Well, all appears to have gone quiet on the Sheringham Bus Shelter front. The NCC, true to their word have pulled the plug on the development and the contractors have left. So we now have an unfinished Travel Hub with a protective ring fence. I have a feeling this may prove to be yet another NCC scare tactic to make the town feel the cost of being naughty boys and girls.
I don't believe they've any intention of ultimately leaving it like this. Who knows what pressures might be being applied behind the scenes. The government has just given a huge amount of money to improve bus transport in Norfolk. They're not going to sit by and watch it stall, because Norfolk County Council is having a hissy fit over a situation its handled ineptly.
The fact is that if you apply for Grade 2 listing for the Bus Shelter, this takes time. Once you have that, you can then draw up a new planning proposal for approval, this takes time. There maybe local elections that could radically change the composition of councils and previous decisions could then be reviewed, this takes time. As the contractors were being delayed by the protests, and you'd probably have further delays during a bad winter anyway, they may have had to consider pausing the development to remain on budget. All of these things absorb time.
If you kick the can far enough down the road, you gain time for people to forget, to reverse your previous inflexible intransigence without losing face, or being seen to capitulate to the protestors. Come up with a new proposal, return the contractors, job done. To do all this would require mothballing the project anyway, so why not make it look like its all Sheringham's fault. Make the town stew for a while, so that next time they'll perhaps remain fully compliant. Someone will return to finish this off, it's just a matter of someone deciding when.
STOP PRESS - LATEST NEWS A local asked to see the results of the original planning consultation on the Transport Hub development, only to find of the 500+ responses, nearly 400 opposed the whole development plan. So the NCC ignored and went ahead with the plans despite significant local opposition. People didn't oppose the demolition of the bus shelter because they didn't want the whole development in the first place. All of which makes the NCC look even more duplicitous, and the whole basis of their 'fit of pique' look even more shameless.
Well, Christmas came and went like a request for a stripper gram. A whole fortnight of merriment and self indulgence. Enjoyable though that was. My body was beginning to scream enough With the heavy duty food by Boxing Day. And yet there was still more to come. Our final fling of celebrating climaxing, if you'll forgive the terminology, in a weekend in Nottingham after New Year. Lovely food, lovely presents, lovely people, and then it was all over, and I was out.
I decided that a little bit of monk like time, of self denial and confected abstinence was more than called for. So I've chosen to instigate - Cakee Free Januaree. A whole month without confectionery, and sweet stuff generally, crossing my unglazed lips and entering the hidden sanctum of my stomach. The shock to my system might prove fatal. Some. I'll not name them lest there be a public backlash, joined me in this noble undertaking but have lasted four days before whoolfing a chocolate bar. I say this with no sense of malice or pulling rank here, noble and unsullied as I am, as yet, in my present resolve. To get to February 6th pure and holy in spirit, it seems easy now, but ask me in a couple of weeks how that's actually feeling.
This January it's a year since I first started learning Tai Chi and Qi Kung. It feels as though I've been doing this practice all my life. It's become such an established part of my morning routine. The group I attend in town there are around ten of us. Apart from the teacher Rick, I am the only other male present. There was a time in the autumn when I joined the experienced group,and I suddenly had a period of anxiety about whether I felt welcomed by the assembled ladies. You start getting paranoid about why you I was the only one who has an empty chair either side of them. Or if I'd accidentally committed some faux pas simply through being male. I decided in the end not to care whether they did welcome me or not, and came because I enjoyed it.
The group is long established, and everyone has their set place they stand in the practice hall, and seem overly self conscious of not stepping out of line or place. Anyway, things are generally friendlier towards me now, I make an effort to not be ignorable, which I take as a sign I'm feeling more relaxed. Also, I am now in my third term in the experienced group, and any likelihood of my being a flash in the pan visitor not worth the time getting to know, is fast disappearing. I'm not going anywhere, I love doing this too much.
I've been pondering onwhat I might want to engage with this year, that is new to me. Ideally something that gets me out and about and engaging with folk more. Not settled upon anything in particular as yet. We are in January, and I still have my part in submitting the tax return to complete. Which is collecting together receipts and invoices and data entering them, before Hubby rounds up all the rest of it. This 2024-25 self assessment is the first after we closed the shop, so the data entry is vastly reduced, as are the amounts of expenditure involved. I anticipate an easier process, but who knows? I can feel my resistance to engaging with it, but once I get started, remember the process, I'll get stuck in.
Whilst in Nottingham, Hubby and I visited IKEA, to collect ideas for how we might improve our kitchen. We have decided after living here for nine years in April, that it's time to give it a bit of love and attention, to redecorate at least. But also, to go through what we have in our cupboards and throw out the items you acquire that never really land in the realm of being useful. It is also an opportunity to reconsider how we use spaces, organise our cupboards etc. We've settled on a provisional colour palette of sage green and bamboo as the aesthetic. Though we have as yet to pin this down to specifics on an actual paint swatch. Though its not the colour we are currently considering, Hubby has become inordinately fond of one green paint. colour, because it's a pun - Whirled Peas.
The kitchen has areas neglected by us, like the dusty grease that collects on the top of cupboards. And even though we started out trying not to use this as a storage space, our resolve succumbed to pressure over time.
There is a lot of sorting out, cleaning and prep to be done before we can even start any decorating. We have ambitions to paint the existing cupboard doors. This might prove trickier than we expect. A bit of preliminary internet search advises quite meticulous cleaning, sanding and priming. They are only cheap kitchen cupboards, stripping off the plastic veneer seems easier, I am now in possesion of my very own pistolet thermique. I'm nervous about doing anything that commits us to any course of action that will prove more expensive financially or the amount of time required. But watch this space.
Whilst in Nottingham we visited Sherwood, which is filled with the sort of niche shops catering for what used to be called the 'alternative' market, from vegan supermarkets to afro hairdressers. What caught my attention was a poster for adult educational initiative entitled - Macademie - Nuts About Education.
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