Monday

Mum off not much doing, first day back from Cornwall and all...lots of sleep and laundry really.

Tuesday

Auntie christines for the day, we baked cookies (lovely) and watched some films, another nicely low key day. We had lunch out of course, which is always nice, this week the Flowerpot Cafe.

Wednesday

Mum off again today, cinema trip to see the new Diary of a wimpy kid film, The Long Haul.  The cast has changed from what we would call the classic line up (no doubt as they are all grown ups now).  So it wasn't quite as good as the previous films but there were still plenty of funny bits and we enjoyed it.  Lunch was a McDonalds, and of course I had to have a mcflurry now i've been made aware of their existance.  We sent Ned off home and carried on around town a bit doing a bit of girls shopping.

Thursday

KD gym camp day today, which means a lie in and then lots of cool activities.  We had a lot of races and obstacle course based stuff which I had great success at with a good lot of wins in the bag. 

Friday

Today it was Anne and Mike for company.  We went to see an outdoor theatre production of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  We took a picnic and had a lovely day outside.  I think we all agreed ot wasn't the best production ever but we certainly enjoyed it. 

Early night needed tonight.....

Saturday

As it was a travel day.  Up early and off to Stansted Airport, ultimate destination....Lake Garda.

It was a bit later in the year than normal for our European jaunt, all Ned;'s fault with his school trip to France back in the May half term.

We were also slumming it by flying Ryanair, very unusual indeed:

But despite Mum and Dad's reservations it was really good.  Nice new plane, comfy seats and it wasn't delayed or anything.  We also had great fun mocking the seat back safety diagrams, that depicted no washing machines being allowed on board and no burgers on the emergency escape slide amongst other things.
It was one of those times when you reach the plane door and the warmth hits you....lovely.
We were soon on the road in our hire car (rather disappointingly a Nissan Qashqai, with a number of 'remodelled' features) making our way along an Italian motorway and scoffing a picnic.  It didn't take long to reach our camp site and we waited to check in with a cold drink...it was very warm.
Time to check out our accommodation and begin negotiations about the top bunk, always a tense time.
Then off to the pool complex....the slides were fantastic and it was lovely to cool off.
The only problem was we had no supplies, so a supermarket trip was called for.  Italian supermarkets shut later than those at home on a Saturday night so it was a pretty fruitless task.  We ended up in what must have been the most brightly lit out of town shopping centre that I suspect may well have been visible from space eating McDonalds.....oh dear.
Still, there was some entertainment to be had watching the locals having an al fresco line dancing event in the car park:

Sunday

Shopping trip take two, much more successful.  With our fridge full we were free to explore a bit, there were vineyards everywhere:

Then back to the pool, complete with inflatable Unicorn that had miraculously made it's way from England with us:

We found this rather amusingly named beer in the supermarket:

Ned drank most of it, but I had a couple of sips....there'll be video evidence of my reaction to it later on I'm sure....
We rounded out the day with a good few games of cards on the deck.

Monday

We'd been here a day and a half and not even set eyes on the Lake, time to remedy that with a lake tour.
We packed up a picnic and made our way up the East side, past the theme parks and campsites and traffic until it all got a bit calmer and the natural beauty took over.  It was lovely with the still water and the mountains jutting up.  It was so wide you could barely see to the other side and it looked more like the sea.  We found a place to park up and broke the supplies out for a spot of lunch:

It would have been rude not to go for a dip wouldn't it?  The water was lovely, not too cold, not too warm and we splashed about for a while, Mum stayed in for ages.

There was plenty to explore and poke at with my pokey stick I came across:

We eventually decided to dry off and get dressed and continue North, with the mountains getting higher and the lake itself getting narrower.  The town at the top of the lake, Riva Del Garda was seemingly a rather upmarket sort of place, crawling with mountainbikers, Dad's eyes were out on stalks eyeing up their bikes.

The weather was closing in a bit, with rain and cloud billowing over the looming mountains so we carried on, beginning the journey back down the East side.

There were masses of tunnels we had to go through, cutting through the mountains, some of them were really long too.  I loved it, although Ned was disappointed that revving the Nissan in such a confined space didn't produce a Top-Gear-esque roar he might have hoped for.

I needed a toilet stop, so we happened to pull in at Limone.  We knew it must have been Limone as there were ceramic lemons adorning most of the towns doorways.  Once we had seen to our business it was time to sample another ice cream:

Before surveying the inflatables on offer for use in the campsite pool.  One Lilo purchased to compliment the Unicorn and a large ring....quite the quiver of equipment to cover all eventualities.

We wandered about, admiring the speedboats moored up:

Here we are, revelling in the unity of Europe, prior to brexit:

Then made our way back to the car and headed southwards again to complete our loop of the lake.
We made it back in time for a quick bite to eat before heading out for the campsite Foam party.  None of us had to been to such an event before......I loved it!  Massive foam cannon shooting over the poolside area and music playing...brilliant.  I stayed until the bitter end, when most people had started to drift off, leaving masses of foam for Dad and I to hide in. Video to follow.....

Tuessday

We decided to explore the river Minicio by bike, ultimate destination Peschiera Del Garda, at the southern most tip of the lake.  Ned had an ulterior motive, he'd spotted an inflatable surfboard at one of the shops we'd seen on the way through in the car earlier in the week.  We hired bikes, got over the shock of how shoddy they were compared to our bikes at home and set off along the eastern bank of the river.  It was lovely in the sunshine making our way along the path enjoying the river setting.  There were a lot of fishermen who didn't seem over friendly.  We made our way the 6  km's until we got to a a rather busy looking dual carriageway, full of on oncoming traffic.  It didn't look great for cycling.  We had no choice but to backtrack past all the fisherman, back to the campsite to cross the river and ride back up the other side.  This is when we noticed the 'No cycling during fishing season' signs.....oops, no wonder they weren't exactly pleased to see us.  Especially for the second time.

We cycled the 6km's back to the campsite, then on a little bit before crossing to the western bank and riding 6km's back again to Peschiera.  It was much nicer on the other side of the river, shaded under the trees and without the nasty dual carriageway at the end.  In fact it turned into a bit of a moat, around a walled part of the town.  We rode through the gatehouse, parked up the bikes and had some well earned lunch:

We had a wander around, taking in the sights:

Vaguely heading towards where we hoped Ned's inflatable shop would be.  We were lucky and found it quite easily, bought the surfboard and returned to the bikes:

And here we are with our fresh whips (as Ned would say):

We arrived back at the campsite in great need of a post ride cool down ice cream:

And then a trip to the pool, the inflatable surfboard was great.....as long as the splashdown area was clear.....it carried some serious momentum:

Wednesday

The supermarket on site had brilliant kids shopping trolleys, despite me maybe being a little bit too old for them, I couldn't resist using one for the breakfast stuff:

We had a lazy day by the pool today, why not? The weather was lovely, the pool was fun and we had a load of inflatables to utilise.

We did take a trip up the lake again in the evening.  We'd seen a pontoon on our day trip earlier in the week and wanted to go and have a dive off it:

It was fantastic, I loved it, there will be some video later i'm sure.

We stayed ntil the sun went down behind the mountains:

Thursday
We took a drive down to Sirmionie in the morning.  In all honesty we had left it a bit late and the traffic police were stopping anyone else drive very far down as all the carparks were full.  We found the closest carpark we could and then used our one hour to walk as far as we could down the spit of land.  We never made it to the castle itself:

But we did enjoy creating some rather dubious rear window art on the Nissan:

We headed back to camp and had a go at their go-ape course:

It looked so cool with zip lines across the pool and everything.  We'd been watching it all week and it looked great fun as everyone in the pool soaked the zip wirers as they zoomed over the water.

Unfortunately though we were behind a rather fearful Italian boy......he took ages to be convinced to take on the first zipwire and seeing as we were all clipped to the safety wire we had no choice vpbut to follow him.

He was painfully slow and it turns out he was called Mario which we gleaned from his parents helpful 'encouragement' from the ground.

Ned decided to take a rest:

We we were certainly getting our moneys worth in terms of time taken!

The course itself went over the tops of the poolside sun loungers and parasols:

Mario wasn't getting any better at it and the man that ran the course had to rescue him and abseil him down from the tree to the ground.....oh dear.

Still, we cracked on:

But by the time we took on the final zipwire it had been so long since anyone had gone on it due to super Mario's slow progress that the water pistol brigade had given up and we didn't get a sniff of a soaking!
Our drinking continued:

That stuff as horrible.  Even worse than the DAB.

Ned and Dad had noticed people emptying the box that you were supposed to return your clubs and balls to once you'd finished crazy golf (after the hut had closed in the evening).

So once it was all closed up we helped ourselves and had a round:

It was okay, but the course wasn't the best and Dad totally ruined it by getting far too many hole in ones.

Friday

Our last full day, and despite the forecast saying it wasn't going to be that nice....it was!

A day at the pool where Ned finally cracked stand up surfing the long two lane slide on a lilo, top to bottom to a round of thunderous applause and whistles.  He'd also made friends with an Italian boy called Samuel and they got on like a house on fire despite the language barrier.

This left mum and dad at my disposal, I loved having time with Mum in the pool and Dad and I cracked me standing on his shoulders no handed.  The Lifeguards only seemed bothered about people trying to walk up the slides and keeping the sun beds nicely in line leaving us free to lark about as much as we liked.

We ordered pizza for tea and had it delivered by a man on his golf cart:

Saturday

Time to go home, bags packed and car loaded up:

As we drove along the motorway the bright morning sunshine began to get pushed out by ever darkening clouds...it got dark, like proper dark.  I mean, us English are used to heavy rain filled skies but this was next level, like when you see a total eclipse on the news.

The sky was lit with lightning streaking across the sky but it took a while for the rain to kick in.  Once it did, it was unbelievably heavy.  So heavy there was a good six inches of standing water on the motorway and the cars were creating a wake.  A lot of the locals parked up under bridges to take refuge but we carried on at a snails pace, wipers going as fast as they could go, still getting overtaken by lunatic German's in the outside lanes.  It didn't let up for ages and Mum warned us the flight would be seriously delayed.

We thought it was all great fun though, whooping with delight from the back seats.

It did finally ease up, just as we pulled off the motorway at the airport turning, even the dual carriageway in was flooded:

I think Dad was very relieved we had made it back to drop the car off safe and well.

We got checked in, and despite the departure lounge being flooded with rain that had obviously run off the runways the plane departed only half an hour late.

When we landed back in Stansted it was lovely and warm and sunny, a marked improvement over Italy, temporarily at least.

Sunday

A nice lay in, followed by a visit from Nate, Joel and Alan, hadn't seen them for a while so that was nice.....except for the Nerf bullet in the eye, thanks to Nate.

It was Lilly's birthday sleepover in the afternoon....a full on return from holiday.  She had ladies in to do hair and make up and we had a great time.  Lily and I managed to stay up the latest......

Tuesday

I went out with Auntie Trish, Auntie Christine and Darcey.  We went bowling and then into town for lunch and the £5 charity shop challenge which was great fun.

We were all done in time for me to go to gymnastics as well, badge week too. I passed my silver floor this week!

Wednesday

Day off with Dad today, it was belting it down so we couldn't do his usual bike related outing and had to utilise the back up plan.  Better Extreme trampoline park in Swindon seemed a good idea, Mum took us last time so it was all new for Dad:

We had a great time, bounced ourselves silly and got completely tired out.

We refuelled in McDonalds afterwards before going to Asda where I finally got one of those big water jars with a tap at the bottom i've been hankering for all summer in the bargain bin, and another pair of sunglasses that weren't.

Thursday

Easy morning then off ot KD for gymnastics club.  As well as the gymnastics there were all sorts of other more creative challenges on offer:

Friday

Another afternoon at Park House sports holiday club, the last session of the holidays and I got on really well.  I tackled one of the grown ups in football which caught everyone by surprise I think, I do like to stand my ground on these matters.  Corner ball was brilliant yet agian.

Once that was done and dusted we got our things packed for Cornwall, we were seriously excited about it this year......

We had a later departure than normal, after Ned had finished football.

This meant that the traffic was much lighter, but it became all but impossible to play the caravan based bingo game Dad and I had hastily cobbled together prior to departure.

Andy was already there when we arrived, he'd made our beds up and had picked up the Tesco  order....what luxury.  Thanks Andy.

Saturday

A lovely sunny Cornwall day, what could be better than getting aquainted with all of this years attendees down the beach?

Better have a roll call I reckon:

Myself

Ned

Mum

Dad

Andy

Alan

Hayley

Nate

Joel

Owen

Kirsty

Auntie Trish

Laura

Darcey

Chris

Kate

Millie

Finlay

Ben

Rach

Kimi

Marny

Auntie Christine and Uncle Ian were still to arrive as they are far too fancy to stay in a caravan like us lot.

So a decent turnout this year, maybe even a record?

Anyway, we had a fantastic day on the beach, exploring the rockpools:

Enjoying the surf and the real highlight....Andy's yoga ball thing, half buried in the sand used as a very springy indeed vaulting device. We'd been building up to this one for a few years and it was every bit as good as we had hoed it would be.  Video to follow.....eventually.
We had a wander down to Alan and Hayley's cottage in the evening, very nice too, despite Alan whingeing about everything being broken.  He was most puzzled as to how anyone could have removed some shoddily re-instated stair rods.  Dad gave him a perfect demonstration by falling down the stairs after a quick game of hide and seek with Nate and removing them again with ease.

Sunday

Another day of beach based activities? I think so.  Starting things off with some Constantine rockpool action:

A bit more wave action in the afternoon as well as the kayak making its return to Treyarnon Bay for extended sea trials, which seemed to go very well.  I didn't fancy it as I was far too busy with my girls Darcey, Millie and Darcey,as well as honorary member Nate.

It was barbecue night, so we all got together, Nate had marshmallow very rare as he didnt want to cook it:

Monday

The weather wasn't quite so good today, hey ho, it's wet in the sea anyway!

It was uncle Ian's birthday so we headed out to where they were staying, the Pickwick Inn, for a meal.

The view from their room was lovely, especially as it wasn't completely covered in mist as it has been every other time we've been over here:

Ned had a lovely time sat with his apprentice:

While I had all the others:

The weather improvement lasted long enough for us to walk off our meal round the headland:

Joel loved it:

I had a sleepover at Darcey's van, we were both super excited about it.  So excited we had our midnight feast at 10:30!

Thanks for having me over Laura, it was great fun......and nice to be away from stinky Ned for a night.

Tuesday

The sunshine was back with a bang.....get down the beach!

Bit of digging to make a lagoon from the outgong tide....good idea:

Mass game of kingball.....complete with ferocious sibling rivallary (not just Ned and I, Owen and Laura joined in too).

A bit more yoga ball bouncing and a lot of larking about in inflatible boats:

John came over and joined us on the beach, he drove himself over and everything, how cool.  He did well to put up with my endless list of epincreasingly ridiculous questions.

Wednesday

We hit Treyarnon at low tide to plunder the pools.....there wasn't much sucess despite the boys concocting a very complicated set up of bait and nets and goodness knows what else:

We also took a trip over to Polzeath in the afternoon, so epic ice creams, even if it was at the cost of my go on the bungee trampolines...by the time we'd demolished the ice creams the man had shut up shop for the day and gone home.  I was gutted, it's the first time Mumand Dad had ever agreed to me having a go!

Thursday

Another morning beach session before lunch and then off on a walk to Mother Ivey's Bay with the Hardy clan:

It was a lovely trek across the headland, even if it was a bit blowy:

It was worth the effort though, the beaches over there were fantastic:

They were also sheltered from the wind and the waves, meaning a lovely game of ball in the sea with ni wetsuit and a bit of jumping off a decent sized rock into very deep water (the beach shelves very steeply over there).

We got back just in time to say our goodbyes to Darcey, Laura and Auntie Trish as they headed off for home.....

Friday

We had a surf lesson booked for 9:30 in the morning.....thats in the morning.....on our now 1 week in Cornwall timetable.....

We met up at Constantine Surf Shop, signed inand headed off to Harlyn.  We went through the sand based activities before hitting the water....what can I say, I found it ll pretty easy in all honesty:

As did Ned, well it was his second time:

I really got the hang of it, the instructor told Mum and Dad I was doing really well:

Which put Ned's nose put of joint a bit:

So I enjoyed it, I could do it....but i'm not sure I get the point of it really, it wasn't as much fun as my bodyboard it has to be said.

We had something of a farewell lunch at the Youth Hostel with the Friday leavers, Nate was his usual contrary self:

It's a bit of a sad time when everybody leaves, even though we still had two days left ourselves.
We headed over to Harlyn in the evening as Ned wanted to try Andy's stand up surfboard that has been stashed away unused for years.  Andy and I sat in the car reading while Dad tried to kill himself once again taking the board off the roof rack in a high wind.  He ended up on the floor cuddling the board to keep it safe.  Ned apparently did very well on the board and popped up first time.  He was ridiculously excited about it all.  I haven't seen him this enthused since we got fibre broadband.

Saturday
Another lovely sunny day, low tide, a trip to sample the Trevone low tide swimming pool:

It was a bit chilly in there it has to  be said, but then that's the price you pay if you don't wear a wetsuit I suppose.  I found a nice little spot to dry off and warm up:

The boys stayed in a bit longer, jumping off the rocks and what have you.  The adults had a go with the snorkels but declared the waters devoid of marine life.
We had a cuddle up on the grass and had an ice cream while Andy caught a few waves::

It wasn't just us watching, a nosey seal turned up and spent quite a while watching the silly humans in the water.

Saturday night back at the van, our last night!  We watched that pretty rubbish Len Goodman rhyming gameshow.  Dad came up with a few classics from the kitchen while he was cooking tea (and finishing his beer supplies).  His best effort rhymed with Jackson Pollack......enough said.

Sunday

Our last day, the weather was pretty bad.  Obviously time to go home.

It was bright enough to give us hope that the trampoline man might have set up for the day in Polzeath...he had.  I was thrilled to finally get a go and I bounced and flipped myself silly:

Ned didn't fancy a go, so instead had a three scoop ice cream from the ice cream shop...so that obviously cost a fortune, it made his day though and he had a massive smug grin.
Ned took the big board in again with Andy and Dad and got on very well by all accounts while Mum and I sat in the car having girls time.
It was back to the caravan for packing, tidying and cleaning before we set off for home.
Mum was left in charge of the music and she really went for it.  Starting off with Louis Berry (good) then Neil Diamond (Bad) followed by someone called Dolly Parton (which I loved)
Quite a soundtrack for the drive home that was, Ned pretty much cringed the whole way home......
Our round of thank you's then....THANKS EVERYONE!!!  Looking forward to next year already......
cornwall 2017 edit from Part Time on Vimeo.