London one-way!

When I left you on Thursday I was in town uploading my blog, and I spent most of the day in town because the weather was really nice. So nice, in fact, that I ended up doing a bit of girly shopping and found a great pair of shorts for summer.

I wandered around the town and ended up on the promenade by the bus station, which had a really good view of St Michael’s Mount, and I just lay on the big stone wall and basked in the sun for a while. Miles was keeping me up to date of his whereabouts as driver, and I had an entourage pick me up at half past three. Noam, Rosie, Ben, Miles and John had come in the van and bailed me in and we drove through Penzance out to the countryside to have Cornish cream tea with scones.  

While we were driving through the country all these random stone formations were popping up in the middle of fields – the ‘table’ which is three stones standing up and one laying flat on top. We went for a walk to see the ‘fertility’ stone, which is a big doughnut shape with two long rocks, and supposedly when the shade comes down it looks like it’s penetrating the hole. The legend, or superstition or whatever you want to call it, is that you have to climb backwards through the hole and it will increase your fertility. We weren’t sure if this was just the fertility of women or if it would increase the sperm count in males too, but the boys were keen to give it a go. Needless to say, with Rosie’s permission, I didn’t have to be back to do the dinner shift on-time so we had a leisurely sit in the sun with our tea and scones, and the lady home makes her blackberry jam. They were so sinful, but very enjoyable. We made our way back to camp and I went straight to the kitchen, where I worked until quite late. 

I was on breakfast Friday morning which I was happy to finish at midday, and got a lift into town so I could catch the train to St Ives. Tonight’s concert was being held at St Ive’s church, so I knew I could wander around, sit and watch the concert and then come home on the buses with everybody else. The trains don’t go very often from Penzance, which was a pain because I only had to go one stop back towards Plymouth and change at St Erth for the two carriage train to St Ives. Both trips only last ten minutes, but are well worth the scenic route.  

After coming out into the open you ride along the coast and get a great view of the golden beach below where the train stops. Someone had done a sand carving of a mermaid and castle, which was great to view from above, and then I went down to get a closer look and paddle in the Atlantic. It was only a degree above freezing and I thought I’d be left with no feet when I hopped out of the water but I could handle it. I walked through town which was built over a mountain, with small houses stuck next to each other, everyone living on top of each other. For such a small area it was very built up. Apart from at the end of the land, where a little house sat on top of a grassy hill all on its lonesome.

I walked around to the other side of town to the TATE St Ives (I’ve been to the TATE Modern in London, but am yet to get to the TATE Britain). There are five small galleries, and you have to pay to get in. It’s usually 5.75 for adults, but as a student (well they said I looked of student age and I was wearing jeans!) and because I got there 45 minutes before closing time, I got the super reduced rate of 1.47. Say no more 🙂 My favourite was the first gallery, a current solo show of Cornish painter Margo Maeckelberghe. She paints mainly sea scapes and landscapes, but they are of the beautiful Cornish coast and painted in rich vivid colours. It looks like you can just slap the paint on there, but you look up close and see these gentle strokes on top of each other lovingly placed on the canvass. The actual building itself is quite wonderful, and easy to follow through. 

I wandered back into town and enjoyed a Cornish fudge ice cream, despite the sun dropping below the horizon and turning this side of town a bit chilly. I went back to the church where everyone was beginning to gather. The musos all got there a bit earlier to practice – tonight it was the students playing, not the Maestri. I ran into Miles who had done his last bus run to St Ives – back and forth from Prussia Cove takes half an hour and he’d been doing it for several hours – and we walked back along the front where the tide had gone out quite a bit. There wasn’t a lot open at this stage but it was only 7pm and we weren’t getting back for dinner until 10, not to mention everyone who came early had missed tea time at 5. Ah well, we found a fish and chip shop and got these little containers of mussels and mixed seafood, which when we passed a few nervous musicians Rebecca just couldn’t look at the seafood so we hurried by quickly! 

For all the nerves they really were fantastic! I mean you think they must have been playing for years, but when they are all in their twenties that’s awesome. The church inside was nice and supposed to have good acoustics, but it was on the smallish side and had so many pillars I didn’t get to see some of the playing. I know it’s more about what you hear than see, but watching these future Maestri is awe-inspiring. We popped across to the pub during interval, and Rosie had to re-empty the pub for the second half of the concert. After a long drive back on the buses, we collapsed for dinner and then collapsed into bed. 

No rest for the wicked though, and I was up at a reasonable hour on Saturday to go to Land’s End. However, I missed John when he left for town in the morning, and no one else was going into town. So I put my walking boots on, filled my backpack and set off hoping to catch the bus from the main road. It took me twenty minutes to get from the main house to the main road into town, and I passed Miles driving back, and Nick walking down to the house. Of course, there was no bus. And so I walked, and walked and walked. I walked more than half way to Penzance, but someone had mercy on me and I got a call from Miles who was coming back into town and picked me up along the highway with Noam and Ben in the car – also going to Land’s End. Well, they just had to get Ben out and about for a bit to have some fun. So we dropped Miles in town, he was meeting up with some of the others for fish and chips, and continued on. 

Land’s End is only twenty minutes by car, not far at all. It is the south-western most tip of Britain, while the opposite end in Scotland is John O’Groat’s. We were there for a while; they had an animal farm, and lots of big rocks to play under – more fun than the playground although we were on that too! From there we went down to Minnack Theatre, which I have to say thankyou to Noam for, because I asked to take a detour there. It was built between the 1920s and 1970s by the woman who owned the land there and some friends of hers. The theatre was built out of the rock in the side of the cliff, so the audience looks down into the stage and has the beautiful backdrop of the ocean behind. Into the stone seats are carved the plays and the years they were performed. There are some pretty tropical looking gardens as you walk down, and they still have plays there but not until the end of April when summer officially comes. 

By that stage we were all hungry, Ben starving, so we drove back to Penzance and had fish and chips on the promenade. Ben had a quick loo stop, and I was sitting there watching after all three lots of fish and chips while Noam took him, and a seagull nearly came down and stole one of the fish – he only got a chip! Haha I had to bring them all in close until the others got back. Ben had an ice cream in the car on the way home, and I was chief wiper, catching the drops of ice cream as it melted, and twirling the ice cream around to make Ben catch the drips! 

I was on dinner shift tonight, but I was so pooped I really wasn’t up for another concert today, so I stayed in the kitchen and helped Andrew while everyone else went to the concert. We all started the shift an hour early, but because I was staying we didn’t have to rush to get things done, and I had a bit of a break and chilled in peace while everyone was gone. We were making mousaka, which was a team effort – Andrew and I put together 8 dishes each and placed roasted eggplant, the meat sauce, more eggplant, potatoes, the cheese sauce and paprika on top!

Mmm, then we made the best pudding – orange cream with a flake. Juice and zest of oranges mixed with whipped cream and icing sugar, blobbed lovingly into little bowls with a flake stuck in the top. Oh can you say heaven on earth?! I had to stop myself from licking the bowl out. That’s such a lie. It was nice to finally get out of the kitchen though because I must have been in there for about seven hours. We were all up partying after dinner because all the musicians were going home the next morning, so I listened to a few different groups jamming. 

There were no shifts as such on Sunday, we all just had to start cleaning, clearing and putting things away. I was a no-go however and fell asleep on the couch for a power nap but was forgotten about and didn’t wake up until several hours later when Ben hit the big gong for lunch. Ugh. Lunch was as usual a spicy masterpiece by Arlex, who for a couple of days had been joined by his partner Kristine and their gorgeous five-week-old bub Gabriel, so I don’t think there was a whole lot of sleep – and yet we still end up with a feast fit for a king. I managed to help with the washing up after lunch and decided a dip in the ocean was the only way to refresh myself, however I wasn’t counting on the huge hail storm that began just as I was about to jump in. That didn’t put me off though, as neither did the audience – Noam thought I was freakin crazy and I don’t blame him – but I felt bloody brilliant when I got out. I snuck up to that top bathroom in the main house but someone must have been there before me because the water was lukewarm 🙁 

We all gathered in the long room before dinner where Dylan had built a fire and all the couches were placed around it. The dining hall had been packed up so we all sat on the one long table in the middle. We had a mix of lots of yummy leftovers, and went back to the fire afterwards where everyone was telling all the ghost stories – like I was going to walk back to Coastguards on my own that night! 

The next day finished in a tizz. We all got quite a bit done, bags were placed at the door, and right through lunch Nick, Immy and I said our farewells and Miles chucked us out at the station. Well not quite, Nick had to hurry out to buy a ticket, but Miles walked us in to YAY a big train all the way from Penzance! I was dreading one of the little two carriage trains that would chug bag to Plymouth. I had my laptop plugged in not five minutes after we left, but extreme exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep – for the first time – only to wake up to Nick and Immy leaning over me (Nick took up the two seats in front of me and Imogen was in the two behind) plotting destruction in the form of drawing over my face with a permanent marker. Been there, done that. No thanks. 

(Numerous Interchange camps have left me with band-aids on my face walking into the local pit-stop on the way home, or the time one late night when I got painted – including two hand-painted well, hands placed over my chest from Kieran. Charming, my friends are, just charming.) 

Actually, I did get painted on this camp – someone had made Ben a cardboard box car and he was having the best time painting it, only when I walked out from the kitchen he took one cheeky look at me, looked at my jeans, looked at me and then ran and plastered his hands down my legs, and after I grabbed him to hold him back I then got my arms painted! At least he had fun!

We got into Paddington at quarter past seven in the evening; I woke up about ten minutes earlier to the entertainment of the other two, who said I had drooled and wiped my mouth in my sleep, and then made funny facial expressions that made me look like a beaver. All in the words of Imogen and Nick.  

Although they both had parents with cars waiting for them at Paddington, my journey wasn’t over yet. A quick trip to fill up on cold and flu tabs at Boots – must’ve been the last swim that for me – I jumped on the Hammersmith Line back to Aldgate East then changed for a District taking me straight to my door, well nearly. It seemed twice as far with my travel pack, day bag and an extra bag to carry.

But who’s complaining? I wouldn’t swap these ten days for anything in the world!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 11:34 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.