Up and down

[wellinghall]

It ws our tenth wedding anniversary last Thursday. I got Creatrix a nice 1930s evening watch, which she likes - although with a temporary blip on Friday night, when it stopped! - but a jiggle got it going again. She had a tie-pin made for me, using a topaz she had inherited. It's lovely.

We had a few days away at Strattons Hotel in Swaffham in Norfolk, and saw two and a half castles (Castle Acre, Castle Rising, and Weeton), a priory (Castle Rising again), an abbey (Anglesey), a Cathedral (Ely), a hall (Holkham), some graves (Grimes), and three bird reserves (Cley, Titchwell and Snettisham). Much good food in the hotel, but mixed experiences at lunchtimes.

And yet this evening, I feel like sh*t. Is it the fact that my nice new tie-pin was mislaid earlier today, for long enough for me to get really worried? Is it that too few people noted our anniversary? Is it the position at work (too much going on in the short term, too little chance of a job in Luton for me in the long term)? Is it the fact that our email access is down tonight? Is it my upcoming hospital appointment? Is it that I'm missing my friends, with no real prospect of seeing most of them again before Oxonmoot? Have I just got too much going on in my life?

If you know of a goat-farm in the Outer Hebrides that's looking for someone, let me know. In the meantime, a hug or two wouldn't go amiss.

Comments

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

two and a half castles (Castle Acre, Castle Rising, and Weeton)

Which was the half-castle? We've been to Castle Acre and Castle Rising, can't remember if we've been to Weeton.

some graves (Grimes)

What did you think of them? (We've been there too, on the same holiday as the above castles.)

We enjoyed visiting Holkham too.

At Swaffham the Wind Turbine is well worth visiting. The exhibitions in the eco-building are great. There is also a wonderful organic restaurant. You can also climb the tower of the turbine; amalion did, I chickened out. :-( The noise and the motion of the tower did for me when the guide kept stopping; if I'd been given the opportunity to keep going I'd have probably been OK. The reason for the stops was to give the unfit a chance to catch their breath and to allow the nervous to realise that there was nothing wrong. All it did for me was allow all the phobias of being able to fall to catch up with me. Ho hum.

We did find a good restaurant in Swaffham, unfortunately I can't remember its name, it was off the market square on the western side. Not that that is much good as there were several that met that description!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm counting Weeton as the half-castle. Both because there isn't very much of it left, and because the "castle" part is a misnomer; it was only ever a manor house, not fortified; it does have a moat, but that was there purely for decoration / status.

I did enjoy Grimes Graves, although part of me thought that it was a lot of fuss about a hole in the ground. We went to the eco-centre; it wasn't really open, being a Saturday, but they did let us wander round.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

In fact, where is Wheeton? I can't locate it and EH doesn't admit to it either!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My memory is clearly going - it's Weeting, near Brandon.