Colours of Norfolk

(Backblip)

We had a brisk start to the day, with my older sister Tanya (TMLhereandthere) and I nipping into town for Vintage Mary's market this morning. Mary herself is more than vintage, it was her 91st birthday and she'd been given a beautiful bouquet to celebrate.

Not having much time to spare, we bought some table/kitchen linens, and visited a charity shop. As we turned the corner into my road, CleanSteve texted me to say that the minibus (my transport to the motorway pickup point) was already there! It was 25 minutes early. Whoops. My luggage was ready to go, so I said a hurried goodbye to Steve and Tanya, who was due to go to London an hour later, and hopped on board.

Our next stop was to pick up GG, and her road was closed, so we had to drive to Nailsworth and take a narrow lane past quaint Cotswold cottages and Millionaire Manors to reach her house. Everyone breathe in, please! We scooped her up and headed to the motorway, and Leigh Delamere services, where we exchanged our transport for a coach.

The rest of the day we drove, mostly. Had to have lunch at a motorway services, because it wasn't worth getting off the M25, apparently, but I got some fabulous falafels at Pret. When we got to our hotel outside Norwich, there were some guests outside, three sheets to the wind, and dressed up to the nines. Apparently a wedding was taking place. GG was instantly proposed to by a guest, which delighted her. (She has late-era Princess Diana hair, with bouffant waves, that never moves, and always looks well turned out and made up). We were shown to our rooms, but GG couldn't get into hers, despite her case being in there already, and neither could any of the available staff. Eventually the manager managed to open the door, retrieve her case, and allocate another room to her.

Supper was at 7.30, and was chaotic, as there were two coach parties in, plus regular guests, and the Travellers' Wedding! From our table, number 13, GG and I had a good view of the wedding guests' lavish costumes (they were in the bar area). It was like watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding live (though I gather that the UK tv series of that name was criticised for mixing up Romany Gypsies and Travellers) and spectacular. Unlike me, GG is not backwards in coming forwards, so she embarrassed me by asking the manager if we could join the wedding party (No) and quizzing the bride's sister about how much the wedding dress cost! I think perhaps she also has FOMO (fear of missing out) which is officially recognised as a subtype of anxiety these days). We were given our menus for the following night's dinner, and asked to choose there and then. This we did (I'll tell you more about this another day).

Then, because we couldn't dance with the Travellers', we went to our rooms. I was exhausted, and I can't tell you how excited I get about having a WHOLE big clean hotel room to myself! It's heaven. When I got into bed, I realised that it had a big dip in it, like a bath, but I was too tired to change to the other twin bed, and I only woke up a few times, wondering why I was sleeping down a well...