Can you believe that that is the real name of a song? Apparently released by "Little Pattie" in 1963. Anyway... it thought it kinda summed up my recent holiday in Cornwall!
We had the most amazing week... Mark and I were joined by my Sister and her two sons, Henry (5) and Oscar (almost 2), in North Cornwall. We drew the short straw, and left early on Saturday morning, with a fully loaded car - it took us around six hours to make the journey to Harlyn Sands caravan Park, just a few miles out of Padstow. Tracy took the better option (much easier with children), and flew to Newquay in the afternoon - meaning that we were able to unpack a little, and then go and pick her up from Newquay airport. It all worked out a treat. We stayed in a spacious and immaculately clean static home, overlooking Harlyn bay - an absolutely amazing view of the beautiful coastline there. I must admit that I had reservations about staying in a caravan park (especially after our experience in Filey a few years back... shudder), but this more than exceeded our expectations. It was cheap (around £350 between us for the week), and the facilities were great; a large and well stocked playground for the children, fun activities with "Captain Crumble", and a spotless and largely empty indoor swimming pool, complete with a flume... Henry's idea of heaven. But what really really made it was the beach; a gorgeous and secluded little bay, just down from the larger Harlyn bay. It took just five minutes to walk down to it from the caravan, and it had rock pools and the like, where we managed to catch some amazing little fish and anemones in buckets. The hilarious thing was that Henry fancied himself as a bit of a Surfer dude. This was his first time on a little boogie board - but he was unstoppable! In fact, even Oscar had a go! As soon as Henry woke up in the mornings (ahem... a little earlier than we would have liked), he was shouting "Surf's Up Dude", and "You Rock"... after a week of this, even Mark and I became convinced that we were fully fledged surf bums ;-)
The weather wasn't bad at all - not exactly glorious sunshine all week, but we did have a couple of really warm sunny days, and the rest of the week it was warm but cloudy. Ideal conditions for taking the children to the beach - without having to worry about marinating them in factor 1000 sun lotion. Highlights of the week included:
- Some shopping in Padstow (beautiful shopping opportunities there - and all in the Sale!),
- Some nice meals out in Padstow. During one we got chatting to a couple and their children on a table next to us - and it turned out that the husband came from Histon, and we knew his grandfather! What a small world.
- Cycling to Wadebridge along the Camel Trail (with Henry on a Tag-along bike and Oscar in a trailer). This was made all the better when we stopped for lunch in a bird watching hut, and Henry and Oscar were convinced that they could see "Wall-e" (that Robot in that newly released film) on the sand some distance away from the trail. Watching Oscar calling him and gesticulating towards him like crazy, and listening to Henry's disbelief that "Wall-e" couldn't come over and talk to us will live with me forever! Who says that commercialism is wrong! ;-),
- Getting to watch dozens of Disney and Pixar movies and not feeling daft,
- We had a lovely BBQ on the beach one evening. The bay was completely empty, and we drew lots of flowers and love-hearts in the sand - then some people came to take our picture from the cliffs! The kids busied themselves with fishing in rock pools, while we snaffled cans of beer and ate sausages... bliss!
- Tracy and I went to Jamie Oliver's "Fifteen" restaurant on Watergate Bay, just outside Newquay. What a glorious meal. We went the whole hog and did the wine tasting menu alongside the tasting menu available in the evenings. Delicious pineapple and black pepper cocktail to start, followed by a cornucopia of delicious courses... ahem... I cant quite remember what they all were - but I had a delicious Lobster linguine thing as a "Primi", and duck as a "Secondi"... the toppings and complex salads accompanying it are too difficult to remember, but delicious nonetheless. We finished with a delicious selection of cheeses, coffee, sweeties and a rather scary taxi ride back to Padstow - where poor Mark had volunteered to babysit for the evening. I actually think he rather enjoyed it, and thankfully the boys were really well behaved.
- One evening we went to watch the children's entertainment with the children. God how we laughed and cried. Somehow, Henry and Oscar managed to get themselves on stage with "Captain Crumble" simply by doing an impromptu impression of a tribe of red Indians. You had to be there really... but it had me wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes for several hours afterwards!
Anyway... now we are back to reality with a bump. On the last day (Saturday), poor Tracy's alarm didn't go off (she was catching the early flight back to Stansted), so we had to drag two very bewildered little boys out of bed at 6am, and rush them out of the door with no time for breakfast. Bless... Then Mark and I followed on in the car, meeting them at ours and doing a quick luggage exchange, before she headed home. I actually thought before we went that I might be glad to see the back of them - not in a bad way, but in a wanting peace and quiet kind of way. Far from it... even Mark said he was having trouble not thinking about them when they had gone (he had been to Tesco, and found himself looking at kiddies stuff). Our little taste of parenthood couldn't have gone better... now to twist his arm a little harder ;-)
Love, Peace and "Surf's Up Dude"... as they say in Padstow.
Hayley
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PS. Photographs to follow...
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