Vaughan

And notice the big brick works. That's where the wherries loaded! A lot of the ruins are still there in the ground and I guess that must have been the reason for the Duke's Head as well.

I think that shed is the swing bridge.

I think the building may be the station.

On the other hand, could it be Somerleyton and the cut on the left is going up to what became the Beaver Fleet boatyard? There used to be a works of some kind up there, which might have had a dyke for loading wherries. I notice the very high signal post at the bridge, which may have been to give trains a sight of it as they came round the bend at the station.

Indeed, but what about all the others, who have had Covid, didn't know they have had it and have never been tested? How do we count those?

It is not the Herringfleet bridge as there is no signal box and no high level station on the embankment. Haddiscoe had two stations. I would go for the first photo, especially as we can see a sail going upriver in the distance behind the railway. Again there is no signal box, but are we looking at the original Reedham bridge? The existing one was built in 1903.

Don't forget Hethersett, and the Cringleford Bridge. Or a very good lunch in the Bull at Barton Mills, when the main road used to go right round it. In the 60s, you could still do the run from Norwich to the North Circular in just under 2 hours. That is at night and if you were a passenger in a Mk 1X Jaguar, driven by Tom Percival!

That's why they had to move the slip road for the new Postwick Hub, because of all you lot "rubbernecking" as you go over the bridge!

Actually, It's 17, but Wussername is sensible to say more than 20. You also need to diversify. No-one these days, can make money out of hire boats alone. You need income from private moorings, private boat maintenance, holiday cottages, a camp site, day launches and whatever else you can think of.

I remember when that sign used to say George Smith and Sons.

As has been well proved in recent years, when the Thames Barrier was useless against the rainwater flooding which devastated the Thames valley above London. See also, the Somerset Levels. I remember all the debate about a flood barrier back in the 70s and in the end it was decided not to build one, mainly out of fear of what all the "experts" would then decide to do with it. "Why don't we use it to control the tides and raise the water level by 4 inches?" Or if you are a farmer rather than a birdwatcher : "Why don't we lower the level by 4 inches?" We have all seen in recent flooding, what a difference 4 inches makes, on the upper reaches! I think quite enough damage has been done by the "experts" who constrained the rivers with excessively high banks, largely to appease the farmers. If you build a barrier across Yarmouth Haven, you can be certain that all the various factions of the Flat Earth Society will very soon start buggering about with it!

Norfolk Keel! You'll be saying there was a Great Estuary next.

Like JM and one or two others here, I've been there, done that and got the T shirt! Not only have times changed but so have customers' expectations.

It is also a matter of the trial run. It is easy to show someone how to turn round and come in against the tidal current, if you are giving the run at a yard where there is a current in the river, and there are not many of those left now! If you are in one of Richardsons' basins at the top of the Ant, trying to describe how to moor at Reedham, it's not so easy. Talking of social media though, there are plenty of videos and blogs available now, which explain what to do very clearly and easily.

Perhaps I can offer an update on that - from a reliable source! I am told that vaccination will not necessarily stop you getting the virus. What it does is attack the symptoms. So you may still get it although you may not know you have had it. But you will not get seriously ill or hospitalised. This also means of course, that you can still spread it about even if you have had the jab, so precautions must still be taken. The aim is that once all those at risk are immunised, normal life can start to resume and COVID can be treated more or less the same as the flu has been, for decades. In my daughter's hospital, those who are dying are still those who are elderly and who have existing serious medical conditions. There have only been two younger people, who were felt to be the "exceptions that prove the rule". She seems very satisfied at the job they are doing, although very tired at the end of a day that is often 12 hours. She has been on six days a week since December and only takes Friday off as that is a day when the kids are not in school. The vaccination clinic that she is running was one of the first in the country and has been doing around 300 a day, mostly people brought in from care homes, and their staff. Last night, they achieved their personal target of 1000 injections in one weekend, which meant the clinic was open until 11PM on Saturday.

It sounds as though I should be contacted about mine sometime around the end of March. March 2022, that is . . . .

There is supposed to be one now, but it doesn't seem to have any teeth.

I am one of those in the business who has always believed that you should think of Broads boating as a camping holiday. That way, you will realise it really doesn't make any difference if it hasn't got a microwave!

According to what I have read in the national press today, they have an eight foot wingspan and have earned the nick-name "flying barn doors".

Are you, perchance, thinking of the initiative, published today, to bring Sea Eagles to Norfolk, in large numbers and release them onto the marshes near the coast around Snettisham? That apparently, will bring about re-wilding of tracts of farmland if they have their way. But it's all right, because the eagles have promised they are only going to eat fish and the odd Greylag gosling at weekends. Of course, they are not going to take piglets, new-born lambs or swan cygnets. That would not be playing the game!

I notice that the NCC Ecologist has stipulated that the rest of the site must not be disturbed as "there may be reptiles". So the Great Crested Newt may win the day in the end, as it has many times before! All they need to find is a colony of Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snails and that will be the end of it. They can hold up the development for even longer than they have managed to delay improvements to the Acle Straight.

I am afraid I still can't see what the "end game" is. The vaccination will prevent the "at risk" categories from falling seriously ill or dying prematurely, of existing illnesses. But if you are immunised, you can still spread the disease, just by touching a supermarket trolley. We are not going to kill the virus, any more than we have ever killed the flu, or the common cold. And we all know how many people die "of" the flu every year. The vast majority of the population simply get a bout of winter flu and get over it. We have been doing this since living memory. Will this virus be any different, now that there is a vaccine? Meantime, hundreds of businesses will never open again and hundreds of thousands are due to be redundant. There will have to come a time - and very soon - when the elderly are protected by the jab and the country can get on with normal life and an economic recovery. If this lockdown continues into the summer then pubs, theatres, concerts and much else of our culture, will just be part of a by-gone age.

Only a couple of days ago, Downing St predicted that the full lockdown would last until Easter. Now, they have predicted it will last until the Summer. Me? I'm not predicting anything, including the next time I might see Norfolk, after 18months. But I am not making advance bookings on anything either.

I see in the EDP this morning that the council have approved an application to demolish the pub. That didn't take long, did it?

Sounds like the Griffin in Thorpe, which for a few years, was re - named "Gunga Din's".