Twixmas-Gunton Hall with Duncan & Tracey

 Twixmas- Gunton Hall

Merry Christmas everyone! It was a super exciting start to our Christmas Day as we awoke to presents from home and JollyDays. 

A special visit from Santa himself made our morning and we thanked him for our gifts. 

It was time for some festive fun in the form of bell ringing or as Gunton Hall like to call it 'Christmas Clangers'. We had a great time working together to ring out some Christmas tunes which once we got ourselves organised sounded amazing! 

 Our favourite part of the day was Christmas lunch…….. and the chefs didn't let us down! We enjoyed a fantastic traditional lunch with all the trimmings, leaving room for pudding. The evening show was the super feel good festive sensational Spirit of Christmas concert. We were wowed by the wonderful Christmas songs backed by the incredible Warner's orchestra playing on the big screen. We hit the dance floor with our new found friends and partied late into the evening, enjoying every second.  

We found the games room and were pleasantly surprised by the well equipped hall. First, we started with a game of 301 on the dart board. Some of the lads then had a friendly game of pool while the others tried their hand at badminton and kurling which Kyla and Kevin were pros at! 

It was then time for the eagerly awaited panto! Oh, yes it was! The performance of Little Red Riding Hood had us in stitches with their madcap antics on stage and their innuendos. We had a perfect view of the stage from out front row seats and after a lot of cries of 'he's behind you' and booing the big, bad wolf, Little Red Riding Hood lived a fairy tale happy ever after. 

We had our blue suede shoes on and our snake hips at the ready as we were dazzled by an Elvis tribute act. After a few songs the crowd were invited onto the dance floor and of course we jumped straight out of our seats as the front of stage was flooded with people ready to dance the night away! 

A wonderful morning was spent in Great Yarmouth and at its expansive sea front which is home to a fantastic Sealife Centre. We had a great time looking at all of the weird and wonderful salt water and fresh water creatures, but everyone's favourites had to be the penguins, turtles and sharks! After we'd finished checking out the aquarium, we hit the gift shop to buy some souvenirs.

We couldn't leave without experiencing the infamous Hippodrome to watch a Christmas and water show, circus extravaganza. We took our seats with a great ringside view and as the lights dimmed the excitement grew. We were amazed by all the incredible acts from jugglers juggling huge, sharp knives to death defying acrobats and trapeze artists. Our hearts were beating fast at the daredevil acts. The ring was then magically transformed into a huge swimming pool with a set of steps and a platform in the middle. We were wowed by the perfectly timed synchronised swimmers and the amazing performance. What a show!

It was a day of rest and relaxation so we headed to the spa for a dip in the pool and chill in the jacuzzi bath.  Some of the guys chose just to relax on the sun loungers, while William opted for a nice sauna before joining Kyla and Claire in the spa bath. 

The fireworks display lit up the night sky in an array of bright, sparkly colours. The whizzes, bangs and crackles had us 'ohhing' and 'ahhhhing' with smiles on our faces. 

Our active group enjoyed another nail biting curling match as well as trying their hand at carpet boules. 

 

We were party ready! It was time to put on our sparkles and ties as we enjoyed a special five course meal. 

As always, the staff had pulled out all the stops and had decorated the table with streamers, crackers and silly props for us to pose with! 

The entertainment team then put on a fantastic musical show bringing the hits from the 60's to Britpop from the 90's which had us all singing and clapping away. The house band then returned to the stage to get us on the dance floor ready for the countdown to midnight and 2022!  

We heard the unmistakable sound of the bagpipes as the piper made his way through the Pavilion playing us into the New Year in style. 

As the clock struck 12, balloons fell from the ceiling, party poppers went off all around and after we had finished singing Auld Lang Syne we partied into the early hours of the morning in true JollyDays style.  

     

We headed to the Anglia Transport Museum as it was having a special open day! As we arrived at the museum, we were very excited to find that not only were there many vintage vehicles on display there were four which we could actually ride! The first thing we decided to do was take a ride on a trolley bus from the early 1960's. The whole of the museum was so informative, and it was a real insight as to how transportation has developed over the years. 

It was game on at the bowling alley as we knocked down the pins, hit a few strikes and scored highly. 

One of our favourite live shows was a Tina Turner tribute act. We couldn't believe how much she looked and sounded exactly like the pop legend! We partied the night away 'rollin down the river' and going to 'Nutbush city'.