That was a quick two weeks.
Despite Summer finally being here we had little time to bask in its glory, but at least the grass didn’t need cutting as it was parched to straw.
The Olympics came and went in a blur. Karen got really into them, avidly watching the highlights programme every night.
I have some improvements that would make the Olympics much better as I still have a problem with all sports that involve judges. They make the events subjective like a talent show on TV or the Eurovision Song Contest.
I would remove all those events and yes that includes Horse Dancing, Diving and much of Gymnastics in its current form. They should instead be based upon what Roy Castle used to say ‘if you want to be quickest, the tallest, the biggest, the smallest’ etc. He never said ‘if you can persuade the supposed totally independent judge of the straightness of your arms as you enter the water’ or whatever.
Sports where they could change the rules could stay like Boxing by just making them to fight for as long as it takes for one person to either be knocked out or quit.
Equally I would remove all sports where winning an Olympic Gold is not the absolute pinnacle of that event, like Tennis or Golf.
There should be more mixed team events like perhaps Golf or Football which isn’t done anywhere else. You should also only be able to enter one event for your sport so the same person does not win the 50m, 100m, 200m swimming for instance. That person could perhaps enter another sport or discipline altogether though if they were good enough, like Skateboarding and Clay Pigeon shooting.
All this would free up space in the schedule for other sports that miss out, like Bowls, Tug of War, Log rolling or Dwile flunking.
I may write to Seb Coe and ask him to implement these changes which I believe would make the Olympics better for all.
Our biggest challenge over this fortnight or so was though the move of Karen’s Mum from one Care home to another. The stress and time consumed around this was a real issue for Karen. The move itself went well, although hard work. He Mum settled in relatively well. However, it was the adjustment to the different type of care being provided which proved challenging for us to understand. After though several meetings with the Care Home Manager and then the Clinical Lead we hope that has now all been cleared up.
For two Sundays in a row, we entertained people with BBQ’s where I was the chef and Karen slaved hard on everything else. We believe both went as well as we hoped and that everyone enjoyed themselves. The second one where we catered for 14 people was quite hard work but worthwhile.
We continued our Theatre attendance and probably broke our own record by going 4 times in 8 days. They were all good in different ways. We think we enjoyed the Cromer Pier Show with its own end of pier variety style. We definitely enjoyed Tina the Musical in London the following day. The day after that we then saw the launch of ‘The Highway Man’ musical at the Playhouse which we were glad we had made the effort to see.
Then a few days later we were back at the Playhouse to see this year’s show (the 27th) by The Nimmo Twins. As ever they were so very good. Norfolk folk should rightly be proud of them and their ability to get us to laugh at ourselves. I don’t know if Karl & Owen fully appreciate how good they are and how much they are now revered. They are both Norfolk treasures and long may they continue.
As I write this Norwich City are still searching for their first league of the season. I think we can see the shoots of promise from the new regime. I certainly hope so otherwise it will be another long hard season.
And so, to this trip. A week in and around Seattle and Washington State followed by our Covid postponed Alaska cruise. We are to be joined on this trip by Tracey & Graham who we last went away with over 30 years ago.
With everything else going on around us, neither of us have had much time to think about or get excited in advance about the trip. In fact, Karen was bemoaning we were going to miss some fine weather whilst we were away and that summer would be over when we get back.
Travel day saw us get up with the alarm at 7am with a plan to leave at 8.30am to pick up T&G. By 7.20am that plan was in disarray with a call from the Care Home saying that they had just called in the Paramedics to check over Karen’s Mum who had been violently sick all night after also suffering from constipation over the past few days.
Karen was straightaway distressed and immediately said we should consider cancelling the trip. A big decision made bigger by the fact T&G were coming with us and relying on me for the driving etc.
After some frantic phone call and messages, we decided to put our bags in the car early and drive to the Care Home to make a decision there. We were able to speak to the Paramedics and the Nurse on duty who reassured us that they didn’t believe it was anything too problematic at the moment and only if it hadn’t cleared up in a few days would they consider hospitalising her.
The Paramedics and the Nurse insisted that we should carry on with the planned holiday. I knew Karen was less than 100% convinced but they said they would speak to an on-call doctor to confirm their prognosis and call Karen once they had done so.
So almost on time we picked T&G and made our slow way to T5 at Heathrow in the wet conditions. The traffic was not great but not as bad as I had expected for what was deemed to be the busiest day for travel this year so far.
We met Sunny’s brother-in-law at T5 who took our car away and we trundled into the airport. The next challenge was that T&G had not been able to check in online and once we had done so found they were not sitting next to each other despite paying £400+ for an upgrade to ensure they were.
After getting through Security (which was the busiest I have encountered at T5 – although Karen & I somehow got diverted to the priority lane which helped but meant we still had to wait a while for T&G to get through) we had to go and find another BA helpdesk to try and get T&G’s seats moved as Graham needed to be sat with Tracey for his Parkinson’s medication.
Amazingly BA managed to sort this and also our seats as well as we had also been separated but something we had not been too bothered by that. Something to do with a change of aircraft had caused people to be separated from each other.
Finally, we got into the pre booked lounge where Karen was able to speak again to the Care Home who reassured her that her Mum has been able to eat breakfast and finally been taken to the toilet. On this basis Karen felt finally able to start her holiday.
The lounge was stupidly busy. The food offerings were again poor but the drinks were fine and most importantly free.
Boarding was straightforward and I was pleased that I could get updates from Carrow Road (1-1 draw against Sheff Utd).
The 9-hour flight passed slowly, I watched the film Challengers which is 2 ½ hours of my life I won’t ever get back. We landed on time only then to sit on the runway for 90 minutes due to a failure in the gate allocation system. Why wasn’t there a paper back up system? Karen & I passed the time playing Quiz games on the entertainment system, shame it didn’t pay out the $250k we on on Who wants to be a Millionaire.
After getting the luggage and passing through immigration without too many issues we caught the shuttle bus to the car rental depot. Service was slow but we were eventually sent down to the garage to load up our allocated GMC Tourain.
For the journey to the Airbnb in Seattle I decided just to use my phone to navigate without connecting to Car Play to save time. . It was a mistake as I then had 3 people trying to read out the route at the same time but though not necessarily all with the same information.
The Airbnb was fine three-bedroom town house, although our bedroom was on the top floor and bathroom on the bottom. Graham and I nipped out to a nearby garage to get some milk and bread.
Then after a cuppa we headed to bed as our bodies said it was 6.30am UK time.
