Rarely have I been quite relieved to find myself sitting at CCL ready for some chemo! But it has been a wild old month really, having had the 10 day trip to California (and subsequent jet lag) with Janine, then pretty much straight into H's pre-birthday weekend with David & Mandy coming to us, then his surprise dinner and one day to get packed up before we headed down to Cornwall & Devon for 10 days. Got back an hour ago and I now can take a breath to write this one up before they come at me with the 'fun's over' needles…
Started off with a night in Devon en route to Cornwall, staying in a nice pub with doggy rooms, the Ley Arms. And then headed onwards to stay at the Seafood Restaurant Hotel, above, yes you've guessed it, Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow for 2 nights. Which heralded the start of some very unexpected and fanatically good special birthday weather – having packed a brolly, Barbour, walking boots and wet weather trousers, none were needed!
Allowing us to wander out on the Cornish beaches – and up some small hills for Hawksey – with Miss Maddie beside herself with delight at the sea AND sand AND ball AND amazing running spaces….
And the big birthday day started very well with cards & prizes in bed – H quite overcome with what people had sent him and the birthday good wishes coming his way.
After some birthday kippers (yum!) we then headed out for a cracking walk along the Padstow beaches – proper t-shirt weather on the 26th March, when does that ever happen? One of the last shots here of my sunglasses holder rope thingy which shortly afterwards disappeared, hot on the heels of my much loved travel tea mug – still a mystery how one minute I was pouring cold tea out of it by the car and the next minute – gone! A large (invisibly stealthy) seagull perhaps..
Then it was time for pre-dinner cocktails at some schmancy bar in Padstow and back to Stein's for the big event – starting with 'the shall we have a drink at the bar?' thought. The perfect moment for a lovely bottle of H's fave fizz to arrive in front of top us, care of David & Mands. Brilliant – made him all emotional, almost cried into his oysters…
On the day after his birthday we then toddled off to a little rental cottage on the edge of Dartmoor and Jules & Nicky kindly came down on the train to join us for a few days. Cue one very nice walk around the coast at Fowey (and yet more pasties) – and more sun!
Then we were onto one of H's favourite birthday 'things' – a night to see a shanty /rock / folk Cornish band back down in St Austell, after a full day of town ambling, brewery visiting and a hotel cuppa. I finally found a gig with a group called The Countrymen, having emailed 15 different bands over the past few months in search of something suitable – never ideal arriving the week after the annual big shanty festival when they'd all been there and weren't in a rush to sing again!
His delight – and again emotion, at seeing a Cornish band and listening to their very heartfelt Cornish songs about tin miners and fishermen, was very sweet. And actually they were very good. The audience even had to stand up and 'sing' the Cornish anthem – one way of spotting who the London Gits (us) were, as clearly only H knew the words…
Muggins here then had to drive the new 'big' car back to the cottage so everyone else could get on the beers – I'm not a fan of the weeny narrow West Country roads when I'm a passenger, let alone when driving the new metal beast for only the second time, and in the dark!
Spent the last few days walking on the moors, exploring Foggintor Quarry, pottering the (very!) little villages and nearly-towns and sitting in the sun on the bench outside our little cottage in the sun. Had one final 4+ mile walk all along lovely Woolacombe Beach – well worth the drive back west to get there.
So – Cornwall & Devon, going back to H's roots for his big birthday – tick, tick, tick. Pasties tick. Rattler cider tick. Local Cornish beers & ales tick. All things seafood & fishy tick. Beaches tick. Hills & dales tick. Fish & chips tick. And we loved the little community pub in our village, Drewsteignton – very cute and even chatted with an older bloke who asked which bit of London, then Wimbledon we were from – and yes, he used to live in Dora Road. A small world x