We went to Cromer for lunch, to a favourite restaurant there, where we ate our second ever lunch out together; the first having been in Southwold. Fish each time, as it happens, but then that’s not unlikely at the seaside. I had fish and chips and LT had crab salad, but the relishes and salads are exceptional there – it’s a seaside restaurant, with a takeaway chippie, an eat-in fish and chip restaurant and the upstairs restaurant, where we were this time, which is a bit more cheffy.
We drove on the new Norwich bypass for the first time – the Southern bypass was constructed quite a long time ago – I’m sure I could look it up, but hmmm – which is actually South and East of the city, but the northern ring road has always been a slow-moving beast, which makes getting to the airport a bit of a worry at certain times of the day. Weeza told me that the way to her house, which has always taken an hour, has had ten minutes shaved off the time, and explained how to get on to the road. I bought a new map book the other day, which has it on it – Google Maps didn’t yet have it when I last looked, but that was a few weeks ago. Anyway, it was just as well she’d told me, because it wasn’t signposted at all off the A47, only once you got to the next roundabout. And we made it to Cromer in just over the hour (behind a number of quite dawdly drivers) instead of an hour plus going round Norwich, which might add ten minutes or might add an hour. So we were very pleased with it, though the roundabouts are not very well signed and there have been quite a few crashes with people changing lanes. I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong, compared to other roundabouts, but there is something not quite ideal.
And we drank pink sparkling wine this evening, made in the village at our splendid vineyard/winery, and I cooked scallops and prawns with home-grown vegetables, lots of them. And there are English cherries for dessert, if we get around to eating them.
I’m updating the software and maps on my satnav, or at least I hope I am. The computer says that the programme hasn’t crashed, but it’s been preparing device for map update (this may take a minute), which is step three of four, for an awfully long time and I’m a bit anxious.
Half an hour later…I had to check the helpdesk and it’s done now. It had warned of dire consequences if I unplugged the satnav while it was being updated, but the update had obviously failed, and the workaround wasn’t working either. So I had to eject it after all – and when I put it in again, it meekly downloaded the maps in less then ten minutes. Why is everything designed to worry the clueless?
That’s a nice word – dawdly. Might try it on scrabble sometime.
‘Why is everything designed to worry the clueless?’ – I LOVED that!
Ah, dawdly drivers. Bane of my life when towing the mobile chicane. There seem to be a lot of coffin dodgers who seem to think that the optimum speed on a dual carriage way or motorway is 55 mph.
Some awful driving on our way home from Derbyshire last week – a couple of small white van men, who undertook dangerously and were really bad drivers, even over and above that. So I suppose those who drive slowly are preferable, but they still try the patience somewhat.
“There seem to be a lot of coffin dodgers who seem to think that the optimum speed on a dual carriage way or motorway is 55 mph.”
… it is if you’re looking for maximum fuel efficiency!