Still no internet connection so this will be posted as a retrospective blog in about a week(ish) when I return and get my act together. The last blog was some 6 days ago at the start of the hol so not a lot had happened since then it’s been fairly frenetic. Been to Falmouth, Tolgus Tin Mill, St. Mary’s IOS and Newquay, and we’re only just over half way there. On a normal holiday that I’ve taken in the past this would now be the terrible Sunday after a week away where you sit at home and mope, the holiday already starts to seem distant and return to work and the grind all too imminent. I suspect I will feel much like that on Sunday the 18th but at least there’s a few more days to go until then.

I still very much like Penzance, it’s a real Cornish market town, not swamped by tourism but there is a good atmosphere between visitors and natives. It’s quite a busy little place in a Cornish dreckly sort of way! It is noticeable that when you have a more South Eastern city type manner, ie always rushing about, you are going at twice the pace of everybody else. I’d still like the idea of living here, it feels remote enough to not have the urban fug and yet there is enough to do not to feel isolated. I like the Cornish way of life, the food, the beer, the sea the relaxed way of doing things and the cohesive sense of Cornish community. No, to be fair I’ve been here often enough now to know that there is no such thing as a utopia (although Scilly has to be as close as I’ve ever seen) there are things about Penzance that are not perfect and certainly coming from the more industrialised part of the country it takes time to get used to smaller supermarkets, people not being in a hurry, the clannish nature of the Cornish (I can quite understand this, I think the whole influx of 2nd home grockles is a disgrace and should be dealt with, it wrecks a community and it is the preserve of the rich whilst harming mainly the poor.) if you like Cornwall and want to live here then you should do so whole-heartedly and I believe the Cornish will accept you for that, you don’t just dabble in every now and again and pretend you live there and know it.

Falmouth was quite nice, it reminded me of many of the Cornish towns, quite winding and cramped bustling streets and milling people, it’s a nice crush though rather than a city crush. I hadn’t been there before in all the times of coming to Cornwall which is strange because it’s only about 30 mins from Pz and less from Helston and we’ve usually been based around one or the other. I had heard there wasn’t much to Falmouth but I was pleasantly suprised that it is the sort of place that if it were not in Cornwall it’d probably be considerably more popular.

St. Mary’s one of the Scilly islands was as ever breathtaking, I love Scilly, ever since I first got there 8 or so years ago. It’s a pity that the boat trip only gives you around 4 hours on St. Mary’s so there was time to go to Porthcressa beach, have lunch and some Scilly ale in the pub and do a bit of shopping and all too soon it’s time to go back, 5 hours round trip journeying for 4 hours pleasure, but it is well worth it. It’s nice to have the helicopter trip because you can get a full day but it is pricey adults are around £85 odd and you pay a fair whack for kids. I wanted to go to St. Martin’s because I’ve only ever done St. Mary’s and Tresco. One day, hopefully soon, I would like to holiday on the islands for at least a week, and spend all of it on the islands rather than the mainland, that way you can do the trips out to see the seals and the puffins and visit St. Agnes which is the most rugged and exposed island, there are about 64 people on it. Then there’s Bryher which is right next to Tresco, you can stay there too. I really could wax lyrical about Scilly for pages my advice if anyone is reading this, that isn’t just me wanting to relive my holiday in months to come, is to go to Scilly if you like staggering scenery, peace and an island way of life.

That’s all for now s’late and I’m tired.