Bobs and bits

Sooooo……. what has been happening chez digi-birder lately? July was quite a busy month, actually.

As you may recall, I started HRT patches some weeks ago, and this appears to have given me a new lease of life. I’m not too happy about it, but I am persevering in order to get at least some semblance of a normal life for a while. My lethargy and apathy have gone (well, mostly), and I have really wanted to get out and do things again. I do still have some slight issues, mainly back/neck pain, but that is being sorted out (hopefully) by visits to the physio at a local chiropractic clinic. I have to do some muscle strengthening exercises, which are really hard. We are also looking at getting our bikes serviced so that we can get some exercise – something that has been severely lacking for the past few years. We are going to start swimming again, and I am also thinking of joining a gym!!

A few weeks ago I heard that Elton John was playing at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster. As it was the following day I didn’t think there would be any tickets left, but there were quite a few on sale. Keith didn’t want to go, so I went with my sister. The stadium website said no cameras allowed, but I think this may only have been referring to football matches, as they were not stopping people taking them in or using them. Of course, I had obeyed the rules and hadn’t taken mine, and my sister put hers back in the drawer when I told her, so the only thing I could use was my mobile phone. I soon discovered that the zoom wasn’t a proper zoom at all, but merely cropped the image, hence the very poor photos. These were of the large screen – EJ was a mere dot on the stage from where we were sitting.

Full view from our seat as people were arriving

He’s there somewhere!!

The screen to the side of the stage

The phone shake got even worse as darkness descended, but you can guess that the lights are shining on EJ

As soon as we got back from our Devon holiday we started planning our next trip!! It’s what’s called ‘doing a Pete’ !!! We decided to take a couple of days off work and have a long weekend in Norfolk. This was a couple of weeks ago. We camped at West Runton, on the Camping and Caravanning Club’s site. We have been here many times in the past. It has some lovely walks from the site and is quite near to the sea. Unfortunately, this latter benefit worked against us, it being the start of the school holidays! We arrived on the Thursday and the site was busy but not packed. On Friday we watched in horror as car after car after caravan after motorhome turned up, with the same thing again on Saturday. I am just glad we were only there three nights. By Saturday afternoon it was a sea of canvas and caravan roofs when you looked over the site.

Anyway, we managed to get some walking done, and the weather stayed fine and warm while we were there. On the Friday we walked to Priory Maze and Gardens near Sheringham, walked round the gardens, which were very nice, had a bite of lunch and then walked back to the site taking the cliff path. I was amazed at the amount of cliff erosion since we were last down that way.

Some views of the gardens. Keith wouldn’t go into the maze! I would have gone with him, of course!!

The disappearing cliff path

View from Incleborough Hill, just behind the campsite, looking towards Cromer

Looking the other way towards Sheringham

An old barn we passed on an evening walk into East Runton

Last week, we discovered that Heaven 17, an ’80s Sheffield band, would be playing live on the roof of Sheffield Hallam University. As we work nearby, we decided to hang around. A few people were given tickets to go on the roof with them, but the rest of us gathered in front of the University to watch on the screen. Again, I didn’t have my camera, so the only photos were from the mobile phone, and they are not worth posting.

Sheffield was also in the news (the local news, anyway) following a visit to a city centre restaurant by Gordon Ramsey as part of his Kitchen Nightmares series. I didn’t see him, despite our office being only a few doors down, although one of my colleagues did. We have been in there a number of times (when it was the Runaway Girl) and thought it was good, but they must have been suffering from poor trade, hence the makeover. So, we’ve decided to give them a try and we have booked in for a meal on Saturday night. It was Keith’s birthday the other day, so we are going there as a treat, followed by an evening of entertainment that I cannot reveal any details about as it’s a surprise pressy.

So, I think I’m up to date for now. Catch ya later.