Cosy

Great night's sleep. En suite facilities working well. Can I be bothered to go cache hunting in the rain? Hmm. Prob not

Sent from my iPhone

I'm home!

Three hours of traffic, a torrential downpour and three million m and ms and I have made it to Legoland. Am still at van pondering the plans of the weather!

En suite

Just been to Go Outdoors yet again. Intention was to buy a mini khazee. However they didn't have those and I refused to pay twenty quid for a bucket with an ill fitting lid. Will get a large Tupperware instead. At least it's sealable.

Accidentally bought trainers. They had the half price £110 salomons in my size. No more wet feet. Can't bring myself to throw out the knackered old ones tho.

Why the heck not?

Smelled someone's barbie on the way home from work. Thought that smells good. Remembered bangers in freezer. Thought why the heck not. Excuse to light a fire hehe

Hopefully will take my mind off the wasp sting from 3 hours ago that still kills.

Packing for legoland. Easier when the stuff never made it back to the loft from the last trip.

Reflections

Surveys. Rubbish run. More surveys. In and Out. More surveys.

International Geocaching day.

arm not long enough, paper chain, reflection

Zzz

I think I should sleep in the van every night. I had a week of sleeping really well. As soon as I'm back in my own bed I'm awake half the night.

Oh well. Best get started on these darn surveys. And the wet kit mountain. :-(

Home

Sadly. But am looking forward to having dry feet tomorrow. Van smells of wet. No doubt my spare room will also smell of wet by the time I get round to sorting out kit tomorrow (not been lazy tonight, went to soup kitchen). Only took 5-6 hours to drive back. No jams. Did 30 surveys before the laptop battery ran out. Surfboard upstairs easy. Wetsuits now drowning in the bath. Sky box didn't record episode 5 of Torchwood so going to watch that in bed now. TGF BBC iPlayer!

Flat

Wed Daphne portreath flat Daphne late food profiteroles
Thurs pack up
Sent from my iPhone

It's fab. Still have today and wednesday here. Am getting very good at wipe outs. Pops did the best one though. He nose dived the board and somersaulted off the front. I laughed. A lot. Currently doing surveys sat in the van while folks faff and decide where to go
Sent from my iPhone

As I was going to St Ives

Up late. Slept very very well! Decided to go surfing at Porthmeor. Getting there a tad stressful. St Ives is very hilly and twisty when you're in a big van with no idea where you're going. Eventually found the car park and queued for a space. Bumble was a real Surf Van. Parked up overlooking the beach, got into my soggy wetsuit inside. Very glad to have the new one. Getting into the winter one when wet is even more impossible than when dry. Installed Ma on the beach with a book. And a windbreak. And blankets. And coats. And a tarpaulin. Pops had a moment of bravery and decided to 'suit up'. Had great fun surfing and trying without a great deal of success to teach Pops to surf. Pops gave up and went to go get warm. I stuck at it for ages until I couldn't stand my ice block feet anymore (mistake to not bother with the boots). When I went back up the beach I couldn't find Ma, only a small grey rock where I had left her. The rock then moved and revealed a head. The rock then produced a mars bar and went back to its book. Revived I went out for another go and despite the much smaller waves still got plenty of pop up practice before the car park time ran out.

Moved to another car park then had a wander round St Ives, most of which doesn't seem to have a closing time, fortunately for us. Fortunately for my bank account there were no Animal bargains. Found another nice pub. Had Pie! Back to the tent for UNO and hot chocolate before bed.

Boardmasters 2011

Spent Saturday faffing about looking for the correct connector for the gas bottle. Amazed to find it in a Yeomans shop in St Austell. Pretty amazed we found the shop even. Also stumbled upon a rather excellent shopping place nearby the campsite. Massive Nevisport store inside, with a sale on. Several items of Animal clothing later... After St Austell we aimed for the coast, and ended up in Charlestown. Which was a lucky find. And lucky timing. We arrived in the middle of a rowing competition...

Close finish... the home team just won it..

Trivial Pursuit that evening. And Pops showing me how stupid I looked with my hood up for warmth, but ears out so I could hear.

Sunday: "Yaaaay!!! Just surfed at Fistral bay.. Didn't quite drown. Came close!"

Fantastic day down at Newquay. Was intrigued by the road signs we had seen, so looked up Boardmasters on the mighty iPhone. Had missed all the bands at Watergate unfortunately (bet Fat Boy Slim was good) and only heard the fireworks. However, the surf finals were on Sunday, and the rest of the stuff at Fistral was still on. Was grinning all the way to Newquay driving Bumble, waving at other Dubs. Getting on the car park was tricky, but was all excited getting the board out. Had a wimp out attack when we got to the beach, so I wandered off to see what the festival was about. Found a BMX ramp first...

Quite how you can ride a bike with your trousers that far down your arse I do not know!

Cocoa Cola were there with an Olympics thing..

Got tempted to move to Cornwall by the lady at the Cambourne College who said they were hiring lecturers in Sports Science. Stopped by the skate ramp to see the 'Groms'.

Left the Animal shop unscathed, and Ann's Cottage had rows and rows of men's wetsuits, and 5 for women. Noticed that the surfing finals had started so went to get a few tips before hitting the waves myself.

Reassuring that these guys wipe out too... albeit a tad more spectacularly..

Got a bit nippy standing in the shallows, so walked back up to where the folks were camped. Collected Pops for a wander round. Back to watch more of the surfing comp. Do you reckon I could pass these off as me surfing? Looks a bit similar but my pop up is more of a scramble briefly to feet before falling in again.

Managed to put off getting wet some more by taking Pops round the stands (obligatory event t shirt purchase) and went into the new quiksilver shop intending to just cut through. Ended up looking at the wetsuits and complaining that in here too there was a whole room full of men's wetsuits and about 5 for women. A friendly assistant came over. His response to a request for a suit for a long legged stick was from the teenage boys range. Despite not intending to buy, I went to the changing rooms. Changed intentions immediately when it was easy to get on by myself and fitted perfectly (tight all over, but can actually move). Pops did his annoying trick at the till and won the credit card race/fight. So thanks Pops.


No more excuses. So got the board out of the bag. Realised what a newbie wally I must look with the bubble wrap still on it!

Further schoolboy errors trying to get the fins on..

Wax on, wax off..

How very pleased with myself...

Going for cool surfer dude.. actually looking like nervous geek (and yeah, I did remember to take my glasses off before going in)

Does my bum look big in this?

Not sure which is worse... Dad's photography or my surfing technique.. anyway, I was chuffed that I managed to stand up at the very first attempt!

Look...look I really can do this...

Hmmm, they all look a bit similar. Better work on my moves! My first proper attempt at a turn...

 Does of course go slightly less well on the odd occasion..

So, there you go. My very first surfboard, christened at Fistral. Pretty cool IMHO. Still buzzing when we left the kit with Bumble and ventured off into Newquay in search of food. Got lucky down at the harbour with a nice pub. Pops most amused when he sent me off to get drinks and the lady behind the bar said "Can I ask how old you are?" Er... 34. Obviously looked younger than I felt after hours of getting thrown about by waves and gravity.

Slept well!