The Bears Abroad (pun intended)

Easter weekend dawned bright and sunny and the Bears hitched the Hodmedod and set off to terrorise the traffic on the A140. An hour and a half later, they were pitched a mere stone's throw from the wet stuff that is the Norfolk Broads. Womack Staithe, to be precise.

Comfortably esconced

View from the Hodmedod

A short walk took them to the middle of nowhere, although the waterways were quite crowded with rental boats.

The Smaller Bear on a short walk

Low flying birds were in abundance

Greylag goose

Even lower flying boats were also to be seen.

This free mooring was full earlier in the weekend

On the Sunday, the Bears drove about for a while and ended up at The Museum of the Broads in Stalham. It was an interesting little place and, in my opinion, well worth the entry fee of five of Her Majesty's Finest English pounds. They looked at a restaurant called the Mermaid's Slipper, but did not really feel like a large meal. So, the Bears hopped back into the Bearmobile and headed off in search of some lighter fodder. Sea Palling was the eventual destination and some rather good fish and chips were consumed. The Bears found the beach to be very pleasant (and crowded), the village itself.......not so much.


On Monday, the Bears took to the water in an electric day boat. rented from Simpsons Yard in Stalham.

The Small Bear took to navigating a small craft like a duck to the M25

They glided almost silently along the River Ant and across Barton Water (several times, 'cos they got lost) to How Hill. More dickbods were spotted along the way.

Marsh harrier

Grey heron

A lunch of sandwiches purchased from a garage the previous day was partaken of before the boat was expertly brought about and the Bears headed back to Stalham. Both bears agreed that, "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as messing about in boats".
There is one caveat to the above. The Bears also agreed that, if they were to hire a boat again, they would get one with a bloody toilet on it.

Magnanimity

 Followers of the Bears on the Book of Face will be aware that we like to watch a bit of athletics. Not so athletic yourself, are you? Ed. We have attended the 2012 paralympics, the Commonwealth games in Glasgow, a Diamond League event in Birmingham (all detailed in various blog posts) and, most recently, the Para Athletics World Championship and the IAAF World Championship. It is about the latter event that I would like to make an observation or two.
I was appalled to hear the booing that greeted Justin Gatlin each time that he was introduced for the 100 metre qualifying and semi final. Yes, he has served bans for drug offences. "Has served" is the key part of that sentence. It is in the past. Nobody booed when Dwain Chambers returned from a ban. Nobody made a fuss when Amantle Montsho ran yesterday in the 400 metre heats, having served a two year ban.
The difference, of course, is that they were not running against Usain Bolt as Gatlin was.
Now, we are huge fans of Mr Bolt. The man is truly a legend. However, in his last 100 metre race, he was beaten. Sad, but true. We were there. We saw it. I photographed it.

The finish line

 He was beaten by Christian Coleman who, in turn, was beaten by Justin Gatlin. It is reasonable to assume that all were rigorously tested and it is, therefore, reasonable to assume that all were running clean. Not the end to a brilliant career that everyone expected, but there it is.

 

Bolt congratulaes the winner

 If Usain Bolt could go out of his way to congratulate Justin Gatlin, why could the public not be equally magnanimous? 

The Large bear has been de-viced

Well, the title of this post is not strictly accurate. I do have have a few vices left including a propensity for copious amounts of profane language. This is mostly aimed at TV quiz show contestants who really should know a few things before applying to compete and any driver who I think is not as adept as me. That would be most of them because you are a driving god - Ed.

 I know that Sir Walter went to a lot of trouble to bring it over from what is now Trumpland, but, after 40 years, I have stopped smoking tobacco. The story has already been described here by Mrs B. The abridged version boils down to the fact that I have not had a smoke since November 10th last year when I had an unplanned trip to hospital. Although it has turned out to be pneumonia rather than anything more sinister (this was only really confirmed last week), I came to the conclusion that I had being playing the percentages long enough. There was also a bit of "guidance" from Mrs B and Numbers One, Two and Three Sons. However, I like smoking and, despite coughing my spleen and various other internal organs up, I was missing it.


So I got this

It really is a viable substitute and it makes me look intelligent.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow - i can't wait.