Cornwall - sort of...

Me, Caitlin and Ellie have just come back from a short break in Cornwall. It started well, but read on, cos it didn't really end that way. We arrived in Newquay at around 2 o'clock on Sunday. It was lovely and sunny so we headed for the beach and had an ice-cream. I should have known when mine fell off its cone and onto the floor that it was all going to go down hill from there.

The Blue Reef aquarium was nice, if small. (I had a free child entry voucher.) We wandered round, saw Nemo, and watched the sharks being fed. The kids took loads of photos of all the fish.

We stayed in an appartment in a village called Tregarrian, just above Watergate Bay; fabulous views from the balcony. The appartment was in the roof of the house and rather grandly called The Penhouse. It was quite posh and came with a complimentary bottle of wine. Caitlin and Ellie imediately declared they wanted to live there forever and that they should try to keep it looking as nice as it did when we arrived. Five minutes later it looked like a bomb had dropped.

On Monday we went to Flambards. (I had a free child entry voucher.) The sun continued to shine. This was the first ride they went on, by mid-morning they had shed jeans and leggins in favour of shorts and dress. They had fun on all the rides, although they were small and not quite Disney. On our way back to the appartment we had tea in Pizza Hut. (Kids eat free and I had a pizza for £5 voucher.) Are you starting to spot a theme here?

Then on Tuesday disaster struck. We got up early in order to get to the Minack Theatre, left the appartment at 8:20, and half way down the A30 to Penzance my car broke. The engine started to make sounds like a metal woodpecker had got stuck inside. I pulled into a layby and several phone calls later, on a mobile that was just about to go flat, established the fact that my big end had gone. This was confirmed by the AA man when he arrived at 9:55. He towed me off the A30 and we waited until 11:15 for a tow truck to arrive.

The tow truck man very kindly left us in Newquay and then he and my car headed home without us. We could have gone home too but that would have cut our holiday short. So the photo above is Caitlin enjoying lunch in a nice pub in Newquay, recommended by a nice man in the Tourist Information office. It was boiling hot again.

But by the time we arrived at Newquay Zoo it had got cold and cloudy. Still we spent the afternoon looking at the animals. (Discount voucher used, also give us by the TI man.) Then got a taxi back to the appartment.

This was Caitlin and Ellie this morning on Watergate Bay beach. Compare to the one I took on Sunday! Change in the weather. Shortly after this my dad came to pick us up and take us home. I love my Daddy!!!

And the reason for the title? Well we were in Cornwall, no doubt about that, but really we could have been anywhere, in any zoo, aquarium, beach, etc. Ellie kept saying it felt like Spain. What I really wanted to do were the unique things, the only in Cornwall things : the Minack, St. Michaels Mount, Lands End. The stupid car put paid to that! Still they're not going anyway, I suppose.

An Unsuccessful Walk

This is my poor sad doggy just before we took her home. We were walking in a place called Uppacott Wood, just outside of Bishops Tawton, when she got stung on the bottom by a wasp. We could see her trying to get to the area on the top of her hind leg and when I looked the wasp was still there, stuck in her fur. So I flicked it out. After that she didn't want to walk anywhere at all. Her tail went down and her ears went down, and when we picked her up she was all shivery. Poor doggy!

She's alright now though. And we did make her walk back to the car, which was good, cos she went on ahead as soon as I said we were going back, and she was the one who found the way out when the rest of us didn't know which way to go.

Playing with new technology

Aha! I've just worked out how to do this. I made a book trailer yesterday for a book I wrote ages ago. It was published by YouWriteOn, a website for writers funded by the Arts Council. And now I've worked out how to embed it into my blog. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks! Feel free to have a look.

Adrienne is 18 !!!

I can't believe I have an 18 year old daughter. My world has shifted slightly on its axis and I now have to adjust to having an adult child. Strange. Yesterday we had her party at the Conservative Club in Barnstaple. She went from not wanting one at all, to saying OK but it's going to be a masked party, to OK it's a full masquerade ball with posh frock and everything. Then there was the cake to-do. Adrienne didn't want one. I said she was having one and if she didn't agree to me doing a cake I'd get her a caterpillar cake like when she was little. She said, 'OK' - thinking I was joking!! Little did she know. So here she is, with Colin the Caterpillar 18th-birthday-style.

Ellie and Caitlin were allowed to attend. They didn't stay for the duration though, just until they got tired and bored. Carl took them home then came back to join me and our friends in the new cocktail bar round the corner. We left the 18 year olds to it, returning at the end to do embarrassing old people things on the dance floor.

Adrienne with BFF Brodie.

Me and my baby.

Dancing barefoot.

Those still left standing at the end of the night.

Harry Potter - the end.

We've just got back from watching 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - part 2'. The excitement in our house has been building up all week - the children started counting in hours about 2 days ago. We all went off in our Harry Potter t-shirts as you can see from the picture, but they decided to leave their wands behind at the last minute, just in case they lost them.

We were the first to book our seats the minute they went on sale and had the best seats in the house. We were the last to leave the cinema. I cried. I can't believe there is no more 'Harry Potter'! But it was a good film. Well worth the £30 in contact lenses just to see it in 3D properly. I need to go and see it again.

School Council Chairperson

Elections were held in school today for the Chair and Vice-chair of next years School Council. Each candidate had to give an election speech persuading the rest of the school to vote for them. When it comes to election speeches pretty much anything goes. We usually get balloons, party poppers, bubbles, puppets, etc all used to persuade the audience to vote for that particular candidate. Ellie decided to do a powerpoint - we've never had that before - and it was all her own idea. Part of her campaign speech was that if you want something done, ask a busy person. This was her photo to illustrate that she is a busy person - learning 2 instruments and taking 3 different dance lessons a week. It worked. She got voted in as Chairperson of the School Council. That's Head Girl equivalent in todays primary schools.

Well done Ellie!!!!!

Sunny Sunday

Hooray! Summer is here and it's on a weekend! We got out today to make the most of the nice weather. We cycled down to Fremington Quay. I offered them the choice of bike ride or dog walk and they were desperate to go on the bikes so we had to leave the poor doggy behind. Then Ellie moaned about her legs aching before we'd even got onto the Tarka Trail.

The thought of a nice cold drink and an ice cream at the end kept her going though. Except it wasn't quite the end cos then we had to come home again.

At home there were water fights. The dog ran away and sat by the front door. A hint if ever there was one. So I took her for a nice long walk along the river behind the cricket pitch. She was so knackered from chasing stones when we got there she ran straight into the water then stood there wondering how she was going to drink whilst holding her stone. After a while she realised she had to put it down. Then spent ages with her nose right under the water trying to get it back again.

It even stayed sunny long enough for us to have a BBQ too. The first one we actually had outside all year. I hope it lasts.