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So to celebrate – which turned to commiserate – my university exam I decided to treat myself and trip down to the lovely land of Cornwall for the delightful Ben Howard gig on Lusty Glaze beach in Newquay.

I know I know stalker ahoy! But no I wasn’t going down to stalk the ass off Tommy. I wanted a little touristy holiday as I have been all work no play lately. I booked a hotel early for the night of the gig and then was going to go with the flow for the rest of the trip. I have been talking to Lee lots and the plan was to stay with him (knowing he is a flake I also bought a tent). I planned to go down Wednesday night for the gig and then travel back home on Saturday morning.

Travelled down Wednesday, left a little late but no surprise there! It was a good drive, quite fun. Arrived in Newquay and it was boiling hot! Smiles all around. Got to my hotel and this was my view

So the gig Wednesday was AMAZING! Well kind of. Basically I had planned to be a social little bean as I was travelling alone (poor and unfun friends) this however didn’t quite  go to plan. Despite the Cornish folk being quite friendly it’s actually extremely hard to just bust in on groups at gigs. I flitted around, it rained a little and sadly they didn’t play my favourite song 😦 which is also ALWAYS a hit at their shows. It got pretty cold and I was not dressed for a beach gig – damn me going for looks over sense.  So I bailed on the afterparty as I was tired and cold – MISSED OPPORTUNITY No.1. apparently it went off at the afterparty and instead I was tucked up in my hotel bed all lonely and cold! DOH!

The next day I had arranged to meet Lee about 11am and go to roller derby training with the Cornwall Roller Girls at 6pm. I was running late – story of my life – I had a little mooch around Newquay town. I had been given a mission to send someone a postcard and you wouldn’t believe how difficult this actually was. I obviously couldn’t go to the shop where Tommy used to work just in case. I looked at shops up the street and no postcards jumped out at me, all rock and printed t-shirts. I tried the Post Office which was the most clinical and depressing one I have ever visited! I had to suck it up and go to the touristy shop next to Tommy’s and grabbed the only nice looking card for a not too bad 35p. I promptly got that in the post and happily ticked it off my list. At this point Lee in his usual manner had not told me where he lived. That way he could ignore me. I knew the name of the village and that was all. I text him saying I was on the way and to tell me which house but to no avail. I then decided enough with this waiting around and went for a little drive.

I went around all sorts of countryside and then decided to visit St Mawes Castle. I was happily driving along then shock of my life when the friendly Sat Nav lady told me in 300 yards catch the ferry. THE FERRY?!?! In typical Cornish style the road I was on only led to the ferry port as well so there really was no other option, next thing I know I’m 4th in the queue to get on a car ferry, and what a rip off. £5 one way or £8 return – naturally I made the most of it and went for the return ticket. I suppose without all the waiting it was an enjoyable experience.

Back on the road to St Mawes. It was pretty overcast and bloody windy but the castle was lovely. They provide you with a lovely free audio tour guide to listen too with hilarious Cornish accents to boot.

I nearly had a heart attack when I saw this chap at the top of some stairs but upon entering I made friends with this old drunk 🙂

After as much slow wondering and snap happy picture-taking as I could muster I wondered down the hill to a lovely picturesque town. The only hotel/cafe I passed was insanely overpriced so I skipped the Cornish Tea but came across the most delightful little beach with crystal clear waters, so I had a shuffle around there and picked some lovely shells and a pretty little stone up. Actually they are still in my glasses case in my glovebox…

With much paranoia about being late I headed back in the Newquay direction for some roller derby action. Also trying to arrange with Lee (who had a ‘nap’) some plans for later on – I basically guilted him into letting me stay as I had nothing else set up and was too lazy to pitch my tent.

Roller derby was pretty damn great! I am surprised I didn’t come away with more bruises though, those girls hit HARD! Their floor surface was quite rough compared to the others I’ve used and when I fell (on my boob of course)  I thought I’d done some serious damage but with no nipple piercing o blood on show it was game on. We did some lap practice to get endurance up for minimum skills (25 laps in 5 minutes) and we did some good hitting and breaking walls drills too. I particularly liked a drill where we had to duck under a pole and the hit someone on the other side as we come back to position – very effective and a firm favourite. I found it refreshing how the coach (Bloody Nora) hit everyone so hard. I was with the more advanced skaters though some still looked pretty freshmeat and they were getting knocked all over the place. The theory being that during a bout the other team won’t go easy on you so we really need to get used to making and taking hard hits. I really drummed this in back home – we play way to nice.

After the tiring session I finally got Lee’s address and headed over – quick food shop in Morrisons (also where Tommy worked – I was on edge the whole time!) first. I was somewhat apprehensive about actually seeing Lee face to face again. It had been over a year really. I know we talk a lot online but really that’s just the same things over and over and nothing really substantial just jokes and innuendo and how are yous. Despite all this it went really well, a little awkward at times but we essentially stayed up chatting and drinking tea til 2am! I was so paranoid about snoring and keeping him awake (I can shake walls when I snore in unfamiliar houses) that I didn’t sleep that well at all and was shattered the next day, I had heard him moving about so was slowly getting ready. When I finally surfaced to grab breakfast he had text me saying he’d gone out but left me a key?! So I was alone in his house (it half occurred to met hat he was in a different room hiding) with his dogs. I had no idea where he’d gone or when he’d be back, after an hour or so I thought I might aswell make a break for it and go find some more sights to see. HUGE PROBLEM. I text him saying I was going to head off, he said he needed to clean and stuff so was gonna send me away for a bit anyway. I tried to unlock the door, can’t do it. It’s a silly door with an upwards moving handle thing. I jiggle and jiggle but nothing. Then the key gets stuck. CRAP! I lift the handle and think I’m on the home stretch when no it happens again and this time no amount of jiggling and turning with the handle in different positions was helping. I felt trapped! (Tommy link here, he used to get trapped by things (e.g. plants) and panic in such a cute way) So I’m now pacing in Lee’s kitchen with 2 dogs going mad wanting to get out and I can’t bloody move the key/handle a centimetre. Lee isn’t texting back, I have no idea what to do. He finally replies when I text I’M TRAPPED LET ME OUT! He returns and can’t open the door from the outside and barely manages it when I let him in the other door. I was so scared I’d broken his door after him letting me stay for free. Cannot believe  I was beaten by a door 😦

By this point I was getting kind of miffed with the not having plans and not knowing what to do part of my ‘lets see where I end up’ holiday. I had spoken to my mum on the  phone and thought it might be easier to travel back that night (Friday) so I could be fresh for KingsFest and see her before she went on holiday to Turkey. Lee wanted to clean the house and stuff and wouldn’t be free til 5 – I also thought that the plans to eat and go bowling would probably fall through anyway so I said I’d let him know what was going on and got back in my little car and headed into the sun. My first stop was the Cyder Farm just outside Newquay on the way Truro. My dad’s workmate had bought him cider from there before so I thought I’d go for a look plus it was free! Not much of a tour or farm to be honest but I saw the cider presses and tasted some peculiar flavoured jams.

Before the trip I found some bondage straps that Tommy had left with me and being the nice person I am I thought the good thing to do was return them instead of trashing them. I had been on the fence as to how to do it. A couple of weeks prior to my visit I had sent him a Facebook message (only known way to definitely reach him) and he hadn’t replied. I didn’t want to press the matter as it wasn’t the reason for my trip. In my head as I knew he had a new phone I assumed he had a new phone number and I am really really kicking myself about not texting at the start of my trip. As I hadn’t received a reply I assumed he didn’t want to meet up and hang so I just dropped his straps at reception (I also thought it would be amusing to have them given back to him by his stepdad) afterwards I drove to Bedruthan Steps and Carnewas as this was free 🙂 and BEAUTIFUL!! I loved the background story of it too, the rocks along the beach being the stepping-stones of the giant Bedruthan as a short cut across the bay.

As I was preparing to leave and drive back to Wales I get a message from Lee saying Tommy wanted my number, before I could say fine Tommy texts and he has the same number DOH! We had some nice friendly messages, nothing too heavy of course. He called me stalker but I made it known that I was there for a legitimate holiday. I suggested a quick coffee but as the tourists were descending on Newquay for Run to the Sun tommy’s cop out excuse was that he didn’t want me to get stranded. I said to say yes or no and be straight because I wouldn’t be offended and during these texts I was actually driving further away from Newquay anyway as I half knew his reply. He said it wasn’t worth it for a quick coffee, and on the spot I joked that I could hardly ask to pop by for a service…oops. It wasn’t my desire as such and just a joke. Looking back I wish I had made it more obvious that I was open to stay for more than a quick coffee really but it just wasn’t the way the texts went across. It was more ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ ‘the past is the past, humans are meant to move forward’ from him, he probably thought I wanted more from it. I am kind of glad though because I would’ve had to explain to my mum why I had changed my mind to stay longer again, but it would’ve been good to see him as we are so rarely in the same area, we also could of hung out with Lee and gone bowling but never mind. MISSED OPPORTUNITY No.2. During the exchange of texts he ended a text with “Go home! Safe trip =]” to which I responded “I’ve been driving since you said no knobber” I later felt that was a little harsh and apologised the next day and said I have moved on but pleasantly remember our time together and he said it was fine and that I had nothing to apologise for and that it was fun albeit stressful. I left it there, there was no need to keep texting after that. I now wish I had just said that I said that I could hang out for longer instead of making it sexual, it was a just an impulse thing to do I really need to think before I text!

I really was quite bummed by the downward ending of my little trip but I am glad I took it. I really do love that area of the world though my solo trip makes me realise how hard moving there alone would be. I’m not sure how easy I would find it to make friends and establish a social life if I completely moved area. I’ll have to work on that.

So I was homeward bound with the promise of Kingsfest2011 to look forward to!

Tags: Fun, Happy, Holiday, Journal, Life, Love, Roadtrip, Roller Derby, Tourist