Good Friday

Mum can't be torn from tradition, so we began with Hot cross bun, then off out fairly early to Helston. Very very far away, but Flambards was our only free and partly indoors option. 
It was F-F-F-Freezing. And expensive. Had Mr Tescos not provided 50 of the 56 quid required we wouldn't have gone. Maybe just sent Nan in on her own as she was free! Went straight for the Cafe, predictably. Then braved the outside to go on some Rides. Not quite the white knuckle extravaganza the advertising would have you believe!

Starts gently.. just trying to look warm and happy..

Pops pulling a variety of faces (will get worse later)..

 It's not even that high!

May as well go on upside down one as already feeling sick from backwards balloons. Although we don't look very convinced that this is a good idea.. Pops main concern was that he got strapped in then decided he really needed a wee.

We ain't scared... er... 

See, that was fine.

 The best thing that can be said about that ride was that much to our relief, Dad still need a pee afterwards.

 Enough bravery.. into what we had hoped would be the warm. However, good as the museum bit was, it wasn't that much warmer than outside. There was half a Concorde, stuff about Barnes Wallis. Motorbikes, WW2 stuff, planes, RAF, the Blitz and a Victorian village. By the end I had lost my family and all feeling in my hands.


Toilet or cafe. Scrounged leftovers.
Science dome. Bernoulli effect.
Raining. Left. Car deciding. St austell. Cache. Spoons. Guinness. Wifi. Nan stayed in car. Oh could have eaten there. Drove in circle crap pub crap meal dad fight over chips. No fire no game. Bed little dorrit.

Sent from my iPhone

TGF power kites

Soduko over breakfast then off to Bude. Ended up at Crooklets. Nearly empty, can't imagine it being like that in the summer. Went on a reccy. Looked like there were 3 surfers in. Came back and looked for board hire. A cafe had a shed outside, with a pile of old crap outside that. Hmmm. Back onto the beach (having abandoned Nan at the cafe) for a closer investigation.

After not looking where I was going over wet bit and paying the consequences, it turned out to be  canoes in the water. Again no surf. So out came the cameras and then the Pirates baseball..

 Just checking on Nan.. (speck, top left)..

 Chalkie looking cool (and warm) in his Animal snowboarding gear..

See, the sun DID shine.. he has a shadow!

Pops pulling a variety of amusing faces..

Skillage!

 Kite definitely easier to set up when the lines are wound seperately. Oh and you could tell when the wind suddenly got up again... there were skid marks in the sand. Think it was my longest fly yet. Great fun.. and I ended up boiling!

Cafe time again, having collected driftwood for kindling on the way back up the beach. Comedy moment of the year. The poor lad came over with our food and came out with the immortal line "two soups". We can only imagine what he muttered as he walked away from the four people now wetting themselves laughing.



Mushy peas and a Mr Whippy for dinner. Yum.

It's all too much for Chalkie!!!

View from the nearest cache.. (containing a Psalm photo)

Went to the Nevisports in Fraddon in the afternoon. Most disappointing. Lots of useful things but not bargains. Only a couple of nice animal things (well, affordable Animal things). Tried on some board shorts. Pops started taking the mick out of my legs. Made him roll up his jeans. He went quiet when I pointed out that his are whiter and just as skinny.

Next off to the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor.

 It was shut! The museums and gift shop etc had closed just before we got there. At least there was a cache.. and a very cool cache it was.. massive ammo tin hehe. So, we went into the Inn for an early tea. I stood on the spot where someone murdered and annoyed an albino vicar slash pirate while waiting for my extremely yummy pint of Guinness and  steak and ale pie.

The boys got absolutely butt whooped at Triv. Even though I tried to help them out by saving them the Tony Bullimore question. Chalkie remembered reading it in Falmouth the day before. Then cards. Sevens was the only other game we could remember apart from Kings and snap. Chalkie had the rules explained to him then suddenly became awesome at cards and won every hand.

 I finally finished Little Dorrit... all 900 and something pages. Finally. This educating yourself and acquiring some culture is just too much effort! I should stick to Roald Dahl!

Watery Fowls

Late out. Nan on go slow. Not stressful when there is no surf and you have Little Things on your iPad.Had planned to go see Daphne but by the time someone rang her she was going out with David. Chalkie devised a late back up plan to go see Torquay. Take Nan round her old haunts. Navigation not brilliant today. The 'other' GPS in the back of the car was quick to tell us 'Torquay was back there, you're going away from it now'. Not the only time we 'got told' that week.

We ended up on Paignton. Parked by the pier. Well, parked by the toilets and the cafe, which seemed to be the sole requirements of the holiday for the rest of the family. Again, my requirement was not evident. There was tiny surf, which looked sooo un-inviting.

Someone is pleased to be here!!

Almost as bad as my resident pigeons..

 Had a stroll down the pier. Actually a 'scurry' as it was freezing. Abandoned Nan by the fruit machines and Ma by the Tupenny Falls. Shock horror, next was the Cafe. Ordered a Horlicks then nipped out to get a cache 'under the boardwalk'. Bravely unscrewed this.

When caching it's best not to think about what your fingers might find. Very relieved that this was actually the cache. I'd just taken the photo and walked away when a guy approached "find it?" he asked. Couldn't resist watching his progress.. he went straight to it, then chickened out. He glanced over so I gave him a quick nod and left him to it. The best mug of Horlicks ever, and the biggest belgian bun ever was a nice reward for my efforts.


Struggled to escape Paignton's one way system.. saw this several times..

Next off to Trago Mills. Somewhere Nan had been before on her coach holidays. Good job we didn't have to rely on her directions. The place was huge. Imagine a car boot sale crossed with a QD store in a warehouse. They sell everything. I didn't know this for much of our visit. I got stuck in tools and decorating, not realising there was a huge other bit with more interesting stuff. Got dangerous when I found the music store. The guitar book I chose from the many many options was expensive but will be worth it if I can play Blackbird as a result. Also got lots of Muc Off. No excuses not to clean the bike now (aside from it being sub zero again, as I edit this a week later, in April). Sent Ma back into the fray for a tea pot. How dare she buy a small red teapot and not get me one?! The others must have been having withdrawal symptoms by now so after yet another pee they had to resort to takeaway tea, which Nan promptly threw all down her coat in protest.

 Pub for tea. Might have been one recommended in the cottage booklet Chalkie had resorted to reading that morning (having re-organised all the tourist brochures whilst waiting for something to happen). Cool VW outside. Even cooler Dubs when we came out, couple of vans had arrived. Shame we hadn't brought a tin opener!

Me and Pops played darts (Clock?) while waiting for food to arrive, having let the barmaid decide on Lasagne for me. He thought he had me beat until a last minute comeback. Obviously I was just toying with him! Creme Brulee for afters was delicious..

Finally had a decent blaze back at the cottage, thanks to the special logs we had bought at Trago.

Played UNO. Should have tried harder to convince Nan we were playing for money, as I won all three games.. could have been quids in there! Watched a bit of Little Dorrit on DVD in bed. Thanks to a lot of time in the car I've almost finished the book.