Evan a few hours old

Adele and Evan got home on the 7th and I have to say I think I was more nervous that first drive back than I’d been on my driving test. Mam and Dad arrived a little later that day. We tried to keep visitors to a minimum as much as possible initially until Evan had settled. As I write this Evan is almost eight weeks old (he will be tomorrow), but he is growing at a rate of knots, we are already into some 3-6 month sized clothes. Of course friends and relatives were very generous since he has been born and over Christmas so we haven’t actually needed to buy very much for him ourselves up to this point.

The past eight weeks has been incredible. It’s been a learning experience for us all, but an inclredibly enjoyable one at that. For now I will leave with a quick pick I took on Christmas morning.

Happy first Christmas

I’ve already mentioned that we were down in London at the beginning of August. We were slightly constrained this year as to the time we could take our summer holiday. Adele’s company are moving factory and to facilitate part of this they have had to take holidays at certain times and not at others. We already had Cropredy booked for the second week in August (more about that later) and so had just over a week to go off somewhere. Initially we thought about a trip to Boston, but after looking at the cost of flights (we got our hotel in London, with breakfast and first class train travel to London for less than the flights to Boston) decided our money was better spent elsewhere. One of the happy side effects of chosing London at this time of year was noted in the previous entry the other was a another chance to take in a show and to get to a one night of the Proms.

Our hotel (Apex London Wall) was in the middle of the city and very nice it is too. Although we were very close to Moorgate station it wasn’t that far to walk to a lot of the places we were headed to. After we arrived early on the Monday afternoon we dumped our bags and headed off out for a wander. It was a nice day and quite warm so we popped in for a couple at a wee pub at the end of Fleet Street. We carried on walking after our liquid refreshment and ended up at Trafalgar Square. At the moment they have one of those hedge maze things on, and we were just standing looking over it soaking up the sun when we noticed a bit of a commotion at the exit of the maze. Next thing we see these puppets popping up now and again. We recognised them as the cast of Avenue Q (we’d be going to see that later in the week). There were doing a photo shoot they must’ve just been updating the publicity shots.

We left the square and headed off with the ultimate intention of finding somewhere for dinner. We wandered for a while found a place, but they didn’t have any tables for a while and we were getting hungry (although it may have been the getting thirsty) so we decided to head for a drink first and try and figure out what we wanted to do. We ended up in the Maple Leaf (a little bit of Canada in the heart of London) and it was wing night – so that killed two birds with one stone as we enjoyed a few pints of Sleemans (IPA & Honey Brown) and some nice and spicy buffalo wings.

The rest of the week was fairly fluid in terms of activities with a couple of notable exceptions, namely our night at the proms and the beer festival (of which I’ve already written) both of which we already had our tickets for. There were museums and exhibitions that we both wanted to see, some old favourites and something new. So it was that one day Adele headed to the V&A to see the Grace Kelly Style Icon exhibition, while I headed to the Imperial War Museum – well just because I hadn’t been in ages. They did have the Ministry of Food exhibition on so there was something new that I hadn’t seen before. Our museum going didn’t stop there as we paid our usual visit to the British Museum (well it had been a while since we’d both been down) as well.

Galleries too got our attention as we headed to Tate Britain to see the Rude Britannia exhibition that we’d watched the TV series about on the beeb. One of the funniest sections was where they had the blurb about the paintings/exhibits written in the style of Roger Mellie. There was also a giant version of Viz in the middle of the floor. It was quite funny watching folk read the strip who (you would guess by looking at them) wouldn’t normally have read “that sort of thing” and seeing them chuckling away. Yes we enjoyed that one a great deal. On our last full day in London we also paid a vist to Tate Modern. Ostensibly this was just for a wander, but I’d noticed a photography exhibition that they had on that looked quite interesting so we’d decided to take a look. The exhibition, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance & the Camera, turned out to be very thought provoking and a little weird in places. Some of the shots I’d seen before in Edinburgh at the Dean Gallery, but both of us really did enjoy it.

One place that both of us had been very keen to visit was the home of cricket, Lords. It’s one sport (along with international rugby) that the both of us will sit down and watch (Adele isn’t a football fan). Admittedly events usually conspire against us when it comes to getting to a match – the weather usually, but we do still watch on TV. We did the tour round the ground with what appeared to be Bumble’s cousin, as some of stories he was coming out with were superb. We thought we’d picked a good day for visiting as no matches were scheduled, unfortunately there were still some folk in training so we couldn’t get into the home dressing room, but did get to see the away dressing room. As if the cricket wasn’t enough in the museum they also had an exhibition about the connections between cricket and baseball.

The theatre didn’t miss out either. As I mentioned earlier we took in Avenue Q on one of the evenings after thinking we’d missed it the last time we were down. Although I see now it has finally finished in London as it heads off on tour round the UK. It was extremely funny. We also had a bit of higher brow entertainment on our final night in London with a visit to the Royal Albert Hall for the proms. This was the first time either of us had been in the Albert Hall it was very impressive. The concert was really good and we do plan on going back. In fact as we commented to each other I’m surprised it has taken us so long to actually get down for one of these shows during the Proms. We had great seats and a they were very reasonable. The concert we saw was played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and included some Mozart and Brahms.

In a strange twist for me I didn’t take that many photos but I have uploaded a few to flickr, you can see them here.

First up was the Scottish Real Ale Festival at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in June. We stuck with the plan of heading over on the Thursday night again with it being quieter and more chance of actually getting to sample the ales we wanted, although even then some of them were running out. Sarah had come up from Norfolk to stay with us for a couple of  days with the festival in mind and we all hooked up with David, Scott, Graham and Claire for a good sized group of enthusiastic ale quaffers. First problem of the day was to decide on the first half, only problem the key to the different styles was not present beside the tasting notes for each beer – bit if a problem, although most could be worked out from tasting notes the key is good for quickly glancing through as you work your way through the styles. As is my normal plan for these things I started out light and worked my way up to the stouts. Asterisked ones were ones I had a full half of rather than sampling something someone else had ordered.

Leezie Lundie* – a very good example of a pale, golden ale from the Ayr Brewing Company. This was a very pleasant light start to the evening and would certainly go for this if I saw it on in a pub.

Island Hopping* - again another light one this time from the Highland Brewing Company in Orkney. There were some lemony hints with this one, very pleasant. Nice and hoppy as well, just how I like them.

Lulach* – described as a summer ale with hints of fruit and nuts from the Deeside Brewery in Aboyne.

Heid the Ba* – a world cup seasonal ale again with citrus hints from Belhaven Brewery. Citrus flavours seemed popular this year. For this one though the citrus wasn’t immediately apparent to me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have had the Island Hopping just before it, but the flavours did develop.

Red Mist* – if I tell you this one was fruity, I’m sure most of you will be able to guess what sort of red fruit this one tasted of, yes you guessed it raspberry. In fact this was the one I referred to last year that I hoped I would be able to try. It was from Traditional Scottish Ales and I have to admit I was a little disappointed at first, but again once I got into it the flavour developed. Maybe I should take a bottle of water next year for in between drinks.

Driver Dark* – a full flavoured stout from Angus Ales. This one had some chocolate malt.

Clyde Puffer* – another stout this time from the Arran Brewery. Very mellow for a stout this one.

Gothenberg Porter* – a porter from Fowlers in Prestonpans. We had a lovely dark chocolate and espresso finish on this one.

Summer Ale & Scottish Oatmeal Stout – from Broughton Ales. I thought the Summer Ale tasted of nothing at all. It was supposed to have a crisp hop flavour and aftertaste, well I’m sorry I didn’t get it. Very glad I never paid for this one. The stout was very light for a stout but still full of flavour.

Surf Sup & Nectar – these two were from the Caledonian Brewery. Both would be worth having a pint of if I see them again.

Wild Mild, Ben Nevis 80/-, Double Espresso, Ginger Explosion Spicy Blonde, Black Velvet Champagne Stout & 1488 Whisky Ale – all from Traditional Scottish Ales. Looking back it looks like I tried the Ginger Explosion last year but the standout this year was definitely the Double Espresso. It was just like drinking coffee and given that is another vice I have it worked for me.

Cuillin Beast – this was a strong ale (7%) from Isle of Skye Brewing Company. They do one of my favourite bottled ales, Black Cuillin. For all that is was strong this one, you didn’t get that at all and would be very likely to cause carnage as you knocked these back.

Hibernator Export Oatmeal Stout – this one from the Black Isle Brewery. They got runner up in the champion beer of Scotland announced at the festival. Really pleased for the guys. Unfortunately by the time I went to get a full drink of this they’d sold out for the day.

Talorcan – another stout this time from the Deeside Brewery.

Prestonpans Linger – this one is from Fowlers in Prestonpans. This one had a hint of ginger on the nose, but not a strong taste. Not too bad though.

At the beginning of this month we were down in London for a week’s holiday (more about that later) and it happily coincided with the biggie, the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) at Earls Court. I’d been before in 2006 but this year was bigger than then. We only went on the one day and to be honest you could easily go each of the 5 days it is on and still not get round everything. Deciding on your first one here is rather difficult and it was by pure chance we happened on the Theakston bar (some breweries had their own bars as well as the regional CAMRA ones). So it was we both started with a half of Grousebeater, their seasonal ale that we enjoyed so much when we were at the Theakston brewery. We then settled down to try and decide on what to go for next. I’ve listed below the ones we tried with A or D in brackets for whether Adele or I had that one. I’ve only added comments for notable ales, whether that be good or bad.

Grousebeater (A & D) from Theakstons

Summer Ale (D) from Arkell’s

Liquorice Alesort (D) from Ashover

LBW (A) & St Edmunds Ale (A) from Greene King

Strawbeery (D) from Lees

Raspberry Wheat Beer (D – no surprise there then) from Milestone – this was a fine example and one I would really like to have again.

Revival (A) from Moor

Summer Storm (D) from Okells. I was disappointed with this one as it promised a banana taste, I never got that.

Bizzy Bee (D) from Robinson’s

Triple Chocoholic (D & A) from Saltaire. This one was a chocoholic’s dream. They add real chocolate and chocolate syrup to this stout. Both of us were raving about this one. Adele went back for more, when I went to get more they’d run out.

Swordfish (A) from Wadworth. This one involved rum and Adele does so hate rum. Yes Adele really liked this one.

Raspberry Wheat Beer (D) from Whitstable. I didn’t think this was as good an example as the one from Milestone. Not as fruity.

Both of these festivals are run by CAMRA, an organisation that I finally got round to joining in early June before the Scottish festival. One thing I did pick up while at the GBBF was a book of recipes for a good number of ales as something I’ve got into is home brewing. I’ll post more about my adventures in home brewing soon, but I’m still at the kit stage and hope to progress to fiddling about with the recipes in the book I picked up to really get into it. Perhaps I should grow a beard and get a pipe? One thing that joining CAMRA has done has opened my eyes to the number of smaller beer festivals that go on throughout the year, some run by CAMRA branches others they just publicise as they are run by a individual brewers or pubs, in fact there is one coming up in Edinburgh in a couple of weeks that I will likely pop into.

Way back in August we were off on holiday, this year it involved staying in the UK as there were some places we wanted to go to and it tied in nicely with Cropredy. First stop was Tickton in Yorkshire to spend a couple of days with Nina. Of course no sooner had we arrived, but the three of us plus Nina’s pal Jackie were heading back north a bit to Masham for a weekend of camping, drinking Theakstons and a spot of walking. It was an organised thing with a group that Jackie is a member of. We took over the bottom corner of the campsite, and I’m sure there were more tents than should have been there, still we found room for our two. The main event was an evening trip to the Theakston Brewery. Now with most of these sorts of things you get one maybe two beers as part of the tour and then pay for the rest this was not the case. Beer was included all evening no additional monies needed to change hands, either before or after the brewery tour – oh joy of joys. They even let me have go at pouring my own, never having pulled a pint before in my life I thought I did okay. On the Sunday some of us headed off for a walk around the Yorkshire countryside.

We spent a couple of days with Nina back at her place, which allowed us to pop into York for the day. I hadn’t been since I was there with my primary school when I was in Primary 7 – early 1985 I think was when I was there. The greatest find was Rafi’s Spicebox. Freshly handmade mixes for curries, oh boy are they good. When Adele passed back through York in early September she popped back in for more, although they do have an on-line shop – and yes Graham this is place I talked about weeks ago and meant to send you the link. I have started to upload photos from the Yorkshire section, and you can get them here.

Adele, Jackie & Nina

After a lovely time in Yorkshire it was time to continue on our way south. Next stop was to be Banbury our base for the next couple of days before Cropredy. We stopped at Warwick Castle on the way past and it was mobbed, mind you with the schools being on holiday and it being a superb day this was not a surprise. We were a little surprised by all the things going on as we didn’t expect all the living history stuff with guys dressed as knights fighting hand to hand, falconry and a jousting show. Again we showed our skill (dumb luck) in visiting both the best Thai restaurant and best pub (according to our hosts at the B&B anyway). Certainly there were no complaints from us regarding either, in fact the pub even had a string quartet on which proved a great way to end the day. The following day had been planned for quite some time, a trip to Bletchley Park. I was in history buff/geek heaven, Adele enjoyed herself too (I think). We were there for pretty much the whole day, but I still need to go back as not everything was open. That evening we endured a poor Scotland performance as they capitulated to Norway, mind you we had a good laugh with some fellow Scots & Norwegians in the pub we watched it in.

Our next port of call on our tour of the UK was the short trip to Cropredy for the Fairport’s annual gathering. Obviously we had to make pit-stop for food and drink first before picking Graham up off the train. We ended up in Field 7 this year, which was slow going as we ended up having to get through the village first. We know better for next year though and will likely come at it from the other side. The festival was again brilliant fun and the weather was dry (save for some light spots of rain one morning). There were many highlights over the weekend and not too many lowlights. Whereas last years surprise was Robert Plant was a secret until he took to the stage, this year not so and everyone pretty much knew Yusuf (the man formerly known as Cat Stevens) was to be a guest along with Fairport during their set. Boy was he good and adding to the other stars of the weekend including (but not limited to) Ade Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds,  Dreadzone and Seth Lakeman. The weekend flew by all too quickly and unfortunately we were brought back down to earth with a bit of a bump as we headed back to Banbury to drop Graham off at the station. Unfortunately we got a puncture and despite our best efforts we couldn’t get the wheel nuts off so a call to the RAC and some quick flagging down of a taxi so Graham could catch his train were in order. Thankfully Graham made his train and we didn’t have to wait too long and we were soon on our way back to Banbury and Kwik Fit first instead of the planned Tesco visit for some supplies. We were soon back on the road though and on our way to Wales. Cropredy pictures are here.

Our trip to Wales was split into north & south with the intention of some coastal walking in the south round the Gower Peninsula then up to Snowdonia with the intention of doing some hill walking. First up though was the Gower. After camping at a festival we’d figured at least one night in a hotel would be the best option (the rest of the week was camping as well). We opted to stay one night in the Mumbles. It was really lovely wee place and the owners at the hotel (Little Langland Hotel) we were staying were really nice. In fact we ended up chatting away to them and some locals in the hotel bar before we headed off out for dinner, we actually ended up in there longer than intended. Following the owners recommendation we went to a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner, it was indeed a good choice.

Before heading to the camp site (Pitton Cross) we’d be staying at for the next couple of days we thought we’d get in a couple of walks en route. As is often the case with us things didn’t go quite to plan on that front. The first walk started out fine, but then at a critical point we somehow managed to end up on a different path to the one we should have been on and ended up going through an overgrown area. We followed the signposts and the directions we had on the walk guide so something wasn’t quite right. As the second part of the walk had taken us away from the coast we decided that the next one we would just double back at the point it turned away so we could continue walking along the coast. We continued along the coast looking for the start of the next walk, we thought we’d found it but once we’d got our bearings and picked out the landmarks it seemed we hadn’t, still the walk we did was very nice. Once the tent was pitched, we’d explored a bit around the camp site and we’d cooked tea (red wine risotto with some local sausages) we settled down to enjoy the evening sunshine and just chill. The following day we spent the whole day over at Rhossili Bay. We got there early enough to catch the low tide so we could walk all the way out to Worms Head. After a snack we then walked over Rhossili Down, before sauntering back along the beach. It was a great way to spend the day. Although we’d planned on perhaps heading a bit further up the coast to get another walk in as well, in the end we were glad we didn’t.

That was the end of our time in the Gower and the next day we were on our way to north Wales, to a camp site just outside Caernarfon. The weather had taken a turn for the worse on the drive up, and the forecast did not look good for the next couple of days. Luckily we got the tent up in the dry but we had to come up with some Heath Robinson affair to keep the rain off the food while cooking, we managed it though. The poor weather changed our plans somewhat. We had hoped to get up Snowdon but neither of us fancied the walk up in the rain coming back to the tent with no way of getting everything properly dry – just gives us a good excuse to go back. To be fair a visit to Portmeirion was always on the cards, me being a fan of the The Prisoner and all. It rained on the way there although it did stop when we got there and even brightened up a bit. In fact when we got back to Caernarfon it had turned into a lovely day (although it did look rubbish over the hills). We had a look round the ruins of the Roman fort before spending some time in the town. Our last full day in Wales started in a similar vein, being dull & grey but we’d already decided against heading up Snowdon based on the forecast. Instead we headed off to explore a copper mine, do a spot of shopping and spend a large chunk of the day at Caernarfon Castle. Photos will be forthcoming over the next little while – I’ll post to indicate when I’ve got them up to flickr.

Looking back on what was a packed fortnight it was great fun. We were blessed with some glorious weather for the most part. We will go back to Wales at some point – well we never went up Snowdon. Mind you we would likely do it differently next time as we effectively lost a day in the middle of the week we were there driving north. We enjoyed the camping for a change. Our three new investments were definitely worth it – our new tent which we needed for the porch on it, the air bed (well we were car camping after all) and the best of all the Trangia stove.

This did mean we could scope the standing area and get a decent spot to watch from, which we did. First up were The Answer from Northern Ireland. I’d ben quite keen to see these guys having heard them a fair bit on Planet Rock, but to be honest I was a little underwhelmed. I’ll probably go and seem them again, but at an indoor venue as the sound didn’t seem that good. This was especially disappointing as I’d heard how good they were live. Next up were The Subways who were a replacement for Thin Lizzy who had pulled out a the last minute because of an injury to their drummer. Now I’d seen them before at TiTP, and to be honest thought them an odd replacement. Don’t get me wrong I think they are pretty good, just not what I would expect as the main support act for AC/DC. Unfortunately on their performance that day I’m not too sure too many folk would have been rushing out and buying their albums. Despite the rushing about the stage, their performance seemed less manic than when I’d seen them last at TiTP. Anyway enough about the support, onto the main course.

The Answer

The Subways

It is pretty poor show that this was the first time I’d been to see the mighty AC/DC, still we were here and boy do they put on a good show, despite their advancing years. From the opening riff of Rock n’ Roll Train to the closing of the set with For Those About to Rock, it was just incredible. The layout of the stage and Hampden’s relatively small dimensions meant we weren’t too far away from Brian and Angus doing their thing on the walkway and latterly Angus on his own riser, I even grabbed some video of that.

Angus & Brian on Walkway

The biggest highlight for me was You Shook Me All Night Long, it is one of my all time favourite tracks by anyone not just AC/DC. There were tracks I’d wished they’d played, but then it’s a bit like going to a Rush gig they have just so much material to try and pick from they can’t play everything you want to hear. The new stuff went down really well (with me anyway), but I did read some comments online about people moaning that they’d played too many tracks from the new album (they played 5) – but this was the Black Ice tour after all I’m not sure what people expected. Anyway as someone once said “you can’t please all the people all the time”, well trust me I had a massive grin on my face so I think I could be considered to have been pleased.

And a big thank you to Adele for coming and picking us up at the end of the night. The original plan had been to get the train back to Edinburgh and for me to kip down at Graham’s, but when I checked the timings I realised it would have been tight to make that last train and getting the bus back would have meant arriving in Edinburgh at around 1.30 am. She’d offered to come through instead of me taking the car and then not being able to have a drink, so that was very handy. As it turned out we could have made that last train as we managed to grab a taxi back into town, but sods law if we’d been relying on that we wouldn’t have got one.

There are a few more photos here, and I may have check through the rest to see if any are good enough to be uploaded.

Top Banana from Caledonian – I broke my own rules having this one, as it is one I’ve sampled on more than one occasion in the past. I justified it to myself as it is very difficult to find anywhere. As the name suggests it is a banana beer, not as strong a flavour as something like the Wells Banana Bread beer, but very nice all the same.

Vital Spark from Fyne – This was a darker beer. The tasting notes mention a hint of blackcurrant, but I don’t remember getting that when I had it. Still very nice though, and no sign of Para Handy either.

Dark Munro from the Highland Brewing Company – This was the champion beer of Scotland in 2007, and allowed me to have something that was like Dark Island, although not actually Dark Island. It was very good, and I certainly wouldn’t turn my nose up at it but given the choice Dark Island everytime I’m afraid.

Orkney IPA from the Highland Brewing Company – Given Deuchars IPA is my tipple of choice when out – well at least it is a good fall back in Edinburgh (and in the bars near my office in Twickenham) I am always keen to try other IPA offerings. I really like the hoppiness of a good IPA and this was one was especially quaffable. I will be keeping my eye out for it again.

Lady MacBeth from the Deeside Brewery – Yet again I was disappointed with an ale claiming to be a raspberry beer. I really do not get the breweries in this country. We have probably the best raspberries in the world in Scotland yet I’ve yet to taste a raspberry beer produced by a Scottish brewery worthy of being called a raspberry beer. Maybe I was spoiled by our trip to Canada in 2005 and the raspberry beer produced by the Amsterdam brewery in Toronto (I’d forgotten it was styled on the belgian ones), or the Belgian raspberry beers – but you’d think someone would come up with one that had a bit more raspberry flavour, or maybe that’s just me. In fact it may be something I investigate myself. I’ve been thinking about giving the whole home brewing thing a go and this might be a good place to start.

Crag’s Ale and Starboard from the Plockton Brewery – I had no idea that there even was a brewery in Plockton until I saw the festival programme and for me it was a must try. You see part of my family is from the area, and I used to spend many a happy summer staying with my Great Aunt, but enough about about my past what about the beers. Crag’s Ale was quite light, and I’m sure as I was ordering it another punter at the bar said it wasn’t very good. I wouldn’t say that at all I found it very pleasant. The Starboard was more IPAish but not as strong a taste as I would have liked. Still not a bad drink though.

Criffel IPA from Sulwath Brewers – Again another very nice example of an IPA, nice and hoppy just how I like it.

Ginger Explosion from Traditional Scottish Ales – This is one of their seasonal ales and if I’m honest I was a little bit disappointed. Others had tried this before I got there and said it was quite a strong ginger flavour, don’t get me wrong the beer was nice I just thought the ginger could have been a little more prominent, but may be that was just me. Actually despite my mini rant about raspberry beers earlier, it seems this crowd may have an answer. They seem to do a raspberry beer, Red Mist, that seems to warrant further investigation. It is also this lot that do the Aleoween that we had last year at the Guildford Arms – let’s hope that makes a re-appearance.

All in all another great year at the festival, now to track down some of the above (and ones I never got to) in the pubs.

This post sees a milestone of sorts breached, it is the 100th post. It is a little disappointing it has taken me so long to get this far, so that is something I must try and improve on.

Elsewhere at chez darth things have been busy. This years growing effort has been going great guns. We’ve had much better luck starting the tomatoes and tomatillos off much earlier, so much so they are probably a month and a half ahead of where they were at the same time last year. We’ve gone for a wider range of things this year still trying to see what works best. It seems whatever we put in the barrels does really well as the onions, leeks and carrots we have in them this year are all coming along nicely – well the leeks are finished really just picking them as we need them. I had started increasing the size of the plot but time got the better of me and short of taking the turf off an piling it up I haven’t got much further, so the plan is to get the larger growing area ready for next year and prepare an area for a greenhouse.

Time is proving to be short during the week as I’ve been back at the gym. I hadn’t been for about 2.5/3 years (since we’d been at the flat) but have been enjoying going again. I try and get three nights in a week, I know I should probably be doing more, but work is also really busy at the moment. As if that wasn’t enough it’s also been getting tough to try and fit everything in at weekends lately and the next few months don’t seem to have many free either. We’ve had a couple of barbecues, been into town for drinks and/or dinner with friends at various times over the past few weekends. This next weekend sees another dinner with friends, before we have the Scottish Traditional Beer Festival and a 50th birthday party to attend the following weekend. Then I think we actually may have a free weekend – although the car is coming up for a service and we may try and get it done then. We’ve also been trying to decide on the best weekend for this years pirate party and have a couple of dates in mind and will hopefully have that decided by the end of this week.

Looking forward to the AC/DC gig at the end of the month at Hampden. Graham and I will be heading through for that, Adele decided to pass. We’ve also got Cropredy coming up in August. I’ve been trying to get out with the sole of intention of taking photos and have been failing. I did get a few shots wandering round Edinburgh last month while the car was in for it’s MOT and at the recent Bathgate Highland games I just need to sort them out. Mind you I have been wanting to set up a photo blog with then intention of forcing me to get out more and take pictures, I hope to have that sorted before we are off on holiday in August but I am also trying to set up a more professional/work related blog where I can blether about technology and what I do on a day to day basis. Then again maybe I’m trying to do too much, ah well I like to challenge myself. Best get on.

We headed east along the coast towards Looe first, crossing the small car ferry at Fowey across to Bodinnick. We followed the twisty country roads and lanes through the wind and rain to Looe. The rain slackened off a bit when we got there and as we had waterproof jackets on anyway went for a wander round the harbour anyway. The rain got heavier so we ducked into a tea shop for a coffee. It proved to be a good decision as the rain stopped so we were able to wander round the other side of the harbour. It would have been nice to see it when it was dry and sunny, but what can you do when you are there in March.

Looe Harbour

It was then back to the car and off to our next stop, Polperro. The rain came back on for a bit, but had stopped by the time we got to Polperro. This was a place that had been recommended we visit by more than one person. It is a quaint little fishing village, with some very narrow streets. Cars can only get so far on into the village, although as can be seen here some people ignore the signs. I’m sure there are more samples out there of this sort of stupidity. The rain had stopped and it had even started to brighten up, so it made for pleasant wandering round weather. It really is a lovely wee place.

Polperro Pirates

As you know walking around like we’d been sightseeing is thirsty work so we decided to stop for a drink at The Blue Peter. It was a great wee pub, with a and open fire, cozy feel and really nice beer. What this necessary stop meant was that when we left the pub the tide had come in a bit more, which allowed for a few more photos with a different view.

Polperro Harbour

On our way back to the car we got extremely lucky as the heavens opened just as we were getting back in. So it was a wet drive for the early part of the drive back to Bodinnick along some very narrow lanes. Part of the fun about being in this part of the country was the roads, although I’d hate to be driving along some of these during high season when you have people not used to narrow roads. It must drive the locals nuts.

Once back across the ferry we headed into Fowey for a look around. Of course there were a lot of ports used, but Fowey was used during the D-Day landings as an assembly port for some of the US troops heading across to Normandy and it seemed appropriate I mention this as it is nearing the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings as I write this. Nowadays it seems to be a haven for entertainers with a number having second homes around the town, with the inevitable effect that prices are pushed up adversely affecting the locals. The town itself very nice to walk around and if it has been a bit later we may have stopped for dinner, although it was a bit of a trek up the steep hill back to the car-park where we’d parked.

Our final stop of the day was Charlestown which is the port for St Austell. It was quite a small harbour but they did have a couple of the tall ships that are based there in the inner harbour.

Tall ship in charlestown harbour

There were three in total all being worked on to a greater or lesser extent. There are still a few fishermen that use the port and as if to illustrate the point here is a picture of a fishing boat and some lobster pots:

Lobster pots and fishing boat

By now we were getting a bit hungry so we decided rather than go back to the B&B and then come back out again, we’d have an early dinner and then head out for a drink after we’d got back to the B&B. We ended up in the White Hart for a drink as it was one of the places that had been recommended and figured we’d pop in for a drink first before eating there the following evening.

Another day where the weather promised to be rubbish, still the main plans for today involved being inside or underground. The lurgy had fully taken hold today and I hardly ate anything at breakfast, throat was really sore and just a general crappy feeling. We’d both been keen to see a mine and given Cornwall’s mining history thought this would be quite easy, how wrong we were. We set of for the Poldark mine. It was a nice enough drive there, only when we got there we found it wasn’t open until the 8th April, bugger. This meant plan B was enacted for the morning and we headed to Falmouth to have a look round Pendennis castle. Now I’ll admit at this point that the only reason I was aware of the castle was because of that programme Three Men in More Than One Boat where Rory McGrath, Griff Rhys Jones and Dara O’Briain make there way around the cornish coast on various boats before heading to Scilly and they stopped at Falmouth and went to the castle, was very glad we did though it was very interesting. It was just a shame that the extensions that had been added during the second world war were closed because of some land slippage in the area. We got quite lucky as we’d essentially finished our wanderings when the heavens opened so we ducked into the tea shop for some light refreshment, before having a browse round the shop and then heading back to St Austell and the afternoon’s activities.

View of Pendennis keep

First action was that I went for a lie down to see if it would help, it did and was ready for our visit to the St Austell Brewery. Fortunately we made it in time for the last tour, in actual fact the tour was just us and the guide so we definitely got lucky there. It was most interesting seeing how they worked. In fact some of the machinery is not quite the original but certainly from the very early days of the brewery. It was here that we learned that the Seven Stars was the original pub that the brewery founder (Walter Hicks) started with and that the White Hart is their training hotel and bar. It is still a family owned brewery and as it was Friday afternoon many of the staff were enjoying a post work tipple in the bar. Of course the best part of doing these sorts of tours are the free samples at the end, and very nice they were too. We then headed off for our final dinner in Cornwall at the White Hart. We called it a night fairly early as we had a long drive ahead of us on Saturday.

I felt much better after the a decent nights sleep although Adele took the first stint as we headed north. We opted for a less than direct route initially and once back on the main road stopped at the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor. It was then on the road again for a while before our first changeover. In the past long drives like this we would only have changed once, this time we opted for driving for a couple of hours each and then changing. This worked much better as neither of us were as tired as we had been in the past.

Looking back over the week it had been great but was over far too quickly. It was a shame that we didn’t get the weather of the first few days all the way through, but that’s the risk when you holiday in the UK in March. We will be back as there were some things we didn’t get to do that we wanted and would consider the same time of year again as it is quieter, but we would need to plan things a little better as you are restricted with the opening times of some of the attractions. Even the drive wasn’t that bad, and we may head all the way down without a stopover the next time.

Update (05/06/2009): Forgot to say, in case you haven’t seen, a selection of the photos from the trip can be seen here for Cornwall and here for Bristol.

]]> http://darth.thehairyhighlander.com/?feed=rss2&p=140 0 http://darth.thehairyhighlander.com/?p=126 http://darth.thehairyhighlander.com/?p=126#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 21:00:15 +0000 donald http://darth.thehairyhighlander.com/?p=126 We’d decided to head further north up the coast for some walking and after breakfast we headed off towards Crackington Haven. The walk that we’d planned wasn’t as long as the previous day (slightly less than half the distance), but it was more up and down. It was a circular walk that started at the village car-park, took us through some woods and passed a couple of farms that are mentioned in the Doomsday book, before joining the coastal path to head back toward the village. There was some stunning shoreline to gawp at, along with some moorland ponies and some wild (well we presumed they were wild) goats. The walk itself was very quiet with us not encountering anyone (other than animals) until we were on the coastal path and getting quite close to the village. The weather had started dull and overcast, but soon brightened up again into a lovely morning. We didn’t mind the shortness of the walk as we had plans for the rest of the day.

Cornish coast near Crackington Haven

Once back at the car we headed off for Boscastle, where they’d had those bad floods in 2004. Of course Crackington Haven had suffered too at the time (along with some other places in the surrounding area) but that wasn’t as well covered in the media outside Cornwall, even I didn’t realise until I read some of the info boards around the village. It didn’t take very long to get to Boscastle and after parking up we headed off to explore. We didn’t spend that long here in the end, wandering through the town popping into a couple of shops and the visitor centre. We did pop into the recommended (by our hosts) Cobweb Inn for a quick drink before we left though.

Boscastle

We then headed off for some Arthurian legends at Tintagel Castle (it isn’t a silly place). Tintagel Castle is supposedly the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur. The ruins of the castle that remain today are from the 13th Century, although the settlement is thought to have originally been a Roman settlement.

Tintagel Castle

We spent some time exploring the ruins on both the island part and the mainland. In fact the ruins on the mainland are slowly disappearing into the sea through erosion. There were a lot of steps climbing up to both parts of the castle, but despite the exposed nature of the castle there were areas where it was well sheltered. We then wandered round Tintagel itself for a bit, it seemed to be comprised of gift shops, bars and restaurants and not a lot else. We soon called it a day and headed back to Padstow. After a quick change we headed off out for drinks and dinner. Adele had spotted a good write up of a place that wasn’t owned by Rick Stein so we thought we’d give it a bash. It was called Paul Ainsworth @ No. 6, and it appeared Mr Ainsworth was working himself that night flitting between the kitchen and front of house. Food was delicious only minor complaint was from Adele’s starter where the scallops were probably a bit more well done than we would do them – but that didn’t detract in anyway from what was another lovely evening. This was our last night in Padstow and we’d had a great time here and would definitely come back and stay in the same place.

The following morning we headed south towards the Eden Project. This was another place that we were both really keen to visit. It really is incredible what they’ve done with a giant hole in the ground. We spent most of the day here wandering through the biomes and around the site. It was quite strange seeing plants that we’d seen last year in the wild in south east asia growing in the UK (admittedly inside the tropical biome). As well as all the tropical stuff they are all the plants and flowers more used to these shores in the temperate biome and outside. The time of year we visited obviously there wasn’t as much growing outside, but there were various sculptures around the place, including the Weee Man that is made up of old household electrical equipment.

Weee man @ Eden Project

We left here about half four and headed for our B&B in St Austell. We were a little disappointed with St Austell as a whole, although it has it’s definite plus points (more about which later), but that was because Padstow had been so lovely. We always knew it would only really be a base and we’d be heading off exploring the surrounding area anyway. After dropping stuff off at the B&B and armed with a couple of recommendations for somewhere to eat from one of our hosts, we headed off out for drinks and food. We ended up in one of recommended places (Hop & Vine) and very nice it was too. After dinner we tried another of the local hostelries for some evening drinks, and ended up in the Seven Stars (which we later found out was the first pub owned by William Hicks who founded the St Austell brewery). This turned out to be a good move as the place was really quiet so we ended up sitting at the bar chatting to Barb, one of the bar staff (in fact the only person working) and some of the other locals that were in. We stayed longer than we thought, although we did leave shortly after this pissed up wide boy appeared and started mouthing off – which was a shame as it had been good fun chatting with everyone else.

To be continued…

It was an early start leaving Bathgate on Saturday 21st March to head down the road towards Bristol. We made our now customary stop when heading that way at Tebay services @ Westmoreland for breakfast. We made it to the hotel for 13.30 so it was pretty good going. After a quick check in and dropping the bags off (requiring a couple of trips to the car because of forgetfulness), we headed off for Brunel’s great ship. It was a lovely day for the walk from the hotel round to the ship, in fact you’d be forgiven for thinking it was March it was so nice. It really is a feat of engineering and opulence for the time. They have an exhibition/display that you walk through before heading out onto and under the ship – yes you read that right you get to go under the great beast. They have a glass ceiling with a thin layer of water under which you can wander round and see the hull and great propeller for the vessel.

Watery view

The restoration work that has been done on the ship is really quite incredible. The surpising thing was that even the first class accommodation was quite small, still at least it was private cabins rather than communal. We spent a couple of hours or so exploring the ship before heading back towards the centre of town. A quick pitsop was in order for drinks and nibbles before we headed off to get changed before heading out for dinner. As the hotel was close to Cabot Circus we thought we’d have a look there first for an eatery. Much of what is on offer is standard shopping centre fare, but we did find a place Coal Grill & Bar that looked and was promising, plus it meant we didn’t have to wander too far. The only downside was the amount of barbecue sauce on Adele’s ribs, they were quite literally drowning. After dinner it was back to the hotel for a night cap and then to bed, the travelling having caught up with us.

The fairly early night meant we were both awake early enough to head to the gym and pop in for a quick swim before breakfast. We were soon on the road out of Bristol, although it did take some time to get out of town. We took a more scenic route so we would only be on the M5 for a short spell before we cut off again. In fact after we’d passed Barnstaple, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we were actually on an A road. Still it made for some nice driving as it wasn’t too busy so we didn’t really get held up by any Sunday drivers. We arrived in Padstow around 3 and boy what a surprise when we got to the B&B. In fact it was difficult to believe it was a B&B. We had a double room, full size bathroom and sitting room to ourselves – much nicer than many hotels we’ve stayed in and a good bit cheaper. The B&B is called Cally Croft, and we heartily recommend it if you are ever in Padstow. We were greeted by John (one of our most excellent hosts) and after showing us to our room, we headed off to explore Padstow. The good weather had continued from the previous day prompting Adele to sample a cornish ice cream, while I was more keen to sample the local ales. But with the weather being so lovely it was time to take some photos while exploring first.

Adele by Padstow harbour with the Padstow-Rock ferry in the background

After suitable refreshment it was back to the B&B to change before heading out to Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant for dinner. We’d been looking forward to this and we weren’t disappointed. We opted for the tasting menu as it was extremely difficult to make a decision. The only minor criticism would be the Carpaccio of scallop with cucumber and pickled ginger, the scallops being a little bit lost against the ginger, still lovely though. Special mention has to go to the dessert, Panna cotta with poached rhubarb. It was sublime, so much so that Adele cleared her plate – something that she doesn’t often do with desserts. Time soon passed and it was after 10.30 when we left and headed back to the B&B.

After a hearty and most delicious breakfast we headed off for a day of walking. First stop was the tourist info place to get some information on some local walks for tomorrow, but today we were following our host’s advice and heading for the ferry across the bay to Rock. We followed the coastal path toward Port Isaac. We were never going to get that far as we had to be sure to catch the ferry back but we did walk as far as Pentire Head. It was another lovely day, albeit a bit breezy but the sun was out and there were blue skies galore. The walk took us past Daymer Bay and Polzeath. There were a couple of kite surfers at Daymer and a few folk surfing at Polzeath. The path itself was quite quiet which was nice.

Polzeath

We caught the ferry back to Padstow between half two and three o’clock and made for the closest pub for a well earned drink. We had planned to do one of the walks around Padstow, but after sitting down couldn’t quite motivate ourselves so instead we explored some of the wee shops instead. Adele picked up a nice set of handmade glass coasters. We retired to one of the pubs we hadn’t been in before, in fact this was much more like the sort of pub we like and we were soon having a laugh with the couple of locals at the bar and the staff. We left here and made for another of Mr Stein’s establishments, his fish and chip shop. Had some lovely oysters to start before the fish and chips  – Adele having grilled sea bream and I had the deep fried plaice with some lovely chips. Rather than go and sit in the pub again we headed back to the B&B to relax, but were soon calling it a night no doubt thanks to the sea air while walking.

To be continued….