Ahoy there

Hi! Busy couple of weeks behind us, and it's fair to say we're both completely over this 9-5 malarkey! Managed to celebrate Anzac Day, albeit only with a couple of poppies, not a dawn service, and even then, I had to enter some fairly longwinded negotiations with the RBL (the equivalent of the RSA) to get hold of them, as they don't like them being worn outside of Remembrance time, which is November... I did suggest the woman I spoke to might like to remember that other countries fought in the war too, and that we were all on the same side. She was not amused by this stage. Neither was I, but after a bit more explaining (I honestly thought they would know about Anzac Day, being a vets organisation, but apparently not) she did let me have a couple of poppies (which are rubbish compared to the ones at home). Really, you'd think I'd asked for two of her children, not a couple of bits of paper and plastic!

We have been getting better at not wasting our time away from the office and last weekend we headed up to Norfolk (the next county over from us) to go boating on the Broads, which are a series of canals/lakes created in the Middle Ages when England had a desire to burn peat like it was going out of fashion, so they dug lots of it up, leaving bloody great big holes, which have filled as the sea level has risen.
Thank goodness they did, really, because it was quite fun - Kent even let me control the boat for some of the journey - brave, given that it's all the opposite to what we're used to: steering wheel on the left, keep to the right, etc. To be fair though, at a speed of 5mph max, there wasn't too much danger... and we did manage to pull a couple of what might loosely be termed 'donuts', but they're a bit less spectacular at 4mph. It may also have been good practice for when we take the car over to France, Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of the month - eeek!
Being spring, the trees are looking a lot less skeletal than when we first arrived, and there were lots of baby things around, ducklings following their mums into the water and the like, and it was all rather lovely (and interesting too, Kent informs me)...
Along the way we encountered pirates... the stag party variety, who'd decorated their boat with Jolly Rodger flags and dressed up (which I've suggested to Kent for my next birthday celebration)...the Ice Cream boat, which is like a Mr Whippy, only on the water - especially brilliant, as it was by far and away the warmest day of the year so far - I even managed to stay in tshirt, shorts and jandals all day - hooray... and some of the cutest thatched roof cottages. It's not hard to see why it's a very popular area in the summer, our photos are here:


We both agree that, if we're being impartial, Norfolk is quite a bit prettier than Suffolk, though we won't be saying that out loud anytime soon.
We headed up the same way yesterday, to King's Lynn, about an hour and a half away from home, to have a nosey but we forgot to take the camera - oops! It used to be the third largest port in England and has ties to Admiral Lord Nelson, who led the English to victory (and promptly died in the final moments) in the Battle of Trafalgar. Princess Diana went to primary school there, and it's about 6 miles away from Sandringham, where the Queen lives sometimes... We didn't go there though, as I was in my jandals and in no state to be having tea and cucumber sammies with her majesty - as we share a birthdate, I feel sure she would have invited us in for high tea. With no camera to prove our new friendship either, it would have been a journey wasted, so we'll save it for next time.
On our way home we visited the Wash, where Kent suggested we wait until after a gigantic ship had gone past before we left. Whilst it was indeed an interesting sight, the resulting waves which came up and onto the marshes where we were standing were less exciting and more, err, marshy. Our last stop was Castle Acre, which, as you might guess from the name, has a castle - one which is falling down and was therefore free to visit. It's also the home of our favourite pub so far, 'The Ostrich', so we'll definitely head up that way again soon.
Kent has also requested that I mention the football - he's been at the Ipswich Town v Hull game this afternoon, which everyone (well, me) thought was a foregone conclusion, as Hull are at the top of the league and Town have been floating around the middle... but it was a Town 1-0 victory, so he is happy - although he informs me there were a couple of questionable refereeing decisions, but hey, his team won, and could still make the playoffs (if lots of others lose, and if you stand on your left leg, and poke your right eye with a wooden spoon, I imagine), so it's all good.
That's us for now, we're off on our mystery trip next weekend, so will be in touch soon.
Kent & Eryn x