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After negotiating the M5 we arrived in Croyde at approximately 6.45pm. We were then read the riot act by Desy (when I say riot It was more of a minor civil disturbance or perhaps a light scuffle). To be fair he said just to be courteous, advised us the house was “no smoking” and then took our breakfast orders!
We then ventured down to what is the intermediately priced food establishment known as “The Thatch” renamed after Mrs Thatcher, during her stint as Prime Minister she used to stay above the pub whilst on weekend surfing breaks. Sam and I had Lasagna variations and Jacob had a hefty looking burger, with drinks the cost came to about £30.
Following a successful nutritional expedition we went for a little walk and discovered the worlds smallest underwater skatepark. We then headed back to the digs to retire for the evening. Jacob slept well and kept us awake for most of the night and boy did it piss down.
It’s a slow work day today, or perhaps the lull before the storm, either way it gives me a great opportunity to document the day that was 23rd August 2009. Today was V day, no not the reptilian alien mini series from the mid 80’s I mean the Virgin Festival.
No I don’t mean a festival of virgins… I am of course referring to the V festival sponsored by Virgin Mobile.
Virgin mobile were racketeering again charging £10 per car for parking, I may be mistaken but I think that has doubled if not last year but quite recently, that’s big business looking after the little folk for you!
Cost aside we were lucky to get a space very near the entrance/exit to Weston Park, the walk down to the arena was a decent hike but the additional exercise easily outweighs the absolute misery that comes of getting trapped in a car park related paradox loop whilst trying to escape the park.
The walk down to the arena was quite pleasant until we started going past the camping areas, quite how anyone can sleep with the with the vapid urine aroma floating through the air I do not know, if I could lower myself to mix with the peasants in their shanty towns of cheap nylon and aluminium my gag reflex would have been working overtime.
The guys and gals on the gates were working efficiently, hardly a queue at all, the bag search consisted of a quick hand delve that lasted a split second, accompanied by a “have you got any cans?” question, how he can call himself security is beyond me unless he deliberately missed my glock and stash of crystal meth.
We headed towards the mains stage, the first act was just starting, and it was hard to make out what it was I was hearing. Bethan rather unashamedly stated that the “band” (and I use the term loosely) in question were Mc Fly. Jacob asked the question “Who the hell are they?” which in my books is a result, the education in decent music has appeared to have paid off. Irony was plentiful, well it was for me as the only decent track they managed to bleat out was a cover of The Beastie Boys – Fight for your right (to party).
Next on were a band of distinct quality – Star Sailor, although I new I liked a few of their songs I never realised how great they were, admittedly they started with a few tracks that I didn’t know but finished with some beautifully crafted tracks…Alcoholic, Good Souls and Four to the Floor
This set was followed by some no mark from Tennessee called Taylor Swift, if you like banal jangly countrified pop music then look no further than this young lady, she was announced as the worlds best selling artist of the last 2 years, I will however take that under advisement, I had heard of her before today but my ears had never previously had to bear witness to her shrill warbling.
During these performances it was a good opportunity to get a few photos out of the way before the alcohol kicked in.
Jacob and cousin Richard Bethan and Adam
Chris Sam
It was during these performances that we pulled the posse together for the first time, I’m really not sure what time we met up with Richard, Chris, Kyle and Cathy, the only person to blame for that is Lieutenant Strongbow.
Next up were some band called The Script, from the get go the a large proportion of the crowd were singing along with these Irish rogues, we vaguely recognised one track, we left after about 15 minutes as our stomach’s were growling and proved to be more persuasive than The Script ever could be.
After some pretty decent (by Festival standards) Tex-Mex food we headed over to watch Dizzee Rascal, I was expecting a decent show but was quite unprepared for how the little chap could whip up the crowd. An excellent showman, I’ll be honest I didn’t know a lot of the earlier tracks and it didn’t matter it was all pretty spectacular. The later tracks including Dance Wiv Me, Holiday and Bonkers had the crowd leaping around in a manner that resembles House of Pain crossed with and old hardcore rave; truly bonkers indeed.
We left at the end of the Rascal set to catch the tail end of Lily Allen’s set. I have soft spot for Lily which I cannot place. She had the crowd on her side which is always a good thing and looked half decent too.
After Miss potty mouth we stayed at the main stage to catch some of The Specials, basically a live version of their best of album, which is what you’d expect for a long established band like these chaps.
We then headed back to the Channel 4 stage for the Ting Tings, they cave a good performance, Sam managed to miss most of the second half of their set queuing for the toilet, the joys of being a male at these type of events, we just spray up walls like unneutered cats creating what can only be described as piss-mud.
The highlight of the day as far as Sam and I were concerned was to follow, they provided one of the most awesome displays I have witnessed at the V festival in fact probably anywhere, what I’d do to see Pendulum followed by Muse one day would probably be considered illegal in most countries.
Not one bad track but a plentiful supply of banging tracks from both Albums with an excellent cover version of Calvin Harris’s “I’m Not Alone” (as featured in this BBC clip) A Techno, Drum and Base rock-fest that had the crowd jumping and raving like epileptic kangaroos, one casualty in the camp at this stage as Sam inadvertently gammified her leg.
We slinked off then to take our position for the headline act of the day; some band or other from Las Vegas called the Killers! We spent most of the time listening to the band belt out their usual array of hits whilst trying to meet up with Adam and Bethan. For me they were good but nothing spectacular, Jacob however really enjoyed them.
I stupidly suggested using ice cream vans as markers for meeting points, I didn’t realise until it was too late the sheer number of ice cream vans around the place! We left about 15-20 minutes from the end to avoid the usual park exit rush.
In all a fantastic day out – oh I forgot to mention – Not one drop of rain all day!
You know what, I really cant be bothered to elaborate on our day today which was fantastic albeit chav infested at times (We did visit Newquay after all), Instead today's blog is basically a short story cut even shorter..
Stupid Crocodile
A short clip of today's action.
Boardmasters 2009 from Torbaysurfing on Vimeo.
Viva la revolution....
After yesterday which was a great day, and exhausting until the end; today was always going to go one of two ways, fucking fantastic or a bit twat faced.
Today's weather was probably the best it has been over the two weeks, but that didn't matter as my imagination was in overdrive and my common sense had long departed.
I spent the morning day dreaming, imagining how good at surfing I was, then we broke for lunch, Jacob declared today "chip day", I disagreed then went and fetched him some chips.
After baking in the early afternoon sun I psyched myself up then Sam Jacob and I hit the surf trail.... Ok I exaggerate we dragged ourselves down to the shore. The body boarding section was rammed like a cheesy 90's rave full of whistling chavs, but that didn't matter as we were able to enjoy the much more spacious malibu area.
I was voted first out into the ocean, after a couple of rides I crawled back out. If you hadn't seen my surfing attempts you might have believed I had swam a few miles to shore. Sam stayed in a little longer than me and had a few rides. For me surfing should have remained in my imagination today at least.
We headed out to the Italian restaurant, the food was "Mmmm tasty", as usual I was the only one to overeat, I was for a time literally high on Dago nosh.
Tomorrow we win....
Actually tomorrow we are heading off to Newquay for Boardmasters
Here is Jacob's video diary entry for today:
For me today went twat faced.
Today was going to be different, it was going to be a classic affirmation of everything right and true about the Cornish lifestyle, it was to be a gross attempt to live the Cornish dream, and salute the fantastic possibilities of living in this county - It was going to require determination and we had plenty of that. Then Jacob came into the room and woke us up at 8 a.m., the dream was over and we were back in reality with a bump.
We took the usual stroll around the town to check that nothing had changed, my prediction was correct as it always is when I keep it to myself. Jacob had a look around a Fire Engine before we shot at the skanky tramps again. No fat sows to soak tonight, only a ginger street urchin, he spoke toff's english and made my skin crawl. Before returning we had Ice creams.
My final thoughts:
Whilst Maple and Walnut is good, it can't hold a torch to Cookie Dough and Clotted Cream.
Sam wrote:
Sam arose this morning following a sleepless night due to Alex drinking far too much cider and snoring incessantly, her elbow bruised and swollen following the constant digging she had to do to make the noise stop. At 7:30 am Jacob appeared in the room to put the TV on, at this point Sam and Alex both realised it was futile to lie down any longer.Alex went to the kitchen and made everyone a nice cup of coffee with some coconut macaroons, it was decided by all, that scrambled eggs would be good to eat so Bethan nipped to the shop to purchase some. It was at this point that Sam had a bit of a turn and challenged Jacob to a race up the beach and back before the eggs were cooked, Jacob following his usual bout of cheating won the race easily, claiming he was tired and needed to walk giving a last minute dash to the finish. To be fair they were both running so slowly a seagull went past them (on foot).Following the hearty breakfast everyone decided it would be a good idea to go to Truro, as it was pissing down outside. On arrival at Truro following two train journeys all broke for lunch, everyone was hungry (for a change) so went into a local pub for sandwiches, ciabatta and chips n beans, all had soft drinks except for Bethan who opted for a half a cider. We then walked into town and first port of call was the game shop where Jacob had to buy Xbox game Jumper, Adam, Bethan & Maya went off on their own as their interest in computer games is limited to zero, a bit like Alex and Sam (who unfortunately have no choice but to accompany their offspring into the shop). The writer can't really account for Adam & Bethan's whereabouts following this but it is believed they had a quick scoot around the shops then got the train back (which took ages) arrived at the flat (eventually) Maya had a coughing fit, man came to read meter (electricity), Bethan lost her wedding rings (since found) and nearly broke her toe on stair gate (bruised - badly).Sam, Alex and Jacob continued to look around the shops and made some very nice purchases it must be noted. Following a shopping intensive day, they headed back for the train, got there 10 mins before it was due to find that it was delayed by 20 minutes. Sam went to fetch beverages from the coffee shop on Truro platform, who were supplying some entertainment by way of a very drunk old Scottish guy who the cafe staff had requested the station master come to remove him from the premises he was refusing to move, they were refusing to serve him, Sam left the cafe with the situation in stalemate so don't know what the outcome was. The train was now running 26 minutes late, this was now becoming an issue as a meal was booked for 6 pm at The Mex in St Ives and the connection times were very dodgy.Finally the train arrived and they jumped on, the arrived in St Erth at 5:30 pm, having missed the 5:11 pm train the next one was 5:41 pm which was due to arrive in St Ives at 5:55 pm, the train came in 2 minutes late but the driver made the time up and got into St Ives on time. Sam, Alex and Jacob jumped off the train and legged it up past the Malakoff down the hill and ran around the corner, just as Adam called to say they were running late too as their incidents had delayed them.At 6:10 all were sitting down ready to order, everyone had a great meal from Chilli, Fajitas and Burritos and an enormous jug of Margherita (£10 bargain). Following the meal they all went off to the arcade to waste money, Alex and Jacob got soaked as they tried to shoot hillbillies, Jacob had his obligatory ice-cream, Beth bought a headband, Adam admired a shirt. They all returned to the flat to look at the people still surfing in the sea, Jacob & Beth built a cannon, Maya went to sleep, some had a glass of wine. FIN.
In commemoration of "Gingers are people too" day in St Ives; clouds graced our skies until late afternoon (around 4 p.m.) after which time the sun's rays are considered to be of an intensity deemed safe for our carrot topped brethren.
It was a non eventful day, with little to write about.
No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty first century that the world was undergoing weather modification by intelligences considered greater than the general populace; that as families busied themselves preparing for a day on the beach the skies above them were being modified to dim the effects of the sun.
With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe experimenting on human beings without their permission, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.
No one gave a thought to the effects that the chemicals might cause on man, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea that any dangers inherently involved were either impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall the memories before the weather changes started. At a primeval level many vaguely remember that the Sun used to shine during the summer period, those days were long gone.
Yet somewhere in the south west of England a weather system, unlike any weather system seen for some time, unsympathetic, regarded the scientist’s plans with distaste, and slowly and surely drew their plans against them. And early in August came the great encouragement.
So gullible is man, and so blinded by his gullibility, that no writer, up to the start of August has expressed and idea that the idea of Global Warming is a fraud of the highest order. Nor is it generally understood that aerosols have been sprayed into the atmosphere since 1999.
That morning, a strange object was glimpsed in the sky. I saw it. Reddish on the outer edges, an intense yellow glow in the centre; I told Sam that I’d heard rumours of a star that omitted light and heat during the daytime hours, she looked at me like I had been drinking. The morning was getting warmer and brighter than anything I had seen before. I stretched my legs and gathered all the appropriate items required for what used to be described as beach weather, whilst Sam was visibly puzzled at the beams of light that came from the sky down towards us.
We awaited the return of the others who had been to pay the parking fee for the week; they had been out early to avoid the early morning rush with only the seagulls as company.
That morning another shaft of light particles accelerated towards us, it was the second time today that this happened. I remember how I sat on the beach last year in my wetsuit to avoid the damping effect of the atmosphere. The experiences so far today gave hope that today might be different.
All six of us headed down to the beach, the tent was pitched with relative ease on the perpetually damp sand and the wind breaks positioned for maximum wind diversion. We checked the Iphone weather application for today’s weather forecast.
Hundreds of observers saw the light rays that morning. When the sun finally broke through the clouds at around 10:30 a.m. others gathered on the beach, shops began to fill with holiday-makers and the mood of the local population began to lift to a state that was once documented by historians as happiness.
We played games in the sun, which dipped behind cloud coverage for minutes at a time, but hope was not dashed and the heat soon returned. Lunch was a lavish affair as always. Lemon curd and Tuna sandwiches washed down with CoOp's own brand limejuice.
Even the daily newspapers woke to the climate improvements; news headlines were read “Hottest day since the last one” and “Weather can be this good all of the time if income tax can be increased by 2.5%”.
I attempted to surf but was immediately throttled and dumped by the waves, today was shaping up to be an exhausting experience, the sun draining all of my energy; the only option involved lying down horizontally for rest and relaxation.
An old acquaintance arrived at the beach unannounced, we discussed nostalgia for around 20 minutes, and Jacob performed beach acrobatics whilst I was used as bruisable gymnasium equipment.
After sometime in the early evening the family begrudgingly returned to the apartment and ate a glorious meal and discussed the day, whilst scientists continued to secretly execute their evil plans.
Jacob's video diary for today:
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the fashionable south westerly end of United Kingdom lies a pointy unregarded county. Along the Northern coast not too far from Lands End lies an utterly insignificant town whose ape descended bipedal lifeforms are so primitive that they still think that the internet is just a pipe dream.
The town has - or rather had - a problem, which was this:
Most of the people who visited the town were unhappy when the Sun wasn't shining. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these involved the exchange of small pieces of green paper for over priced fashionable surfwear, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the the small pieces of green paper that were unhappy.
And so the problem remained; lots of people were unpleasant and most of them were miserable, even the ones with access to the internet.
Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the West Midlands in the first place. And some said that evolving from apes had been a bad move, how Ironic then that a large majority of these lifeforms still closely resemble chimpanzees in their behaviour.
And then, one Friday, approximately two millennia after one man had been allegedly nailed to a cross for preaching about tolerance and being nice to thy neighbour for a change, one man whilst sitting on his own by a lake in Sutton Park fishing suddenly realised what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and he finally knew how he could make everyone in St Ives happy all of the time. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get crucified.
Sadly, however, before he could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, his Three mobile phone signal dropped, and the idea was lost forever.
This is not his story.
It is however the story of a family from the West Midlands trying in vain to escape unhappiness by finding Sunshine and some of the consequences.
It is also the story of a blog, a blog entitled www.simpedia.blogspot.com - not a worthwhile blog, barely viewed on Earth, and until the quest for sunshine, never seen or heard of by anyone.
In fact it was probably the most unworthwhile blog ever to be written by the writer whose pseudonym is NeoplasmSix - whom no Earthling had ever heard of either.
Not only is it a wholly unworthwhile blog, it is also written in a highly plagiarised and inaccurate style - More plagiarised than Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and more inaccurate than government recommended school history text books. "It was the Germans that started it","the Germans started it again" and "Thats the Germans fucked, Lets blame everything on the Muslims next".
On some of the established Social Networking sites www.simpedia.blogspot.com has supplanted the world renowned Wikipedia as the standard repository of all inaccurate knowledge and misinformation, although it has many omissions and contains a vast amount of wildly inaccurate facts, it scores over the older Wikipedia in two important respects.
First, it isn't edited by wankers with material detremental to the elite families removed; and secondly it has the word Simpedia inscribed in large friendly and most probably trademarked letters on the banner.
But the story of this rainy, miserable Friday, the story of several unremarkable anecdotes, and the story of how these anecdotes are tenuously intertwined with this blog begins rather.
It begins with an apartment.
The apartment was on the ground floor of a 4 storey block overlooking the trendy surf beach - it was approximately 50 years old, squarish, made of brick and spread over 2 floors and had a window on the upper floor of decent proportion with a size and proportion that was good but as good as the balcony that wasn't there.
The three people, to whom the apartment was in any way special were Sam, Jacob and Alex, and that was only because they were currently halfway through a two week vacation. It hadn't properly registered with them that the apartment population was about to double. At eight o'clock that morning Alex didn't feel very good. That was because it was 8 o'clock and not half past ten. He got up pulled himself together brushed his teeth and proceeded downstairs to make breakfast for the others.
Kettle, bowls, coffee, tea, cereal, bread toast. Fart!
He called Sam and Jacob down for their breakfast which they duly demolished in a style not dissimilar to a pack of hungry hyenas. Alex got changed into the same pair of shorts he had worn all week, they were so grubby that the dirt and grease marks were starting to wear off, another week and they would probably be clean again. Alex took the car out of the garage in preparation for the telephone call. At approximately half past nine the phone rang and Alex eased the car out of the drive and was brought to a halt immediately by the delivery driver for the local shop, one illegal move later involving a one way street and within a few minutes he was pulling into the car park. The car was loaded up with Adam, Bethan and Maya's belongings. The volume to volume ratio of belongings was roughly 18.3% Parents 81.7% Child, which was well within ISO standards.
After an hour or so of chaos the group shuffled into town for lunch. Pasty, pasty, baguette, baguette, chips, piss and back to the apartment. The chance of sun today was as remote as the likelihood of rain on the Sahara, that didn't deter them though. Ludicrous. The beach was still damp from yesterday's rain, today's rain was due in 23 minutes. The tent was up within seconds due to a patented tent erection technique involving no effort.
By a curious coincidence, not at all is exactly how surprised bipedal Sam and Alex were that Susan the young girl from next door was not in her parents apartment, but was in fact standing within yards of the tent in a manner that suggested that she was about to impose herself and overstay her welcome, the welcome that expired 3 days earlier after a generic beach appliance incident.
'It's my last day' she wailed. Alex struggled to stifle his excitement but got away with it by looking in exactly the opposite direction. Susan struck most she met as a stalker, a harmless one but a stalker nevertheless. Sam, Jacob and Alex rotated playing beach tennis and shouting whilst Susan decided that she would impose on Adam and Bethan. Having rifled through Maya's bag she turned and left without as much as a whisper.
23 minutes had passed and the rain started on cue, all five packed up and returned to the apartment.
'Bollocks! It's morning already!' said Alex, 'The Sun is out aswell. Worst time it could possibly happen!'
After breakfast they walked into town for some sanitary supplies, today was going to be a tough one, there was going to be no room for error.
On returning to their apartment, Susan, the lonely little girl living next door knocked on the door, the knock caused chills to run down Samantha and Alex's spines, they knew full well what her intentions were.
'Are you going to the beach' she screeched, Jacob excited by the idea piped up.. 'What a terrific Idea, can we mommy?'. With the speed of the most modern steam locomotive the Fameless Three pulled their wetsuits on; today was most likely going to involve the sea to some degree.
After slaving away for several minutes the Anti-UV tent was erected, just as well too; the apartment didn't open directly onto the beach, and time was of the essence particularly with the lack of solar benefits to date.
The girl from next door kept yapping 'when are you going in the sea?' in a way reminiscent of a small terrier type dog with a borderline personality disorder. 'After lunch' Samantha declared, then attempted to sleep for a few minutes.
Lunch was splendid as ever Alex prepared a picnic consisting of Lemon Curd Sandwiches for Jacob, Tuna Mayonnaise for Samantha, and Tuna/Sweetcorn Mayonnaise for himself, with a smattering of crisps for everyone.
Samantha and Alex kept look out, 'Thank fuck for that' Susan has gone back into her own apartment, 'quick, grab your surfboards and run!' said Samantha, Jacob and Alex agreed and ran down to the bodyboarding area of the beach whilst keeping one eye open for Susan.
Jacob and Samantha went into the sea up to their waists, which was more than deep enough and well within health and safety parameters. Samantha and Alex laughed out loud when Jacob smashed into two older children sending them flying, celebrations were dashed when they discovered Jacob had picked up a bruise of his own.
The three made their way back to the beach tent, using stealth skills garnered from watching episodes of Chuck, they arrived at the tent and hid for fun. The fun didn't last long though as Susan noticed that they had returned. 'Have you been in the sea?' she screeched, 'yes, we couldn't find you though!' Alex lied.
Alex and Samantha decided now was as good as anytime to have a rest. Jacob played solo beach tennis and unfortunately lost.
After a short break Samantha, Alex decided to take the Malibu boards down to the shore. Jacob was very grumpy and ruined Alex's fun by getting cold. Samantha overconfident appeared to attempt a hang ten and somehow took a knock to the head.
They all laughed at the fun that had ensued and prepared to pack up for the day.
Jacob's Video Diary Entry:
It was a dismal wet day in July, the clocks were striking 6 am. Jacob Simpson, his arms outstretched, body flattened in an attempt to slip through the doorway of his bedroom, not as low profile to the wall as he would have liked, he was unable to prevent the ear bleeding screech of the non-oiled hinges from following him to his destination.
The hallway smelt of baked beans and musty flip flops. At one end of it Jacob's bedroom, impossibly messy for such a small room, the door slowly swung back to its closed position screeching once more, at the other end was the living room, the door cracked open, an uncurtained window facing towards the ocean 8 ft x 5 ft resembled a water damaged impressionist painting of a grey wall.
Inside the flat a jaunty voice was shouting out a collection of unconnected words over raucous guitar sounds, which had something to do with predicting a riot. The sound came from an a squarish plastic black box with knobs and buttons on it. Sam turned a knob and the voice sank somewhat, though the music was still distinguishable.
Outside, even through the steamed up kitchen window-pane, the world looked cold. Outside the window was a shit blue car blocking the drive way. During breakfast it had been decided that The Doctor Who exhibition at Lands End was today's destination, however there was no escape for now. The usual rituals of watching CBeebies, Quincy and having lunch took the family to midday. The shit blue car had thankfully been moved and it was time to move on.
The one way system forced the family to leave via the back roads, the rain pelted down but the family soon arrived at Lands End for their afternoon of entertainment. The Doctor Who Exhibition - Docerooexsibishan, in Pasty-speak [Pasty-speak was the official language of Lands End. For an account of its structure and etymology see Appendix I.] was startling different to the other exhibitions at Lands End, in that it wasn't shit. The family stayed for a couple of hours and returned to their accommodation. On return spontaneous sunshine was provided and was enjoyed for precisely 45 minutes.
Evening nourishment was scheduled for 5:30 pm as was standard for the era, pasta was the only option available for Wednesdays or MidWeek [Pasty-speak]. A half hour of exercise [local bylaws for Cornwall state 2 games of Air Hockey as the legal minimum level of exercise] by decree was carried out before returning to their accommodation the final time for that day.
Jacob Simpson spent two hours completing his moral programming for the evening. Shaun of The Dead providing today's lessons.
We were somewhere near the lounge window when the clouds began to take hold. I remember saying something like "Look at the sky; do you reckon it's going to rain?..." And suddenly there was a terrible mist all around us and the sky was full of what looked like water, all drizzling and dripping and splashing all over the town, St Ives was slowly submerging into a murkiness that resembled "Up North". And a voice was screaming in my head "Holy Bollocks! Shall we go to Penzance?"
Jacob pressed us into going to see "Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince" using the tried and tested whining and moaning technique. The film was due to start at 5:15 pm which obviously conflicted with our regular eating times, we didn't let the movie stop us and took food from the Co-Op. I'm still no fan of eating in the dark.
Jacob's video Diary for today:
Aloha.
Sam and I had a crack at surfing, our fitness levels proved to be second to none, and by that I mean that at present we appear to have no detectable level of fitness.
We both managed to stand up, which was good, how else would we have got down to the sea.
Jacob met a new friend, weird that they are generally always girls!
We had booked a meal at The Mex in St Ives, cracking meal, the two fitness freaks had a meal deal (14.95 GBP each) which consisted of:
Starter: Nachos with cheese and Salsa Next Course: Combo Platter which consisted of 1. Mozzarella sticks 2. Loaded Potato skins with sour cream 3. Loaded Potato skins with chili beef 4. Stuffed Peppers 5. Chili Beef Meatballs
Main Course: Chicken Fajitas
Sweet: Ice cream selection (or Death by Chocolate + others) Jacob had Fajitas and managed to ponce half of our ice creams!
We capped all of this off by sitting on the beach for a full half hour.. Exhausting stuff
Jacob's video diary entry..
Weather Report.
Crap
Surf Report
Started off Crap, but improved throughout the day
Mobile Phone Reception Report
Crap
Showed signs of promise but failed in his attempt to remain a good child for the whole day. Jacob fell out of bed at 5 am this morning..LOL
Jacob kept waking us up at various intervals until 9 am... WTF
Today we mostly got soaked on the beach, it was thoroughly drizzling down, if that is indeed an expression, if not then lightly pissing down.
Bargain of the day award goes to Vans Sun Glasses - 10 GBP - yup thats all!
Grievance of the day award goes to 2 x Replacement Surfboard leashes at 21.99 GBP each! Particularly as Sam saw them in our attic before we commenced our journey on Friday!!!
From top to bottom, Jacob, Sam n me, High Tide!Arrived in St Ives at around midday(ish) - Two irritations already, and both my own fault.
Firstly I thought my car wouldn't fit in what I remembered to be quite a low garage (It's a Freelander by the way! not a ground hugging sports car, so not as stupid as it sounds). Having forgotten my roof bar tool I had to splash out £9.79 on a set of star allen keys.
Having arrived at the apartment, I took the roof bars off before even testing the height only to discover that my memory is as crap as my rhythm and dancing abilities. The car + roof bars would have fit by a country mile.
Secondly, having a 6 year old, we are kind of stuck after 8-9 pm ish entertainment wise.
Jacob and friend Millie
Here is Jacob's video diary entry for today
Tomorrow we are going surfing whatever the weather and future blog entries will center around fun activities unless of course it all goes to shit again.
Edit: Popped into St Ives town last night.. took a couple of photos and visited the local arcade!
Up early today as it is/was our last day, breakfast and down to Jakobshorn by 10:30am..
For some reason the lift was barely used in comparison with previous days which we took full advantage of, we had a break at lunchtime and carried on through until 4:30pm. We're all quite chuffed we've managed to come through the week reasonably unscathed, think Sam's copped the worst with a bruised arse.
Evening
We decided to opt out of the Gala candle lit dinner and went to eat at the foot of the slope, I had ravioli, Jake had Spaghetti with tomatoes and Sam had Chef's special spaghetti (she didn't eat the prawns but the locals next to us came to her assistance).
After dinner we watched a few of the locals having a night time session on the superpipe..
Jacob's video diary entry for today...
Morning
We decided to take a little hike down into town again to look in the shops that we hadn't yet visited, it seems that recession has hit the upmarket town of Davos aswell as there were quite a few shops with sales of up to 50% reductions. Sam picked up a bargain.
Afernoon
We strapped on our boots and went down to Jakobshorn and took one run, after which burnout kicked in for Sam, Jake and I went up on the ski-lift probably about another 5 times or so while Sam enjoyed a little Apres Ski.
Well, it looks like the weather forecasters are better than ours, it's sunny and very crisp out there.
We decided we'd start off at a leisurely pace today, after breakfast we put on our full snowboarding gear and got the free shuttle bus down to Bahnhof Platz and dumped our boards at the bottom of the slope in the unlocked racks (apparently its unheard of for equipment to go missing, even if left overnight!)
We then decided we would go for a trip up in the cable cars, I was quite nervous of this for some reason and Sam who is notoriously scared of heights wasn't - very weird. Once we had reached the summit we had a bite to eat and took a couple of photos...
Afternoon
Following lunch and our photo session, we thought it a good idea to work off the chips and spent the afternoon on the slope. We first went on a snow bound nursery slope Jacob fine, Sam nearly buried and almost sick, Al virtually buried nearly had a heart attack, nightmare trying to dig yourself out. Next decided the more popular route again as we are still on the nursery slopes, and probably will remain so on this holiday we decided to let Jacob go down unsupervised - he was fine...(and much better than either of us).
It's been really really really snowing hard overnight and all day, we decided to take a break from the slopes, however we did lunch at the foot of the mountain, chips, hotdogs and a couple of coffees - total cost just under 25 swiss francs - around £15 - £17 (apparently cheaper higher up the mountain too!)
Afternoon
Swimming in the "heated" swimming pool, it was cold but not as cold as the one in Woolacombe bay. Still snowing!
Evening
Went for a bite to eat away from the hotel, Sam had bolognese, Jacob had fajitas and I had a spaghetti dish called Babi Babs (I think thats how it's spelt) plus for pudding Sam had meringue, ice cream for Jacob and I had caramel creme + a couple of beers - total cost 120 francs (£72)
Still snowing - I estimate a couple of foot at least today, perhaps more
Jacob's video diary entry for today...
Afternoon
Below is Jacob's first video diary entry...
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