Funny sort of day on Monday. I decided to try Marks and Spencer for work-clothes. Checked their website, verified which stores had a Plus department, decided on Norwich (I'd been to Peterborough earlier in the summer)... Got there after an hour and a half on the train and half an hour's walk up the hill - no Plus department. None anywhere, apparently, now! I'm not going to have a rant here - I've channelled my energies into a stinking complaint letter with attached rail ticket for refund, which should have got to them today. We'll see whether it brings any results. But evidently the M&S website is pretty out of date, so don't trust it for any other details either!
Given that I'd drawn a blank there, I made the best of the rest of the day which was sunny and warm. Country and Eastern, one of my favourite Norwich shops, had moved; but they'd left directions to their new store on the shopfront of the old one and it was spectacular, a renovated Victorian skating rink.
This photo was sneaked from the top balcony, where the small textile items are, looking down at the furnishings, architectural features etc. below... There's a picture of how it all looked as a skating rink here. I only bought one small item and it's a present...
I also had a thoroughly lovely holiday French lunch at a basement place in the market-place I've been to before. I think it's called the Wine Cellar now - I'm pretty sure it was called 'La Vigne' or something last time. Anyway. They do something called a 'meze' which was actually a plateful of warm duck confit and merguez, caperberries, tapenade, grilled baguette and salad... there are fish and veggie versions available too. And a very nice glass of Picpoul de Pinet. Perfect. I could almost hear the cicadas.
With my usual unerring sense of direction, once I had really, really tired feet I headed out of town back over the river... forgetting entirely that Norwich is in a loop of the river. I should know this - I did, after all, go to school in Durham, which is a more extreme version of the same phenomenon. So I saw a bridge, crossed it - and, it turns out, headed dead north for the station, which is actually at the south-east of the town... After a while, I found the bypass - and had a not-so-happy 45 minutes following it round the town to the station... By the time I was getting back to the river, though, the sun was setting, and it did all look very pretty...
1 comment:
I'm definately going to have to investigate both the former rink and the former "Vigne".
My favourite route back to the station is to find the Cathedral (if I can), then go through the land behind it which leads to the river. Once at the river, turn right (I don't do points of the compass, I'm ashamed to say)!
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