A Cornish Holiday

Our thirteenth year staying in Port Quin in September. and our fifth at Lacombe. Before that we had eight years at one of the apartments at Doyden, another NT property. We travelled down on Thursday in very murky conditions with the odd bit of drizzle. Apart from a slow tractor before Thame (isn't it awful when you are held up at the beginning of a long journey?) and a jam on the A34 which we avoided by going via the A420 to Swindon, it was a fast trip down. Alison had filled a memory stick with hundreds of tracks which played in alphabetical order. So we had  lots of songs that began with "Dont". Of course when we arrived the obligatory sun came out and I had a stroll up to the cliffs near Doyden.

Friday morning and an early run along the coast for Alison and a quiet rest by the harbour for me. Mid morning we set off for the cliff top walk to Port Isaac, something we had avoided since our first holiday in Cornwall in 2002. It was that year we went there and back along the strenuous coastal walk and said never again. But this year we thought going one way along the cliffs and then back via the fields might be better. It may be that we are fitter now than twelve years ago, but the steep ups and downs didn't seem at all bad and we were in Port Isaac in one hour forty-five minutes.

It was a very warm (23C in late September!) cloudy and humid day with hardly any breeze, so we were glad of a rest. We had lunch sitting on a bench overlooking the Port, and later found another bench right by the beach.

We found the path back across the fields even though it is poorly marked and was certainly easier and a lot faster back to Port Quin.

Saturday was still warm when Alison did her annual run from the cottage to Padstow via Rock and the ferry over. Instead of my annual bike ride from Padstow to Wadebridge and back, I did a run instead. Not all the way to Wadebridge, but a decent 6 plus miles on the lovely level Camel Trail. Just enough shade from the bordering trees and great views there and back.

In Padstow, unfotunately the Quayside Cafe is no more, so it was Walker's for fish and chips. Then a walk up to the monument for views over to Rock.

Sunday was to be our best day. We always try to do something different every year and this time we headed for the NT car park at Carnewas (good facilities, shop and cafe) from where we could visit Bedruthan Steps.

It was another glorious day with some fabulous views from the clifftop. Fortunately the tide was out so we could get down to the beach via the steep 132 steps down.

But once on the beach, it was worth the tricky descent.

Back at the car park, we found a table and bench to have our lunch and visit the shop before setting off for the coastal footpath to Mawgan Porth. It didn't take that long before the bay came into view.

We relaxed on the beach and Alison went off in a successful hunt for two coffees. It was still mid afternoon when we arrived back at Carnewas car park so we decided to call in at Polzeath on the way back to the cottage. The beach was packed with cars as it was a Sunday and the sea was crowded with surfers and bodyboarders as the waves were pretty good. Another perfect sunny day at 22C.

The next day we picked up some supplies in Wadebridge before  a quiet morning at Lundy Bay, leaving the car at the nearby NT car park.

We had lunch there before making our way to a much quieter Polzeath for bodyboarding. We deserved our ice cream after an energetic hour in the sea. Another mainly sunny day but the breeze cooled the temperature to around 20C, still very pleasant for September. In the early evening, I took the camera up to Doyden Castle to snap the view back to our cottage, the white building in the middle of the three.

Tuesday morning was set aside for another run, this time from Wadebridge. We both ran towards Padstow in warm sunshine, being glad of the shady bits. Lunch was at The Granary cafe where had superb bacon and egg/ mushroom baps. In the afternoon we visited Trebarwith Strand. We went a few years ago on a miserable day when it was deserted, but this year, in the sunshine, there were lots more people about, but still quiet. It was lovely on the beach and also on a walk up to the top of the cliffs. We had to stay local as in the evening we were booked in for dinner and the 6.45pm sitting at Fifteen on Watergate Bay. as usual, the food and service were excellent.

The following day we drove to The Lost Gardens of Heligan in dark cloud and the odd spot of rain! It was still blustery and cloudy on arrival so we went in the cafe for tea and a scone. By the time we came out, the skies had cleared and another perfect sunny day was to follow, though a little fresher at 18C.  We stayed in the gardens from 11am to 4.45pm, there was so much to enjoy.

It was mid afternoon by the time we passed the Cornish game and the Emu's on our way to the jungle area down the hill.

 Here we found a rope-bridge that was new this year, so we had to give that a try.

So we were ready for coffee and cake at The Steward's House Tea Room on our way back.

At last, we had a late morning on Thursday. We would normally be heading home, but the cottage had a spare two days so we were able to stay a little longer. A late morning run, again from Wadebridge. This time I headed towards Bodmin on the Camel Trail as Alison went the opposite way, again towards Padstow. More cloudy and fresher gave for a perfect jog. For the first time this holiday, we went back to the cottage in the middle of the day. It was great to sit outside to have lunch and read the paper. In the afternoon we walked from Lundy Bay car park to Rumps, a walk we do every year, except this was a shorter route.

And we still had time to call in at Polzeath for milk and watch the waves.

Friday was our last day, and we did what we normally do. Park at Rock, Sit on a bench with views towards Padstow.

A walk along the beach at Daymer Bay.

The ferry over to Padstow.

Lunch, this time at Walker's for tea and teacakes. Walk up to the monument to sit on one of the numerous benches with views to Rock and Daymer Bay.

Shopping in Padstow (curry paste from Rick's etc). Back to Rock on the ferry. We still had time to sit outside in lovely late afternoon sun before packing for a quick getaway in the morning.

The weather had been glorious. Well it was the warmest, driest September on record. We were so lucky.

This Is How You Lose Her, Maddaddam and Solo

This was a bit of a disappointment after "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao". "This is how you lose her" contains nine short stories about being unfaithful and how this can mess up your life. They are mostly about Yunior, who we met in Junot Diaz's previous two books. The first few were great fun, and whilst the later ones were probably better, I just got tired of the whole business of cheating. I guess the short story format was the only way to go when there is no coherent plot. 

Although it is a few years since I read "The Year of the Flood" and even longer for "Oryx and Crake", I do believe that "Maddaddam" is the best of Margaret Atwood's futuristic trilogy. The highlight for me was when Zeb tells Toby about his life. It is the best bit of storytelling I have read for a long, long time. This is a bit about his father: "The Rev had his very own cult. That was the way to go in those days if you wanted to coin the megabucks and you had a facility for ranting and bullying, plus golden-tongued whip-'em-up preaching, and you lacked some other grey-area but highly marketable skill, such as derivatives trading. Tell people what they want to hear, call yourself a religion, put the squeeze on for contributions, run you own media outlets and use them for robocalls and slick online campaigns, befriend or threaten politicians, evade taxes. You had to give the guy some credit. He was twisted as a pretzel, he was a tin-foil halo shit-nosed frogstomping king rat asshole, but he wasn't stupid." No, Zeb did not like his father. The bits in between are OK but are a little too much fantasy for my taste. There is too much that involves the new species of the Crakers, Painballers, Pigoons etc. Toby was a main character in the previous book, and here it is her personality that shines through. Atwood is such a brilliant writer that I almost gave it five stars. I just felt the conclusion of the trilogy was somewhat disappointing, especially after the previous books' endings were so great. But when you read paragraphs like the one above, who cares.

The only reason I read this book was because of the author. I have thoroughly enjoyed every book by William Boyd but "Solo" was a big disappointment. It was nearly all plot and very little in the way of decent prose. Fortunately, it was very short. The first part set in Africa was boring and the story only got better when Bond returns home. But then we were off abroad again and more action stuff. Alright if you like that kind of thing. It's just not for me. 

Lucy, Before I Go To Sleep and A Most Wanted Man

It was good to see a movie written and directed by Luc Besson. Maybe not his best, but Lucy is an enjoyable action thriller with Scarlett Johansson in the title roll. The premise is pretty silly, Lucy endures her brain power being massively increased and eventually relies upon Morgan Freeman as the top Professor in his field to help her make sense of what is happening to her. It enables her to take revenge on those who caused her problem. Johansson is terrific as an action hero and the finale is suitably mind blowing. Good fun.

I described S J Watson's first book as being an unsettling but brilliant read. Before I Go To Sleep has also made for a very decent movie. Fortunately I had forgotten what happens, so I could experience the tension of this nail biting thriller all over again. Adapted and directed by Rowan Joffe, this is a worthy three hander with Nicole Kidman on fine form supported by Colin Firth and Mark Strong. So almost a wholly British mainstream thriller, of which there are too few. We even get the obligatory views of London, this time from the top of Greenwich Park near the Observatory.

Another movie of a book I enjoyed. This time John Le Carre's A Most Wanted Man. This time a largely American cast located to Hamburg and directed by Anton Corbijn. The plot sticks very closely to the book. The only major deviation being instead of it being centred around a 60 year old British banker called Tommy Brue (Willem Defoe sounds German and has a very subsidiary role), this time the lead role is that of a German anti-terrorism boss played majestically by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I guess the movie needed this for it to work on the big screen. Nina Hoss, Robin Wright and Rachel McAdams are all good, but it is Hoffman in one of his last roles that again shows what a great actor he was.

A Midsummer Nights Dream at Aylesbury Waterside

The Globe Theatre touring production of A Midsummer Night's Dream actually came to Aylesbury. This is the only venue after starting at The Rose Theater, Kingston before travelling to Russia and Asia. I don't think I had seen this play since I was young. Maybe it was when I was 13 or 14 when Frankie Howard played Bottom  and Judy Dench was the first fairy at the Old Vic in 1957/8. I cannot be positive this was the production I went to, but seeing the play again was an opportunity that was too good to miss.

The play itself I have always thought to be too flimsy and ridiculous. But there is plenty to enjoy with this production, even down to the set where two columns replicate those at the Globe Theater itself. The ensemble acting is good and the verse (so much verse) is quite clear. The staging is OK, but I had expected more from a top director like Dominic Dromgoole. He should go and watch a Maria Aberg production, although Stratford has the benefit of a thrust stage.

But the biggest thrill for me was when I read in the programme that Jaine Dee would take the parts of Titiana and Hypolyta. She has always been one of my favourite actresses and only this month we had watched the reruns of two feature length P D James murder mysteries from 2003 where she starred alongside Martin Shaw as Adam Dalgleish. She is still the same bubbly actress I remember. Aden Gillet is also fine in a similar dual role of Oberon and Theseus.

The young lovers are OK, but I don't think the dialogue does them any favours. But the stand out performance for me was Molly Logan as Puck. Now here is a very young actress destined for big things despite her tiny stature. Then we come to the comedy. I'm not sure if the whole cast of the clog dancing Mechanicals had changed from the glowing reviews they had from the Globe 2013 production, but these could have been better. The geordie Bottom was a huge disappointment. Pierce Quigly played the part in London, but here Trevor Fox just wasn't good enough. The play within a play at the end was quite funny, but not the riot it could have been. The stage they erect for their performance of Pyranus and Thisby is quite clever with two more but smaller tilting columns. But when the props are funnier than the performers, something is not quite right.

Photos are from the 2013 London cast.

P.S. The funniest bit for me was when the Mechanicals were given their parts for Pyranus and Thisby and Flute (the best of this group played by Steffan Donnelly - another name to watch for) rushes through his whole script by memory instead of waiting for his cue. I'm still chuckling even now. It just seemed a very modern piece of fun. He is told "you speak all your part at once, cues and all".

Firmware - A Mystery?

The Garmin Forerunner 405ctx is a masterpiece of modern technology. There is a plug-in device that transmits all your runs from the "watch" wirelessly to the computer via Garmin Connect. However I hadn't bothered to do that since the first successful upload in March. So when I came to try again, it failed on every attempt. So much for modern technology.

The most annoying aspect is that the Forerunner also started a nasty habit of draining a fully charged battery after only a mile of running. Searching the net for an answer to this problem, someone mentioned "Firmware". Whilst I was waiting during one of the failed attempts at uploading, I happened to remember a note on Garmin Connect about Firmware. I found a link to where you could download the latest Firmware update, but worried that this might compromise all my records.

However I went for it and the download seemed to be OK. Low and behold, the next time I tried to upload my data, it worked first time. So all my runs since December are now on the Garmin website. It did erase all the data on the Forerunner, but hopefully that has also cured the battery problem. We shall see.

But Firmware, what is that? I looked for an answer but I'm still none the wiser. As Alison would say, it's all witchcraft!

Medea - National Theatre Live

My second excursion to the cinema to see a live production direct from The National Theatre. It was the last night of the 2,500 year old play Medea by the Greek play-write Euripides, a tragic story of a woman's revenge. Helen McCrory is absolutely fantastic in the title roll. She seemed subdued when I went to see her in Old Times at The Donmar Warehouse, but here she was the opposite. A woman that was not going to stand by while the husband, for whom she destroyed her family and lived in exile, marries the daughter of a king.

But what impressed me more than anything was this new version written by Ben Power and the direction of Carrie Cracknell. Somehow their production suited a transmission to a cinema far more than the King Lear I saw a short time ago. The set was terrific and the music by Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp suited the dark mood. Altogether a staggeringly memorable evening.

New Tricks and The Big Lebowski

Tender Loving Care was the title of Episode 2 of the latest series of New Tricks. When the team go bowling we are treated to a homage to The Big Lebowski and the scene that introduces us to Jesus Quintana. Even down to the hand drier. Unfortunately we don't get the accompaniment of The Gypsy Kings version of Hotel California but an inferior guitar instrumental. Shame.