James Marston: Finally getting to grips with the loom band craze

Have you got a loom band?

My plain-speaking-photographer-friend Lucy made me one. It’s green and blue for my wrist apparently and she wants to see me wearing it.

I’m not sure about rubber as an accessory as a rule but I’ll give it a go.

Of course, this loom business isn’t exactly a new craze but I have noticed the older I get the farther away I find myself from the latest fashions.

Though I’ve listened to The Archers since I was 17, so there’s a strong argument I’ve never really been able to embrace the zeitgeist anyway.

Indeed, regular readers will know I sometimes find myself railing against popular things like music in shops, badly behaved children, X Factor and so-called social media. Though I did find myself up close and personal with modern technology - a wind turbine. It was very impressive and rather put my in mind of that TV programme The Tripods - does anyone remember that show?

Anyway this week my faith in human nature was restored in the Suffolk village of Redgrave.

I’d never been out that way much before I’m afraid, though my mother’s grandmother’s family – she had the surname Bailey - came from one of the Rickinghalls apparently.

I was very impressed by Redgrave, it is very picturesque and English and I rather took to it.

The village shop, so often an amenity lost to many rural communities, is run by a team of villagers all keen to foster the community spirit. They were a very friendly bunch and everyone knew each other. Suffolk has lots of lovely communities like this and I often feel lucky that I get to see them first hand.

By the time I made it back to Felixstowe, where I enjoy the benefit of a small flat with sea views (distant), I’d been in the car almost three hours and not left the county.

On part of my Suffolk travels I also visited our county town to take a Horrible History walk – in somewhat heavy rain – organised by the Ipswich tourist information centre and a lady called Lois.

Lois explained to me and a group of mums, dads, grandparents and youngsters - some of the more gory details of Ipswich’s past.

Did you know the town’s Corn Hill was used for executions and the like? And where those trees stand was once a shambles – where meat was sold and animals were slaughtered in medieval times - and would have been running with blood?

Its enough to put you off a cheese scone.

I wonder what our ancestors would have thought of rubber bracelets.