Camping holiday in the Southwest

Brixham marina

Mr A and I have been on holiday. My main recollections from this holiday included a great deal of long distance driving, interspersed with reading for delightfully long periods, with talking to interesting people coming third and a significant amount of mist and rain in fourth place. At one point, I discovered I had reached one of my personal goals without knowing it - I had forgotten it was lunchtime until Mr A pointed out that I was being unaccountably ratty and it might be a good idea to have something to eat. This signifies that I have, albeit briefly, begun to think like a thin person. I am hoping that it continues - not the 'missing meals' or 'being unaccountably ratty' part, but the 'thinking like a thin person', because it should make it easier to remain the size I currently am.

I digress. Long distance driving - this also included reading for long periods, except I didn't like my main audio book but needed to carry on with it in case it got better. Luckily I had a few podcasts too, and the first series of 'Fags, Bags and Mags', a delightfully surreal sitcom about a Scottish shop which is both amazing and great. Reading was also indicated for long periods in the tent, while waiting for the mist/rain to pass, and enjoying the peace and quiet of the evening until it got dark.

The talking to interesting people included the friends I've previously given the blog handle 'The Bikers' (or 'Biker Couple') who have now produced an attractive child and no longer have any bikes. We stopped with them on Friday night, and made our way onwards to the campsite on Saturday. We dismantled Mr A's two-man tent which had been there since Thursday and pitched the enormous family tent, then did very little except sit and read for much of the rest of the day, with small excursions to see the nearby beach and to a local town to eat fish and chips. The road to the beach was narrow and we kept having to stand in the hedge to let cars past, the beach had quite good surf but was otherwise unattractive (and it kept getting misty and raining), but the fish and chips were both amazing and great.

On Sunday we'd arranged to see a lady who used to teach English to Mr A at secondary school, and we did very little except drive all the way to her house in Cornwall, have a nice lunch including an authentic and delicious Cornish pasty, and then drive all the way back again. Then there was more sitting and reading. On Monday we did some proper tourism, spending most of the day in Brixham, which is famous for its seafood. So we had some oysters and a crab sandwich each, and it was very sunny and didn't rain for a change, and we walked about a bit and would have gone to the museum except that it was closed.

After that we drove a long way to Mr A's cousin and her husband (who has now given up the beef farming). They have bought a motor home and spend two months in France every year, from where she continues to work full time with the assistance of a satellite Internet connection. Finding them was an achievement - I was hoping to rely on the excellent directions I had been getting from my phone via its built in navigation system, except it ran out of battery and I don't have a car charger. So I found a red telephone box (haven't been in one of them for ages) but it only took BT Charge Cards and not coins, so I went back to the previous town and found a different phone box that accepted coins. I discovered, along with the directions and the fact that it costs 60p to phone from a telephone box nowadays, that the first phone box I had been in was less than a mile away from the farm - but I would never have found it by guessing.

Back home now, and I have an extra day's holiday which arose because I lost the first day of my holiday because of having an interview on Friday, which also explains why Mr A started his holiday on Thursday. The interview went as well as could be expected, but also had the anticipated negative result, given that I only have six months' dietetic experience. They were very nice about the rest of my interview though, including the presentation. I really must buckle down to the admin that's still waiting. A pity to spend a day's holiday on income tax and pension arrangements, but if I don't do it now I'm not sure I ever will.

William of Orange landed 'near this spot' in Brixham