We enjoyed a good day on the Broads after a quiet and peaceful night. By Blue Peter dinghy across Womack Water to Ludham Dyke for coffee and cake and then off by bus to Norwich to get cash from the Abbey National. Lunch at McDonalds and some Council enquiries for me and some shopping for the others before our bus back after which we were glad to be in a cool breeze aboard on a very hot day. Then down the Thurne and up the Ant to Ludham Bridge for water and then further up the river and across Barton Broad where Debbie and I sailed across to Barton Turf and back. Thatcher remains in deep trouble with her parliamentary colleagues and now has a new water industry crisis with 100,000 Thames customers now without clean water. Harry Worth has died and Ken Dodd has got off on the tax evasion charge
Another very quiet and peaceful night – we are enjoying places without the noise of aircraft, traffic and trains. Once we were ready, we rather precariously boarded the Blue Peter dinghy and outboard motor to cross Womack Water to the Ludham Dyke and had coffee and cake before setting off by bus to Norwich. We had done this to get money from the Abbey National, which are rare institutions in the Broads. This accomplished, we had lunch at McDonalds and then shopped for an hour before it was time to catch our bus back. I had taken the girls to the library, settled them down and then gone to the Broadland District Council offices, only to find the Horning is part of the North Norfolk District!
Daniel and Di had gone their own ways shopping. It was another very hot day today with temperatures of 33°C (in the 80’s Fahrenheit, I think). Thank goodness we could go back to The Lady after the sweltering experience and cruise off with a breeze to cool our blood. We cruised back down the Thurne and then up the River Ant, seeing the Bloom family in ‘Over the Rainbow’ coming the other way near Thurne Mouth and exchanging reciprocal but inaudible greetings in the wind. We cruised on up to Ludham Bridge, where we filled up with water as we were getting quite low after two days. We moored up and had a salad tea there and then set off further up the River Ant. I had towed Daniel’s boat thus far (as he is getting tired of helmsman-ship) but the river above this bridge becomes narrower for alongside towing and quite attractive, so Debbie volunteered to steer his boat and everybody was happy with this. We cruised across Barton Broad and moored for the night at Barton Turf. Daniel helped me rig up the Blue Peter as a sailing dinghy and then Debbie and I donned lifejackets and sailed off down the Dyke and across Barton Broad and back which we thoroughly enjoyed. Later, I watched the TV news for the first time in a while, then the first episode of a wartime TV serial – ‘Fortunes of War’ – before writing up my journal quite late to the sound of ducks and other water birds pecking at the weeds on our hull! Another splendid day of weather and an enjoyable holiday on the Broads. The weather has been truly amazing and only this evening does the wind seem to foretell a possible change on the way. The news is of continuing industrial unrest and back-bench unrest in the Tory party despite Thatcher’s ‘end of term’ pep talk to her parliamentary colleagues. Another water industry crisis, now that South-East London has had a water treatment failure and 100,000 consumers must have water from bowsers in the street or boil their supplies of drinking and cooking water. More detail on the horrific airline accident of yesterday as it seems first the engine blew up in a catastrophic failure and then the debris destroyed the tail-plane and rudders leaving the pilot powerless and it was a miracle that so many people survived. The old-time comedian, Harry Worth, has died after losing a long fight with cancer at the age of 72. His brand of impish and clean family humour will be lost and the more so since he had been persuaded to perform in a new radio series because of his disability. In another case comedian Ken Dodd has been found ‘not guilty’ by a jury in the trial alleging many counts of defrauding the Inland Revenue. From the evidence I can hardly believe that he was innocent but I’m sure the jury could not bear the thought of condemning him and his career. My thoughts are starting to go forward to next week when Debbie and I have to go back for her riding horse riding commitments. To bed at 11pm tonight to the sound of the wind in the trees – an unusual experience during this holiday on two counts