Jim & Happy : St Ives Friday 6 September

Wow, what a busy place St Ives is. We arrived on Saturday afternoon to ‘Trelonie’ our home for the next week. ‘Tre’ means home of so Trelonie is the home of the Lonie family. The Lonie’s are friends of Karen & Dave’s.

Trelonie is in a narrow laneway a short distance away from the main street. The satnav was navigating us down narrow lane ways we were reluctant to drive down but you have to trust the satnav it always knows its way even when you doubt it.

The laneway is wide enough for one car only. We unloaded the car quickly and Jim went off to find a park, poor thing was gone an hour. He eventually found a large public car park (35 Pounds for the week) on the hill a ten-minute walk behind the house. I said it was better he was on his own driving around lost. If I were in the car with him it would have led to agitation for both of us. When he finally returned to the flat, I keep calling it the flat because it is so small but it is a typical St Ives cottage - very quaint but small I said please sit and breathe for a few minutes.

Not knowing anything about St Ives our first impression was one of shock with the narrow lanes and crowds. We thought being a holiday destination the crowds would have made their way home with the new school year starting yesterday. I guess with fine weather predicted for most of the week everyone was making the most of the beach.

Monday – we drove to St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurnow, Minack Theatre & Land Ends for a sightseeing tour. Once again all within an hour’s drive from here. Porthcurnow is the most majestic looking beach we have seen in England. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go on the beach because we had Noodle, the dog with us – dogs are prohibited. We all sat on the rocks outside Minack Theatre looking down on Porthcurnow longingly. Google Minack Theatre, what an amazing place. It would have been fantastic to attend a show there but it wasn’t to be. Karen said she saw Jesus Christ Superstar there years ago. That sent us all off in song ‘Jesus Christ Superstar who do think you are.

Tuesday – what a lovely beach day. Neither, Jim or I have swum while we have been in England but it is nice to sit on the beach in the sun. Mind you I am always wearing my jeans and t-shirt sometimes even my fleece. This evening we had dinner at a café along the esplanade overlooking the water. It was a beautiful evening to go for a walk after dinner dodging the crowds and seagulls.

Wednesday was another beach day not as perfect as yesterday because the wind has picked up. We said goodbye to Karen, Dave and the kids this afternoon, as mentioned earlier the kids start their new school year tomorrow.

Wednesday night we went on a ghost walk. It started at 9.15pm so we made ourselves go out at 8pm for a drink otherwise we know what we are like by 9pm we would have wanted to go to bed. Shanty Baba, the tour guide made the walk entertaining. I had my own ghost ‘Jim’ trailing behind me trying to scare me whenever he could.

http://www.shantybaba.com/index.html

Shanty Baba spent time in India meditating and was keen to share a five-minute meditation method at the end of the walk with those who were interested. The meditation is said to open up your third eye to enhance your psychic power. I will try it whenever I am next in possession of a mirror to sit in front of and stare into my third eye for a few minutes.

Yesterday, Thursday started to rain so we went for a drive to Perranporth, Newquay and St Agnes – an hour’s drive in total. Perranporth is a quiet little surf town. It is the only place in England where the pub is actually on the beach. Once upon a time a little shanty serving beer on the beach but now a large modern looking building. Newquay is a large town with multiple beaches. The beaches are long and scenic and can be walked between on low tide. The town itself looks very tired and in need of TLC. Our last stop was St Agnes on the way home. The beach was down the end of a narrow windy road. The cliffs facing the beach are home to a tin mine (a thing of the past). Very scenic. Shame we didn’t visit St Agnes first as there were a couple of inviting looking places for lunch. Can’t complain the baguette we had in Newquay was yummy enough but the surrounds would have been nicer in St Agnes. The baguette shop was across from an amusement arcade along the busy high street.

I feel a tad slack at not visiting the cultural spots of St Ives. There is the Tate St Ives & The Barbara Hepworth Museum (famous English sculptor) and many art galleries. I did visit the local church this morning in search of one of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptors ‘Madonna & child’. She made it for one of her triplet sons who died in Thailand in the fifties during the war. She is an interesting character – interesting enough to Google. Shanty Baba told us about her on the ghost walk as we stood outside the dance palladium where her sculptors are stored.

Karen and Dave arrived this morning after dropping the kids off to school. Their grandma will pick them up from school this afternoon. Karen and Dave will stay the night with us for a final hurrah. We will say our final good-byes to them in the morning before we head north. I feel without these guys our stay in England would not been as rewarding as it has been on many levels. We are so lucky we met 9 years ago in Fiji.