They come and they go

On the whole Cromer is a fairly quiet seaside resort – no tower, no permanent fairground, no theme park and only one medium sized pier. A bit like Norfolk as a whole, enough to do, providing you don’t want to do too much.

However, around Christmas and New Year it acts like a magnet attracting people into the town. One knows that something big is on because several weeks before warnings go out on the local roads advising through traffic to avoid the town centre.

On Boxing Day it was the “dip into the sea” – see last week’s blog and at New Year it is a firework display.  Cars, buses and even trains allow crowds to arrive in the town and form lines along the sea front, from where they view the spectacle. The operators of the display wisely ensconce themselves on the pier and shut everyone else out.

At 5pm sharp the first rockets shoot up into the sky, explode and shower multicoloured streams of light into the surrounding sea. This year the tide was virtually fully in to the shore, so no one was able to stand in a dangerous position on the sand. The other advantage was that the sea reflected the coloured lights and at times turned a dark winter’s night into a colourful aura.

It really is something of a family show. I wouldn’t say there were no bangs, but I don’t remember hearing ear splitting stuff that vibrated the earth. There was plenty of colour and despite a very stiff wind very few colourful (or expensive) failures.

Sadly it is all over in just under 20 minutes and then the escape from the Cromer begins. That is not always easy, but this year the queues seemed to move quicker and a total absence of road works meant that most people got away and home in time for a late tea.

Once again the town looked deserted- apart from the Christmas decorations waving madly in the breeze. My turn now to wave madly until next week. Cheers and if I haven’t said so before. Happy new year to you.