I have been to ... North West Norfolk

My wife and I have just returned from Old Hunstanton in North West Norfolk. We decided to go there at the last minute in order to finish the break that we began some weeks ago, and which had to be cut short when my father-in-law fell over and had to be rushed to hospital. His subsequent death has meant that since then we seem to have done nothing together except deal with the aftermath of his death, and we were in desperate need of a short break to recharge our batteries.

For the last three days we have been staying at the ‘Le Strange Arms Hotel’, Old Hunstanton.

We have stayed there many times before, and it is an excellent base from which to visit the northern and western parts of Norfolk. It is also very well known for its outstanding food and services, and as you can probably guess, we both rather overindulged ourselves.

During this particular stay we visited the centre of Hunstanton and nearby Heacham as well as King's Lynn. Despite the fact that the number of shops in the centre of Hunstanton is quite small, my wife found two pairs of shoes to buy. In Heacham she found a shop that specialises in selling items such as glassware, table decorations, cushions, vases, and candlesticks and she was able to purchase a set of table decorations that she needs for a retirement party that she is organising.

My 'retail therapy' had to wait until we visited King's Lynn, where the local toy shop proved to have a number of die-cast model aircraft on sale. These are made in China and sold in the UK by Red Box Toy Factory Limited under the trade name 'Motor Max Sky Wings'. I managed to buy two packs (for £2.99 each), each of which contained two versions of the same aircraft. The models represent single-engined Yokosuka D4Y Suisei dive-bombers and twin-engined Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu fighters.

Both sets of aircraft are painted in Japanese markings, but are fairly generic in outline and should be usable as single and twin-engined bombers in wargames set in the late 1930s and early 1940s.