Friday 13th October 2023 - Gripe, Fifteen Years and Alvis Cars

I am going to start today’s blog with a good old gripe! We planned to visit a friend in Halsey House yesterday morning. As the parking is difficult, if not impossible on the road outside the home, we use the bus. Before we walked to the bus stop in the village, in view of the road closure in Mundesley, I checked Sander’s website in case the bus times had changed. No change to the timetable, but at the bus stop there was a notice advising, due to road closure in Mundesley, there are no buses towards Cromer until just after two in the afternoon. At this point we aborted our visit. I found out later, there is a notification on Sander’s website to this effect; no reference to this on the timetable but it was under alerts. I now know there is an early bus around seven for the school children but apart from this, anyone who wants to get to Cromer in the morning using the bus; simply can’t, well not until after the roadworks have been completed. There is a bit more I could say about the bus times, but I have just covered the part that affected us. This morning, aware of the road closure, we drove towards Mundesley for our usual visit to the Mundesley Butchers and Country Pickings. Just outside Mundesley we were diverted down a single-track road through Gimingham and out onto the Mundesley to Thorpe Market road. How ridiculous to send traffic from the main coast road on to a single track where we met a refuse lorry, which with two cars ahead of us, had to reverse. On our return journey, after making sure we had purchased enough meat to last us until the end of the closure on 27th October, we drove through to Thorpe Market and back home the long way. This was a far better option than meeting a lorry or a tractor, on a single-track road. This is an absolutely nonsensical arrangement. Either a system of traffic lights should have been put in place or more services deployed to complete the work (whatever this may be) over a shorter period.

On a lighter note, fifteen years ago today we collected the keys from the estate agent in Cromer to, what was to be, our new home here in Overstrand. So much has happened during these years, I couldn’t possibly cover them all here but what I will say, it was definitely the right move for us. I have learnt so much over the years about the wildlife, plants, trees the coastline etc. which I am sure I never would have, if we have remained in Bucks; an area fast developing. Friendliness and support amongst residents is strong in the village, something which is not always achievable in large conurbations. Although there are bound to be changes, often termed as progress, I hope this part of North Norfolk will retain its character.

For the past couple of years members of the Alvis Owner’s Club, have stayed at the Sea Marge Hotel, in the village. They were here during this week with about twenty cars either parked at the front of the hotel, or in the car park at the rear. We enjoy seeing cars from the past; to my mind they have so much more character than todays’ autos which are not much better than metal boxes. I couldn’t resist taking some photos, with a line-up taken early morning before they headed off for the day, featuring as today’s photo.