Delusions of Grandeur

Norwich is a fine city. It tells you so on the billboard as you enter it, and it really is a fine city. The original medieval city is circular and there are still remnants of the city defense walls around it. Developing from this the main roads fan out like a wheel with two major circular thoroughfares. Much that is interesting about the city is contained in the old section although much of this has been modernized and there are new shopping malls resplendent in glass and chrome that strangely meld with the older, gray, stone buildings. It boasts a castle, which to my shame I have never visited. There is a covered market area in the center and a myriad of small alleys and strangely named roads branch out interspersed with numerous churches. There are so many churches that not all of them are in use for their ordained purpose, having metamorphosised into restaurants and antiques showrooms or even art galleries.

Art and crafts are important in Norfolk and there are ample shops that either sell the components or display the finished products. There has also been an invasion of small elephants in the city center, these being brightly coloured and, in some cases, intricately patterned.

Leading off from the market through to the road running past the castle is a selection of shops known as the Arcade and it is a beautiful example of late Art Nouveau/early Art Deco. For collectors of television trivia it has been used in a few of the Agatha Christie’s “Poirot” series. I used to visit it frequently as it housed a shop called Innana’s Festival. This sold some amazing spiritual, new age, wiccan etc goods. The lady that owns it studied at the University of East Anglia, which is also in Norwich. She had a dream one night and saw the name of her to be shop. (Innana is a Mesopotamian Goddess much like Aphrodite.) Things change and the shop has moved to new premises in Lower Goat Lane. This is quite close to the cathedral, which I have also seen used in the television series “Rosemary and Thyme”. The shops still carries some amazing artist made jewelry and ornaments many of which can be viewed on Facebook as she has an account on there where she uploads examples of her newer stock. I particularly recommend her ‘Green Man’ plaques and also the ‘Hare’ pendants, not forgetting the Hare Krishna made incense in Sandalwood and Lavender. She is also responsible for the Norwich Mind, Body and Spirit Festival that is held in one of the cities churches every year usually in the spring.

You may wonder as to why I am so enthusiastic about Norwich but that is easy to explain as my son lives just outside the city with his partner and my two granddaughters, and a very dear friend of mine, (who happens to be the other proud grandmother) lives in Norfolk as well. Over the years I have had amply time to appreciate the counties finer points and take an occasional wherry ride. (These are the original broads boats and my friend’s husband occasionally captain’s one of the better known ones, namely ‘the Hathor’, the interior of which is decorated in Egyptian style.)

I often play spot the landmark when watching my favourite television programmes and have often identified our local Hoover building (now a Tesco but with a protected Art Deco frontage) playing different parts in Poirot that have ranged from a factory to a film studio. I do watch detective fiction a great deal but also enjoy the occasional sitcom such as “Absolutely Fabulous” and of course “Keeping up Appearances”. One of the things that I like about the latter series is that it is filmed in and around Norwich. This means that I get the chance to spot the buildings that I am familiar with and sometimes the roads too. I understand that it is also a popular series in the United States but for the benefit of others I will give a brief explanation of it. Patricia Routledge plays a lady called Hyacinth Bucket who insists that her name is pronounced Bouquet. She likes to hold ‘soirees’ and invite influential people. Her next-door neighbour is terrified of being invited in for coffee as she always contrives to make the woman spill some or in other ways embarrass herself. Her family are happy go lucky souls who are definitely not interested in climbing the social ladder apart from one sister who is married to a rich man and this she likes to introduce into conversations to impress people.

You may now be wondering what all this has to do with mythic beasts. (Well apart from the ones on display in Innana’s Festival) People are prone to give nicknames to those that they know well and this is true in the case of some of Dragon’s relatives. They call her Hyacinth