A tale of two towns - part two

Now under normal circumstances, a shopping trip like that would set the tone for the weekend.   Fortunately, this was not a normal weekend as we had the use of a friend’s holiday home in Fowey for three days.

I think I can safely recommend a Cornish seaside town, out of season and enjoying unexpected warm weather, as a cure for Frazzledparentitis.  It was very, very nice.  Even allowing for the fact that Thomas was suffering from a recurring case of Chronic Whinge, it was still very restful.

 
 
Two of the three days started with thick fog that burned off within a couple of hours, leaving clear blue skies and unseasonable temperatures.  We caught the little ferry across the harbour to Polruan and ate local teacakes and bacon sandwiches in Crumpets café, open out of season to process a bulk order of bacon and egg butties for the large group of teenage girls catching the ferry back from a party in their pyjamas.  We walked out to the little castle on the headland and admired Dawn French’s rather nice house on the far side of the harbour.  We mooched about the shops and bought some beach-hut fairy-lights for Thomas’s nautical-themed bedroom.  We spent an inordinate amount of time watching the little car ferry go backwards and forwards across about 200 yards of water, as Thomas strenuously resisted any attempt to remove him.

On the second day Thomas managed to fulfil his sole objective of the holiday which was to “take my socks off on the sand”.  He paddled happily around in water that was cold enough to give me bone-ache.  He clearly has asbestos feet.

The final night saw a near disaster after the appropriately named “Smelly Doggy” went missing during our search for somewhere for dinner – Sam’s on the main street is highly recommended, particularly after they joined in the hue and cry for Doggy – but he was eventually located propping up the bar in the King of Prussia pub.  I am pretty sure I saw a slightly sulky look in his little plastic eyes as he was removed.  It was probably the best night of his life.

So we returned home refreshed and laden down with beach-hut fairy-lights, a bag of teacakes and a chocolate Cornish pasty.  All the hallmarks of a great mini-holiday.