Whatto peeps!  And yes it's me again.  I do hope you're all ready for another instalment of gripping, nail-biting excitement in this month's read.  Of course I am referring to this column and not Dan Brown's, by now infamous Da Vinci code.  Words fail me just as they did the folks who saw it on its first weekend's showing - Silence - on exiting - It was like leaving a hospital morgue - with the corpse!  I can safely say that never in all my years have I ever encountered that phenomenon before.   Anyone would think that they'd just been told petrol was £1.00 a litre - Oh it is - Oh well, moving swiftly onwards.  As do the months.  Well, here we are just two weeks to go until the nights start drawing in.  How lovely!  I haven't yet gotten used to the idea of practising all the recommendations to avoid wasting water.   I've tried the two in the bath thing, but the other half found out!  I tried shoving a brick in the loo, but nobody told me it was supposed to be in the cistern!   Blimey I even took up gin and tonic so that I should not have to water down me scotch.  So eventually I realised the way forward to ensure my dahlias received their daily ration of Adam's ale, was to invest in a large, green, plastic barrel and attach it to one of my drainpipes (of the house variety and not the fashion statement of the sixties).  And then waited for the rain to come.  It didn't disappoint.   But this got me a thinkin'. Now if I've got this right rainfall is all part of a cycle, i.e. rain falls, and wets the ground, most is then absorbed into the air by evaporation, it forms more clouds and rain falls to earth all over again.  The remaining ground water is left to soak in to the watercourse for farmers and the Thames and Yorkshire water companies to extract, waste and squander through leaks, all what's left at will.  Then me thinks, of course it's not all the water companies fault either is it?  After all if the water levels are at the lowest for years why should that be?  I have the answer.  You see it's us!  Yes all of us out there who've gone out and bought enough plastic butts (not to be confused with surgically enhanced human ones) to cover Northern Ireland.  These in turn are kept full of the very stuff that would normally, naturally drain away into the sub-soil and feed the very watercourse we are supposed to be protecting.  I guess it's a case of what comes around goes around - or not as the case may be.

Any way the Mo is appealing!  Yes endearing as it might be the chaps and lassies in custodial charge of those fine craft still need to find another 150 grand for their Grand Designs to complete the housing of the boats project.  So folks any ideas?  They need all the cash they can get and quick.  If only to save the boys who man the place of a Wednesday lunch time from going mad with the smells of fine cuisine coming from the culinary centre of excellence next door at the Crown.  I just don't know how long those lads will be able to cope with just sarnies for their dinners?  Now then Carnival is just about upon us again.  Yes, it is generally the custom for the town's folk to make merry, dance and enjoy all that is offered.  That is unless it's a mind-blowing, earth-shattering deafening dull thud of an all night rave the like of which many of us Sheringham residents and country folk alike had to endure at the start of May.   My Dachshund still hasn't recovered - thought we were having a seismic quake and as yet still refuses to come out from the cupboard under the stairs.  Let us all pray to the powers that be that this year the Town's Council and the Carnival Committee have gotten together and ironed out the parking problem before the ivent of the year actually takes place.  My family and I are all right, as I shall be hiring for all my travelling kith and kindred kin all of West's jet skis, and launched from our family yacht moored just off the crab pots!  Oops just one problem though I can't seem to find that winning lotto ticket yet.  Still I'm sure we'll all have a great time even if I do have to watch - and worse - get roped into the Morris dancer's formation team!  Oh well with a hey noddy ho!  Yes well, I'd better leave that one right there, along with me bell socks and pheasant feather if you don't mind!  So come on all you budding creative show-offs out there, now's your chance to show the world what you're capable of.  It doesn't matter if the fruit of your effort is large or small it's the taking part that counts.  (Said the actress to the bishop) and if you can't count then ask a policeman!  Only do it quick before they're all turned into Special Constables and based in Cambridgeshire.  That's one hell of a ride especially if you're on the cycle beat!  Well that's just about all this time.  Don't forget to keep the old chin up and the younger ones too!  Get to bed early if only to annoy the other half scoffing crisps between the sheets and most importantly try to live life in awe as if every moment was a new experience.  After all you can't expect to do much else when you get to my age!
Take care now Vic.

WHAT A PARTY - CARNIVAL QUEEN SELECTED

The Crown disco night in Sheringham was the venue for the Carnival Queen and her two attendants to be chosen. Thirteen young ladies put their names forward for selection; the Carnival committee judges taking nearly three hours to announce the winners. The disco night attracted lots of youngsters to the Crown and most of the entrants had very vocal support, which added to the atmosphere.
The winners were announced as Nicola Fleming, a hairdresser, from Sheringham and Stacy Thomas, a trainee hairdresser, from Weybourne, as the two attendants, and the Carnival Queen herself - a carer for the elderly and a local girl - was the lovely Samantha Carter.
All 13 girls were subjected to interviews with the judges - Tony Nelson, Coral Batchelor and Gill White - and despite the hour, there was still a good crowd of people left to raise the roof when the winners were announced.

They were overjoyed when first, flowers, and then cheques - £150 for the Queen and £75 each for the attendants - which were cut in half for the present; half now and the other half after they have finished their duties, most of which occur during Carnival Week - Saturday, July 29 until Sunday August 6 - which, if as good as the selection process, promises to be a fantastic party time.
The evening was compéred very efficiently by Neil Batchelor and thanks go to him, the landlord of the Crown, Bob Brewster. Jewellery worn by Carnival Queen supplied by Treasures of Sheringham.   And not forgetting the crowds of young people in the audience, who were very courteous to the more elderly members of the committee, and added some zeal to the extraordinary event.