Category: norfolk

B349 – THIS IS PERFECT

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When you stay in a hotel, the reason you stay there is for the bed, and nine out of ten times the bed is all wrong. You get given some rubbish pillows that feel like they’ve been folded in half one to many times and a duvet that is more of throw for your sofa than anything else. Well the Village Hotel in Dudley, Birmingham is not that kind of place, my room had at least a 14.5 tog duvet and the pillows to match, that is something that’s rare to find in a one nighter hotel.

If Premier Inn was a 4 star work trip hotel then this place is easy a 4.5 and its simple, this place has everything you need for a good nights sleep after a long day of work, from a gym and spa area that actually has a swimming pool deep enough to dive in (not that I went swimming), you could then head back to your rooms  and be pleasantly surprised that the showers they actually worked and for once didn’t give you third degree burns or worst frost bite, you are met with a constant supply of warm to hot water that actually does the job. One thing that has to be noted is the fact that they don’t have a luggage trolley, which makes my life 15 x harder. Most of the time when I stay in hotels its with a lot of camera equipment and instead of carrying 20 bags through receiption and into my room it’s nice to just put them on a trolley and push them around, even more so annoying in the morning. 

After some excersise and a great shower time to head down and get some food. That’s  when I found out about something that would put a smile on anyone’s face, I’m talking about game day chicken wings and beer all for something like £7. what more could you want, and what’s more suprising is the fact that this deal is in a hotel especially when they are showing all the football, so that being said I did enjoy the wings and also a few beers. So I will blame that on the bad grammer and poor spelling mistake into post.  but if you couldnt tell for the past 300 words, this hotel is really good and I would definitely recommend it if you need somewhere to stay in Dudley, Birmingham.

Heres my photos of the hotel, enjoy.

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– beer and wings all for £7 something, what could possibly go wrong with that –

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– look at that duvet, perfect. every one stop shop hotel around the country should take note –

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– I know its pretty stripy but I kind of like it. Amy can we do this with the bedroom –

B345 – ANY TIME IN THE PAST 100 YEARS

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Thursday morning and last day of shooting for the week, I literally couldn’t be happier. For some reason this week just seems to have taken it out of me and now I’m ready to get a decent sleep and hide away from the terrible weather than seems to be on its way again.

Back when i had a life, my week day plan was always to wake up like 45 minutes earlier, grab a coffee, sit on my sofa and open up my laptop and just start that days blog post but over the past 3 months that has really changed and now its just about getting the posts done at anytime I could. Well today I have decided to do my best and sit on the sofa with a coffee and spent some time just writing these posts, its probably my favourite way of doing it, and I maybe running out of time pretty quickly but you can never rush and artist (unless you have a floor manager and production team that would kick your arse if your not at work for your call time).

to lighten the mood a bit, I want to show you guys this morning are from… Yes you guessed it the other day at the beach in Norfolk, I promise its my last day of showing photos for that walk, but taking Landscape photos of the sea one on side and these really colourful muddy cliffs on the other with overcast clouds, I think really sets the mood and almost gives them a timeless feel. like those people on the beach in the first picture could almost of been there at anytime in the past 100 years, theres nothing in shot that I can see which would give away that its 2018.

I hope everyone is having a good week, here some the last of the photos from the weekend.

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– this photo to me, could of been taken at anytime in the past 100 years –
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– I should really take more photos with things in the foreground, I think its a cool style of photography –
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– just a crow sitting on a pile of sand. I tried to sneak up on it to get a better shot but it saw me and flew away –

 

 

B343 – THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE…

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Ahh Monday, the one day of the week where those extra 5 minutes of snoozing the alarm make all the difference, especially when you have a 7:20am call time but the good thing about a call time that early is that you get to see London empty and not full of people. this morning I got to walk through the famous Brough market and it was completely empty, not even someone selling fruit or veg, it was just me. I wish I had more time to explore and that I could of pulled out my camera and spent 5 minutes just taking photos but as I said earlier, those extra 5 minutes of snoozing that alarm aren’t something that can be given up lightly.

For my photos today, I really wanted to show you some more snaps from the beach the yesterday but as im expecting a very busy week, so Ill drip feed you guys photos over the next 5 days, I hope thats ok.

After work today the plan was to go to the gym and spend an hour working out instead of an extra hour on the sofa watching tv, I know that might sound like some kind of terrible idea but my reason behind this is simple, if I want to carry on working 12 to 15 hour days (thats including my time writing these blog posts) then I really should start looking after my body by staying in shape. One thing that has made that decision the right one was the fact that in my second week of gym Ive just managed to run 5km without having a pain in my leg from ligament tear 9 months ago. That 5km run was something I had been thinking about in the back of my head for the past two days and then today I got on that running machine and made it happen, I couldn’t be happier and now Ive done the hardest part, which is basically me telling my brain that I can do this and that I just need to take it slowly. when you have an injury like that, you kind of get these weird thoughts that you shouldnt do it and that your injury has come back. All I can say is learn to actually listen to your body and not just that part of your head that is kind of scared something will happen again.

Straight after the run which by the way took me 34 minutes to run 5km, I was thinking about that goal of running an ultra marathon and I know this is something that probably maybe shouldn’t happen for a good two years, it is something I’m going to start thinking about again. my plan is to go on Saturday and get a sports massage and then speak to the running coach about how I might be able to reach the goal of a 100 mile race. I suppose if nothing else, its something for me to work towards.

Sorry in advance both Amy and my parents.

Heres some snaps, I hope you like them.

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– norfolk beach, it literally goes on for miles –
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– bank tube station this morning before rush hour had started –
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– borough market, the best place for food in london, also where they filmed bridget jones and lock stock and two smoking barrels –

 

B341 – NOTHING LIKE A ENGLISH SEA SIDE TOWN

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Saturday in norfolk are mostly about chilling out and just sleeping whenever possible and thats kind of what I’ve done. Yesterday we did the usual dog walk in the morning and then sat around watching films / rugby before heading out with Amy’s friend’s for a meal and stuff. its been the first time in like 6 months since amy has seen some of her friends so its was kind of like a mini reunion.

What I love about coming to norfolk is the kind of sea side town vibes you get, when we took amys dog dexter on the walk we took this path that takes you through a proper english caravan site, with all those static caravans, which this time of year look completely abandoned expect for those few dedicated caravan people, you then head into the sea side town of Sheringham which has some how survived this fate of so many other sea side towns around the country and is still booming, with local butchers and of course the arcade’s with those amazing basketball games and 2p machines but most of all you have to love the local pubs which feel like they have been there since the beginning of time. my favourite is the Welly and now they even have WIFI. who would have thought it.

Its kind of amazing what when you think about what has happened to sea side towns around the country in the past 15 years, a lot of them I feel like are making a come back and a pretty fast one at that, when you look at places like cromer, it must have lived on a knifes edge for a few years while its locals made the decision to move on or stay put and fight it out and try to keep cromer alive and to say that while walking round Cromer briefly yesterday new cafes are opening and smart restaurants are starting to appear. If I had some cash I would quickly buy some old flats overlooking the sea and in a few years I guarantee that those places will be worth a small fortune, especially in the holiday season. So everyone come to Norfolk and have a mini break, you wont regret it and probably wont break the bank doing it either.

Anyway heres some photos from yesterday.

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– dexter on a dog walk, I think someone needs a drink of water? –
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walking through a caravan site –
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– at one of my favourite places in the world, The Welly pub / Cromer –

 

 

B340 – Happy Friday 

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Yesterday after work it was all abit go go, I had to get from the studio back to my flat and pack ready for a weekend in Norfolk. I did manage to sit on my sofa if a bit while I’ll took my shoes off but was then back up and out the door heading for Liverpool Street station. 
But now we have made it here and really enjoying our Saturday sat surrounded by baby twins and a girlfriend who can’t leave them alone.  

My idea of the photos today was to just have some fun with my iPhone and camera on the way up to Norfolk, however the photos you see below are only from my iPhone as I want to show you my other camera photos later on this week. And I know I’ve said it before but I love the iPhone camera, it is so handy for just capturing moments on the fly. And yes the Samsung camera is amazing but for me the iPhone just does the job perfectly, I suppose in a way it’s like comparing a canon to a Nikon camera. 

In other news, I think the plan for today is just to relax and chill out before heading out later to Cromer and going to my favourite pub, the Welly. I’m even taking a day off from using my Laptop normally I would set up in a corner of the room somewhere and edit / write these posts on my laptop but today I’m just doing this from my phone and not thinking about life too much. My plan each day is always to write at least 300 words and I’m not even sure if this is 300 words but to be honest I’m not even going to check. I think it’s best if you just enjoy my photos and briefly read this. 

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good weekend. And enjoy these photos. 

– arriving in Norwich last night, happy Friday –
– the train on the way up, you know it’s been a busy week when your enjoying a 2 hour train journey –

– I wonder where he got his ballon from? –

B304 – 7 MINUTE WORK OUT

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Yesterday evening Amy and me watched The Truth About Getting Fit, it was this show that showed you how to get fit, what exercises todo when your injured and also how to do different workouts each day that don’t take up a lot of time or even really cost any money. They talked about a type of training called HIT (High Intensity Training) which is basically just working out hard for a short amount of time. This is something that has grabbed our attention, we don’t really have a lot of time to get down to the gym and to be honest I don’t really like them.

So after watching that show I downloaded this app called 7 minutes, what it basically does is run a timer and tell you what workouts you need todo, like push up for 30 seconds then a 10 seconds rest and the squats for 30 seconds. all this is done in 7 minutes and you come away from it feeling so much better.

That takes us to yesterday morning, we decided to get up at 6:30am and head out to this really cool spot in Victoria Park right next to the lake and by this cool oriental looking building. this was the location for our first 7 minute workout and to be honest it was a really cool spot and was the perfect way to start the morning. I forgot how good it feels to workout early in the morning, and is something I want todo more of, last year I was running pretty much every day until my injury. Now Im I still have a problem with my leg I use it as an excuse, I need to stop that. I can still work out, I just need todo it differently. Swim, cycle and daily 7 minute workouts. thats the way forward.

Sorry I didn’t do it this morning Amy, but I had to many beers last night I think. I promise Ill do it tonight.

Heres my photos from yesterday. Oh yea and Amy cooked some amazing chicken last night, I have no idea what you call it but it had all the good stuff in it! broccoli, spring onions, chilli’s and fried chicken!!! Ill try and get the recipe off her today and Ill post it at some point.

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– Yesterdays work out spot, could almost be somewhere in the countryside –
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– see that building in the background, thats we the workout took place –
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– Amys dinner, perfect for post workout food (i think) –

B271 – AT THE QUEENS YACHT!

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New Years eve eve and the plan for yesterday was to travel to Bristol City Centre and see what was going on, we did try and do some of the sightseeing like going to a Cathedral and walking along the river. I never realised that the queens old yacht the Balmoral was moored down here, I didn’t even realise it was called the Balmoral till I saw it and recognised it from photos and stuff.

With everyone running around like crazy yesterday I didn’t want to have a big camera out it pretty big to just be carrying around all the time so my plan was just to have a Gopro in my pocket and see how it turned out, and to be honest it was probably the best idea, I literally just put the gopro on wide and snapped away. I was determined not to just use my iphone as much as I like it.

After we made the trip to the catherderal we all needed to hydryrate our selfs and the only close place to grab some liquid was to head into a local establishment called A Hole In The Wall which just to happens to be a pub. From there it pretty much set the tone for the evening and we ended up going to a few more pubs and actually ended up in a Jazz pub called the Old Juke which is a famous Bristol Jazz club and last night had 1930’s jazz bands playing, which was actually really cool we all got our swing dancing on and jived to the music. At that point I really wish I had my 5d with me so I could take some great photos of the band and the people in the bar, everyone was dressed really cool. it was like stepping back into the 1930’s.  By this time we were all full hydrated and didn’t need to be drinking big drinks anymore but knew that it was still important to stay hydrated so the only option available to us was to move onto small drinks like tequilas. Past that point its all a bit of a mystery, but from what I’ve heard this morning we all had a great night.

Its now New years eve and im looking forward to seeing what the days got in store for us. I’ve decided to post 4 photos today, I hope you like them.

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– this is by far the coolest photo from the day –
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– the only photo i got from the 1920s bar, i have got some gopro footage that im going to try and turn into a short film later on –
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– dave and me kissing by the queens old yacht –
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– a group photo from one of the bars, not everyones here –

 

B264 – UP AND DOWN THE COUNTRY

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Well… where to start. I just wrote a whole post and then pressed delete by accident, well done josh. 

I’m writing this post as I navigate my way around London with a million bags and just try to get to my cousins in one piece. I don’t really know how to write this post, but I suppose I’ve just got to give it ago and see where we end up. 

Yesterday I had a Christmas meal in Norfolk with all of Amy’s family and friends, as per usual they put out an absolute spread and a good amount of cheese, but by that time I’d had a few beers so forgot to take any photos, but I did get one of the pre dinner snacks. I don’t think I embarrassed myself at all last night and pretty sure I was sensible, so that’s also a pulse. 

As I said I’m now on the train to My cousins on the other side of London, I’m a place called Petts wood to see my family. It’ll be good to see everyone, Christmas is a good time of year to catch up with people you haven’t seen in ages so that’s what I’m most looking forward to and also giving flo all the presents I got her. 

I’m also going to a pub tonight with my mates, so I’ll try and take some photos of that but I’m not sure if they’ll be any good. 

also for some reason WordPress won’t let me add captions to these photos. So the top one is from a dog walk yesterday afternoon along the beach park cliff bit. 

2nd picture is of the pre dinner snacks, Christmas food is the best food. 

3rd photo is from a quick pub drink we had after the dog walk. I love country pubs. 

And also I want to say thanks to Amy Family and co. It was a really good food and an pretty fun evening. 

B251 – LONDON BOUND

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Sunday night and now heading back to London, my plan is to get this post done on the train so tomorrow morning when I wake up everything is done and ready to go. Its been a really good weekend and enjoyed the little break but now I’m ready to get back to London and prep for next week.

Today started off with a breakfast at this place called Back to the Garden which is this café place in Holt, Norfolk where they basically serve up proper food that’s all locally sourced, with in the Café they have like a mini super market that’s got all the goods and the place to get hold of the legendary Stokes Ketchup. Trust me once you get hold of Stokes you’ll never see Heinz the same again. Its literally a different class of condiment.

For some reason I feel pretty ill, I’m not sure if that’s the Hangover talking or if its got something to do with how bad my diet has been recently but next week I’m going to up my game and start to eat healthy again, no more Pringles and cheese bagels for breakfast, its going to be all about the porridge and fruit. I really haven’t felt good this afternoon and to be honest I don’t have time to be ill. So I think ill keep this one short and sweet, I need to try and sort myself out.

But my plan for the week ahead also includes getting my Christmas presents sorted, its starting to scare me how much shopping everyone else seems to have done and Im no closer to having it sorted. If I can just get 80% of the presents sorted this week ill be a happy man. I really don’t want it to be a last minute amazon prime thing!

Here’s my photos from today.

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– the face of someone who just wants to go back to bed –
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– a proper norfolk country shop and Cafe –
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– I think we all can tell who comes first in this relationship –

B250 – MY FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS

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Back in Norfolk seeing Amy’s family, haven’t been up here since August so its good to get back out into the country side and just eat food and chill out. one thing is for sure, the weather up here is definitely colder than it was last time I was here. Amy told me to bring loads of layers and over course I took that information on board and completely forgot. Could of done with some extra jumpers and maybe some thicker socks, but I suppose now Ive just got to get on with it.

So of the reassuring things we did yesterday was go to the Toy Super store Symths, I seriously had thought that those places didn’t exists since the likes of Amazon and Ebay where ruling the world, But business was booming. It was pretty cool to walk around looking at all the toys and see the ones that I used to play with still going strong. and to see kids running around playing with all the toys, just like they should do. I must actually sound so old when I say this, but its so true.

After the little flash back shopping trip, there was only one place to go now and that was for a bite to eat. and since I missed Amys birthday (I was working and also on the other side of the world), we went back to the pub where she had celebrated her birthday and had some food there. the pub was called Black Boys and it was unbelievable. I obviously went for the Black Boys Burger and it was just how a pub burger should be, massive and full of everything you need, Onion rings, tomato and some good blue cheese.  but I did end up getting some food envy over the pan fried stake, that was definitely worth a try next time. It looked like something special.

After food it was time to hit the sofa and watch movies and sleep. well I slept, a lot. but how can you blame me when theres a log fire and a really comfy sofa to sit on.

anyway its now early Sunday morning and I think its a jammed packed day of taking photos for a christmas calendar and eating more food. Heres my photos of yesterday, Enjoy.

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– Dexter infront of the fire, chilled out to the max –
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– the view for the pub window, theres not a better view than that –
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– my first time in a toy store in at least 10 years –