Week of Fun – Monday – Thursday

Hey, I’m back in Bristol, temporarily at least, so thought I’d do a quick catch up on what’s been happening in this Week O’ Fun, I’m currently enjoying.  Monday morning, I was up what felt like diabolically early (but was in fact 7am) to finish packing quickly, and sling everything in the car.  A quick trip to the supermarket to pick up food and petrol, and I was off and heading for the motorway just before 8.30am.  Not bad if I do say so!  What I always find funny on these little trips away, is just how much stuff I end up taking.  See: 

 

That’s just 2 days worth of stuff!  Note to self – must master the art of packing light! 

It turned out to be a very easy and relaxed trip down to Cornwall, and I arrived at Widemouth Bay by 11.30am, with an hour to spare before my lesson.  Just time to kick back, admire the view and eat a bit of lunch.

It was a good lesson, if a little frustrating at times, because I kept popping up just that bit too far back on the board.  As the instructor kept telling me.  Over and over again.  Plus it was really busy out there - “people soup” as one of the other instructors put – but the two hours passed quickly, and by the end, I had apparently started to pop up a bit further forward on the board.  After a hasty change back into warm clothes, I took my somewhat tired self back to the car to sit and chill with a toasted teacake and a much needed cold drink for a bit.

Once I felt like I had a bit more energy back, I headed a few minutes down the road to Bude to go find my hostel and my bed for the next couple of nights.  The hostel was great, as it is owned by a lovely couple called Janine and Sean who have set it up so it’s basically like being a guest in their giant house.  A proper lounge and dining room and a giant fully equipped kitchen to play in.  And a sea-view from the window by my bed!

I spent the rest of the evening chilling out, reading my book, watching a bit of telly, and just generally relaxing.  I ate a bit more than I meant to, as I ended up doing all the packet of tortelloni and sauce, since I was hungry, but since I’d earned a fair whack of points from my surfing, it wasn’t so bad. 

Bright and early Tuesday morning, I was up, breakfasted, and back to the beach at Widemouth Bay for another lesson.  Another lovely day, but completely different surf as we’d gone from high tide conditions yesterday afternoon to low tide, and the wind had switched conditions.

For ages, it felt like I was hardly picking up any waves, but the instructor did say he was seeing consistency in the ones I did pick and catch.  On the whole, I felt like I was getting a bit battered round for little result, but kept with it, and it started to feel like it was coming together by the end of the session. 

I wasn’t feeling terribly hungry afterwards, so I grabbed some ice-cream instead of lunch (after that much salt water, I just crave something sweet to take the taste away), and headed back to the hostel for a shower.  Since I had the rest of the afternoon to myself, I decided to walk into Bude and go and have a little explore.  The beach in town was absolutely heaving (which is not my cup of tea), so I wound my way round the harbour and up the cliff to the coast path and the little sailors church tower at the top.  It was so much more peaceful up there, so I actually lay down in the meadow and just enjoyed the quiet for a little while.   I eventually wandered back down a different path, through some quiet back streets of Bude, and circled back round into town, where I could have a look at some of the shops along the canal.  I found a cupcake shop, where I bought a beautiful little lemon and orange cupcake and a little bag of fudge for after dinner, and then, since I was finally starting to get hungry again, I sort of had a pasty.  Well, you can’t really go to Cornwall and not do it, can you???  It was a proper homemade one and everything, and it was pretty tasty!

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I have to confess that my eating on Tuesday night wasn’t great.  After the pasty in the afternoon, I wasn’t really hungry, but somehow still dmeolished the fudge, the cupcake, a small baguette and a bowl of soup.  Silly, but I guess it happens from time to time.

Wednesday morning was an earlyish start to check out from the hostel, and then I headed down to Padstow for a couple of hours.  It was glorious out, and I loved the little town.  Pretty little streets, yummy fish and chips on the sea front, and beautiful views across the bay to Rock, and (I think) Polzeath.  Lovely, lovely, lovely!

I love that this perfect little street has a giant No Entry across the bottom – it’s a bit like saying to the tourists “you’re not good enough to come in here” :o)

 

I just adore the colours in this last picture – the sun truly came out and it look magical!  There were some windsurfers out, over at what I think was Polzeath, and I just thought what a day for it!  Flat glassy seas and smooth winds.  Lucky them!

Despite having enjoyed the fish and chips for lunch (which were scrummy), I was back to trying to eat sensibly and just had soup and toast for tea when I got back.  The journey home was a bit slower than the one out, due to encountering two car crashes in the roads heading out of Padstow.  The first one had closed the road completely, and once I’d gone round that detour, I found myself being waved around another nasty one about 10 miles further on.  I just hope no one was too badly injured.  Back in Bristol, I skipped running club; technically, I could have made it if I’d got changed as soon as I got into the flat and headed straight out, but after 4 hours in the car, I wasn’t much feeling it.  Oooops.

Today has been a no photo day (so far), as I was late to wake up, and get up, and then went out for lunch with my date from Saturday, before just sitting in my local coffee shop and reading for the afternoon.  So sorry about that!  Unless there are pictures from the pub tonight (surf club), which I doubt, you’ll just have to do without today.  I’ve been pretty good with the eating though, which has pleased me.  Weigh in tomorrow, and I’m not sure how being away will have affected me in the end.  Apart from Tuesday’s debacle, I was pretty ok most of the week, just using up flex and a bit of activity points, so we’ll just have to see how it goes!

Then back to Cornwall for more surfing tomorrow!