Spiderpig, Scarecrows & Steam On A Small Scale!

Our Saturday turned out even BETTER than I thought it would, starting at home with Homer, progressing into the Norfolk countryside, and all on a budget, lovely!

Well, for a start, I think I fecked up the job interview! I know I can do these jobs stood on my head with my eyes closed, but I am pants in interviews. Ho hum. Still not heard either way, so hope lives on. That was the bad stuff.

The good stuff is that the weekend has so far been even better than anticipated.

Friday afternoon was quiet and indoor due to the weather (so Old Bob - I thought to myself, when is this glorious sun you PROMISED me coming?). Fun though, lots of activity at Bob’s Garage, but the biggest story was that the Baddies have teamed up with the Pirates on their ship, and are planning to take over the castle. So as well as the usual crew, the pirate ship anchored for the night with Metalpants, Snakeboy, Minotaur, Pirate Pickles (what is Farmer Pickles thinking of?), Red Power Ranger (again, why?) and two other baddies aboard. Bath was fun, and then me and Sam shared a chicken curry, made from the chicken left from last week’s roast. It was LOVELY, and we both scoffed it down in record time. Much sniggering about how Daddy’s bed in the morning might sound like a brass band tuning up. 4 years old but he’s got the hang of English toilet humour, good lad! After stories about Schnitzel von Krum and Charlie & Lola, Sam sparked out. Night night son.

Saturday dawned at 5-ish, when Sam joined his Daddy for a snooze. We had a lovely morning playing Bob’s garage/fire station/hospital (incidentally, if Britain can introduce establishments with such a wide range of capabilities we are SORTED, ask Bob The Builder how it’s done), watching some telly, entering competitions, baking Spiderman cakes, and doing Youtube. We watched several vids, but the two that we enjoyed the most were the Family Guy “last to be sick” competition, and best of all SPIDERPIG! We watched the clip over and over, Sam was wetting himself laughing which made me laugh too, for a long time.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_2uZkae8ra8

And THEN we went out!

Filled up with petrol, Sam wanted to see what happens so he was “tank-side” as we pumped a big £14 of unleaded into Lightning, then “shop-side” to pick what crisps he would like. We VERY rarely eat crisps, but hey, now and then is fine. Sam was pretty under whelmed with what was previously a mysterious place for him, i.e. the petrol station shop. And then we headed off to the real business. We laugh about the fact that we ALWAYS seem to make at least one wrong turning whenever we go somewhere, and that it’s ALWAYS raining. But guess what? NOT TODAY!

First stop was the Wolferton Scarecrow Festival. This is a uniquely English affair, in which every single house in the village of Wolferton makes a scarecrow or two and displays them in their garden, on the side of the road, in the churchyard etc. The village roads are closed to traffic for the duration of the festival meaning you and your children can wander around in complete safety. The purpose of the festival is to raise money for chosen charities, but donations are not compulsory making this a cheap but lovely place to visit. As it happened, we took a bag full of 20p coins for Sam to put in various charity buckets along the way. There are also various sideshows and stalls, all in the “very cheap” price range, and all evoking a very traditional English Village Fete atmosphere, lovely! If you don’t want to, or can’t, walk all the way round, Norfolk Green donate a bus to the festival to drive constantly at about 5 mph round the trail. We enjoyed our picnic before we set off in the expertly marshalled car park, and then we were off (via a Portaloo which greatly amused Sam). The scarecrows were so inventive, Sam loved it! There was a window cleaner dangling from an upstairs window above a fallen ladder, Elvis Presley, Freddie Flintoff in a boat surrounded by empty beer cans, a dog in a hammock, nuns, Harry Potter, Santa, Mr & Mrs Dracula, SPIDERPIG!, and LOADS more. We will DEFINITELY be going back next year.

And then we shouted “All Aboard” (no, really, we did shout it), and drove up to the Norton Hill Light Railway in Snettisham. This is a private railway that is only open over three Bank Holiday weekends each year, with all proceeds again going to local charities. It costs a whopping £1 to enter, and rides on the train are £1.50 per trip. There’s not much else there apart from some charity stalls, a hand-cranked children’s roundabout (gotta feel sorry for the Army Cadet doing the winding!), a bowls stall and a hook-a-duck, but that’s not the point. We love mini-railways, and this was a rare chance to add another to the list. If previous years are a standard, each of the charities present stands to end up £2000 better off by the end of the weekend, which is pretty damn good. Sam “won” on the stalls (hey, he still thinks it’s wonderful, let him enjoy the innocence of it) and caused major consternation on the nine man morris bowling by wellying one ball straight backwards through his legs! The train ride is one kilometre long, including a tunnel, a bridge and a viaduct, and it’s lovely to hear the mini engines huffing and puffing on the way. Sam really enjoyed the ride, so much so that we went on it twice! In fact, we were both so taken by the whole thing that we are now in the planning stage of building our own mini railway at home, for his Thomas and Percy trains to chuff along! If you use the loo there though, hold your nose when you go in, it’s a little ripe! I’ll be manning one of the charity stalls today, come and say hello if you visit.

So, Scarecrow Festival, followed by Norton Hill Light Railway. Brilliant day’s fun, total cost maybe, hmmm £20, including Sam’s goes on stalls, in raffles etc, can’t be bad. Who says there is nothing to do in Norfolk? You must be blind, dig a bit deeper! Back at home we were rushing again, Sam scoffed some spaghetti bolognaise, we didn’t have time for a bath, but we had a wonderful time together. Enduring memory?

“Spiderpig, Spiderpig, does whatever a Spiderpig does, can he swing from a web, no he can't he's a pig.....”

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