Post Script

Just in case anyone thinks we are a scruffy family, as seen in the previous Post, we had just finished playing cricket during which game I managed to throw the bat further than I hit the ball and then broke the bat completely.

JDT

Family Visit - Andrew, Amy, Joe & Molly

It has been a while since I updated the Blog so here goes.

A couple of weeks ago we had the first of our Family visits, with Andrew, Amy, Joe and Molly arriving for a week. Molly, Amy's niece, seems to have adopted us as extra grandparents, which we find very pleasing. Over the week, the weather was pretty appalling, which made trips out very hazardous. Even playing in the garden and fields was a recipe for yet more wet clothes and feet. We did spend a day at Cornwall's Crealy, which was OK until fairly late in the afternoon. We still got wet but that was self inflicted on the water slides and log flume. Unfortunately, late on the rain came when we were at the far extremes of the park. Of course, the little train back to the entrance was not running so, hidden under cheap(?) plastic rain covers, we did manage to make it back to the cars. The four of them did manage a couple of trips out, including Padstow but what a shame that they saw Cornwall in this weather. I suppose that, when they came in February, they were lucky in that we spent time on the beach and the children even got into the sea.

Because they were leaving on Saturday, and Nick and family arrived on Friday, I asked Andrew to take a Family photograph on Saturday morning, the result of which is below. It is not often that the opportunity arises when the whole of my current family are all in the same place, so thanks to Andrew for organising it and for Clive who came along especially before dashing off to another engagement.

Left to right as you look

Standing at back:

Amy, Andrew, John, Karen, Nick, Clive

Standing Middle:

Charlotte, Connor, Curtis

Seated:

Maria, Annette

Front:

Joe with Brandy and Tia

Father's Day

On Sunday, Maria and Annette went on a planned shopping trip to Trago Mills and left me dog sitting and to do what I wanted. Unfortunately, the weather in the morning was very wet, which precluded a walk for the dogs (I have become a fair weather walker) so I caught up on a couple of TV recordings including 'Doctor Who'. Very strange!
As the day progressed, so the weather improved and I got out into the garden to carry on the fight against weed and grass. The shoppers arrived back at some time in the afternoon having spent four and a half hours in Trago - phew!
We had decided to have a barbecue for tea so preparations were made in anticipation of Clive arriving from a day at work. By the time we were ready to cook, I was still getting all the garden tools back in their homes, and, as Clive had arrived, he took over the cooking duties in a very attractive pinny, as can be seen below! Thanks very much Clive.


He did a great job, and, as the evening was very pleasant, we ate outside using the picnic set that Maria had bought some time ago.
Thank you to all those who contributed to a very pleasant day for me. The cards and presents were much appreciated.

Annette's Birthday

To celebrate Annette's 40th birthday, a day out for the four of us with the two dogs was planned. Fortunately the weather was set fair so we set off for Boscastle, one of our favourite places and somewhere that the dogs can be let off their leads without any trouble. Because we had the dogs we took Annette's car with Clive driving arriving late morning. We took a slow stroll out to the rocks at the entrance of the harbour where SKS took the following photograph.


It is very nearly four years since the flood, which devastated this little village and work is still ongoing although it seems to be largely cosmetic now.

We decided to have lunch in a little cafe down by the harbour, where we could sit outside with the dogs. The photo on the link was taken before the flood. I believe that the only part of the building to survive was the back wall. It has now been completely rebuilt. We had a variety of sandwiches with salad and they were all delicious. Lunch was followed by another slow stroll back to the car with stops at various shops, resulting in a number of small purchases including an ice cream. Annette drove us home in time for a rest before we got ready for the evening meal, which Clive had organised at Trevose Golf Club.
I drove this time and we arrived in time for a quick drink before we went in for the meal. We were treated very well indeed by all the staff and the meal was excellent. Of course, for anyone that knows Trevose, the view from the dining room is spectacular, (see the photo on the home page of their website) especially as the sun was still shining when we started the meal. For sweet, Annette had strawberries and clotted cream, and Ian, the wine waiter, organised a candle and arrived with some of the staff, and, together with the rest of the dining room, sang Happy Birthday, much to Annette's embarrassment.
The meal was completed with coffee and liqueurs, sitting in the bar looking out of the picture window before the drive home. We had a lovely time and, hopefully, Annette also enjoyed her day.

Birthday Boy

OK, so I am a little late with this Post, but other projects have delayed it.

Ah, another year older and still here!

My 67th birthday was a low-key affair on Tuesday. Maria and I had a relaxed breakfast before driving to Plymouth so that Maria could try and find me a new brown leather jacket. She is always trying to make me more modern, something that I have resisted over the years, however she had already bought me some Jeans (surely jeans are for working, not looking smart) and a new shirt so I wore those for the trip. Anyway, off we went, stopping en-route at Kernow Mill for coffee, a very early Cream Tea and a browse (I did manage to resist the temptation to buy the "Single Malt of the Week or Month").

It is probably quite well known among my immediate family that shopping and me do not sit well together, but I have to say that the day went very well with not much "browsing". We did find a new jacket for me and then got one for Maria as she had just had a small win on the Premium Bonds. We had to wait for a while so that her sleeves could be shortened and took this opportunity to have a snack before setting off for home.

Annette and the dogs came for tea, but, because we had eaten fairly late, we decided to have a snack and have the Fillet Steak on the following day. It turned out to be very nice too. (the Steak that is)

I managed to accumulate some interesting presents, even though a couple of them had come a little early. Lawn Edging Shears, Extending Lopping Shears and a battery operated Air Compressor make up the more practical presents; all of these have now been used successfully. The lawn looks good from a distance with a nice sharp edge, the conifers have been lopped as shown in a previous post and the wheelbarrow is a little easier to operate now that the tyre is at a more sensible pressure.

Here I am posing, reluctantly!

Now all I have to do is study the book I received called "The Lawn Expert", and perhaps I can convert this patch of grass, moss and weed into something like a Lawn.

One of my other presents was an Energy Monitor, which tells me how much energy we use by having various equipments plugged in. Maybe this little gadget might help us to reduce our rather high electricity bill. My thanks go to all those who contributed to my day. Here's to the next!

JDT

February Visitors 2

The house has seemed quiet over the weekend after the departure on Friday of Karen, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor who had been staying for the half-term school holidays. They were blessed with good weather for all but the last day and this allowed them to get out and about every day. Amongst the list of places visited were Lusty Glaze Beach, The Eden Project and the "Britain in the Blitz" and "Victorian Britain" Exhibitions at Flambards. In addition they managed to find a number of GeoCache locations at Cardinham Woods, Roche Rock and Loe Pool.

Maria, John, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor at Eden

Around the garden Nick and I managed to trim the tops of our conifers at the bottom of the garden (mostly Nick as he is taller)and re-pot some Cornish Palms and a large, and very prickly, conifer, which, last year, acted as our outdoor Christmas Tree.

There is a ladder there somewhere!

On Thursday, Nick, Karen, Annette & Clive went off for a day by themselves leaving the children and dogs with us to amuse ourselves. We started with a walk up to our "mountain" and beyond to help wear out the dogs (and us).

The Children posing with the Cornish Flag.

Back home, I had promised the children that they could have a ride on the Mower and fortunately the grass was reasonably dry and the sun shining so, after drawing lots to establish who should go first, we set off around the top field paths before coming down to the bottom field which we managed to completely cut. All in all, we had a pleasant day with no upsets.

Unfortunately no photos were taken of the children on the mower so on Friday morning I decided to get it out again and record the occasion. This time, having established that they could all reach the brake, I got them to drive it by themselves, something that I think they thoroughly enjoyed.

Charlotte.

Curtis.

Connor.

February Visitors 1

Andrew, Amy, Joe and Amy's niece Molly, the first set of our February visitors arrived on Saturday 9th Feb and what a week of weather they had. No rain, little wind and blue skies for the whole of their stay.
We managed some time on the beach at Lusty Glaze on one day, where the children got very wet and an afternoon at Trevone Bay, where it was almost Springlike. Molly even went swimming in just a swimming costume, which gives some idea of how pleasant it was. Below is a short video of Amy doing a Back-Flip in boots - not often seen in gymnastics!


During their stay, we also found time to fly a kite, play rounders, climb our local "Mountain":

Clive, Joe, Amy, Molly, Annette & Andrew.

and do a trial run on the tractor with the children. Below are Molly and me navigating the paths in the top field and Andrew and Molly not really navigating the paths at all!

Finally, a couple of photos of the children with Annette's dogs.

On Tuesday, Amy and Molly drove back home so that Molly could, with her Mum, accompany her Dad to Buckingham Palace so that he could be presented with an MBE from Her Majesty, The Queen. Quite a day out for a 6 year old.

Andrew and Joe stayed on until flying back to Stansted on Thursday evening. We then had a day to change beds etc before the arrival of the next visitors on Friday.

JDT

Visitors – Andrew & Joe

In October, Andrew and Joe came to stay for a few days over half-term. It was a real pleasure to entertain them in our new home and we were mostly blessed with decent weather.

Maria, John & Joe at the Boating Lake

We spent time around the Boating Lake in Newquay feeding the pigeons but mostly we stayed at home; Joe was happy ‘exploring’ the field looking for animal tracks and deciding that the waste tips that are visible from the side of the house were Volcanos. We walked around the bottom but decided not to climb up it, although I have several times since – quite a view.

Without doubt, Joe’s favourite was to drive the Sit-on Mower whilst we cut the fields. Mind you he does need to look where he is going – see photo!

John & Joe cutting the grass!

We spent some time building a wooden dinosaur, which Joe enjoyed as he knows much more about dinosaurs than I do. I believe that he thoroughly enjoyed his stay and would have been quite happy to stay longer.

JDT

Post Wedding Holiday

Prior to her wedding, Amy had kindly organised some holiday accommodation for us at La Penisola, which is an apartment complex between Orvieto and Todi so on the morning after the wedding we said our goodbyes and went off to collect our pre-booked hire car and set off to find our accommodation. This proved to be easy and the place itself was ideal for us to relax for a few days. We had an interesting time with the restaurant menu, which was, of course, in Italian, however, with the help of the extremely helpful staff, we translated the whole menu onto a napkin. The rooms and food were good and it was very quiet. There was an outdoor swimming pool and the complex itself sat on the side of a lake.

La Penisola Swimming Pool

Lake Corbara

During this part of our holiday, we accepted an invitation from Amy and Andrew to go and visit them in their rented house. We spent a very happy day there and we also went to have a look at the house they proposed to buy (now theirs). They have certainly taken on a lot of work - have a look at Amy's Blog if you want to see how things have been progressing.

We also spent some time visiting Todi but forgot to take a camera with us, which was pretty stupid. I thought that, though interesting, Orvieto was a better place to visit.

We did spend some more time in Orvieto because the Hotel Restaurant was closed on one day so we decided to have a meal in Orvieto. Because we spent so much time wandering around and eating, we missed the last trip on the Funicular Railway so had to catch the bus. That was an interesting experience with me clinging on for dear life as the bus hurtled down the side of the hill on which the town stands, with not much consideration given to passengers or corners.

Too soon the holiday was over and we handed back the car and caught the train as the first part of the journey home. No real problems but Ciampino is the most uncomfortable airport in which to spend a couple of hours.

A Family Wedding

Andrew and Amy were married on 14 June 2007 in Orvieto, Italy. We travelled to Italy a couple of days before the ceremony along with Annette and Clive and the journey went comparatively well. The drive to Bristol was uneventful as was the flight to Rome, Ciampino. We had pre-booked a coach from the airport to the Railway Station and managed to find that OK. We sat at the back and from speaking to someone who sat on the front seats, we were in the best place (we couldn't see what was going on in the streets of Rome and how the coach driver got through them!!). We eventually figured out how to get tickets for Orvieto and boarded the train for yet another uneventful journey. Andrew met us at Orvieto and took us across the road to the Funicular Railway after which we went by bus to the Hotel Maitani - a really nice hotel with very friendly staff. In the evening, we went out for a meal and met some of the other guests before collapsing into bed.
On the following day we met other guests and walked around Orvieto, which is a splendid little town with a spectacularly fronted Cathedral. In the evening we had a get together on the rooftop terrace of the hotel, paid for by the Bride's parents - thanks to Gill and John. There were a couple of speeches and I presented Amy with a collection of photographs from Andrew's youth. So as not to forget the bridegroom, I gave Andrew a set of Ear Defenders. These did have a practical purpose - he had recently acquired a noisy 2 stroke Strimmer.

John's Speech obviously amusing Amy

I will keep my comments on the day of the wedding very brief as it was absolutely superb:
The Bride was beautiful; the Groom was happy; the guests were well behaved; the weather was perfect; the setting for the ceremony was ideal and David the photographer was brilliant. What a great day. Thanks to everyone who made it so.

JDT

New Year Update - Part 2

22 Dec 2006 - Newquay

Andrew, Amy and their German Shepherd, Jasmine, arrived for the Christmas period; Jasmine is one large dog with a wagging tail capable of destroying anything at the 2 foot level; she also has incredibly large feet so steel-tipped shoes are the order of the day! The only real trouble we had was that she desperately wanted to play with Annette’s two Shelties; unfortunately, they didn’t want to play and there was a lot of posturing, growling and snapping and we had to keep them apart until the last evening when they all laid down in the lounge together. We did spend a couple of days on Lusty Glaze Beach with them and they were fine as can be seen on the accompanying photograph. I have included an extra photo of the Old Folks!

Amy, Andrew, John, Annette & Clive. Jasmine, Brandy & Tia

Maria & John

The Christmas period was a most enjoyable time; in addition to Lusty Glaze, we visited the rather splendid cafe at Fistral Beach; this trip included some shopping in the Surf shops, which had a Sale starting and some purchases just had to be made!!

Annette and Clive provided a splendid Buffet meal on one day but we left poor Jasmine at home to avoid more confusion. Christmas morning we all went up to Trevose where Clive was working. I had too much to drink and slept most of the way back - it is nice when someone else drives!

When Andrew, Amy & Jasmine left, the house seemed really empty but we were left with some lovely memories and a lot of beds to change and washing to do!!

New Year Update - Part 1

Having failed miserably to keep this Blog updated, this post is an attempt to briefly tell of our “doings” since the Queen Mary trip.

01 Dec 2006 - Plymouth.
Maria, Annette, Clive and I travelled to Plymouth on Friday to go to the Theatre Royal to see Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” starring Craig McLaghlan (ex Neighbours) and Ken Kercheval (ex Dallas) among others. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and, as we had booked a night at the Holiday Inn on the Hoe, it meant that we didn’t have the 55 mile drive home late at night. The ‘down’ side was that we woke up in Plymouth on Saturday morning and that meant - shopping. Never mind, Maria chose her Christmas present and we did manage to get home in the afternoon.

08 Dec 2006 - St Ives
It was time for the Annual Serco Christmas Party, held once again at the Tregenna Castle Hotel at St Ives. Once again it was a great evening and we didn’t manage to spend a penny thanks to Serco’s generosity. We did have to pay for the accommodation, which, for us, was an outside cabin with loads of room and a shower each. On Saturday, we left after breakfast, did some shopping and then came home for a rest.

15 Dec 2006 - Bordon
On Friday afternoon, Maria and I set off to play Father Christmas to three of our four grandchildren who now live in Bordon, Hampshire. We got there safely and spent a hectic evening and Saturday with Nick, Karen, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor before driving home on Sunday ready for work on Monday. A visit to the local Forestry Commission Park and School Swimming Pool were fitted into Saturday and we did the baby-sitting whilst Nick and Karen went out to a ’70s’ Party.

Nick & Karen in 70s mode

That’s all for now; part 2 will be written sometime.

Holiday Day 5&6 - Bradford

Apart from dreadful traffic on the M62, the journey to Bradford was uneventful and we arrived at Oakroyd in the late afternoon. We had a snack tea and spent the evening chatting and trying to get Pop to remember more abut his time on 79 Sqn. A few things cropped up but not a lot that would be all that interesting for the 79 Sqn website, which I have promised to contribute to.
On the following morning, Pop had to go to a little funeral service, so Maria and I went off to meet Terry and Sue for a morning coffee at Asa Nicholson’s at Denholme Gate. This little cafe, attached to a baker’s, is great value and very popular with the older generations. We spent about an hour there with Terry, Sue and Terry’s son Adam who I somehow missed out of the photograph.


Lunch had been booked at the Hare and Hounds at Toller Lane, somewhere that Maria and I had never been. Pop has been a lot recently and had managed to book a table in the Conservatory which was very pleasant. The food was tremendously good value and £20 covered the three of us with a drink each. I can strongly recommend this pub as somewhere to eat, unless you have children because they do not accept children. Very peaceful lunch for us older folk though.


Pop & Maria after lunch


Lunch was followed by shopping for food at Morrison’s and then home for a casual afternoon where at least two of us fell asleep!!

We had another snack tea and then Maria and I got ready to go out as we had promised to meet Lesley and Pete Johnson, who were coming all the way over from Oldham (Royton) to see us. As it happened, Lesley had decided to bring Maria an early 60th Birthday present, which was extremely generous of her (and Pete). We met and they took us out to the Ring O Bells at the top of Thornton. The following photo was taken on the following morning.

Ring O Bells - Thornton, Bradford


We spent a very pleasant evening in the Conservatory. Like many of these country pubs these days, the “Ring” is more restaurant than pub so the seating for drinks is rather limited and I think that we were the only people in there who did not eat.

Pete, Lesley & Maria


Because it was quite foggy and our visitors had a long way to go, we did not stay out all that long so arrived back in good time for a good night’s sleep, ready for the next stage of our journey.

Holiday Day 4 - Whitby

The journey to Whitby was fairly uneventful with dry weather making the drive down the A68 easier than it might have been. When we arrived at Paul and Bev’s house we were met by Paul’s gleaming BMW 325; this decided Maria that our car just had to be washed to get rid of the grime from the last 4 days, however, Paul kindly said that he would do it, and a splendid job he made of it too. I almost felt guilty about letting him do it, but not quite! Anyway, brother and sister chatted the whole way through whilst I had a rest. He then took us for a ride in the 325, just to show us the difference in the ride, which is a little harder with the sports wheels, and a little quicker with the bigger engine.
Bev made a splendid Roast Beef dinner and all the family sat around one table and thoroughly enjoyed it. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and chatting about this and that before we went to bed on a blow-up double bed. The only problem was that my 13½ stone outweighed Maria by quite a lot and she spent most of the night rolling on top of me - shouldn’t complain really.
Breakfast was a casual affair, after which Paul went to work and Bev took us for a ride around the area, visiting some places we remembered and some where we had never been. Once again, no photos -what an idiot. We ended up doing a little shopping in town and Maria came back with a half-price Vegetable Steamer; in fact Bev bought one as well so she and Maria are as bad as one another. Mind you, I bought an electric screwdriver and a “Platters” CD, so I cannot complain too loudly. We also bought some Yorkshire Ginger and Tea loaves, or Brack as they are called.
We have eaten one since we returned home and it was delicious.
After lunch we set off on the next stage of the journey - to Bradford. Many thanks are due to Paul and Bev for their hospitality and in the way they put themselves out for us.

Family Visit 3 - Paul, Bev, Ryan & Kris

On the Monday following Nick and Karen’s departure, Paul, Bev, Ryan and Kris were due to arrive and Maria arranged to meet them at Trelawney Garden Centre for lunch at 1 o’clock. The morning was spent washing and cleaning etc; I think that between Saturday and Sunday, there were ten loads of washing! We thought that we left in plenty of time but the traffic on the A39 was horrendous so we took a few back lanes and finally arrived about 5 minutes late with Paul arriving just before us. We go to Trelawney quite often but it was Paul’s first visit and I think that he was pleasantly surprised at the standard of lunch. It is always good value.
Once again, I was working so didn’t get to do too much with the family during the days. As usual we talked a good deal about cars in the evenings. They went out and about visiting Falmouth (and looking at cars). They also went off to Newquay Zoo and the Boating Lake but this time just for Kris to feed the birds. They didn’t have a great week for weather but it wasn’t a total disaster either.
On the Friday evening we all went out, including Annette and Clive, to the Two Clomes at Quintrell Downs for a splendid meal - highly recommended.
Saturday saw their departure for an overnight stop in Tewkesbury. Their progress was horrendously slow and they finally made it to the hotel after 7½ hours on the road and a distance of only just over 200 miles. We hope that their journey from Tewkesbury to Whitby is much better - JDT

PS - Arrived home at 16.15.

PPS - I forgot about the trip to Padstow so here goes.

The trip to Padstow was uneventful and, as a boat trip had been decided upon, everyone boarded the Jubilee Queen for the trip out to Puffin Island via Rock and Daymer Bay. Once out of the harbour, everyone found out how rough the sea was and how hard the wind was blowing. The passengers at the front got covered in spray and people were sliding off the seats when the boat pitched and rolled. They passed a little fishing boat on the way and it kept disappearing from view, showing the height of the waves. No special sightings were made; the basking sharks were not in evidence and there were probably Gulls and Cormorants on the islands rather than Puffins. The trip lasted an hour or so I believe that the whole family enjoyed the experience and no-one was actually sick.
Once back on land, a wander through Padstow ended at Rick Stein’s Fish and Chip for a late lunch. The food was generally disappointing, especially to Paul, who has a lot of experience in the trade.

Family Visit 2 - Karen, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis, Connor & Joe

Maria spent a hectic day changing beds and then Nick, Karen, Charlotte, Curtis, Connor and Joe arrived on Monday so the house was now really full and quite chaotic. The weather was a little mixed for them for the week, but overall was pretty good. I think that they all had a good time with visits to Lusty Glaze, Crealy, Trevone and Trenance Boating Lake amongst various other trips. They all got wet on the trip to the Boating Lake when it rained in addition to the splashes from the oars but they all had a go at rowing and didn’t manage to crash into the islands too many times. The children enjoyed feeding the birds; as usual, the pigeons were particularly friendly and would sit on people’s hands as long as there was food around.

The day at Trevone started badly with the drive up the coast road to Padstow. As those of us who live here know, the coast road can be a nightmare, especially when there are any buses on the road. Nick managed to get stuck behind a bus on one of the narrow sections with a couple of brewery delivery lorries and umpteen cars coming the other way. Joe kept on wanting to know where the sea was! After considerable manoeuvering, the situation was resolved and Trevone was finally reached. A splendid day ensued with the weather probably as good as it was any day. The children enjoyed the rock pools and caught a number of crabs which were safely returned to the sea at the end of the day.

On Saturday they all went back to Crealy for the day and took Annette with them. Maria and I went a little later in time for a picnic lunch and for the children to see how many funny faces they could manage whilst I tried my best to get a group photo.


As usual, I was inveigled onto the Log Flume, this time by young Joe, who insisted that I covered his eyes as we came down the drop. Also as usual, I seemed to be the only one who got really wet. The photo is not very good but one of my arms is just visible whilst the other is covering Joe’s eyes.


From the Log Flume, we proceeded to the water slides which have changed slightly since last year in that there seemed to be more water and smaller sides on the boats! Joe wanted to go on the straight slide rather than the bumpy one and I was again instructed to cover his eyes. We had a long queue here but finally made it. If I thought that I got wet on the Log Flume, it was like nothing compared to the drenching I got as we hit the bottom water puddle!! Joe seemed to enjoy it however and wanted to go again but, after the long queue, we decided to go and find something else to do.

Amonst the other things I decided to do was join the children on the slide into the Ball Pool. Well there is nothing like an old fool and I went straight under the balls ending upside down. When I climbed out, I realised that when I started I had a camera but where was it now? Nick and I climbed back into the Balls and, with children still coming down the slide, we scrabbled about in the mass of balls until I eventually found it, unscathed fortunately.

Nick and Karen’s children have been to Crealy many times and don’t worry too much about throwing themselves off death slides, but for Andrew’s Joe, it was a little different. He is also a couple of years younger than Connor so it was good to see him joining in and eventually tackling some of the slides by himself. The following photo has all four children on the outside bumps with one extra in the background.


A good day was had by all with a visit to the shops at the end for the children to buy some odds and ends; Joe managed to persuade Nanny that he ought to have a Triceratops so I think a little “sub” was made. Then it was time to leave and for the family to pack up ready to travel back to Hampshire later in the evening. The following photo was taken by Karen in the evening.

Family Visit 1 - Amy and Andrew

August has been a very busy time for visitors resulting in no update to the Blog for some time so I thought that I would update in three Posts whilst “cheating” with the dates.

Andrew and Amy arrived on Saturday 19th August; they were to photograph a wedding in St Ives on Monday 21st August so stayed with us for two nights and then with Annette on the Monday night, before travelling back to Warrington on Tuesday. I cannot remember what their itinerary was after that but I do know that they had to photograph another wedding on Anglesey later in the week.
On the Saturday night, the four of us went out to the Restaurant on Lusty Glaze Beach. It was incredibly busy and quite boisterous. I was going to take a photo of view of the beach from our table but right outside the window was a handwritten sign saying “Toilets this Way” with a squiggly arrow so the photo did not get taken - perhaps I should have taken it anyway!
I think that the menu is a little short on variety with only a couple of meat dishes, one of which included a cheese dressing which would not suit everyone. Amy decided on a vegetarian meal, which turned out to be not available; how on earth that can be is beyond me. Both Amy and Andrew had Mussels, whilst Maria had Chicken and I had Fish. For a sweet, I had the “Apple Dessert”, which included Baby Toffee Apples and this was very good indeed. Overall, I was a little disappointed with the meal but the evening was very enjoyable and the staff were pleasant with a very casual dress sense.
The highlight of the evening for me, considering my previous problem with Treliske, was being able to climb up those 135 steps to the car without too much trouble, so I guess the heart is still working.

Most of Sunday was spent with Amy and Andrew sorting out photographs from an earlier wedding. I know that wedding photographs are expensive, and I suppose people tend to think that the photographer turns up on the day, takes a few snaps, develops the film and sends the results to the married couple; the truth is that there is an anormous amount of work involved in the selection process to get the “right” photos in the album. In this particular case, the number of digital images were reduced to about 200 that were suitable for the couple to view. We did have a break and went to the Trelawney Garden Centre at Sladesbridge for a late breakfast. Now I believe that this is good value even if it is a round trip of about 30 miles. I was back at work on Monday and Andrew and Amy went off to St Ives where the sun finally shone for the happy couple.

Family History

It is going to take a considerable time to organise this part of the site because I have a total of over 8,900 names in my Family Tree. I shall organise them by Name using links to .pdf files, with either Brief, Detailed or Full content.

The Brief page will consist of Names, Dates of Birth, Marriage and Death.

The Detailed page will include my notes including Census extracts and may have photographs embedded.

The Full page will include all References as In-line notes.

For interest I have produced my Ancestors file. This runs to 26 Generations on the HOUGHAM family but I cannot verify any of that although the HOUGHAM family has been very well researched. To view this please click here (270Kb).

Family Names

ALLEN - Brief (389Kb).

HILLS - Brief (428Kb).

TURNER - Brief (295Kb).

WAMPACH - Brief (92Kb) - Full (134Kb).

WARD - Brief (136Kb)