They woke up just before 9 and L headed straight to make a coffee (which ended up taking 20 minutes to come out the machine). A ate the rest of his pastry for breakfast and they packed up their things by 10.30am and set off to Norfolk, driving through East London near A’s friends and just avoiding Congestion charge, which now applies on weekends.
Whilst driving, they listened to a podcast on Israeli-Palestinian tensions and Netinyahu’s plans to formally annex the settlements in the Westbank. It made A very tense. L was enjoying the drive quite a lot so they went past their planned stop and ended up in a farm shop in Newmarket. They had a weak coffee and a water, and were super impressed by the cleanliness of the place. The staff were great and disinfected all the tables. Sadly the queue to get into the farm shop was quite long and moving slowly so they decided to head back on the road without going in. They listed to Payne’s Politics and Jeremy Hunt on whether the government had failed on Coronavirus and he blamed it on SAGE and on the fact that pandemic preparations were for the flu, not a SARS-like virus. Then they listened to The Daily on Trump’s tax returns being published (potentially) before arriving in Little Walsingham.
First stop was the farm shop which was super cute and L bought Norfolk muesli and apricots. A bought a sausage roll, chickpea burger, Little Walsingham cheese and gin for his mum.
5 minutes down the road and they arrived in Wighton and immediately spotted the house they were staying in from the picture Uncle Phil had sent Alex. The cottage was beautiful and they spent a while exploring and appreciating the finishing touches. They then headed into Wells stopping at the Co-op to buy some port and food supplies for the weekend.
They then drove to Holkham beach and were given a car parking ticket by a nice family. They walked quite a long way from the car park to the sea and L had never been on such a quiet and relaxing beach in the UK. It was 5.30 and people had started leaving but the sun was still out and they walked along barefoot (L was poorly dressed). A jumped in the sea and swam along the coast whilst L walked and thought it was the most relaxed she’d been in a long time. They then headed back to the car and made their way home.
They had snack of cheese and crackers and showered before dinner. At 8pm, Uncle Phil and Auntie Lena arrived at the house and they walked across the road to The Carpenter’s Arms. They sat outside and started with Norfolk pale ales and were impressed by the cleaning of the benches outside, though Uncle Phil thought it was a bit much. They ordered starters and mains which was such a treat as well as 2 bottles of wine. L had a halloumi salad followed by roasted Cod and A had a mackerel salad followed by a chickpea burger. They chatted about their motels and all of the decorations in the house, which all had a personal story behind them. Then they moved inside for mains and sat by a beautiful bookcase and chatted quite a bit about A’s family history and how much the housing market has changed, and Uncle Phil’s ties to Barnet High Street. Then they came back to the house for a glass of port before setting off home to Fakenham at around 11.30. L really liked them and thought they were very warm. L and A were both happily tipsy and headed to bed.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 