With decent weather expected this weekend we decided it might be nice to have a trip across to Cambridge. After all, we live only 1hr 30 drive from this famous town and yet we have never been. We took the opportunity to wander around in Oxford about 18 months ago when my sister-in-law still lived there and it was a goldmine for photography. Having recently picked myself up a Nikon D90, and with Cambridge much closer than Oxford, I thought it might be nice to see what it had to offer.
In other news, I recently had my 3 month appointment with the fracture clinic where I hoped I would be told my recovery was going well enough to go to partial weight bearing on my practically destroyed left leg. To my surprise the consultant actually said I could go all the way to full weight bearing, at least 3 months ahead of when I expected to be. Of course, that doesn’t just mean I can throw away the crutches and walk. The bones may be repairing surprisingly quickly but nothing lines up like it used. The joints don’t work properly, all the ligaments do not slide properly, motor control is poor and movement heavily restricted plus it is all very weak after months of no use. It will still be many weeks before I can do anything which even approaches proper walking.
Pics from Cambridge are here.
As the title says, there are 31 days in May - and pretty much all of them were busy. The first weekend was the May Day BH weekend and we went to Somerleyton Hall as outlined in my previous blog entry. Two days later I had the opportunity to go out on the River Ant with local professional wildlife photographer Paul Sergeant and learn a thing or two about wildlife photography. However the day was interrupted by a call from work informing me that my colleague of the last couple of years had left the company rather suddenly and that I was needed to return to work. I have been back to working full time ever since - and doing the job of two people! It was nice to restore some level of normality to my life.
That was on the Wednesday. On the Saturday I was back out on the river with friends Mark & Sharon on their boat and attending a Broads forum get together at Salhouse Broad. Although we returned to the house that evening, we joined Mark & Sharon again the next day 
for a run back to their home moorings at Ludham before heading on to Great Yarmouth in the evening for a nice meal with friends Claire & Mark and Ali & Simon at an Indian restaurant on the sea front called Planet Pappadum.
The following weekend we were joined by friends Daniel & Jo from down south. Unable to resist the urge to be on water we were back out on a dayboat from Wroxham. This time, instead of the rackety Broads Direct day boats we hired a quiet electric one from Fineway Cruisers. The weather came and went and was largely pretty reasonable, including a decent stay on Salhouse Broad for a picnic. The following day we headed out to Wroxham Barns and managed to play crazy golf in the driving rain - impressive! But no sooner did one set of guests leave and another arrived, my parents, who had not seen me since the week following my discharge from hospital. They were here to help out around the house and keep an eye on me whilst Susan took a break and headed for Scotland to see her family and friends. In the end they helped me mostly by helping the house, my mum finishing off some painting that had not been done properly and my dad sorting out some plumbing issues and changing a load of taps. Friday brought a nice meal at China Diner in Great Yarmouth and the weekend brought their friends John & Rosie, plus Susan returning from Scotland, round for afternoon tea and on then to an excellent meal at Salhouse Lodge.
Sunday was the day we had set aside to go to Strumpshaw Steam Festival. A slightly disorganised affair but beautiful hot weather and lots to see - the camera got busy. They headed back on the Monday (the Spring Bank Holiday) and we headed into Norwich to meet friends John & Lucy for a meal at The Spice Lounge in Norwich. It was decent enough but not as good as Planet Pappadum had been. Then two days later I began a course of hydrotherapy (physio in a swimming pool) at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, had a busy few days at work and made our first visit to the newly re-opened Maltsters at Ranworth to see friends Ian & Liz. More guests arrived in the month’s final weekend when friends Nathan & Jo from down south came to stay. Following the tried and tested formula from two weekends previously we headed back out on another Wroxham day boat, this time from Royal & Sons, and slowly cooked in the hot weather. Making the most of the hot weather we had an evening BBQ and then on the Sunday it was back to Wroxham Barns for another round of crazy golf where Susan and I disgraced ourselves by coming joint last! So there was may, the month that was - and a busy month it was.
Pictures from the wildlife shoot with Paul are here.
Pictures from the Broads Forum meet weekend are here.
Pictures from the Strumpshaw Steam Festival are here.
Pictures from the day boat trips are here.
Well the May Bank Holiday weekend was going to prove largely irrelevant to me but we did manage to make it out on the Sunday to visit Somerleyton Hall and gardens. Somerleyton Hall is one of a great many places that we had singularly failed to notice existed during our time as boat owners. In fact we were vaguely aware of its existence, but that was about as far as it went. Last Autumn, whilst having a casual lunch at the (now closed) Ferry Inn in Horning we grabbed a handfull of fliers for local attractions. Only then did we begin to realise how much there was to see right on our doorstep.
The fact is, with Susan’s shifts, when we got weekends together we tended to use them to go boating. As a result we rarely, if ever, did anything that didn’t involve the boat. Now that she’s gone we decided to try to see a little more of what is right here around us. Of course, if it wasn’t for my accident, we’d probably have another boat by now, or at the very least be searching hard, but that is almost certainly not going to happen until well into next year now. Not all the places we got fliers for are that suitable for the disabled either but some should be fine. Somerleyton Hall, therefore, was the first of these places we had earmarked for a visit.
Mobility issues still a factor we didn’t bother going into the hall but contented ourselves with a wander around the extensive gardens. I did my best to produce some decent pictures but the light was extremely frustrating - bright, glaring sunshine with harsh contrast and deep shadows lasting for but seconds before giving way to dull, grey and lifeless light which penetrated the extensive cloud layer. Never have I spent so much time changing the camera settings - and then changing them back again! Still, it was a good day, and at a fiver each money well spent.
I also managed to escape the house last weekend when my Uncle Steve came to stay. He had been keen to help out and kindly ran me to physio on the Monday, but we did manage to get out on the Sunday as well and had a pleasant lunch sitting by the river outside a cafe in Wroxham. I’ve added some of those pics to the Spring Wanderings album on Flickr while the pics from Somerleyton Hall can be found here.
I guess you don’t know what your limits are unless you push a little - life has a way of reminding you where the limits are, gently sometimes, other times less gently. This weekend past was one such occasion.
I like to get out of the house and walking is good for me as it pumps a bit of blood around my shattered leg. Fair enough it can’t take any weight, other than the weight of itself, but still going through the motions of walking is good physio for it and seems to help clear out the gathering of fluid in the tissue which can cause it to swell.
On Saturday old friends Nathan & Jo were staying at Centre Parks in Elveden Forest. Elveden is about 1 hr drive from us, and therefore about 2 hrs 30 closer than Nathan & Jo’s actual house so a social opportunity not to be missed. In fact it had even been planned back last year before my accident. I think the hope at the time was that we could visit them at Centre Parks and partake of some of the facilities there with them. However, this no longer being possible, a neutral venue was found in the form of the Forestry Commission in Thetford Forest. Again this is a kind of outdoor activity type venue, but one much more suitable to people with varying levels of mobility. As it turned out, not only did we have a good time seeing our friends but the day took little toll on my body as a good mixture of sitting down, standing still and moving around was to be had. As always I had my camera on hand - though I snapped away without really producing any images I was particularly happy with. Part of that is simply down to not getting it right on my part, part of it was down to the very contrasty lighting (strong sunlight and deep shadows) and part of it was down to having dropped my pro quality and near enough brand new Carl Zeiss lens the previous week. In fact the camera got dropped along with it and I am not convinced it is functioning 100% even though it behaves as though it is. I have a nice Tamron lens that I put on the camera to replace it whilst the smashed Zeiss goes back for repair.
Unhappy with the results from the previous days shooting I decided to head down to Salhouse Broad, the broad in our village, and do some shooting down there on the Sunday. In the past we have walked or ridden our bikes from the house but this time we took the car down to the broad car park. But it’s still a long walk to the broad, even from there. I had previously ruled out visits to the broad on the basis of the distance and quality of the track leading to it - impractical for a wheel chair and too long for crutches. But emboldened by the previous day I decided it would not be a problem. I was wrong.
Although I did make it successfully to the broad, spent a little time shooting, and then got back again, the wear and tear on my hands and shoulders was substantial and by the time we returned to the car I was not only in discomfort but barely able to stand up straight and moving very slowly. Like I said, you only know your limits when you push them and clearly, no matter what I thought, Salhouse Broad is still essentially beyond me. I have yet to review the pictures I took but I will post them up here later on when I have done so.
Pictures from Thetford Forest are here. Pictures from Salhouse Broad have been added to the Spring album here.
Obviously, as this is called “A Boat Owner’s Blog” I should concentrate on our attempts to find a boat to replace our former pride and joy. By now we should have been in full swing boat hunting, if not already have selected our next pride and joy. But as you can probably tell from the last blog entry the goal posts have moved somewhat. We even have to face the possibility that I might be left with some permanent disabilities as a result of the accident. With that in mind now is perhaps not the best time to be comitting in the region of £30k on a boat which we never be able to use properly - not that that stopped us last time.
So what does the future hold? Will we ever go to sea and do full coastal passages? Could we ever even afford the fuel? If my mobility is compromised my days of crawling around in cramped engine bays may be over and even the simpler jobs, which I always did myself, may have to be done by paid professionals - and the costs will soon mount. It may be that a quieter life on the rivers with a simple, single small engine and shaft drive are the only realistic prospect.
Or perhaps a kind of go between? It may be that we will never now do longer distance coastal passages, but even so it would be nice to maintain a boat which can go to sea a handful of times a year for things like the powerboat racing or the air festival. Of course in that case we already sold a boat ideally suited for that kind of usage and one on which we had lavished many thousands of pounds already. Oops! Still, for the last few months a Fairline Mirage, Memphis Blues, has been up for sale in Nottinghamshire which would appear to offer everything we are looking for. Without my accident it may well be ours by now but unfortunately the Fairline Mirage is a fantastically bad design for someone with restricted mobility. If we wait another year, which is how long it will take to properly answer the question of my level of recovery, then Memphis Blues will be long gone. Either that or she will have been on sale for several years and be falling to pieces, much like Silver Dream was when we bought her. Once bitten, twice shy springs to mind, especially given the possible mobility issues.
In other news, I started back at work, albeit from home and occasionally, when my dearly beloved wife has been available to drive me I have managed to get out and about with the camera, though there has been little to point it at. Weekly double appointments with physio at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital have begun and I have graduated from using a wheelchair to almost entirely using crutches now. That, unfortunately, is as far as it will go though, because I will not be able to put any weight on my left leg until September, and even then it will merely be a case of beginning to learn to walk again and rebuild muscles which will have been out of use for 9 months and far too weak to walk with. I’ll try to update the blog more frequently from now on.
Photos from my local wanderings can be found here.