Retro Chick Gets Radar

From where I’m sitting it looks like we’re going to have a May full of all those April showers we should have had in, er, April.

Bank Holiday Monday, however, was absolutely glorious for once and so we made the most of it and headed out to the country to the Radar Museum in Neatishead.

I’ve been there before a few years ago, but Mr Chick never had, and I was really keen to go back! The Radar Museum is on the site of the world’s longest continuously operating radar site and is a fascinating look at the history of Radar from WWII to the present day as well as having a whole load of cool Air Force and general telecommunications stuff that you can press all the buttons on. And everyone loves to press the buttons.

Here I am making sure all the buttons are well and truly pressed in the replica of a Cold War bunker and a jet fighter cockpit. As a bonus the man at the jet talked me through all the pedals and levers and how you would actually take off in a plane, so I am now totally a qualified pilot.

The volunteers at the Radar Museum are all really knowledgeable and friendly and keen to talk about everything. When you arrive it looks a little like a shed, but when we left we realised we’d mysteriously managed to be in there for 2 whole hours, looking at radar equipment.

There is other stuff to see, apart from me pressing buttons.

Things we learnt include the fact that if Mr Chick was in charge of defending our coastline from incoming fighter planes we would probably all be dead as a radar simulation saw him sending planes to intercept flying round in a big circle. I didn’t try it, but I would obviously be totes awesome at it. Or something.

Being such a lovely day it seemed like standing in front of a huge missile might be a nice place for an outfit photo, because, well, why not.

♥ Blouse – New Look ♥ Skirt – Lady K Loves ♥
♥ Sandals – Debenhams* ♥ Head Scarf – Seamstress of Bloomsbury* ♥

We even took our own lunch with us to eat on the picnic benches outside, which made me feel super organised and grown up. I highly recommend it. Next time I might take a flask too. My gingham skirt felt right at home on a picnic bench.

I do feel at this point I would like to point out something that I was particularly proud of when I got dressed in the morning. The blouse might be old and have a hole that is hidden by the tie front, and the gingham skirt might still have a slight pink tinge where I foolishly washed it with a red t-shirt, but the red polka dot wired hair scarf and the polka dot trim on the neckline of the blouse are a perfect match, and that made me ridiculously happy. Almost as happy as learning to fly a jet fighter.

If you live in Norfolk and haven’t yet been to the Radar Museum then I highly recommend it, it’s £8 for an adult and the tiny gift shop sells reproduction wartime cooking pamphlets and radar museum branded trolley tokens, which parted me from even more cash.

If you don’t live in Norfolk then, hey, come on holiday and pay it a visit then!

Find out more at the Radar Museum website.