offered to take the bow line for her, for which she seemed very grateful, as she proceeded literally to crawl off the bow of the boat and onto shore on her hands and knees. She struggled to her feet and eventually wrapped the line around a mooring post but, I think, didn’t allow enough slack. Assisted by the wind which was blowing off-shore, with Mrs Tourist pulling the rounded bow into shore, the stern made its way back out into the middle of the river despite Mr Tourist fighting gamely to correct the situation employing copious quantities of throttle and rudder.
Great fun! I’m not sure how Mr & Mrs Tourist will survive the week. I stopped watching for while. Eventually they did get docked ‘cos I did spot Mr Tourist clambering ashore with the stern line. And [artistic license – beginning a sentence with a conjunction] I certainly couldn’t embarrass Mr & Mrs Tourist further by taking a photograph. Instead, here’s another take of one of the two wind thingies at Thurne.
The temperature must have dropped; the fridge had frozen my spring onions and mushrooms intended for my evening meal of Coq au Caravan. Drat! I made do.
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