An early start with Steve Bloom for our visit to Norfolk, arriving in time for the boating auction at Potter Heigham where I just bought two hydraulic jacks. Back to meet the new neighbours before working on until it was time to take Steve to the Wroxham Bridge Restaurant.
I had a very early start indeed this morning, trying to get ready to leave by 6.30am when Steve Bloom was due to arrive. The event was the annual boating auction at Potter Heigham which is advertised as the only Broadland auction still going now that Wroxham has packed up. The idea was to go and get there early enough to view the lots before the auction started and not necessarily to buy a great deal if anything at all. I was ready early and Steve arrived on time and so we got away by 6.45am. The journey was not too bad but there was still more traffic than we were expecting.
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We pressed on and arrived at Heronshaw by about 9.00am and stopped briefly to switch on the hot water and heating before making our way to Potter Heigham. We were parked by 9.30am and so had time to look around before the auction was due to start at 10.00am. There were very few boats there at all and the bulk of the rest of the lots were rubbish. There were a couple of enterprise sailing dinghies going cheaply and two reproduction rowing boats but, apart from these and the 1906 sailing yacht, the rest of the craft were fishing boats and dinghies. Amongst the other items, the only things of interest to me were two well-engineered hydraulic jacks - 25 ton and 30 tons capacity respectively - and I bid strongly for these and gained them for £30 and £35 respectively. At least, therefore, the journey was worthwhile.
On to Horning afterwards where I mowed both of the lawns and met our new next-door-but-one neighbours, who also have a Range Rover and Broom 37 which we share in common. I welcomed them to Ropes Hill Dyke and we chatted a while before I got on. Steven had brought his R.Y.A. Coastal Skipper course notes and sat in Heronshaw's lounge and did some work on them. In the evening, I took Steven to the Wroxham Bridge Restaurant and we had a magnificent meal with two bottles of wine. I only drank a little which led Steve to over-indulge himself a little and he paid the price the next morning.
I was able to chat to Steve for quite a while today and was pleased to hear that he has a good chance of a job working as a production manager for a window manufacturer. He has remained unemployed since being made redundant but has used his time productively by undertaking house improvements on his new house in Sawtry; having had to sell his other one. We retired tonight quite early and I slept well.