Another 13 items of normality, which I noticed between 1430 and 1545 (28th May 2010) on the Earlham Road, Norwich:
- Several pubs with names like the Royal Oak
- Tall trees dressed in full leaf
- Colman (mustard)
- An ample city of many churches
- Inside; mostly older men dressed in jackets and black ties
- Inside; older women smartly dressed in tight black skirts and dresses
- Alcohol
- Inside; very dark varnished wood, ‘olde-world’ decorations, and the pretence of a library
- Lord Nelson
- World Cup marketing with St George symbols and flags, all humourless apart from the two St George stretchy sockets pulled on to the wing mirrors of a silver people-carrier, which looked like two giant baby’s feet stuck out of the car windows
- Inside; a lingering smell of floor cleaner and stale beer, empty glasses, and tight groups of the older men and smartly dressed women sat drinking at several of the tables
- Outside; a longing to cross over and sit in the café on the sunny side of the road opposite (where the younger people mostly were, mothers in conversation, dressed in summer tops and patterned dresses, with their children in push chairs)
- The noise on the road of the constant stream of traffic heading west (towards the Crematorium), several of the cars filled with other older men in black ties and smartly dressed women in tight black dresses
Then for a few moments rising then falling outside, there was a clanking discordant sound of metal on tarmac, and the steam thrust, heavy piston pulse of a green painted traction engine emerged coming the other way, which frightened several of the children in push chairs, their mothers pulling away from their conversations together at the edge of the other side of the road.