The Daily Echo: Our Shielding Story, Day 178

It was a Victoria Sandwich, with black cherry jam and buttercream, wot done it guv!!!

I can resist anything but temptation….. and damn it! There was temptation again today!! Every. Single. Day. Did I have an excuse? Erm….. Can’t think of one….. could I make one up? No. The only actualite is that I am rather weak-willed. There we have it. A determination to improve my eating habits and… boom! Within a day all good intentions are lost and the spare tyre around my middle is made up of scones and Victoria Sandwich. Ah, well, I am on holiday after all.

Despite the fall from grace on the food front, we had a very good day. I rose early, breakfasted like a Queen on yesterday’s foraged blackberries and apple served with a little yoghurt, and pottered about until the ol’ man got up. He, too, was up early. And why? Because we’d booked to visit Houghton Hall where there would be an exhibition of sculptures by the celebrated Anish Kapoor.

We arrived there, spot-on time and the gatekeeper asked for our booking number. Could I find the darned thing? No. But no worries, “What’s your postcode, love?” and it was all sorted. We were ushered into our parking space, one of the first to arrive, having inadvertently jumped the queue earlier before the gates were even open. I did wonder why there were lots of cars cars parked up on both sides of the roads……

We chose to wander round the formal gardens first and, joy of joys, were thrilled to see a bed of dahlias, which made me think of Pete and Dawn and the times we’d visited Baddesley Clinton together. Although, unfortunately, by the time we got to the dahlia beds, it was, ‘I think I need the loo’ time, so it was a quick photo and off we dashed.

I have to say, my anxiety levels had been decreasing. However, there seemed to be a lot of people at Houghton Hall. Admittedly, the exhibition, bar a couple of pieces, was outside, so we were able to keep our distance. But the visit to the loos raised the anxiety level to full-on. I mean, they had bloomin’ hand-dryers, for a start, flailing every droplet they could find in every direction. I wasn’t so keen on that.

But we persevered, and I kept my fingers crossed and prayed. In the event, the crowds were well dispersed and we really didn’t get too close to anyone. And the sculptures were mind-boggling, so we enjoyed it and stopped thinking about the pesky virus.

Not only that, I was thrilled to have looked at, and admired (in a weird way), Henry Moore’s ‘Mother and Child’ sculpture and, of course, Anish Kapoor’s ‘Sky Mirror’ – loved that, but then, doesn’t everyone?? Especially as I was described as a ‘teenager’ when I was trying to take a selfie. Flattery, my dear, will get you everywhere!!

We did the full circuit, including, I might add, the ‘Ha Ha’ at the end of the lawn…… oh, dear, they do say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit….

It was all thought-provoking stuff. Although John kept saying, “Yeah, but you just need the right tools….” and “This one looks like he got half-way through and his sander gave up.” Always thinking of the practical, my husband!! He did rather like the sculpture entitled ‘Grace’ though…

The exhibition didn’t take as long to go round as we had thought and it was lunchtime when we were ready to leave. John was keen for a coffee, but I wasn’t keen to stay. The queue was long and I was getting anxious about being among too many people. But it transpired that he wasn’t really thinking about coffee – more, sort of, a scone… and jam…. and clotted cream. Once we’d established that, we set off back to our holiday home. Go to the windmill cafe? Or the local cafe?

We plumped on the local cafe which had just the one scone left. Hence the Victoria Sandwich for me.

Because we had more or less a whole afternoon ahead of us we decided to set off for Wells-Next-The-Sea. We didn’t know what to expect, but crikey!! If I was worried about crowds earlier….. it was rammed!!

To avoid too many people, we ended up driving to the far end of the harbour, parking there and catching the little train for the mile back into town. We walked along the harbour wall and back. And then, because the last return train had departed, we walked the full mile mile back to the car park. Now, this may not seem much to you, but for John, who is in a state of ‘where are my muscles?’ it was quite a tall order. But he made it. Only had to sit down once. I was was pretty proud of him.

And all the while, the sun shone and the weather was warm. Delightful.

We had hoped, this evening, to join in with our Quiz Night but technology evaded us and all I can say now is, ‘Happy Birthday, Linda!!’ and send hugs.

There are still an awful lot of people being infected with COVID-19 – nearly 2,500 today, so I continue to worry. However, we’re ‘following the science‘ and keeping our distance, hand washing/sanitising and wearing our masks. If the darned thing gets us, it will be despite our every effort to avoid it. Fingers crossed….

Keep at it, everyone!! God bless.