Beach life

The next day i was first up, greeted by bright blue sky and sunshine. It was about 7.30 in the morning and most of the camp site was still asleep. I filled the kettle up and made myself a brew. I hadn't slept very well what with my cold and other things, and i was actually awake at first light. When i peeked out the tent i was disappointed as it seemed grey and cloudy. But the sun burnt it off and a couple of hours later there i was drinking tea in the sunshine. I went and sat on the stone wall admiring the sea views and stillness of the countryside. The sun began to warm my tired body and the tea helped me wake up.

Soon after that the campsite began to stir and Jonathan was next up. Drinking tea soon caught on and as other members of our group got up, breakfast was needed. Unfortunately, our gas canister ran out so we only had a little one to use. It took what seemed like hours to cook some sausages, we abandoned the bacon as we really would have been there all day!

The plan was to hire boards for Elliot and Vince then go down to Holywell beach. We'd then go back to Watergate Bay in the afternoon. Our early start meant we didn't have to queue for the carpark and we picked a great spot on the beach. It was windy, which meant it got a little chilly at times, which may be one of the reasons why we all got a bit sunburnt!

We played rounders (i was suitably girly in my hitting and throwing capabilities) and ate pasties, surfed and sunbathed. Elliot got his 3 foot kite out (that's kite!) and went down the beach to fly it, using all of his upper body strength to contend against the strong sea wind. He then gave Joe a lesson and after a couple of crash landings, tangling the strings and almost taking out a few passers by, he managed to, erm , get it up... He was dragged 30 feet across the beach at one point however!

After a little snooze, we packed up and drove back to the camp site to drop off the cars and walk down to Watergate Bay. I didn't go in the water this time, preferring to grab an ice cream and play frisbee instead. It was a good job i stayed behind because as the tide rushed in it was all hands on deck to rescue our belongings which were rapidly being swept out to sea! We decided it was time to get to higher ground, which meant the beach front cafe where we drank tea and ate scones. We then made our way back to camp for showers and beer. Not showers in beer.

After eating so much barbequed food we all decided we wanted a proper meal so as the sun began to set we decided to head down to the bar we'd been to the night before and check out the menu. Playing pool and drinking games until the early hours, we didn't want the night to end. A proper session around the camp fire was needed. However, we were on a family campsite which meant excessive noise was not going ot be tolerated. Or camp fires for that matter. So, gathering some beers, a ground sheet and blanket, plus one of our many disposable barbeques we found ourselves plonked in the middle of a grassy field. As the barbeque went up in flames, Vince went in search of more burning material. He came back with something resembling a fence post. It did the trick and before we knew it we were being warmed by a rousing fire.

I lay back, huddled in Elliot's blanket and gazed at the starry sky. I miss the stars. You don't get to see them in London what with all the light pollution. It was a moonless night which meant they were all the more bright and sparkly. You might be thinking what a romantic setting. It would have been if it hadn't been for the boys talking about cock and sexually transmitted diseases. Lovely. Still, it was a beautiful night, and i haven't laughed so much in a while.

I slept soundly that night and really didn't want to come home. Part of me thought i should stay, find myself a hostel and maybe find a bar job. I still might do that. I love being by the sea and Cornwall has always held a place in my heart as i spent much of my childhood on Perranporth beach and sleeping in caravans.

I guess anything is possible right now, it just doesn't quite seem like it...

Surf's up!

It's a dreary, wet Tuesday morning which is quite the contrast to my wonderful bank holiday weekend. At least with the weather being like this, sitting in an office is not so horrible.

My weekend started on Friday evening when the boys (Rob and Joe) picked me and my tent up and we started on the first stage of our journey down to Cornwall. It took a little longer than usual to get down to Woodfalls, about three and a half hours all in all, but we were all excited enough about the coming weekend not to let it upset us too much. With the first stage complete, we packed up the car, drank a bottle of wine and went to bed at about midnight, setting our alarms for 4.45am! Eeeek!

We dragged our sleepy selves out of bed, gulped down some tea and squeezed into the Rob's mango coloured Saxo. That's right, not yellow, mango! At least we were very easy to spot in the fog. We joined up with Hawksy, Emily and Jonathan and started the second stage down to Newquay in convoy. As we travelled down the A303 the mist and fog began to clear to reveal blue sky and sunshine, and the excitement levels in the mango machine rose, so much so that we put Pendulum on the stereo and raved our way down the road at 6.30 in the morning. Hardcore! Unfortunately for Hawksy, his car was very much the opposite, with his passengers all asleep!

We made excellent time as the roads were all clear. Obviously most people went down on the Friday and weren't prepared to get up at silly o'clock on a Saturday morning to drive down. More fool them!

Our destination was Watergate Bay, just outside of Newquay. Hawksy and Emily went into reception and we all waited outside, half hiding as technically we were not the right ratio of boys to girls to be accepted on the campsite.

Our pitch, the best in the park we reckon, was right at the end near the back gate. We had sea views all for £24 for two nights. Bargain! It was about 9am as we set up camp which left us the whole day for the beach. I had borrowed a tent from my lovely housemate. I didn't have a clue how to put it up however. Everyone else had the usual dome shaped tents, mine appeared to be a little bit different. With a little bit of trial and error, and everyone mucking in to help we managed to erect it, and actually it was perfect as it had a big porch where all the cooking stuff got dumped.

Rob's mum is a diamond and had packed everything we could have dreamed of. We also had breakfast sorted with eggs, bacon, sausages and bread. We set fire to one of our many disposable barbecues and we were away. Although it did fall off the rest and burnt a hole in the grass...luckily no one was hurt in the making of our breakfast!

Full of fry up we changed and headed down to Newquay to hire boards and wetsuits. Fistral Bay was our beach of choice and we found ourselves a little spot just as the sun came out from behind the clouds. It was beautiful and stayed that way all day.

An hour or so later we joined by the last two members of our party, Elliot and Vince. Originally they had planned to come down a lot sooner, but got way laid by hangovers from the night before! Slipping to my snug wetsuit i tried not to think about who had peed in it before me and ventured into the waves, body board in tow. The waves were pretty good, especially for my first day, as i hadn't been boarding for a couple of years. I managed to catch a couple of waves and wanted to stay out forever! The sea was extremely cold though and my feet were so numb i thought they might drop off. It was such a gorgeous day that it was easy to get warmed up again and sittijg on the beach we could have been anywhere abroad. It was heaven.

AS the sun began to lose it's strength we went in search of Cider and ice creams. I just stuck to the cider, yum! We then headed to Morrisons with what seemed like the whole of Cornwall and did a supermarket sweep/tag team/relay to grab all the things we needed. This mainly included beer and meat for the barbeque.

Jonathan did a stirling chef job when we got back to camp and we had burgers and sausages, chicken wings and legs coming out of our ears. Nobody went hungry!

As the sun began to set we wandered down to the cliff edge and found a coastal path which led all the way to Watergate Bay. It was stunning and so peaceful. We took photos and sat quietly watching the sun go down. Listening to the gentle crashing of the waves below, the breeze from the sea cooling my slightly sunburnt face, i felt so at ease. I decided that I'd left my troubles back in London and this mini holiday was a way of escaping.

We stumbled in the twilight to a bar we'd noticed earlier and stayed there for the evening drinking Red Stripe for £2 a pint and G&Ts (well, just me on the Gin actually) and started doing some silly drinking games. I had consumed five gin and tonics in quick succession. As most of you know I'm no lightweight, but the boys didn't know this and i think they expected me to fall over at any moment. I reckon i ended up the most sober of the bunch, in fact!

As the bar closed we decided to call it a night as we had had such an early start that morning. Needless to say after quite a few beverages we decided to risk taking the road back to the tent than the cliff top walk...probably the most sensible decision we made for the whole holiday! For some reason, and i think you really had to be there to find it amusing, we played a stupid game on the walk back which involved pulling different poses every time a car shone it's headlights on us. All in hoodies we must have looked like a bunch of chavs, which we used to our advantage by acting out graffiting walls, mooning cars and striking "wide boy" poses. We have photos to prove it. Like i said, it was funny at the time!

As quietly as we could we got back into the tents and eventually fell asleep. I was sleeping with one eye open however, as my tent buddy has a tendency of not quite making it out of the tent when he needs a wee. Thank goodness he was on his best behaviour, that's all i can say!

Murder on the dancefloor

Hello, me again!

So where did i get too? Oh yes, burning my boobs in the park.

Well since then i had a boring but well needed temp job for just over a week. I was entering credit card APRs into a database for a financial services comparison site. Thrilling! But as i said, much needed.

On friday i was lucky enough to go to a club opening in Soho. A friend of a friend is a promoter and got us in for free. Always a plus considering normally it would cost twenty squids. This joint was called 24 and it was full of beautiful people. Suffice to say i felt invisible and fat. But hey, that's never stopped me from enjoying myself! The club was a technological wonder. Well perhaps that's going a bit far...but it was pretty cool with it's 90s laser show, tables that reacted when you touched them and live video of the inside of the club being projected onto the walls. Seriously. It WAS cool.

When we found our table (you're a no-one if you haven't booked a table at these gigs, i've learnt) the 2 litre of Vodka with oversized sparkler arrived and we all breathed a sigh of relief as we didn't have to buy anymore £10.95 gin and tonics for a while. Or in my case, at all.

The music was funky and we did a bit of table dancing. After the canapes went round the lights dimmed and the music was pumped up to a rousing crescendo and my dancing shoes couldn't stay still any longer. Myself and my friends found our way onto the dance floor and stayed there until the small hours. When we walked in we instantly saw two hot, hot, hot guys, one in a waistcoat, the other in a skinny tie. After checking them out for half an hour it was clear we weren't there type. The well dressed are generally gay, i should know that by now!

Anyway, two more guys caught my friends eye but i was resigned to the fact that i wasn't gonna get anywhere with anyone as my cold was getting worse and there was just way too much competition. To be honest i just couldn't be bothered. My friend did her best though, keeping in their eye line, wiggling her thang in their direction. However considering the last guys we liked, liked each other we were almost convinced that these guys were gay aswell. Especially as they seemed quite touchy feely with each other. Unfortunately though, before we got the chance to ask (i'm not really sure we would have, but let's just say we would have) fitty number one started dancing with a tall, tiny blonde girl who looked about 19 and was wearing practically nothing (i know, i sound like someones mum). To be fair if i had the confidence (and didn't have to get the bus both there and back) and of course her figure i would wear tiny, weeny dresses with a bow just about covering my arse. Ten seconds later and they were sucking face on the dance floor. Good for them. Not good for my mate who was most put out.

In the end we decided to deal with the rejection the only way we know how. By dancing like loons. Something i'm well practiced in.

When it got to the stage where walking to the toilets was difficult we decided our tootsies needed a rest. And then we decided it was time to get our big red chariots home. I'm sure blondy and fitty had a chauffeur driven car. As we left my other friend said she'd seen Jonny Torettes getting into a fight when she was out having a cigarette and some ex Big Brother contestants dancing on the other side of the room. Classy establishment then! But really i didn't care who was there as i was having a great time shaking my bits and bobs in front of the DJ booth.

Hopefully there will be more nights like this if i can just find myself a job to keep a roof over my head. Otherwise it's gonna be "s'long London, hello Hampshire" and i will be Little Miss Sad :-(

Till next time

x

I've been chastised for not blogging enough. Slap on back of hand.

Well let's start with the weekend before last which was my housemates birthday celebration in Angel. We went to the Albert and Pearl on Upper Street and had a lovely old time dancing til our feet dropped off. It has to be said as the night wore on the dancing got more and more expressive! I ended up snogging some bloke from the Wirral...I'm not sure he told me his name, but if he did it didn't register in my brain so he will just have to be called "the bloke from the Wirral".

There was a pretty big group of us by the end, taking up most of the bar. Was a fun night, especially when i got chatted up and danced with by one of the bouncers, who then gave me two membership cards. Get in! I think he said his name was Julio. But again, i'm unsure.

The night ended in a kitchen full of drunks eating various combinations of marmite on toast. (the drunks being us, the combinations being marmalade and marmite, peanut butter and marmite and cheese and marmite) plus a fight about thick sliced bread. All in all, the night was a big success!

The next morning i was RUDELY awoken at 9.15 by a certain friend of mine who had decided she wanted to meet for coffee that morning rather than the afternoon as originally planned. So i dragged my hungover self out of bed, fell into some clothes, grabbed my sunglasses and went on my weary way to Angel to meet her for a much needed Frappacino. Which i managed to get for free, well my friend did. Don't you just love it when that happens?!

The sun came out strong that Sunday and in the end we decided some much needed "parklife" was in order. We went back to mine, picked up a rug, grabbed a picnic on the way and went and sunbathed in Clissold park. Bliss! We were also bought two lolly pops by a random man in the corner shop. We didn't want them but he insisted so forcefully that we took them out of fear that he was going to either lamp one of us or rape us. He quickly scarpered and we breathed a sigh of relief, two lollies the better off.

As we dozed in the park we began to make a shopping list. Qualities we would like to find in a man. I couldn't possibly divulge the contents of that list as a) i haven't got time and b) it's just a ridiculous list of inappropriate requests!

Maybe another time. Right now i have to get back to my data entry. That's right ladies and gents, i've found myself a temp job. It's thrilling. But it's much needed.
More of that next time me thinks.

Adios!

Hang Man

Well, it's been a while since i've last blogged. Basically i lost my mojo. Have had no motivation or inspiration to write anything. I'm trying to pick myself up though so, here goes.

A couple of weekends ago i had a wicked time with my friend Steph. We spent the Saturday afternoon drinking tea and eating biscuits in the sunshine, then we got ready for a night out in Mayfair at the Funky Buddha. My crazy Portuguese friend has a friend who does promotion for the members only club, and she got us free entry and free drinks. My crazy portuguese friend was meant to be coming too, however she got caught up delivering a baby. Like you do.

Steph and i partied the night away with free vodka and crazy dancing. We kept are eyes out for Jodie Marsh but she didn't turn up, neither did any footballers. Oh well. Steph got a snog with a kiwi, i got the eye from his mate but by the end of the night he was so coked up he couldn't even stand up straight, which was a turn off for me. Drugs really aren't my thing. Too unpredictable.

Anyway, when the club closed we made our way back to mine, only to find an impromptu party at my house. Brilliant! Although we were a bit lame as we had been dancing our little socks off and had exhausted ourselves, we quickly left the revellers to it. I believe there was bed swapping and canoodling going on. Marvelous.

Next morning we all (the left over revellers included) traipsed down to the Cafe Z bar for an award winning brekky. Yum. With heavy hangovers, or perhaps we were still drunk, Steph and i decided that checking out the London Marathon would be a fabulous idea. Which we did. The sun was out and it was a gorgeous afternoon. We both got a bit emotional at one point. I'm not sure why, i think it was the hangover. We then walked to Waterloo along the south bank and met a man playing the Hang. Or at least i think that was what it was called. We were transfixed. And in love. We both gave money and swooned. Again, probably the effects of the hangover. But perhaps i should go back to the south bank this Sunday just to check. And put my number in his hat...

[after just doing a quick search i think i've found him. I'm listening to his music now. I'm totally entranced. Such a beautiful sound all from one instrument. Amazing]

Check him out on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IrMi9AZ3c&NR=1

It's such an amazing instrument, you really have to hear it live. I've never heard anything quite like it. It's almost like a steel drum but softer and more magical sounding.