Tuesday 2nd August 11, Day Four of Holiday

An excellent day... another late and lazy start... in fact the boys didn't have breakfast until after 11am (their choice!) and we eventually got going on a walk along the Coastal Path.

We got as far as the steps up the cliff to go to the sandy beach just South of Mevagissey, called Portmellon, but Gill didn't feel like climbing them and urged us to go on, leaving her to stay in Meva.  We reluctantly agreed.

We walked up the cliff via steps and then along a path which led to a viewing platform, and then along the road to Portmellon beach, about 15 minutes walk.

The tide was right out but the boys wanted to just sit and chat, in the shade of the sea wall.  I walked out in bare feet to the sea, and paddled, and then walked back up the beach in a stream, which I thought was ripe for damming.  I persuaded the boys to come and investigate the sea, and they loved it, we found some razor shells, and there was a good deal of splashing and horse play.  We then spent quite a bit of time damming the little stream coming across the beach, and made friends with an 11 year old boy from near Brighton, who helped.

We then went to sit down again and I got a text from Gill saying she'd accidentally forgotten to put the boys' lunch in the bag I was carrying... we'd got buckets and spades (which we didn't use) devilsticks and diabolos (didn't use these!) and juice and water, which we did have.  Gill said she was bringing the stuff to us, and we'd meet at the top of the cliff.  We walked back and met her there; she'd found a less steep way up, ans we sat for a while enjoying the view.

Bought pasties on the way back, had new potatoes and salad with the pastie. 

A real 'proper' seaside holiday day!

Sunday 15th August 10

Woken early as the morning sunshine came straight through the unlined curtains and was very bright. I had breakfast and then as Gill had a bath, I got in after her to reuse the water; the bath was so short that I couldn't sit in it with my legs out straight. It was nice and hot though and I had a good scrub. I went to dry off in the bedroom, and as the sun had moved round it had become less bright and I went to sleep for a couple of hours, getting up again at 10.30ish. Luxury!

I had noted that there was the raft race this morning at 11, and from the house we could see boats converging from all around the bay. But no-one else wanted to come to see the race, so I went down by myself. The race had just started so I went to the finish and got a good spot to see all the rafts come in... they took almost an hour to come in, and it was a lot of fun. There was a probable father and son in a sea-going canoe, the child was collecting water bomb balloons which had been thrown at incoming rafts but hadn't burst, and threw some of them back into the spectators. At least three rafts were unable to get to the finish by themselves and got a tow in. Several rafts broke up on the way, although a couple of these did still make the finish line. This event raised thousands of pounds for the RNLI... at least £250 entrance fee per raft, and then street collections (there were apparently 25000 spectators) and other fundraising. They were hoping for £70k today.

When the last raft had come in, I walked along to the Co-op and got bread and soya milk. Then back to the house for 1pm and lunch.

I had my sandwiches whilst watching Monster Moves, and had some laughs with the boys, play fighting/horseplay... we call it 'bundling'... but at 2pm I wanted to have some quiet as I wanted to listen to Gardeners Question Time. Immediately after this, the rest of the family were ready to go out so I took them to the beach at Bracelet Bay... much complaining about having to walk down a steep hill and then up one to get somewhere they weren't sure about.... but once on the beach the complaints disappeared and we played in some soft sand, letting our feet sink in up to our ankles... and then we made a long sand barrier to divert a stream, and made the pretty sand-dribble turrets all along it, and enjoyed watching the erosion that happens when the stream is forced to turn a corner.

After at least an hour, probably two, we washed off the sand in the sea and went to the top of the beach where Gill was chatting to a nice chap called Steve who is a singer, who'd recently been working with Jon Lord of Deep Purple fame, and I had a nice chat with him. Then we left to go and find a place to eat, and I showed them the pier and we went to the Mumbles Pier Cafe. I had pizza and chips, Gill beans, chips and salad, and our boys had pasta Napoli and a veggie breakfast! And onion rings on the side. And a J2O each.... It was a nice meal and we needed the walk afterwards from the pier to Village Lane which leads up to Bryn Terrace.

I had wanted to go and explore the area behind the house, as there's a footpath up into the woods, but I just cuddled up on the sofa with Gilly and watched Antiques Roadshow, which Gill especially likes. She's got several antiques books and has pretty good guesses at what things are and what they are worth. Then I got trapped by Secret Britain and when this finished it was too dark to go exploring.

Monday 10th August 09

Ten years since our youngest son was born... and consequently an early start, as on birthdays, children don't stay in their bed very long and they wake early with the excitement!

But it was lovely to see him opening his cards and presents, and it didn't take him long to find the things in the garden hidden by his older brother.

I was really happy that he got a card from his grandparents, whom we don't have a lot of contact with, and he rang them up to say thank you.

I went to the building society, the Dentist's for a scale and polish, then on to the station to renew our family railcard, and bought tickets for today's trip to Scarborough.

The journey to Scar was good, and when we got there we headed down to the beach to dig channels in the sand and make our characteristic sand-castles with turrets made from dribbled wet sand. It was drizzly but not cold. Nice co-operation with the canal we built, at least, no arguing.

Then a bus trip round the headland to the North Bay, got off and walked up to the little railway and water-chute thing, and Gill watched us three have two goes on the water-chute... basically a wooden boat which slides into the lake, is hauled out back up the slope, and slides down in again. Fun!

Then down to the Peaseholm Park, where several times a week there is a 'Naval Battle' with 20 foot-long model boats, operated by a person inside, acting out a WW2 battle with model planes on wires, fireworks, explosions next to the boats and it was quite dynamic.

After this, our birthday boy requested a go in the 'dragon-boat' pedalo so Gill again watched, with her camera, and we had a good little go around. Then back to the bus, up the cliff lift and to the train which we just got, with one minute to spare...

I picked up a large load of compostables from Country Fresh, and a big head of broccoli for tea. Gill did linguine and a veg sauce... one of our youngest's favourites.

Several phone calls this evening, including one from a journalist from Toxin Magazine about the Big Green Gathering.

Friday 15th August 08

Last full day in Whitby.. so we spent most of it on the beach!!!

Another arty creation again, after extracting as many boulders out of the sand as we could. I made a wall plus various uprights out of wooden bits, with seaweed decorations. Again, lots of admiration from other beach-users. When the tide came in so far that we had to leave the bit of beach we were using, we watched the incoming tide from a vantage-point and laughed at other tourists getting their belongings wet with incoming waves. I had a good chat with a visitor called Hilary.

In the evening I watched all of Gardeners World as I tidied up and got things ready for going home tomorrow.

Game of Scrabble which Gill won, which was good. I'm glad she sometimes beats me.

Thursday 14th August 08

Another day on the beach... this time reused the rocks and boulders which we excavated from the sand where they had been burried by the tide and made a cairn, aided by our German friends who joined us at about 11am. Our creation was well-admired by many passers-by, several took a photo so if we're lucky, I'll get an image or two of it emailed to me. I will attempt to put that in this blog which so far has been just text.

When it started raining we went back to the cottage and when ready, walked up to the Museum and Art Gallery, which was excellent! Spent ages there.

Ate tea with them back at our place and some of us went for a walk to the Abbey (well, up the steps to the church) and then out to the harbour defences.

They cycled away again at 8.30ish, and later Gill and I had another game of Scrabble.

Wednesday 13th August 08

First full day in Whitby.... went down to the beach with the boys and created a sandcastle with them, using big boulders from higher up the beach and some driftwood.... made a good-looking sculptural art-installation!

Soon Gill joined us and soon after that, our German friends Sabine and Rolf and their three children... the middle one was at school with our youngest which is how we know them.

When it started raining after lunch, they came back to our place and stayed til 8.30pm, sharing our evening meal. They then all cycled back to the campsite just outside Whitby.

Monday 27th August 07, Bank Holiday

Holiday! And a really good sleep, much more comfortable than the sofa! A slow start to the day, included a visit to the site shop, to find tonight's tea, pasta with a tin of sweetcorn and peas, made sandwiches and rang Linda as she'd left some dog-related stuff.

We had a family meeting, to agree what we were going to do today. I'd heard that there was a 'naturist' beach towards Holkham, or past it... so my aim was to get there as I really enjoy swimming naked. The rest of the family agreed to walk in that direction, although the children didn't want to go to the nudee beach and Gill doesn't 'do' naked in public, so if we did get to it, it would be just me taking advantage of the situation. Anyway, we set off, starting with an ice cream, and walked fairly slowly for over an hour, where we found a lovely empty patch of beach, so we stopped there. Put up the little tent-type thing... just a sunshade really, and had lunch.

We started to build a sandcastle, near the high tide mark, but within the reach of where the sea got up to. We decided to build a massive cone of a castle, surrounded by a moat, and with a channel leading from the moat towards the sea. I worked with a bucket and worked very hard piling it high, the boys helped with child-sized spades and we ended up with a pile about 5 feet high and 5 feet in diameter at the base. Gill constructed a 'marble-run' to make use of a plastic ball I found, perhaps a ball from a deodorant bottle. She made a spiral from the top, which went twice around the cone, and smoothed the channel out with a half tennis ball we found, so the small plastic ball rolled all the way around and down the castle. We then decorated it with razor shells, oyster shells, seaweed, sponges and dead crabs, a large stick out the top, draped with assorted detritus, making it a 4 hour work of art, with all of us involved. It was a really lovely time, but the sea eventually got to it and the ineviable happened, it got destroyed, but not before someone took some photos.... not us as we didn't have a camera.

We trouped home, hungry, and I sped off once we'd nearly got home to put some water on for pasta. We all ate together, and enjoyed it a lot... food is so much nicer when you've been out in the fresh air all day, and are quite hungry. The boys went to bed quickly and willingly.

Gill and I enjoyed watching 'Boys From The Brown Stuff', a programme about London's sewers... fascinating! An early night for us too.

Sunday 26th August 07

First full day at the Pinewoods Holiday Park. I woke not too early and lolled around, not having to 'do' anything really... holiday! Enjoyed breakfast, as we'd got a posh commercial muesli called Dorset Cereals Berries and Cherries, wonderful! Then watched a BBC TV show called Heaven and Earth, as there was due to be a discussion about the Climate Campers at Heathrow, and the Greenbelt Festival, which I once went to to do litter picking and recycling, and it was an interesting experience for a non-Christian to go to, since it's a Christial festival.

I was delighted to see an interview with Climate Camper Graham Martin, a Christian from York whom I'm friendly with, and then I'm pretty sure I saw my friend Sue Wallace presiding over a service at Greenbelt, and as she's been ordained (I think this is the word for it) I'm sure it was her... hey, two people I know on telly, quite made my day!

So after 11am we all set off to the beach and then came back for lunch. For no reason my eldest threw a HUGE paddy and ran away from me, disobeying my instruction to come to me. He gets in more trouble disobeying me than he would for the original transgression. Linda gave him a good talking to, for which I was grateful, and then she left to drive home again. She dropped Gill off in town, and I went to the beach with them. We played nicely, making sandcastles, and they were perfectly behaved, it was a pleasure to be with them.

Got back at 5ish, Gill had enjoyed her non-boy time! She'd bought presents for the boys and a small beach tent, to give some shelter.

I made tea of bulgar wheat and veg, and at 8 we all went for a walk on the beach, watching the tide go out, and getting back at about 9pm.

Gill and I watched some telly with Gryff Rhys Jones up Snowdon, then a bit of a film with Martin Clunes in New Zealand.

Slept in the double bed, much more comfy!

Saturday 25th August 07

Away on holiday today!

Up at 7am and I took down the tent in the garden and loaded the compostumbler with last night's collection. Got all the luggage together and got into the taxi we'd ordered, and we caught the 10.08 train to Peterborough, we had seats booked. A quick change and onto the Norwich train, which was hot and crowded, although we had seats on this too. Gill's sister Linda met us at Norwich, as she'd offered to take us to the campsite near Wells Next The Sea by car. She had her little dog Oliver with her, and was due to stay a night with us in the caravan.

The car journey was about an hour and a half, going past Fakenham, through Wells NTS and down to Wells beach where the Pinewoods Holiday Park is, behind the dunes and pine trees.

Got the key, we're in a privately owned caravan which is cheaper than renting one owned by the holiday park, but we had to show a little handwritten note to the park people for the key to be handed over. The caravan was easy to find, right next to the laundry! As soon as we'd unloaded and had a cuppa, we all walked down to the beach, over the sand dunes which are covered in big pine trees and gorse, and have wooden steps up and down them to make access easy and reduce erosion. The kids played and we 3 grownups chatted whilst leaning against a groyne, in the shade, as it was hot and sunny.

Linda had brought pizzas so when we got back to the caravan, we put those in, and had those followed by cake and flapjack. After a rest, we all trouped into Wells, along the harbour wall/sea defences, alongside the minature railway which goes a mile between the town and the Pinewoods Holiday Park. We had a brief wander and bought food supplies, and came back on the railway, which is a pound per adult and 80 pence per child.

It was now after dark and the children were tired, and due to this and our eldest's current behaviour patterns, he had a fit of anger and started hitting me. Gill tried to intervene, trying to get me to stop holding him, which was preventing him hitting me, but Linda, who used to be a schoolteacher and has brought up a handful of children, said that she should let me hold his wrists and Gill should back me up, as I was being firm, fair and measured. I was so glad to have Linda's support! When the child misbehaves, and ignores a warning or two, and a command to stop behaving in such a way as to endanger himself or others, the child does need controlling and letting know who is in charge. My worry is that if his behaviour is allowed to continue like this, he'll think its ok to do this kinda thing, and end up in trouble with the authorities.

The situation calmed down, but then our youngest complained of an itchy bum and I found a threadworm, oh no, not again! and there will be no chance to get us all medicated until after the bank holiday! What a holiday this is turning out to be!

Linda slept in the double bed, and Gill and I tried to get the bed out from the sofas but couldn't work it out, so we slept on a sofa each, not that confortable!