T is for Tegan & Sara (and N is for Natural History Museum)

We took a hiatus from alphabet weekending as we were going through a very busy patch at work, and knew we were going to Canada, so agreed that taking 6 weeks off was better than arranging half-hearted alphabet activities.

Tegan & Sara were playing this weekend at the Shepherd's Bush Empire and, in a stoke of genius, I nabbed this as my "T" activity for the re-launch of our weekend alphabeting shedule. They are actually Canadian and we'd checked out their tour list in the hope that they were playing in Toronto/Montreal whilst we were out there only to find that the week after we got back they were in London. It was a really good gig (although I thought that the crowd was a bit on the quiet side) and I absolutely loved hearing them sing "Where Does The Good Go" live as well as listening to some of their new material.


I'm reading the fascinating Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey at the moment and, as we were in London, it seemed like a good opportunity to fit in a visit to the newly opened Darwin Cocoon at the Natural History Museum. this area of the museum was built to house the museum's enormous collection of plant and animal specimens.

After an initial wobble when I realised that to enter the cocoon itself I'd have to cross a glass lined walkway on the 7th floor (I don't handle heights well!) I enjoyed the experience. Although visitor numbers are limited by the booking of timed slots, it was quite busy and as a high percentage of the displays are interactive it was sometimes hard to get a "go". You're issued with your own NaturePlus Card which you can scan at interesting points as you go around and then visit content online when you get home. The picture below (not by me) is of a section of a gorgeous display that gives a flavour of the variety of the plant and insect collections the museum holds and, as I read Dry Store Room No 1, my respect for the knowledge, dedication and passion that the scientists working here must have increases.


The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is also on at the NHM at the moment and, despite the museum being insanely busy, we managed to get tickets. It was a shame that there were so many people allowed into the room at once as it was hard to absorb the images properly whilst shuffling past people and whispering "excuse me" repeatedly but I would imagine that this is a huge earning opportunity for the otherwise free museum and they need to maximise their income from it. There are some stunning images in that exhibition and I would love to be talented (or patient) enough to take photos of that quality myself. I muttered something about my "need" for a good camera with zoom to Mr B and hope that he's bracing himself for the inevitable purchase next year when I have recovered from the cost of Canada/Christmas!

M is for Market!

According to its very own official website, "Norwich Market is unique in Britain. It boasts over 190 stalls and is the largest Monday-to-Saturday open market in the country. There’s been a market in Norwich since Saxon times and it’s been on its current site longer than any of the buildings that surround it."

Cor.I walk past this market on my way to and from work but, for some reason, have not really used it since I was a teenager in search of second hand romantic novels and Mr B hadn't visited it for years so it seemed like a good alphabet activity. We spent absolutely ages exploring every stall and it was fabulous. I honestly had no idea just what an enormous range of products were available in this relatively small space.

Look at all the pretty/tasty things we bought:

These burgers from Pickerings were absolutely delicious and I can safely say that I know where we'll be going to buy any future ones!

I have to say that we were really impressed with our trip and would recommend it as a great place to shop in the centre of Norwich.

L is for Latin Dance!

Just a quick post to say that this week's alphabet activity was Latin Dance. I had tried to get in touch with a local dance instructor who teaches the Lindy Hop but sadly they didn't respond to emails. Or perhaps just as well as it does look pretty energetic!

Armed with only a jug of mojito and a "Discover Latin Dance" DVD, we spent quite some time learning the Cha Cha along with some associated set moves - to the bemusement of our dogs. Once we'd mastered the dance (!) we were exhausted, and a bit sore from treading on each other, we decided to skip the rumba and samba sections of the DVD for now. Perhaps a teacher would have been more effective for beginner dancers but I am sure they would have frowned on the frequency of our mojito breaks!

K is for Kayaking!

Well. Actually we slightly cheated and hired a canoe rather than a kayak in the end as that was more practical option for two novice paddlers, their two dogs and a picnic!

We paddled along the River Waveney, on the Bungay Loop, and look how beautifully tranquil it was!
I should probably put the following trauma into some kind of context.

1) We are not experienced canoeists and had only paddled together once before in Florida when we were in search of manatees. That was over a year ago!
2) Keep in mind that we had two small dogs in the canoe with us and that this was their first trip on the river.
3) I was a little fragile having attended a hen do the night before where I imbibed far too many cocktails.

Now imagine several swans floating serenely on that river...

It took the dogs a couple of encounters to work out what these big white things were but once Safi twigged it, things became a bit tricky. We managed to get past the first group of five swans without too much incident (other than me ending up in a patch of nettles) and then past a young, very inquisitive, male whilst managing to hold both collars, the paddle and keep moving upstream before we decided to pause and enjoy the riverbank with our picnic for a while!

At this point, of course, it started to rain but we had waterproofs and were happy to get a bit damp. Then a swan came to check out our canoe and decided to start fishing near it. The swan doesn't want to leave. Eventually we decide to launch the canoe anyway and hope he stays downstream. He does not. We ended up stuck in the reeds, me twisted around holding Oscar's collar (keen to jump in) with Safi firmly clamped between legs (keen to bark) and pinned in by the swan who was alternating between curiously attempting to locate the source of the restrained and increasingly frantic whines and then hissing at us.

Remember that hangover. I am ashamed to admit that I did shed a couple of pathetic tears before Mr B heroically extracted us. After spotting a pair of swans further down the river with their cygnets we decided that it was probably best if we returned upstream.

The dogs must have sensed that they were skating on pretty thin ice as they behaved beautifully for the rest of the trip and the experience of allowing the current to take us through the group of the five swans we'd encountered earlier was absolutely magical. It quite made up for the earlier trauma. I'd love to go out on the river like this again - but next time I think we might leave the dogs at home!

J is for Jokes!

Thinking of a J alphabet weekend activity was surprisingly hard especially as I was slightly hampered by our pre-existing weekend commitments. Jazz - no events this weekend. Jousting - unable to work out how to arrange this in Norfolk. Jelly - a bit lame. Learning the Jitterbug - no teacher with availability in the tight time slot I had. Eventually inspiration hit and I decided to try for Jokes and victory was mine!

Having "accidentally" slipped up and revealing, via email, that we were off to a Jam Making course being run by the local branch of the Women's Institute last night, Mr B was extremely relieved to discover, when he met me in Norwich after work, that I had in fact bought tickets to the Comedy Store's mini-festival being held at the Unthank Arms instead. Good of him to turn up to be honest as he was reasonably confident that his wife was random enough to have actually booked a jam making session.

We had dinner before heading up to the pub and I succeeded in getting the start time completely wrong so as we sneaked into the marquee that the pub had erected in the garden, the MC took the opportunity to make several jokes about women making men late. Aided by Mr B's supportive palming all blame off on me... The overall line up was very strong and the second comedian, Mike Gunn, was very funny indeed although I suspect you really had to be there!

(PS - inexplicably I failed to post this last week having written the whole thing! Weird)

I is for... Italy

After a very lazy Saturday (I finished one book, read another in it entirety and then started another...) I felt that we should actually leave the house today so this morning we went on a bit of a jaunt around the area that we're looking at buying a house in - driving around Barton Broad (including the village of Irstead) and then up through Smallborough/Dilham and on towards North Walsham. The more we explore Norfolk, the more I realise that we are so very lucky to live where we do. It is a really beautiful, and surprisingly rural, part of England and I am so glad that we're coming to know it better this year. Sadly, dogs are not allowed on the Norfolk Wildlife boardwalk at Barton Broad (we probably should have checked first!) so we didn't get to see the view across the Broad but as they were getting very hot and bothered, in spite of lots of water, perhaps that was just as well.

This week's alphabet weekend theme was I is for Italy. Sadly, Mr B did not actually whisk me away to Italy for the weekend (although he assures me that he looked into it!) but after getting back from exploring and dog walking, we went out for a very pleasant Italian lunch together, enjoyed ice creams and then watched the director's cut (at 2:47!) of Cinema Paradiso. This is a lovely Italian film from1989, that neither of us had seen before, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes.

I'm already dreading my letter J for next weekend. The only time we can really do anything is Friday night or possibly during the day on Saturday. Jam making...? Eating Jelly...?

H is for Holkham Hall

Being a very decisive woman (!) I selected five Norfolk locations as "H'options" for Mr B to pick from for this weekend's activity. They were:

• "Behind Door 1, we have a 3000 acre country park with designated walks, resident herds of deer and a famous beach nearby.
• Behind Door 2 is a stately home - once that of our first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. The gardens are (apparently) famous and the park is home to over 1,000 head of white deer.
• Continuing the theme of large county houses, Door 3 is a hall with a beautifully landscaped fifteen acre garden. I know that will appeal...
• Behind Door 4 there is a 100 acre country park just a short walk from the historic Norfolk town of Holt.
• Finally we have Door 5 - behind which is the largest expanse of open water in the Broads system."

Who knew Norfolk had so many tempting attractions beginning with H and Hunstanton, Happisburgh Lighthouse, Horsey Wind Pump and the Holme Dunes didn't even make the short list!
Not very surprisingly, he chose Holkham Hall as our destination and, even though it was very overcast, we packed up the dogs, plenty of water and headed out. I am ashamed to say that I've never actually been to Holkham before even though it is one of the county's landmark buildings. Should also confess that we didn't take the opportunity to go into the house itself but then we did have the dogs with us...

It's free to enter and enjoy the grounds so we had a lovely walk around the 1 mile long lake followed by delicious ice-creams made on the estate. Well. We had ice-creams and the dogs had water! The plan was to then have a walk on the gorgeous Holkham Beach however one of our dogs is not well and she had clearly had enough of exercise for the day and as the sky had cleared it wasn't safe (or fair) to leave her in the car by herself whilst we took the other one for a romp.

I'd definitely like to return there but as it's a surprisingly long drive from Norwich perhaps we'll leave the dogs at home and stay overnight next time!

G is for Great Yarmouth!

In a bold move, Mr B's alphabet weekend activity was a trip to Great Yarmouth. I do have to say that the tourist board have done a great job with that website as it successfully glosses over the seedier aspects of an outdated seaside resort and this link is a lot more realistic!. Having said that, and now feeling a little unfair, I should say that it's clear that a lot of money has been spent on re-vamping the sea front and it's considerably better than it was last time I went there.

I confessed that somehow I'd never experienced the pleasure of vising the Merrivale Model Village and Mr Banks insisted that we fork out £5.50 each (!!) and explore the acre of "captivating model village and its charming inhabitants". I actually really enjoyed the experience and there is something awfully English about obediently following a winding path (in the rain) and admiring the effort that has clearly gone into creating this attraction.

Next up it was a walk along the sea front (as the tourist information site explains "Frequently called The Golden Mile"), and along to Britannia Pier where Mr B decided he had to attempt to win me a teddy bear on the grab machine. 60p later and I was the slightly embarrassed recipient of a very large, and to be honest unexpected, Winnie-the-Pooh. No shame no gain so proudly clutching my new friend it was a quick ride on the Ghost Train before fish and chips looking out over the beach/Scroby Sands wind turbines - and at the black clouds rolling in. See pic for both evidence of delightful British summer weather at the beach and Mr B's grab machine prowess!

We finished off our trip with a game of Adventure Golf. Which I was comfortably winning until the last two holes when it all fell apart for me - serves me right for starting to gloat. :( We didn't have time to check out Great Yarmouth's newly re-developed Heritage Quarter but as we've been told that the Time and Tide museum is a must by my father-in-law so perhaps it'll get slipped into a weekend later this year...

F is for Failure

This week is my call for our alphabet weekend activity but sadly we just don't have time for anything exciting. Mr B was filming a wedding yesterday and today he'll be playing (and I will be watching) cricket all day today so there was no chance of fitting in my planned day trip. When I accepted that this was going to be a rubbish effort weekend, I settled for going into M&S on my way home for work on Friday in search of French food and Fine wine to eat/drink whilst watching a Film. As it was looking nice and summery (and their choice of French food was pretty limited) I went for moules and frites, followed by lemon souffle and washed it down with some Fitou. I bought some pretty Flowers too but these were clearly me stretching my panic-theme to my own advantage!

I'd planned on us watching a couple of french films, as we have a small selection at home that we've not seen yet. But... at the end of the working week something less challenging was required so we ended up with (I am almost ashamed to type this) The Tale of Despereaux on the basis that it sounded as if it could be set in France. It wasn't. A bottle of Fitou later and we watched the considerable more intellectual Shape Of Things which was written and directed by Neil LaBute and starred Paul Rudd (who can do no wrong in this household) and Rachel Weisz.

My lesson - keep an eye on the calendar and ensure that at least one day/evening of the weekend is actually free! Roll on H...

E is for Evita!

A return to Mr B's choice for this weekend's alphabet activity and, in a first for us, it was on a Monday! Under the shrouds of much secrecy, Mr B arranged to meet me after work and was very pleased with himself when he was able to produce two tickets to see Evita at the Theatre Royal. Definitely a case of him falling on the sword for this one but he admitted that he quite liked it in the end.

Rachel Wooding, who played Eva Peron, was absolutely fantastic. She really brought the life to part and her stamina, both vocally and acting, was incredible. My hat goes off to her and the ensemble for an enjoyable and professional production.

I wish I could praise Seamus Cullen, who played Che, so highly. I really felt that he let the production down with his weak vocals - and his delivery of the final line of the show...? Dear me. I'd hoped he was the understudy but sadly not.

I was (am!) a big fan of Antonio Banderas as Che in Alan Parker's film of this show. Sadly YouTube don't have the clip of him dancing in the fountain (Warner seem to be very vigilant) so we'll all have to make do with this one until they pull it instead:



*swoon*

D is for Dragon Hall!

This week's alphabet weekend was my call and, as we had Mr B's end of season football "do" on the Friday followed by a family day out to the coast and an engagement party on Saturday, I reluctantly called off plans for a Dancing lesson for two and reverted to Plan B!

This morning was gorgeous so we walked along the river and into the city to visit Dragon Hall. This is the only medieval merchant's trading hall known to have survived in Europe which makes this building unique. Dragon Hall was built for one wealthy merchant, Robert Toppes, in 1430 on King's Street in Norwich and the museum covers the story of the building as well as putting the life of Toppes into historical perspective.

The hall is named after a carving of a dragon in the rafters of the Great Hall which reflects the importance of the Guild of St. George in the city. Walking around the building, it's hard to imagine that until the late 1970s this impressive medieval hall appeared to be three separate properties - one of which was a pub! Although the building is not that large, the audio-guide and displays were informative and relevant so we left feeling that we'd learned more about the city that we live in.

Much to Mr B's delight, (I know sarcasm is hard to read on the interwebs, so should point out that there was a dab used just now) on our walk back home, I noticed that The Bishop's Garden was open in aid of the charity Livability. This is a lovely four acre walled garden in the centre of the city and, as might be expected, is right next to Norwich Cathedral. I'd not visited it before and it really is a delight - it has a big vegetable garden, a wild flower labyrinth, a lovely herbaceous border the border (see above) and a large expanse of lawn. If only I could afford a house with such a lovely big garden in the city centre! Drool...

C is for... Cycling!

Yesterday our Alphabet Weekend activity (as chosen by Mr B) was cycling!

As I've not actually been on a bicycle for around ten years, the original plan was to drive down to Thetford Forest and enjoy the off-road tracks there but the staff at Bike Art were so incredibly rude and unhelpful to my husband that we refused to support their business by renting from them and we switched to Plan B. Which was to borrow two bikes from my mother! One trip to Halfords for a new inner tube later and we were off.

We've walked our dogs from the centre of Norwich to my mother's house a few times along the start of the Marriott's Way, which is also part of National Cycle Network Route 1, and it follows the track-bed of a decommissioned railway line from 1883. We decided to explore this traffic free route a bit further along and cycled from Hellesdon to Thorpe Marriott (and back). The route does cross the road a couple of times but this was no problem at all and where the road was busy there was a horse and bicycle crossing.One clear advantage of a route along an old railway line (and living in Norfolk) is that it is generally very flat which was a definite bonus - see below for evidence! I'm really pleased that we went cycling so close to home - the start of the Marriott Way is under 1/2 mile from our home and it really is a lovely route that starts off along the River Wensum and then winds through fields.

I'd love to explore further along the route as we stopped for our picnic at what turned out to the last bit of the "urban" section before crossing the fields towards Reepham. I'd like to cycle the whole route but my saddle-sore bottom might need to recover before I can even contemplate getting back onto a bike any time soon!

(Route pictures from the Wensum Valley Trust's website and the sign was from Peter Boggis's account of a trip he took along the route in the 1990s. )

B is for Broads!

Yesterday our Alphabet Weekend destination was The Broads which is a nearby protected wetland with national park status that's managed by The Broads Authority. The whole ecosystem spreads across the eastern edge of Norfolk and into Suffolk and we're lucky enough to live just a short drive from this area of natural beauty. Except we never go there! I have absolutely no idea why this is but I thought that this weekend was a good opportunity to head out and explore a couple of the nearby ones to remind ourselves what we're missing out on.

The broads we visited were Ranworth Broad and Cockshoot Broad - both of which are nature reserves looked after by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. The picture above is of the Ranworth Wildlife Centre which has viewing windows with binoculars on the top floor and floats on the broad itself. They both have wheelchair/pram friendly board walks to lead visitors around them and, no doubt, to protect the wildlife from people trampling all over them!

As it's spring, there were loads of baby birds testing out their swimming ability which I have to say was adorable. There's something so incredibly cute about fluffy ducklings and goslings swimming around! There was a huge variety of bird life to see - it was really nice to realise how lucky we are to live where we do and that we really should learn more about our local environment. Sadly, we didn't see an otter or a water vole but next time...

Inexplicably, I appear to have taken only two photos yesterday (one of a sign and one of Mr B enjoying his pub lunch at a local Brewery (see what I did there?). We did take along our new video camera though and got some great footage of Birds on the Broads but I've not imported/edited that yet. The more I use this camera, the more I love it - such great quality footage that I think we'll need a new TV to do it justice ;)

A was meant to be for Art!

...but was actually for Armchair.

Our first Alphabet Weekend didn't go entirely to plan but I don't think that really matters! Mr B had planned that A is for Art and we went to see the Levity III luminarium which is a 10000sq ft inflatable, walk-through sculpture and is currently inflated in Norwich. There was an enormous queue so we decided to visit it after work during the week and go for a brunch instead and then head up to the Castle Museum to see their current art gallery exhibitions.

Except the Museum was closed. :(

So we had a stroll around the city instead and walked home via Elm Hill (see above). Where we passed an antique shop with a chair outside it. A pinkish chair that looked very similar in shape to the "dream" chair I've been looking for for about two years. I want(ed) the perfect old fashioned chair for reading in - comfy, big wings for napping against and room for me and the dogs. We stopped. We asked how much? We winced a bit. The chap said he had another larger one inside that might be just what I wanted. It certainly was. We asked how much is that one? We winced a bit more. I looked at Mr B. I said "What if we don't go away in June for a few days and buy these instead?". Mr B knew we were buying at least one chair. We asked how much for the pair? He did a deal. We bought both.

Then the nice chap popped them in his van and dropped the chairs, and us, home. They are now installed in what will be my snug once we've worked out what to do with the dining room table! They do need re-covering at some point but at least Oscar seems to like them! The picture is of the smaller of the two...

An introduction to "Alphabet Weekends"

We went on a trip today to the Fairhaven Water Garden with the dogs. It's a lovely place to stroll around and was going so well until Safi fell into a stagnant river just before we got into the car. Attempts to hose her down at the plant shop did produce some improvement but not totally successful so my fleece was sacrificed in a good cause. Here's a picture of her looking most disgruntled - she wouldn't even look me in the eye!

Aaanyway - during our walk, Mr B and I decided to start up "Alphabet Weekends". This is inspired by the book Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble which he read on holiday. His excuse was that he'd run out of books to read so had to choose one from the bookshelf in our room. A likely story. In the book, a couple learn "love lessons from A – Z" by using the alphabet to plan weekends activities in turn.

We felt that we really don't take advantage of the attractions and experiences that are on our doorstep and that it would be nice to try to do so this year. Somehow this idle conversation led onto the agreement that we'll start doing our own Alphabet weekends. Starting next week!

The rules are:

• Using letters of the alphabet in turn, we have to arrange an outing or activity over the weekend starting with that letter.
• We have responsibility for alternate weekends so he will do A, I will do B, etc.
• Most activities should be based near home so that we can also explore more of Norfolk.
• It's OK to do an activity that we know we'll really love but the other one might not.
  
• If it's a hard letter we can cheat a bit with what it might stand for. e.g. X is for Xtreme Sport. As I have the letter X this is very unlikely to be what it ends up standing for...

I'm really looking forward to the next 26 weekends - I've done a bit of research on "my" letters and am astounded by how much there is to see and do around here if you just look for it.

To close this post, here's a picture of Mr B reading this guilty pleasure book on "our" veranda in Kenya. Looks like he's enjoying it a bit too much, I think....