Swear words and girly screams

One out of Jon. One out of mum. But there was no way I was letting the sail out.

Mum revealed Pops' birthday surprise by laying out his US Navy outfit from Jon's stag do and playing 'I am Sailing'. Good job we didn't tell him earlier as we were then subjected to an evening and morning of nautical puns, mainly Pirate related. The low point of which was when he read out an article in newspaper about a court case. A man called James Timbers had been sentenced to 100 hours community service for gambling. Pops said that he knew his brother. My reply..  "Shiverme?!"

Much faffing with kit (when will I learn to travel light and be decisive?) but we made it on time. The guys in the reception shed didn't notice Pops' hat, and his pirate noises, but as soon as Jon pulled up he said "you can take that bloody hat off, I am not getting in a boat with you wearing that". Out on the broad I'd have happily borrowed the very fisherman-y Arran bobble hat minus the bobble.

Luckily for us Jon could remember how to sail. Lucky as Dad couldn't and the "extensive briefing" advertised on the website was actually 3 sentences from a man who clearly knew nothing about sailing. One of his sentences was just repeating what Jon had just said.

Cap'n Jon led us out. It seems that clambering over other people's boats to tow another out is accepted sailing etiquette. I stayed out of the way while he and Pops rowed and "Mother" steered. I do sometimes wonder how Jon and Pops get away with calling her "mother" or 'Woman" and yet I would get a clip round the ear but there we go. I did later ask when taking the rudder if I would be called "sister" as I was given the helm.

All smiles as we row out into Hickling Broad..

Stopped for a pee and a picnic...

Predictably the person wearing the most looks the coldest..

Pops enjoying his birthday treat..

Should draw an arrow from label to head... although apparently it was the rope that knocked her off her seat, not the boom hitting her head. Tendency for head trauma developing. Will make her wear a helmet next time I take her anywhere.
 

Took many years.. no fighting.. 

 

Jon looking confident, in control and at ease...

Me concentrating for Britain! 

Duck! 

 He did actually do some sailing.. just that we seemed only to get photos of him lounging around..

Look.. I can multitask.. I can eat crisps and hold a rope!

Me doing more rope holding. Finally found something I can do..

Jon looking slightly wet. We did have several good runs leaning right over once we got back to the broad. One earlier in the day Jon clearly hadn't been expecting from the look on his face and the small swear word. Mum failed to stay cool too.. she was steering, but still gave a girly scream. As I was holding the sail rope I have decided I will take all credit for these fine sailing moments. Jon has to have full credit for tacking us all the way out of the broad towards the river against the wind.

Quote of the day was from Jon when Pops fell off the bench while holding the sail, as he missed the bench the other side with his feet ... "It's like sailing with Frank Spencer!!"

Think I was the only one unharmed during the trip (despite a small moment not being able to hold the tiller still while changing sides.. oops). After an aborted first attempt at getting back into the mooring and almost getting run down by two young guys in a motor boat (unaware they were no longer in their Saxo/205/etc) Jon gave himself a fat lip while letting the sail down.. "my own fault, I forgot to hold onto the rope".

Only proper way to top it off was with a pint of shandy and some cheesy chips at the pub where we were met by Jay Jay and Harry (who doesn't like having her photo taken).

Lots of ducks around for JJ to chase..

Fresh air must be tiring. Me and Ma fell asleep on the way home, then Ma and Pa managed a cup of tea back home before falling asleep again. Woke up over an hour later and had to rush to go put up MFA's huge gazebo in Helen's garden. I hadn't noticed how late it was because I was in iPad land!

Got dropped off at the rec on the way home, but there wasn't really enough wind for the kite. Want bigger kite and more wind!

Tea and football (doubt England will make it through the group stages at this rate) then Arthur and the Invisibles on the massive TV.

Toys and Bike

I'm loving Jay Jay's latest vocabulary!! Heard lots more words today.. the first one was 'toys' and later I was very pleased when he pointed to the RC Harley on top of the cupboard and said "bike".

Unfortunately it was raining today so we didn't get to go to Joyland. We did play lots in the West Wing (Jon has clearly taught him to throw, he got me in the face, and thought it was hilarious), went to see the cars at Gramps' garage, fed the Ducks at Wensum, and saw Nanny Leggett.

Probably obvious by now.. I struggle to be selective with my photos of the little dude..

No chance of Snoopy having any 'little accidents'

Still haven't managed to teach him that the bread is for the ducks, not him..

Still, with that cheeky grin we'd forgive him anything..

Ma's muesli got sucked dry!

Full bumble

An 'incident' at school resulted in the first 2 hours spent outside listening to the fire alarm. Fun fun. Hadn't quite made it through the door for maths when it went off again!

3 hours of packing means a very full van. And it means that you don't get to Norwich until after midnight, and are greeted by Ma in her dressing gown saying 'and what time do you call this?!'

Lego progress: The Technic car Paul has lent me has gone from a very dusty F1 car ...

 .. to all the bits being clean dry and in the box. Brilliantly designed and made.. really hard to take apart, especially when in a hurry. Didn't dare use the 'accidentally knock off the TV' method like I once did with the X-Wing!

Kite obsession

Trying hard to make up for playing all Sunday. Finally finished the balcony after work Monday. It had gone a horrid green mossy colour.. but now it's lovely.. oh and I planted my Lavender seedlings..

Thus far the guys below haven't complained about the mysterious clean patches on their balcony from where I knocked over the pot of cleaning stuff.. oops.

Have been obsessing about power kites since Sunday. Its now Sun 3rd June as I update this and I'm still bidding on several on ebay. Gotta love Aspiness!

Beats dusting!

Barbie at church was crap till I ended up being kids corner. Then popped round to Paul's to look at the pool table. Only just now home at 9pm. Had a fab afternoon helping then with an eBay listing and pulling glued pennies apart.... Then trampolining, rifle shooting and kite flying 😄

I now have total kite envy!

Gladis goes to the BMF Show

and her owner gets trousers that do 'make her bum look big'.. but are cosy warm. Expensive bargain, but they are Alpinestars and genuine Gore Tex, so they should work, and should last.

Mike the Head of CMA recognised me (unsure whether that's good or bad!)

Tired now.. time to watch the GP

Discovery

...of the Legoland Discovery Centre, 2 caches and the Trafford Centre.

2 Hours to get there. Josh made me tell him when it was 12:01 so he could start his dinner. He was genuinely thrilled to discover more treats in there than he thought. An hour to kill when we got there as we could only book for 2pm. Picnic in Bumble then off to find the very nearby (<100m) geocache. Interesting trying to explain the idea to Josh. Still he enjoyed it, especially when he found a coin in the container.

Further away than I thought, but discovered the Discovery Centre eventually. I made a friend straight away..

The Miniland was cool, all buildings and places in the north of England...

Then we saw the 4D movie. Well, everyone else did, still only 3 dimensions for me!!

Josh went in the soft play area, but I wasn't allowed in. So I went in the Lego Pool instead. It was Aspie heaven. Could well be the best feeling in the world being buried in Lego ... happy as a pig in ..

Few more rides, ages playing on the Racers, then a bit more posing with celebrities..

The Lego shop on the way out could have been a lot worse! luckily they didn't have the UCS Artoo, or much else really. Unfortunately the Disney Store was not so easy to escape, thanks to an offer on the Muppets blu ray. Oops.

Sunday morning, even though the sun was shining for a change I didn't go to Quorn. No money left. Logged my caches and updated my profile instead. Am making progress on the Counties Challenge. Enjoyed some previous car boot purchases instead.

Drumming at Beacon went really well. Suprisingly, particularly as James had chosen Blessed be your Name yet again. Pesky trick song. Tried to do a few more house-y jobs in the afternoon. Waste of time going to Halfords, Go Outdoors and back to Halfords to get silicone spray. Boots still squeak. Grrr. Bike clean though.

Longest ride yet.. to see JJ

May Day bank holiday, blagged Monday off, and this was the only weekend that Mr J was vaguely free. So.. Vicky came over Friday night and we stuffed ourselves full of yummy curry. Then fell asleep watching THX1138. No offence George, but it's just weird!

Saturday morning was up early, then left late, thanks to Top Gear and more curry, and being unable to get my head around only taking a small rucksack, rather than chucking tonnes of stuff in the back of the van. Even then I had to bungee another bag on the back.

Went the A47 route, which disappointingly is not really a dual carraigeway speedy route, and not really a single twisty country road. Was very pleased to have made it over 100 miles without stopping. I did wish I had put bigger gloves on though. Not the coldest I've been, but it's not nice being nippy for 3 hours. Still.. made it home no fuss, very happy to be riding a cool bike around Norfolk at last. Mum caught me in Nan's front garden introducing Gladis and Moby to each other!

Went straight to the city (well, Ma faffed a bit!) as we wanted to get to Stranger's Hall, before it shut this time! Well worth rushing. It was really nice to go around and see different eras and see how the house had been developed. No souvenir pencil though. And foolishly, no photos. Drat.

Strolled around a few shops after. Shockingly managed to go in the Animal store without purchasing! Got a Norfolk walks book thing in Jarrolds, then had fun in the toys department. Was looking at the minifigs when I was asked if I wanted help. I replied yeah, if you have x-ray vision then I'll have a Hippy to go in my campervan. He totally called me on it, and produced a pack from under the counter, which he made me open after purchase to prove he was right. And he was.

As usual Zaks was full, so on to Fatso's for tea. Yummy milkshake, possibly even better than Zaks'. Made Ma pay for her BBQ sauce tho! Then home and gave Gladis a bath. Was just finishing Jon's car when Pops came home from London. They'd all been to Highbury to watch Canaries draw 3 all with Arsenal. As usual, Ma won at Uno.

Sunday:
Lazed in bed reading for ages (Discworld novel). Eventually up, and beating Pops at table tennis, after scoffing yummy Egg Banjos. Texted Chalkie to try to arrange an afternoon out, luckily, as he informed us of the MotoGP race. Rossi did slightly better than terrible and Cal had another great ride.

Ranworth Broad was decided on as we were about to go past it. Avoided being charged £14 to look round the gardens! Arrived just in time for the Vicar to do a talk about the screen

Note Chalkie in his ski jacket.. and my reluctance to remove my new Beanie (Chalkie having a clear out ;-) ) which tells you about the weather in May this year.

Only me and Pops braved the heady heights...

Got a text from Chalkie while we were up there.. "in the cafe" .. then went on the boardwalk to the visitor centre. Its not actually possible to walk around this broad.