Compulsory Things

Monday is a Easter Monday Bank Holiday\April Fool’s Day double header but a normal sort of day walking the Lad and with a Sainsbury’s trip. Just no work. L takes Daughter to our gym on a guest pass. In the evening Derby play at league leaders Portsmouth and I go over to watch it with my Dad on Sky. It ends in a 2-2 draw.

L spends the rest of the week pretending to work from home while setting up her new phone. Her PT is cancelled as her trainer is ill. It may or may not be anything to do with the fact he’s starving himself ahead of a bodybuilding competition.

L is in Derby on Thursday despite pretty much all the Red Arrows being cancelled but then the i4 does give her more book time. My right knee is really bad today, I can barely walk, but manage an evening gym with L. I also manage the proffered Friday night on a Thursday.

Friday is just a half day at work and then we drive down to Norwich for a weekend break. For once I actually follow by Sat Nav’s suggested route which takes us via Boston and which works out ok. It’s not a fast route but there are no hold ups. Which would have probably happened on the M1.

We are as usual in the Holiday Inn which turns out to be right next door to Norwich FC who have a lunchtime kick off on Saturday against local rivals Ipswich for which we will make ourselves scarce. 

We spend Friday evening in the Coach and Horses which is a pub belonging to the local Chalk Hill Brewery where I alternate between their Ruby Ale at 5.5% and this Black Anna Milk Stout at a more sobering 4.0%. L boycotts the beer and is on the Merlot instead. We eat there as well.

We are woken up on Saturday by the hotel’s fire alarm. The hotel is evacuated but we are less worried about our safety and more concerned that we will miss Parkrun. Thankfully it’s a false alarm or a drill and we make it to Parkrun. Parkrun is at Catton Park where we have a coffee from the van afterwards before heading to the Pavilion cafe on Victoria Park for breakfast as recommended by the Parkrun breakfast FB group.

The third compulsory thing on a weekend away after Parkrun and a Micropub is a bookshop which we head in to Norwich centre to find followed by a nice walk along river. The river and what looks like old city walls dominate Norwich. We are surprised how nice Norwich is.

We stop for afternoon refreshment at the Red Lion at Bishopgate which has a lovely riverside location by a bridge over the River Wensum. The beer is a Norfolk Porter called Triskele by the local craft brewer Moongazer. Then we head back to the hotel for a very late post-Parkrun after fighting through the post-match traffic.

In the evening we go to another local pub The Rose for beer and food. Sadly, much to L’s disapproval, the only food they have is pizza.

On Sunday it’s breakfast at hotel and then we start our journey home. We have two stop offs. Firstly at the Sandringham Estate for a very nice walk and then briefly in a very uninteresting Spalding. 

(Sunday 7^th April)