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Writing this after the event, I'm finding it hard to remember which day exactly this is in Paignton .. I think it may be day 3
Today we all jumped into the Audi and headed out to Tintagel for the worlds best cornish pastie ... I'm starting to feel like I'm on the worlds largest food crawl What is it about being on holidays that makes spending hours driving from one side of the country to the other ok? If whilst at home someone said to me ... "Jacq .. I feel like a cornish pastie ... would you mind driving 2 hours in one direction to buy it for me?" ... well I'm sure you can imagine my response!
So with the weather perfect and my only other alternative being sat in mum and bills perfect sized bungalow FOR TWO NOT Four doing crosstich (not that there's anything wrong with that!!) off we headed.
For some reason driving for 2 hours across cornwall is actually a very pleasant experience. Possibly because I wasn't the one doing the driving, but also because the scenery is just so beautiful
So arriving at Tintagel we went straight to the worlds best cornish pastie shop and bought pasties for everyone. We then sat at the top of the stairway that leads down the cliff face to King Arthurs supposed birth place.
If Tintagel sounds familiar, it is one of many places in England laying claim to King Arthur, but more importantly Merlin. Hence the strong tourist theme being magic and mysticism ... not quite my cup of tea.
From Tintagel with a very small scoop of cornish icecream under our belts as well as the pasties (I am so needing to see Damon when we get home!!) we headed off to Port Issac and Padstow to see some true Cornish Coastline ruggedness. Its so odd to see Billabong and other surf store outlets just popping up around the place. This is truly the last place you would ever think surfing would be an option ... between the coldness and the ruggedness of the place, it seems quite adverse to the concept of surfing.
Well I must say the roughness and swells of the cornish sea were about as real as the 'bad' english weather. To date we've seen nothing but beautiful sunny days with lovely mild temperatures ... we believe Damian Albiez is making it all up about the horrible weather Likewise the Cornish coastline was as flat as a tack. But it was definitely RUGGED ... so beautiful.
I'd love to rent a whitewashed cottage perched on a cliff during winter here with a BIG fireplace. a million books, a couple of cats and just watch the storms and winds roll in. My idea of heaven!
Well wasn't Padstow a quaint little place. Again if Padstow sounds familiar, anyone that watches the cooking channel on Foxtel would be well aquainted with the name Rick Stein. This is his home town and half the town seems to be dedicated to him in some shape or form. Theres the Stein Pattissere, the Stein Resturant, the Stein Seafood School, the Stein bed and breakfast etc.
But for me the most memorable part of Padstow were the British and their dogs. My goodness ... they are fixated on walking their dogs
Apparently the dogs in Britan are completely different to dogs anywhere else in the world. British dogs MUST be walked morning and evening and at every opportunity they are taken EVERYWHERE with them on weekends.
Backs of cars are usually full of dogs and its quite disconcerting to see the first thing coming for you (apparently driving the car) in the opposite direction being a DOG. There are a million of those stupid little white "Misty", "Milly", "Missy", "Muffy" dogs, English springer spaniels, cocker spaniels and the national dog, the British Bull Dog everywhere!!
In Padstow there would have been a one for one ratio of human to dog today ... quite volatile and also quite messy ... yes, sorry Jen & Pete, you appear NOT to have the corner marketed on PRETENDING to pick up dog poo
Well once home, it was time for a quick nanna nap and then the Brick Bat championship of the world play off. For anyone wondering what that entails, you require one Blackberry phone, a husband and wife determined to beat each other and of course the game 'Brick Bat' installed.
Having started the world championship a few days ago in an airport lounge, I've managed to go from about 265000'th in the world to a rather good score of 106000'th in the world. Of course poor richie is yet to catch up, but there is still time. If determination counts for anything, its only a matter of time until one or both of us are under the 100,000 best players of Brick Bat in the world ... then its early retirement for us .. yes the fame, the fortune that should follow is just mind boggling
Well thats it for now .. richies looking for my phone so he can brick bat and I'm ready for bed
Jacq and richie xxx
PS .. if you are ever thinking of coming to England and hiring a car to drive around a lot ... SPEND THE EXTRA and hire a car with Satellite Navigation built into it ... it is so worth it!! Whilst we wouldn't have been lost without it, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as relaxing with me having to navigate everywhere!
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