The roof - Sunderland

5/7/2010

This is the view from the roof of our new house - its not as scummy as you think if you go out at the right time - you can climb onto it by climbing through Socks window as the kitchen roof runs directly under it. Socks frequently goes out (especially when our electricity cuts out) but I've only ventured out once as I am a chicken.

We first decided to embark on a roof top adventure when we saw the previous tennents had been smoking out there, and Socks thought 'Well if they can do it, then so can I!'

The street behind out house - where the bins go on bin day

There are two levels of the roof as you can see from the pictures below. Socks was - I'd like to say brave but I think what I actually mean is stupid - and clambered up on to the higher part. I did not. The concrete looks like it would break your face if you landed on it, so I designated myself ambulance caller for if (more likely when) Socks crashes to the ground and paralyses himself.

East Anglia Transport Museum

11/7/2010

Tucked away behind housing estates in a sleepy corner of Suffolk at Carlton Carville, lies the East Anglian Transport Museum, East Anglia's 'Premier working transport museum'. As the name suggests, this open air museum plays host to transport from days gone by, old fashioned trams and buses trundle around the grounds, giving tourists a taste of what it would have been like to travel by tram in the 1920s or by bus in the 1950s, complete with the ticket collector and his hole punch.

The transport museum

Throughout the year the Lottery funded EATM puts on themed experience days, where transport enthusiasts can come and ride on the vehicles that the museum owns.These events can range from trips to Blackpool to the 'ever popular' Trolleybus weekend. This year I went to the annual bus and coach event day, where a large number of both modern and vintage buses were on working display, using local bus routes to ferry people to and from the nearby towns of Beccles and Lowestoft. As well as riding the buses, you could also climb aboard the trams that travel around the museum grounds and go on the narrow gage railway train.

Over head cables that are used by trams

We rode on the green one

After paying £6.50 to enter the museum, Joe and I queued up to ride on one of the trams, I insisted we go on the top deck to get the optimum tram experience. As the tram filled up, we pulled away started our journey round the park, after a 5 minute journey, we came to the end of the track and had to turn around. The tram was electric and for us to be able to travel back, the electric cables that the tram uses as a power source, have to be unhooked and rehooked to the back of the vehicle. When this happens the lights turn out - I thought this was quite exciting. I wish we had more modern day trams in cities, they are far more exciting than buses and trains. Below are pictures of the interior of the tram.

Top deck

More comfortable bottom deck

Narrow gage railway

Don't know why this was here

Buses that took people to Beccles and back

Vintage cars

The museum was really busy, there were lots of children around, with parents and grandparents, who all seemed to enjoying themselves. We had to wait 3 times to get on the narrow gage railways because it was so packed. Joe and I stayed about a two hours, we walked around the museum park, which as well as housing buses and trams, also displays vintage cars and motor cycles and has several old fashions shops that you can look around. We only rode on the tram and narrow gage railway, which were both fun, but after a while - since neither of us are vintage transport enthusiasts - the novelty wore of and we went home.

For times and prices visit the EATM website: http://www.eatm.org.uk

East Anglia Transport Museum Society Ltd.
Chapel Road, Carlton Colville, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 8BL

Brancaster Beach - Norfolk

Shells, dead crabs and copious amounts of seaweed is a pretty accurate description of what you can find on Brancaster beach. The sun was beating down on us as we struggled across the scorching sand to the shore line to cool our burning feet, seaweed getting caught in between our toes, the consistency of wet paper, as we paddled in the breaking waves.

The beach was busier than it looks here

Lucy and I had come to Brancaster on the way home from our spa day, we got rather lost looking for Holkam bay (rumoured to be a nudist beach!) and as the petrol gage slipped on to 'empty' we saw the sea on the horizon and headed in that direction. Brancaster was the first beach we came to, after we payed the extortionate car parking fee - £3.50! - we had lunch and then followed the crowds down to the sea.

The beach was packed, so we walked along the shore line. There were hundreds and hundreds of shells, which was pretty awesome. I haven't seen shells on the beach for about 10 years since I went to Lyme Regis on holiday. Most of them looked like cockle shells - white, yellow, brown, black, striped all different colours - but as I'm no expert in marine life I couldn't be sure what they were. We trudged up the shore line for about a mile, so we could leave the shrieking children and mental dogs that were careering about behind us. As we walked further up the beach we came across what appeared to be a graveyard for the skeletons of minuscule crabs, I hope they hadn't roasted to death in the heat. I wish I had a tiny pet crab.

We found all these shells within a metre

Dead crab :(

We turned back and walked along in the waves, the tide had come in and gravel and shells were now directly on the shore line. It was horrible, they really hurt and Lucy got shell in her foot. Damn shells. It was a really beautiful day, but so hot.

Shell I found

Cromer Beach - Norfolk

2/7/2010

Fun times at sunny Cromer beach with friends on saturday afternoon. A few words too sum up the day: digging, holes, paddling, rocks, sun, fish & chips, ice cream and old man bum.

Cromer Beach

We were too big go go on the donkeys :(

A nice old man entertained us by getting changed on the beach

Sunbathing

Colourful umbrella

Ruth shivers on the shore line

Cold sea

Will throwing the rock we found - the rock that would later go on to crush Ruth's hole

Will had an accident

Cromer pier

Super heros?

POO GEE!

Ruth's hole

This was later destroyed

Reflections

Beach at low tide

low tide sand patterns

The Royal Norfolk Show - Norwich

1/7/2010

This year I managed to blag a free ticket to the Royal Norfolk Show (I say blagged, its not like I'm cool enough to have super blagging skillz but Lucy had a free one because her sister was showing goats) so I got  to go to the show for the first time and also managed to save my self £25! Go me!

The Royal Norfolk Show runs over two days and is probably Norfolk's biggest agricultural show - I would assume given how many animals were present anyway. Like most county shows that I've ever been too, there were lots of competitions for judging the best sheep, pigs, goats, chickens as well as show jumping and horse and carriage driving etc.

 There were also hundreds of stands selling everything from local produce, clothing and lemonade to alternative hearses and tractors. There were also stands that from the local schools that put on a number of displays about worthy subjects like water production, recycling and bees. Then there were the more exciting ones that had activities for 'children' such as finger and potato painting... and yes I did some potato printing - obviously.

Me, Lucy and Josh arrived at the show ground at the ungodly hour of 9am, and set off in search of Lucy's youngest sister Chloe who was involved in showing goats. Her class was at 11.30 (although we didn't know that then) but we needed to find where the goat tent actually was, and more importantly find some breakfast.

Two of the goats Chloe shows

Some of the prizes they won on the 1st day

We found some awesome nourishment in the form of ostrich and kangeroo burgers, I had kangeroo and Josh had the Ostrich. His was better, kangeroo was rather like beef - so a bit dull. We then had an ice cream each and went to watch the goats.

Josh and I with our breakfast

Menu

Chloe showing her goat

Sadly Chloe didn't win, although she had had some really good results the day before, we then all trooped over to the schools tent where Chloe had to pick up 2nd prize in the year 10 &11 art competition. When we saw the picture that had won, we all thought she had been robbed and should have come first, but then of course we were all biased. Chloe and I then went for a wander around the tent collecting stickers and making potato prints. We are clearly the coolest people ever.

Chloe and her picture

The picture that won

Amazing poem

My favourite picture

In the afternoon, Josh and Lucy had to go back to work to grow some bacteria or something else suitably complicated, and Lucy's mum offered me a lift home so I decided to stay for the afternoon. When they left, I went and brought a ticket to watch the show jumping in the main arena, for £7 I got to watch precisely 5 rounds before the competition ended. What a good buy that was. I then perused the show ground in search of things to do. I looked around all of the stalls and went to the Norfolk Bee keepers tent to learn some more facts about bees, and also watched the oddity that was the sheep show.

The amazing sheep show

Norfolk bee keeps stand

Anglia funeral service

Tractor stand

Prize winning pig

Hot cows

After I had filled my head with useful sheep related knowledge I headed back to the main goat tent. Chloe, Lucy's mum and I were roped into taking the goats into one of the arena's so that children could come up and stroke them and lead them around the paddock. The goats were pretty naughty, either jamming their feet into the ground and refusing too move or else bombing around the paddock dragging some poor child behind them. Goats are incredible.