Walking on Ladybirds

I do not remember the last time I have felt so relaxed for so long. I have just had a fantastic 8 days away with wifey and the kids at Trimmingham.

We left early on Friday morning for the 3 hour drive to the coast and the start of our family holiday this year. A stop at the platic food palace (Mcdonalds) on route so the kids could get their fill of crap lunch, and we call this a treat eh!, and we were at the seaside by 1pm :) greeted by a carpet of of red ladybirds. This was a joy to behold, "look dad they are sooo cute" cried my youngest but it looked like a plague to me. Still it was quite pretty.

Now my wife is obessesed with getting everything in its place whenever we get to somewhere new. So we had a happy hour putting our clothes into draws and then off to the supermarket to shuffle around with the hoardes piling in groceries and holiday treats.

After we were all stocked up and settled in the holiday could begin in ernest.

Now to say it was an interesting week would be an understatement and the best way to tell all is in sections of the places we visited.

Amazon Zoo:-

This is just outside of Cromer and the leaflets boast it to be an amazing collection od animals from the Amazon. Now whilst the idea was sound the reality was less so. There were many cats, birds and reptiles to see but unfortunely the tanks were filthy so much so you couldnt see the fish or reptiles. The birds were not wanting to come out of there boxes and the monkeys were hiding as well. The ponds were so full of weeds the ducks could not swim properly and the whole place was a sorry state if im honest. Oh and there lots of ladybirds.

Muckleborough Tank Museum:-

Now this was a place worth visiting :) Its an old training camp on the east coast just outside of Sheringham that has been converted into a war museum. There is everything from tanks to planes to trucks to jeeps. A massive collection of paperwork from all eras of the world Wars from call up papers to standard issue kits. Its well set out and you could loose a whole day there if you dont have a bored teenager and a 9 yr old in tow. Still they found it interesting enough but I would have been happy with at least another 2 hours there to read through all of the paperwork but after the best part of four hours the kids attention had not just waned but walked out and was playing on the nearest beach so off we toddled into Sheringham which is quite a lovely town. It did seem to have a growing number of lady birds under foot though.

Shire Farm Horse Santuary:-

Now this is really a girlie day out if im honest and held no interest for me what so ever but being a family holiday and the fact that my daughters are animal mad off we went.
Now the set up is for animal rescue and this is a good cause but they did tend to try and get as much money out of you as possible as often as the oppotunity arrised. This opportunity apparently arises more often than I saw fit but what the hell do I know eh?
The kids loved the Horses and all the other farmstock ad it was very hands on which is great when so many places cage up animals due to Health & Safety nonsense.
There was also a great collection of old horse carts and machinery in museum type barns which again gave some interesting reading.
There were what seemed like Ladybird carpeting and wallpaper on everything.

Holt Windmill:-

This is a fantastic restoration of a windmill. Now you may think thats a bit dull and do you wear a Kagool chap but I think we have lost so much of our history that its great when people have a bit of spare cash so they throw it at keeping something alive as was the case here. Good for them.
You can go on all four levels and the ladders are very steep, all in keeping with what it was in its day.
Strange thing was though that it had a red & black lawn. Seemed to be moving as well.

Of course Crabbing off of Cromer pier:-

The competition was set. Boys verses girls. The girls team was Wifey, the teeneager and mates wifey who was staying with us. The boys team was myself, 9 year old daughter (I know not a boy but Tomboy counts) and my mate who was staying with us.

On the first innings the boys won with 5 crabs to the girls 1. Of course we rubbed it in a bit and made them buy the ice creams.

The second innings on the last day we were there resulted in an incredible total of 24 crabs caught!!!!!!!!!!!! Not one of them big enough to eat but the sport was great fun :) The scores were Girls 17 Boys 7. Now seeing as we were so gracious when we won the girls told everyone they met they had wiped the floor with us and made us buy really big ice creams :) Strangley on the pier no red to be seen?

The swarm then took flight. My god ive seen many types of bugs but nothing prepared me for this onset that was to last a few days. You couldnt walk through the bloody ladybugs. They were in everything...and I do mean everything. You ate them, picked them out of your ears and couldn't get them out of your car because everytime you opened a window or door to put them out 5 times as many wuld get in. It was like red snow it was that thick and quite freaky! No wonder we hadnt been bothered by any seagulls there was far too much to eat in the air!

They crawled into the caravan through any hole possible and they just kept coming!! Loading the car was hilarious and we brought more than a few bugs back home with us but hey im sure they will be happy with the lack of competition for food here.

I have taken up fishing. Ive never been interested in fishing before but what a relaxing way to pass a few hours. Just relaxing on the beach with a rod up and line out trying to catch your tea:)
Of course I didnt catch a bloody thing but hey who cares I was probably doing it wrong LOL

So a great week spent in superb company with a few beers thrown in for good measure. Now back to reality with washing to be done and the van sorting for Mondays work.