Now Here's The Thing ..

Having found myself wanting to say that with increased regularity I have come to the conclusion that It's possible I have been watching too much Big Bang Theory!

I have had (to put it mildly) a really shitty few months and Surfer Dude, in his infinite wisdom, decided that what I needed was a few days R&R so he took me to his mecca, his spiritual home.

He took me to Newquay in Cornwall.

Surfers paradise.

In preparation I watched Point Break (ok, so maybe I'm just a bit of a secret Patrick Swayze fan really ;).

While the rest of the UK apparently experienced rain, wind, hail and even snow I believe in some places, WE basked in sunshine.

Watched seals playing in the wake of the fishing boats.

Ate Cornish pasties and drank Doom Bar beer.

watched the sun set over Fistral beach

Drank coffee outside (and inside) Irie, the hippy cafe where the scent of joss sticks lingers in the air mixing with the smell of fresh ground coffee.



so true :)



a piano to play







teapots painted on our table



And we walked (bloody hell, did we WALK!!).

Across beaches, over cliffs, down (and up) steep winding roads and paths.

Filling our lungs with sea air and emptying our minds of detritus.

And I learned something that in more then 20 years of friendship I didn't know about Surfer Dude.

He is NOT a morning person!

I found myself, Sheldon like, knocking on the door.

Knock, knock, SD.

Knock, knock, SD.

Knock, knock, SD ...

'The sun is shining, it's a beautiful day, lets go to the beach ...'

Now I've heard SD use the odd expletive from time to time but, on discovering it was 7:15am and I was washed, dressed and ready for action well, lets just say he didn't employ his usual cool, considered approach and I'm pretty sure he told me to fuck off!

Obviously I did the decent thing (this was HIS holiday too after all).

I took my cup of tea outside.

I sat in the sunshine soaking up the rays.

I breathed in great lungfulls of sea air.

And I threw stones at his window until he got his lazy arse out of bed!

The other thing that took me by surprise was SD's apparent love for tat shops. 

I don't mean charity shops (which I LOVE!) or the little independent, wildly over priced, crafty type shops.

But real crap and tat (btw, wouldn't that make a GREAT name for a shop???), wall to wall coasters, key rings, postcards ...

Naff, naff, N A F F!



Newquay abounds with these shops and I hate each and every one of them.

Actually, maybe there IS just the one, they are so interchangeable that I may have been to the same shop 20 times without even knowing it.



But I grumbled, complained and whinged gamely entered into the spirit of things and we developed a system whereby for every tat shop we went into I got to chose 2 others for us to visit (I am nothing if not fair!).

My favourite by far was an art shop where I could (if I had any money) have bought almost everything in the shop.



Being a pauper I settled for a card.

I love Hannah Coles work :)

I came home refreshed, rested (and quite possibly still a little drunk) and with the sure and certain knowledge that while it may be perfectly possible to lead a Surfer Dude to water, if you try to do so before 10am when he's on holiday you do at at your peril!



ps I plan on going back in the summer to try my hand at coasteering if any early risers fancy joining me ... (tat and crap lovers need not apply ;)