Capri Sun

We have had a very lazy morning. Dylan has had his nap in his stroller in the garden, with Fred laid on the floor asleep underneath him, keeping guard, and now it's time to decide what to do with the rest of the day.

As Paul (that's Kelly's Paul, confusing I know with two of them!) has a Capri and is in the owners club, we decided to head over the Newquay to the Duchy Capri Club meet.

Dylan got very excited, as he is used to attending these events with his daddy, and watched on in awe as both Paul's inspected all the cars on show.

There was a live band playing on a large stage, there were bouncy castle and ball pits, which would be visited later on, but in the meantime, Dylan decided to grace us with some more of his fantastic dancing, which I managed to catch on video for you all to see.... just click on the large arrow in the centre of the video image to start it playing



following this little display from Dylan, we carried on around the show

finally ending up at the bouncy castle and ball pit, where my camera battery died - sorry! I did manage to get this last shot of my little godson being cheeky once more - Bless Him!

Having mooched for a couple of hours, it was suddenly time for Kelly, Paul and Dylan to leave and head back up the A30 towards Walsall :-(

It has been a lovely weekend, and we were very sad to see them all head off home.... I wonder how soon we can tempt them down here again, mmmmm?

BBQ Time

After our busy afternoon in the sea, we headed home for de-sanding, and to prepare for a BBQ supper.

Dylan enjoyed a few minutes with Uncle Paul, before the food got put out.

then it was just a case of making friends with Hamish, while Sally-Ann and Mike looked on

and Paul looked for a picture of a tattoo that his friend had just had done, that had won an award at the Tattoo Convention in Plymouth the previous week!

Sally-Ann got her priorities right, with the two glasses of red in her hands, whilst Mike thought better of the wine and went for the chocolate eclairs on offer from the kitchen table!

Dylan realised that Mike was the one to follow, and soon showed us how wonderful his eclair was!
Another day was coming to an end - but what a great day it was!

Groovy Godson!

I've been so excited ever since Kelly called to say they were coming to see us..... finally they are here, and I was determined that the weather would be good to us and that we could spend some time on the beach.

This was to be a flying visit, so it was 10.45 am on Saturday morning when they all arrived. Following an egg and bacon muffin, and a well deserved cuppa, we headed on down to the beach at Portreath.

It's a hot, hot day. 8am had seen the car dash board state 22 degrees, and so we knew it would be getting warmer as the day progressed. With this in mind, we packed the beach tent and wind breaks into the boot of the car to give us some shade on the beach, and set ourselves up between the safe yellow and red flags that the life guards had put up.

It was then time for Dylan to don his fetching little sun suit and shades - he looked like a proper little surf dude!

He could not wait to get into the water, and went trotting off down the beach with us all racing after him to catch up.... so much for being afraid of the water! Not my godson, Oh no! He is an extreme fun wanting babe, and kept going deeper and deeper, loving the waves slapping him in the face and stomach!

Ah Ha! thinks me.... I'll get him on that body boarding yet..... and he loved that too! despite the first wave knocking him off, he climbed back on and tried again, Bless him!

we eventually came out of the water and went back up to our little beach village for some juice and fruit, and then it was time to go back in the water again, as Dylan went charging off in that direction once more, ensuring that we understood his latest request.

We had a lovely time on the beach, but eventually had to head back home.

We had decided on a BBQ for tonight, so it would give, me a chance to get the salads, quiche and potatoes ready....

Yum! Hungry already!

And To Finish The Day Nicely...

After our antics in the sea and on the beach this afternoon, we were looking forward to our evening with Sally-Ann and Mike.

Not only was it our wedding anniversary on Friday, but it is their's today, so the obligatory meal, of course, had to happen.

This time we tried somewhere new, and were not disappointed. The May Tree in Helston is one of those group run pubs that is linked to an accommodation group for travellers (cryptic enough without advertising? LOL)

We were taken to our table, and our waitress introduced herself, and proceeded to ensure we were looked after all the way through our visit, offering advice on meals and puddings. She even happily took this picture for us.

I think we shall be going again, as the surroundings were very plush and the atmosphere was warm and friendly.

A great ending to a beautiful day.

Man From Atlantis?

The time had come, and there was no getting out of it for Paul...... he was going to have to wear his wetsuit for the fist time, and get into the sea!

18 years ago today, we we very young, married for 1 day, and in a posh hotel in Ischia, in the Bay of Naples..... little did we know then, that 18 years later, we would be living in Cornwall, and addicted to body boarding and all things beachy!

Bless him, he waited for me to walk down to the water with him, and I turned around to give him some pointers that I had learned about catching waves last year, and he was already gone.... riding a wave straight into shore!

We enjoyed a good while in the water, and luckily Sally-Ann popped down to show Paul some support and get some official pictures for us. Unfortunately, the waves were a bit rubbish, as the tide was on the out, so we had to pose for the pictures on the shoreline, but that didn't stop our fun.

There were an enormous amount of jellyfish in the water, and our wetsuits protected us from them, but the longer we were out the more we spotted, and so, we took the decision to head back to the beach tent and veg out in the sunshine for a while, before heading off home.

I think he did fantastically well for his first go, and although he was disappointed that there were long waits between waves, he knows what to do now, so is looking forward to the next time.

He may be posing here for the camera, but he can class himself as a real surfer dude now LOL

Baby Sisters Prom Night & Our Anniversary

Jannah -Beth is due to finish her exams next week, and the school have organised an American style prom / dinner dance for their leavers.

We had been asked if we would like to come and see her go off in her dress to meet her friends for their night out.

She arrived back from the salon, all shiny and sparkly and so, so proud of herself and how beautiful she looked. She had had her hair and make-up and a manicure and pedicure, so that when her dress went on she would look the whole package.

When she walked out in her dress we could not have been prouder of her. She looked absolutely beautiful.

It made Paul feel really old to have a 16 year old sister that we have seen grow up from a tiny baby, to this gorgeous young lady.

The time soon arrived for her to leave, and she piled into her Dad's car to be taken over to Newquay's Little Fistral beach for the official photographs and to then collect the 'chitty-chitty-bang-bang' car that was to ultimately deliver her to her destination.

I think everyone would agree that these young ladies look a treat in their gowns.

Once we had seen JB off, we then headed on back down country, as we were going for a meal. It's our 18th Wedding Anniversary today, so of course, we have to do something to mark the occasion.

The carvery we had was lovely, but I definitely had eyes bigger than my belly, and Paul had to help me finish it all!

A great finish to the day.

A Sad Day....

You may recall that we put the static on the market a little while ago.

On Tuesday, whilst I was at work, I received a call on my mobile with an offer on it.

Finances being a little tight, to say the least, at the moment, I could not afford to say no to it, as there are going to be some pretty big bills coming through from the site very soon if we keep it much longer, and to be perfectly honest, I am not sure I could find the cash to pay them if we did get them!

And so, to cut a long story short, my beautiful van, has been sold, and we needed to get up to Blue Anchor in Somerset in order to remove the very last of the items that we had in there. These items had been purposefully left to make it still feel homely for any viewings that we might get, but even so, we were unsure if we would fit them all in the car and trailer

We awoke very early and were in the car and away from Cornwall as break neck speed - well 60 mph anyway, as we were towing the trailer LOL

We arrive there at 09.15am and began to grab everything and place it in the lounge area ready for packing in the car. At this point I had already been in tears twice!

The large stuff went in the car first - the memory foam mattress topper, the TV, Video (YES VIDEO) and digibox - the duvet and pillows from the 2 bedrooms (I'd left these in situe to make it look used)

The garden chair loungers went into the trailer with their cushions, the curly hose pipe, the buckets and cleaning kits etc.

I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but if you look at the suitcase on the top of the trailer - that is actually a nest of 3 suitcases, all sat inside each other, and in the smallest is the mini HiFi .... I must have been Houdini in a past life to have fitted all this in LOL!

Paul took these pictures just before we went to hand over the keys to reception. When I say we took the keys to reception, I mean Paul of course... at this point I was a crying dribbling wreck. We have 'lived' on here for in excess of ten years - that's longer than we have ever lived in a house that we have owned!

Not only that, but it has had a huge meaning to me. We bought this van with money that my Dad left me after he passed..... I found out I was first pregnant here..... This was going to be my IVF money before I decided against it.....The dog cocked his leg up a silver birch tree for the first time ever here when he was a pup..... I have recuperated here after operations, and spent time with family and friends here for special occasions.

Selling the static has a lot of implications for me, but these implications and stumbling blocks are all in my head, and I do realise that having a tourer, that costs nothing to run, and gives us very, very cheap holidays is most certainly the way to go. The money we get for my BAH (Blue Anchor Hideaway) will truly help us to be able to move on with the next part of our lives, and be more financially secure.

Having said our goodbyes to our friends and the staff there, we jumped back into our car and headed back on down the M5 and A30 towards home. We arrived home early evening, completely shattered after the 6 hours of driving and the packing and the whole emotional effects of the day.

Goodbye my friend, you will be missed, but I'm sure there are many new adventures ahead of us with our little varacan.

A very Busy Day Indeed!

We were supposed to be heading home to Cornwall today, however, I have been arranging with an old friend who now lives between Salcombe and Kingsbridge, to meet up.

Unfortunately, as she runs a high end holiday let, and was expecting new guests this morning, she was not going to be free until this afternoon.

No problem! - whilst we were at the Tavistock site, we had asked the site manager to extend our stay at Slapton by one night. Sorted! we now go home on Sunday morning instead.... and to be honest, we are enjoying the break so much, the extra night is a wonderful bonus.

Anyway, moving on to the days antics..... during one of the evenings in the week, we had had a small shower of rain during the night, this in itself was not a problem, as it happened at night and left our days dry and warm. The problem arose when we discovered a small leak from the sky light, and had to make a whole new use for the saucepans!

We had heard this morning that the weather forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was full on rain, and so his morning was a good time for Paul to perform the repairs using a fibre glass kit he had bought in Dartmouth on our last trip there.

in order to be able to get to the damaged skylight the awning had to come down...

and then, using Mikes marvellous collapsing ladders, Paul got up to check out the damage

it seem that there were some cracks in the divots where the internal handles were fixed, so he cut some of the fibre glass to size

and placed them in position

once the gloopy stuff (that's technical you know!) was added, we began to feel a little more convinced that there would be no more leaks

Once the sky light was fixed, we then packed out picnics and headed over to Salcombe for a wander and to work out how far Judy was from where we were

stopping in a small secluded back street, we found a bench overlooking the lovely scene you can see above, and then ate out sandwiches and cakes, whilst watching the world go by

what a wonderful little village

having bought some posh cookies for Mel, who was looking after our veggies whilst we were away, we then headed off back towards Kingsbridge to find Judy's barn conversion

It was so lovely to see her again after so long, and she was wonderful, welcoming us with freshly home made scones, Devonshire clotted cream and freshly brewed tea - YUM!

The dogs enjoyed themselves in the huge garden, along with Judy's dogs, whilst we whiled away a pleasant hour or so chatting and catching up on gossip.

The barn conversion is totally incredible and has achieved a 5 rosette rating. Anyone wishing to stay in a totally idyllic location, would do well to contact Judy for info on it. Easton Court Barns is completely beautiful and having had the guided tour from Judy, along with Sally-Ann, we were enthralled at what they had achieved.

We finally left Judy in peace and headed back to the caravan park. It's a fish and chip supper tonight for tea so we are looking forward to it already LOL.

#Bobbing Along, On The Beautiful Briney Sea...#

The day dawned to brilliant sunshine once more, and we all headed off into Dartmouth, as we had called ahead to book places on a two hour boat trip, coincidentally that sailed back around to the bay at Slapton Sands where we were stopping.

We arrived a few hours early to allow for a wander around, and a cup of coffee, and then ate a picnic in the Royal Avenue Gardens. All the time, Paul and I were looking for sunhats, so whilst Sally-Ann and Mike looked after the dogs, we did a quick run back to town to purchase them.

We made it back with about 15 minutes to spare before the boat left, and a very distraught Sally-Ann worrying we would miss it.... "not on your nelly" I said, there is a cream tea on board at stake, I wouldn't jeopardise that for all the tea in china!

Having boarded and chosen some seats at the back of the boat undercover, away from the idiots up front in the sunshine, we sat back and relaxed, enjoying the swell of the water beneath us

and checking out the sights landwards

Fred was soooo relaxed, considering it was his first trip on a boat, and was almost asleep on my lap at this point.

Whilst we travelled the captain told us, over the tannoy, of what had happened during Operation Tiger in the second World War, when so many lives were lost. He then played a CD of the detailed actioned of the disaster that befell the practice landings.

A very sad and moving story of actual happenings that occurred in and around Slapton Sands and Torcross.

All in all today was lovely.

On arrival back at Slapton campsite, we then did a quick change and walked on into the village for a lovely meal at the local pub. A fantastic end to the day.

An Enlightening Experience

We had all decided that we would like to climb the lighthouse at Start Point today, and so, we all piled into the trusty scenic, and followed the map to the car park at the top of the point.

Having paid our parking charge to the chap in the hut, we started on our long trek down towards the point, about a mile judging by the sign showing half a mile when we got half way down!

Our excitement mounted - the images we could take from the top of the lighthouse should be fantastic, even if I would have to do Sally-Ann's for her, as she did not fancy the climb to the top

.... the unfortunate part was, once we got the the lighthouse, the closest we got was this! The woman who lived there had decided to close for the day and forgotten to tell the car park attendant!

Never mind! We all trooped back up the hillside for the mile back to the car, and decided to continue into Kingsbridge, where we could have a mooch and eat our picnic.

The view from the parking spot and it's back wall where we ate our food was awesome, even if we did have to reverse into the spot (sorry Paul, I had to get that one in!)

After a troll up the high street, and a mooch through the open air market, we headed to Morrison's for a quick shop for some essential bread and milk etc, then it was back to the camp site for a relax and sit in the sunshine.