By Jacob De Figueiredo

Mundesley

Hello everyone and welcome to my scab. 

Today’s topic is a classic one. It’s about the North Norfolk coast. A place that holds a very very special place in my heart, for many reasons. That you’re all going to hear about now. So you can thank me later. 

A lot of these reasons are very personal to me, so I probably won’t speak about them. But I have an intensely emotional relationship with this part of the country, specifically a little seaside village called Mundesley. 

Mundesley is a small beautiful Victorian seaside village. The kind of place your mum probably has a watercolor photo of painting onto some crappy plate that nobody ever uses. Here’s a bit of pointless history on the area that most will skip past so it’s for the real North Norfolk fans out there. Mundesley itself became popular with the Victorians when people were brought to the area when the railway opened in 1889, (wow I’m actually boring myself). People loved it for its clean air calling it some of the finest in the country. 

The air is a massive reason as to why I still love to visit from time to time. It’s so clean and crisp, sometimes standing on the edge of a cliff and taking in a massive breath of air is all a person needs to clean their system and remember that life it’s supposed to be constant pain and stress, sometimes it can be merely enjoyed by doing nothing at all. 

But my parents used to force me to this little seaside town to during all of summer, which made me absolutely despise the place when I was a kid. All I wanted to do was play world of warcraft until 5 am every night and try and chat up girls on MSN like pretty much every teenage boy wanted to do during those years. But I had to spend 4 weeks of summer holidays there which, looking back on, I’m very grateful for. My parents didn’t have internet or TV at the house so it was really supposed to be detox from reality. I remember I brought my laptop and would go to the top floor of the house to connect to the next-door neighbour’s wifi and wait all day for one episode of Southpark to stream. Good times. 

My mum would always say to me that I’d appreciate the house we have there when I’m older and now I truly do. I’ve been lucky enough to take my friends and girlfriend to visit and it’s been my special place for the past couple of years, I use it for when life gets too much or when I feel like I want to connect with those who I’ve lost. 

When you walk around the village and speak to the people who live there, most of them just go on about their life’s and appear to be infinitely happier and content than most people who live in big cities. They just exist and enjoy themselves. Fishing by the sea as the sunsets and drinking pints in the local until the early hours of the morning. That’s the life for me. Maybe without the fishing though. 

Through unforeseen circumstances I’ve inherited this house along with my brother and sister and I’ve sworn to myself that I’ll take good care of it until I die and hopefully pass it on to my children, so they can hate their summers but look back on them when they grow old and realise they were some of the happiest times they’ve had. 

Can’t wait to visit this summer.