Another day trip taking the Blue Peter with The Little Lady on a cruise to Hickling Staithe and the long walk to Hickling Green for coffee and drinks in the grounds of The Greyhound Inn where the children played and saw the ducks, geese and rabbits. A walk through Hickling village centre and sat with the children as Di shopped before lunch back at The Pleasure Boat Inn at Hickling Staithe and then some time moored on Hickling Broad fishing and sailing before we cruised back to The Lady and then cast off and cruised to Acle Bridge boatyard. Fourteen people have been killed in a Hungerford massacre and sixteen more injured.
Slept well on another mild night, but today Di got up on time and brought our drinks. Debbie came in and sat in my bed with me and we chatted about her finding a husband (!, she’s only 8,!) and the qualities that are important. Went slickly through our morning routine and ran The Lady’s engine to produce charge for the battery and some hot water for the washing up. Daniel and I prepared the sailing dinghy and lay the mast along its length so as to be towed under Potter Heigham bridge. By 9.15am we had set off in the Little Lady and it was a continuous cruise to get us to Hickling Staithe by 10.15am.
The weather was fine after overnight rain, but it was warm enough to sit out in the breeze. At Hickling, we took a longish walk to Hickling Green and had morning coffee and drinks in the garden of The Greyhound Inn. They had a nice children’s play area and a virtual ‘pets corner’ of ducks, geese, rabbits etc. Then a walk through the Hickling village centre, where I sat on the bench on the road island reading a welcome Financial Times, whilst Di went around the three stores and newsagents. Debbie and Della seemed quite content and Della ‘read’ me stories from her blank notebook that she pretends to read as she is only 3 years old. Once we were all together again, we walked to the stained glass hobby shop and I bought a nice glass painted and varnished panel and stand of Hickling, with the village sign and bench that I sat on, the heron and swallowtail butterfly all depicted. The walk then back to the staithe via Hickling Heath, where a lot of new building made the landscape less interesting. This contrasted with the good preservation and number of old cottages in the village, which no doubt contributed to Hickling’s success as ‘best kept village for 1987’ competition. We had lunch back at the Pleasure Boat Inn on the staithe, which was rather spoilt by the slow service, for it was after 1.00pm by now and the pub was crowded. We had also delayed our return by letting the girls have a long play on Hickling playing field during our walk. We set off for home across Hickling Broad, and I thought we should get no angling and sailing, but Di agreed to moor up for a couple of hours. First Debbie and I went sailing and then, with the wind up, Daniel went sailing, whilst I fished. First a small roach, then, after missing a few bites, I hooked a 1lb perch that shook and run this way and that before coming to my landing net. Then the trip in Daniel's boat back to Potter Heigham and the cruise onward in The Lady to Acle Bridge. Daniel ran into trouble with his engine and we moored at a boatyard to wait for their help with repairs in the morning. News today was of 14 people being killed by an armed man going berserk in Hungerford, Berks with a pistol and a hand grenade. 16 more were injured. First, a woman was shot dead in Savernake Forest, then a man at a petrol station and into Hungerford itself. This is the worst mass killing in British criminal history. A policeman was shot dead and ambulance men and firemen were shot at when they attended the scene and tried to put out a fire that he started. In the Midlands, another murder hunt has been launched for a man who has killed three people. The latest and third tanker convoy escorted by US ships has successfully made its Gulf passage, after the route had been scanned by the detection helicopters. The Soviet navy also escorted a Russian tanker out of the Gulf at the same time. A post mortem on the body of Rudolf Hess has confirmed that he died of asphyxiation after leaving a note, but some are dubious of the validity of this tidy outcome. Tomorrow’s weather forecast is for more dry and warm weather, but rain is slowly closing from the west.