Brancaster Staithe, Norfolk

We had the most delicious Indian meal last night at The Cinnamon Club in London to celebrate Gavin’s birthday which is actually today. London is convenient to meet with Adam who comes from Cambridge as it’s a quick train journey from there and for us it’s an easy drive. It was near to where Luke lives so he could just walk there. 

This morning we had breakfast in the village. The traffic was awful with everyone queuing to get fuel because a few days ago the government announced that people must not panic about the lack of fuel due to our ridiculous HGV driver shortage, so of course everyone panics and it becomes a problem. Why the government say things like that is beyond me - they have said the same about Christmas and food shortages due to the lack of drivers, and not to panic buy, so we all know how that is going to pan out. When I went grocery shopping yesterday there were so many items on my shopping list that I could not get, the shelves were looking a bit empty again. The government really needs to sort this HGV driver problem out and quickly. 

Back home Gavin opened his cards and presents, then Adam and Pip left and we quickly packed to drive to Norfolk. Tommy is going on holiday with Inca tomorrow before university starts again so we left him at home. 

We had an easy drive to Norfolk. Thank goodness Gavin’s car is electric so we did not have to queue anywhere for fuel as there were long queues at every garage that we passed. We saw many signs saying no fuel available which is worrying. His car has a very big range so we did not even have to recharge anywhere. 

We are in Norfolk for 2 nights. After looking for 2 years we finally bought a small home on the north Norfolk coast in May, after looking at various properties along the coast (during the lockdowns it was virtual walk throughs of properties) - the transfer came through a few weeks ago. As Gavin draws near to retirement  (although a few years off) he would like to spend more time doing dinghy sailing and playing golf which is what this location provides very well, while being close enough from home or London and very close from Cambridge for Adam and Tommy so they can access it easily for weekends. We need to spend the next couple of days sorting various things hence the need for the trip. 

I had not seen the property since May, but Gavin has been up a few times to deal with necessary things. There is no furniture yet other than beds that were delivered last week, as everything in this post Brexit and post Covid world takes forever. 

Xena is rather unsettled walking around an empty house with no where comfortable to sit or no favourite armchair to curl up in.

I took this photo at the sailing club when the afternoon light was getting low, but I did not have time to wait for sunset as there we are a bit busy doing things at the house.