Yay to have a day off (a week in fact) with no plans and few obligations. The Met Office has pur the brakes on a planned trip to Manchester with forecasts of rain for the next three days, but East Anglia looks OK. So, East Anglia it was, then, with a freshly charged camera, flask of tea, and a wonderful sense of freedom.

Off I go, into the sun, east towards the wide open road. Or, more accurately, towards a long traffic jam just past Ipswich that didn’t clear for forty minutes. Something to do with a lorry. Turned over. Very unnecessary.

It passed, though - or rather it stayed, while we passed - and all was well with the road and the world for mile upon mile upon mile.

I saw a programme years ago about Thorpeness, a small village on the Suffolk coast built to look like a town from Peter Pan. Technically it was a new town in the early 1900s, but it’s skilfully avoided turning into a forerunner of either Basildon or Harlow on account of it being ‘nice’ and made almost entirely of wood. Since seeing the show I’ve always wanted to visit and take pictures of the buildings, each of which looks like it’s been stolen from the front of a postcard.

So, years later, today was the day, and in spite of the cold weather and the fact it wasn’t quite such a strange place as I’d expected, it was well worth the effort. It’s out of season, of course, so the whole place was pretty much empty, but that just added to the charm. I’d bet it’s packed with tourists in the summer, out to look at what could easily be a collection of the best bits of Cambridge shrunk down to bonsai proportions and relocated to the sea for its holidays.

The House in the Clouds (above) is undoubtedly the star attraction. It was once a water tank on stilts, fed by the windmill across the mud track that runs just past it. When it was no longer needed, some resourceful guy boarded the sides and added a roof, and now it’s a house with views across the heathland and the lake.

It’s certainly just a two-hour occupation, though, unless you can sit out on the beach, which wasn’t an option today.

Pootled home at a far more sedate pace, stopping off at some craft centre or other to pass the time, and look at hand woven bath mats and stuffed cats with fur and faces far too real for comfort. They even had little pink pads on their paws. Most disturbing

Called in at Sainsburys again. It’s rapidly becoming my home from home. Half way round I realised that the recipe I was planning for would feed a whole family so invited Helen and Mike for dinner. They accepted, and turned up in the middle of a cheese sauce emergency. Ended up putting it down the sink and trying again - with far better results.

Sink not best pleased, though. I think a plunger (or perhaps even a plumber) is called for.

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