Just so we could have a round at Pirates Cove Crazy Golf we've had a long weekend in the Great Yarmouth area. It was a great Crazy Golf course, well laid out, with an edutainment side to it as it had placards recording the history of Blackbeard and Captain Morgan and the like - the moral seemed to be piracy is not a good long-term career choice. The 18 holes were varied, but not too difficult. We would have got round quicker but found ourselves held up by being indirectly behind a slow foursome.

A long weekend in the Lowestoft area, seeing the "Africa Alive!" zoo and the "Time and Tide" museum in Great Yarmouth among other attractions.

Before our long weekend in Hunstanton we dropped off Tabs and Amelia (who hid in my cupboard as the spare room bed was shut) at "Grange Cattery". This took longer than normal as there were roadworks in Waterbeach near the new housing being built on the old Army barracks there. It may be even slower next time as they're going to resurface the road to "Grange Cattery" - it is much needed as that track undulates beyond bumpiness. We got supplies at Tesco including a Chinese meal we enjoyed later in the garden at the holiday cottage in Ringstead. An easy drive there, the most stress came when parking the car in front of the garage for No. 5 as I didn't see the number! The cottage was comfortable and well appointed, a cosy lounge. We had to enter a number on a keypad to get the keys, using the keys was fiddly and the doors were a bit stiff. There was a bottle of wine left for us which we had a glass of to accompany the Chinese meal in our quiet evening in.

Our long weekend in Stratford started with another telephone call from a carer about Dad managing to fall out of bed despite having a bar fitted by Phillip last night (who I envy being so good at practical things). I went to Milton Tesco after seeing Mum's grave on the anniversary of her death four years ago, and got some supplies for Dad and us on our holiday. A little bit of a rush to get Tabitha and Amelia to the Cattery so Phyllis can look after them til Monday (we forgot the tablets for Tabitha!) and then off on our weekend break. And right into a traffic tailback from a fire on the A14...

We take a trip to Somerset, seeing Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole.

A long weekend in Derbyshire, taking in Denby pottery on the way. We stayed at Willersley Castle despite the Satnav's efforts.

A long weekend in Bath admiring Roman bath technology and the Jane Austen tourist trail.

Virginia and I had a long weekend in Stratford-on-Avon. We booked Tabitha and Amelia into the Jobil Cattery in Histon so not far from us, and booked ourselves into "Brook Lodge", a slightly more comfortable Bed and Breakfast place in Stratford. Jobil Cattery was adequate, perhaps a bit bare bones, but did for the weekend. True we didn't ask the cats their opinion! The journey didn't take long to get there, partly because all the service stations we tried to stop at for a bite to eat, and a comfort break, were closed as regards eateries. In the end we checked into the guest house, then had oversize plates of sandwiches at the Bell Inn in Shottery.

We spent a long weekend seeing Stonehenge and Longleat and Avebury Stone Circle.

We went to Norwich to see where I grew up, the streets that imprinted themselves on my dreams. Booked into a spanking new Holiday Inn Norwich right by Norwich City 's football ground, our room even looked out over the pitch! The ground, and the immediate area, had changed from when as a schoolboy I used to go and stand on the terraces and watch matches. Now seats everywhere no standing. We walked round the football stadium and saw that Delia Smith had a restaurant there - as the price was £32 a head decided to eat in the hotel's restaurant! The staff at the hotel were friendly and helpful, our room was well laid out and well lit (unusual in a hotel room.) The bathroom had an artistic look to it with the wash basin raised proud. The prices were artistic too, and breakfast wasn't included (£12.95 each!) There was annoying piped music in the corridors, and I didn't sleep well with the noise. We also needed the air conditioning on to stay warm.

Virginia and I spent a long weekend in York, an old city with Roman / Anglo-Saxon / Viking and Norman pasts. York is haunted by old buildings and walls and ruins and history. Ghosts too to judge by the number of "Ghost Walks" on offer.

Virginia had an inner urge to see Legoland so we went down to the Windsor area on the August Bank holiday weekend. Not an ideal weekend as it was the last weekend in the school holidays, and the bank holiday weekend to boot. Not an ideal weekend as the B&B we stayed in in Englefield Green was a lemon. Tiny dilapidated room. Fellow 'guests' who returned in the early hours to play loud music. We did however see Savill Gardens (enjoyable), Legoland (best seen with the heart of a child,) and Windsor Castle (getting in was like boarding an airplane,) and had Sunday lunch with an aunt so mission accomplished on that front. Getting into Windsor Castle was rather like boarding an airplane, but security checks are understandable. Once inside the scale of the place, and the serried ranks of portraits and china and swords and rifles and ornaments impressed. As they were meant to. Some houses are just for living in. But Windsor Castle is not. The size of the place, the solidity, the opulence, the order of the place are all designed to make an impression. To intimidate, to strike awe. But behind the pomp and circumstance there's only ordinary mortals.

Virginia and I spent a long weekend 24th to 27th June in the North Norfolk area. On the way up we visited the Thursford Collection during a real downpour on the Friday. There we saw the nifty footwork of resident organist Robert Wolfe on a Wurlitzer. How can the brain control so much? We overdosed out on stately homes of which there are plenty in the area. We saw Blickling and Holkham and Felbrigg but I confess these in my mind all blur into each other. The old faded paintings, libraries of uniformly bound books, false doors through which servants entered, deer parks, ice houses, elaborate silver tableware, sugar nippers, manicured formal gardens seem to be the form for the houses of the nobles. We stayed in a guest house in Little Walsingham which is even more historical than a stately home. A site of pilgrimage for over a millennium, it had a mixture of shops including statues and icons if you wanted to take some holiness home with you. We had a good tarragon chicken in the Black Lion on a very wet day - the Black Lion was the coat of arms of a Queen Philippa.

Virginia and I went for a long weekend down in Kent, staying in a B&B in Canterbury (cold cold, screws loose on door handle, light not working). We had two meals at the Old Gate Inn, a convenient hostelry near where we were staying in. I admired the way beautiful waitress Katya smiled there, like feeling the glow from a brazier. We went to church in Tenterden where Ginny went to the Sunday school – good service and the Minister was getting involvement from the people. Low brow which suits me. Saw Ginny’s old school in St Michaels before doing Leeds Castle bitterly cold wind so Ginny didn't head for the maze. We indulged ourselves in history - recent history such as the Second World War represented by the tunnels beneath Dover Castle. Impressive room housing the repeater equipment. The unsavoury lives of those who have been called Kings of England were instanced at Leeds Castle (interesting seeing where the great powers of today the G8 have met.) The buried time of the Romans underneath the shops in Canterbury. Like going back in time. Canterbury Cathedral itself is like a historical scrapbook, an ever-changing monument.

Virginia and I had a long weekend in "Eastbourne". This resort on Britain's south coast seems to be a favourite resort for the elderly - Wallace Arnold coaches disgorged OAPs into hotels where they stayed sitting in chairs. Mixed weather - some fine sunshine but also rain - we got wet and had to take refuge in a fish and chip place to have an early supper after seeing the pier. The pier was a little rundown but had a shop making and selling glass ornaments, I got Virginia a small glass elephant (admiring the skill of the young girl wrapping the glassware).

A break with my sister's family in the Peak District. We went down Poole's Cavern where you can almost watch the stalagmites and stalactites growing, such is the water dripping down. Our shoes got coated in calcite! Heard that in times past a flasher lurked in Poole's Cavern, but in times past a flasher was someone who trimmed the edges off silver coins to make ingots. Naughty! We also saw the Crich Tramway Museum a great place to visit. Big business in a way judging from the books on trams on sale. Nostalgia has made trams and steam trains now cherished whereas in their heyday necessary evils?