Weekend away

To come to terms with my depressing realisation that I may never now have a robot sidekick, me and my wonderful fiancee took a trip down to Norfolk for the weekend. We have some relatives there, so we decided to take a tour of the county stopping in on people fortunate enough to be family!

Though I favoured the suprise element of the trip, we did warn these family members first.

There are few things as pleasant as a road trip with a loved one, especially when the weather’s reasonable. Though we had our share of difficulties.

For instance, first thing I decided before we set off I’ll check my oil and water levels. They were fine, so I decided to check the cars as well, knowing I was defintely low on the water. But the damn bonnet was stuck. Literally stuck, I’d pull the lever and the engine lid remained steadfast. It was not budging. Now this was not the time to be able to investigate this problem. We had to be going fairly soon after. So we had to get into Faye’s car for this trip.

So off we went. We made an early stop for supplies, we got some jelly babies and a rock anthems cd set, which were awesome. By lunchtime we’d got to the tiny village of Acle, where we stopped for lunch. I thought I’d have a cheeky beer with my meal.

£3.00!!

That’s 2 disasters today! A stuck bonnet and a £3.00 pint!

Anyway, the sandwich was ample at least, so once the appetites were sated, we continued down the road a few more miles to Hemsby. We stopped there to visit my grandmother. Once we’d done that we went a few more miles down the road to Great Yarmouth. Is it as great as the name suggests?

Well it’s not a fair test if you turn up to a seaside town in March is it? Needless to say, it wasn’t looking great, but it was a Friday afternoon in winter. Still, the arcades were open so we lost a few pounds to some slot machines for a while. And at least the sun was out, even thought the breeze was pretty harsh.

By this time it was getting to late afternoon, so we decided to head onwards to get to Faye’s cousins house. Found the town of Taverham reasonably quickly (despite a jam on the A47) and knocked at the door. No answer. Odd, she said she’d be in. Something’s not quite right here.

A phone call soon reveals that our address book needs updating. Faye’s cousin has not lived here for 12 years.

Disaster 3!

Fortunately she’d not moved far, so we’re soon on our way again. Though the Sat Nav is struggling to find the exact road. Knowing we’re in the vicinity, I consult Google maps on Faye’s iPhone. I find the street, so now we just look for the turn off to get there. I wonder if it’s far? Wait, what’s that blue pulsating dot on the map? It’s moving? Wow! It’s us! Not only is the phone showing me the streets, it’s showing me us moving along them! Brilliant! It’s a marvellous future we live in!

Massively impressed by this display of modern technology, I’m raving about this feature for hours after, no doubt boring the members of Faye’s family we’re visiting.

We stay over that night and go into Norwich for some shopping the next day. I manage to procure an rather awesome stormtrooper t shirt quite early on. We stop for a coffee, and unfortunately I lose the decision of venue and we go to Starbucks, depriving me of a further stamp on my cafe nero card.

The deliciousness of my chocolate muffin does little to lessen the sting of this missed stamp.

We also go searching for a comic shop. We evenutally find one tucked away from the main shopping area in a street filled with awesome little independant shops. There we buy Faye the Demo TPB. I um and ah about a new Green Lantern book for a while but ultimately leave it. I’ve been trying to select a comic for Faye for weeks now, and it’s difficult. I know that most of what I read is a little too continuity heavy for her as a new reader and I’d also like to find her something suitable to her preferred area of reading matter. I hope Demo is appropriate, we shall see as she reads it.

Norwich is definitely better stocked for toy shops than Lincoln. Though sadly the best one I found has a serious overpricing policy, so ultimately I didn’t treat myself to a Batman figure.

Generally as a city Norwich is pretty nice, though I didn’t get to see a huge amount of it. We did mistake the library for a shopping centre. I also contemplated going to the football game, though we didn’t in the end. Shame, as Norwich won, though I would have had to wait 89 minutes for that.

We ate at an Australian restaurant that night, seems to be a favourite with Faye’s aunt. Nice place, but a bit paralysing on the choices, I was torn between trying new things and just having a good old steak. In the end I went for the steak with some massive prawns, and will always wonder how good the crocodile or the kangaroo could have been. I tried some of Faye’s ostrich though and that was good.

The following morning we set off to the little village of Trunch to see my Uncle for lunch. Given our propensity for disasters, I did think it wise to phone first to check both that we were all on the right day and also that I had the right address! Thankfully we did so had a pleasant lunch before the long drive back to Lincoln.

So hopefully now Faye has gone round her family showing off her Nerd Boyfriend they’re still all ok about her marrying me! I think I reined in the nerdiness, so hopefully they’ll not know. Well, as long as Faye doesn’t start a blog about how nerdy I am. Imagine that!