St Ives

Great fun body boarding at St Ives
Rebecca had read about St Ives in some of her books and so we decided to drive over and have a look and this summer holiday destination. The streets around St Ives are very narrow and they have a one way system which might make sense if you had a map...We managed to find a pay & display car park and walked from there. After a wonder around the town, and a fish & chip lunch on the beach, the kids went out in the water with body boards which we had hired for them. They had a great time in the waves, but it was very cold and so after about an hour they were ready to head back to the cottage for a hot shower and some warm clothes!

Lands End and Minack Theatre

Only 12668 miles to Invercargill...

On Monday we had a day 'out and about' and drove down to Lands End. Once again, it is great being able to go to these places outside of the tourist season as there were only a few other people here. We bypassed the 'tacky' shows and headed straight for the cliffs - what an amazing place with great views along the coast and out to the Atlantic Ocean. We did get our photo taken at the sign post and even paid to have Invercargill added to the sign for the 'official photo'.

Josh at Lands End

We drove along the coast to Porthcurno where we visited the Minack Theatre - we had been told it was an amazing place and we were not disappointed. What a place...a woman wanted to stage a play for people, but she didn't want them tredding all over her lawn and so she decided to carve a theatre into the cliff side, and it is spectacular. We would love to come here for a show, but don't know if that will happen. We decided to have a 'cream tea' here before carrying on up to Mousehole for a late lunch.

Minack Theatre

Mousehole is one of those gorgeous little fishing villages, with an enclosed harbour and the village built up on the hills around the harbour. Unfortunately the tide was out and so it wasn't looking its best, but we enjoyed a couple of hours here - walking, eating and looking in all the little galleries.

Mousehole

A great holiday in Cornwall

Walking on the beach at low tide towards St Michael's Mount

We are just home after a week in Cornwall. We rented a cottage for the week which worked out really well as we had our own space and it was in a fantastic spot. It was a 300 year old fisherman's cottage which had very low beamed ceilings - Rebecca & Lionel banged their heads several times, especially coming down the stairs. We stayed in the village of Marazion which is best known for St Michael's Mount and we were only one street back from the beach.

Looking across at Marazion from St Michael's Mount

St Michael's Mount is accessible by causeway at low tide, otherwise by ferry - which is actually an amphibious vehicle (which Josh thought was very cool).

We had great weather all week and really enjoyed lots of walks on the beach and lots of 'rock hopping'.

On Holiday in Cornwall

We are having a fantastic time in Cornwall and I will do a proper blog update when we get home. I just wanted to send this update from 'future world @ Goonhilly'. This is an amazing satellite station with internet, xbox, segways (Lionel & the kids are going for a segway tour soon) and all sorts of technological stuff. They have the fastest free internet service in the UK here and so we thought we would take the opportunity to catch up on some emails etc. They also have free phone calls anywhere in the world, but we didn't think our NZ friends would want a call at midnight...
Anyway I'll do a proper blog when we get home...with lots of photos!

Having great fun riding the segways

The Big Freeze

The headline in the Basingstoke Gazette yesterday was 'The Big Freeze' and that sums up our week.
* Snow causes chaos on roads
* Businesses and public transport are hard-hit
* Scores of local schools are closed
* And there could be more snow on the way!
Monday and Tuesday were quite fun with lots of the nice white fluffy stuff and the kids were out enjoying it with their friends. Wednesday saw Rebecca & Josh back to school and the sun came out briefly, turning everything to slush. Thursday was really icy and Rebecca was gutted that she had to go to school but Josh got a day off. Friday today and it is bitterly cold - both the kids are back at school (Josh had a 10am start) but looking at the weather now I should probably have just kept them at home! There is more snow falling and I don't think the temperature has made it over 0 degrees today.
There is lots of discussion about how England has ground to a halt because of the weather this week, but how can you respond to weather which happens only once every 20 years or so. In fact I don't think North Hampshire has ever been hit by snow like this!
We are well and truely over these freezing conditions now and hope that it clears up over the weekend and next week as we head to Cornwall on Saturday 14th for a week!
It is hard to believe that Australian friends and family are suffering heat wave conditions with temperatures over 40 degrees...

Snow Day

Rebecca & Ruby's snowman

Rebecca & Josh have a day off school today because there is about 4inches of snow on the ground and it is still falling! They are outside at the moment having snowball fights and sledge rides with the neighbourhood kids. The roads are chaotic and North Hampshire & Berkshire have basically shut down for the day...Of course Lionel only works around the corner and so he walked to work (I think he will be lonely at work today)!

Josh shovelling the drive and making a snow wall

Rebecca getting a ride on the sledge