It seems the universe is still taking care of me. I am on a sailing boat, moored in Padstow harbour. I have spent a wonderful evening with Marilyn and Dave, the owners, had a fantastic home cooked meal comprising of organic farm grown veggies, a gin & tonic and now have my very own deluxe quarters at the front of the boat to sleep in tonight.
How can this be happening to me?
I can't go on any longer without saying how much I love the British people.
I had assumed that my rosy coloured view of my home land may be shattered by this trip but it has been quite the reverse. Britain is everything I thought it to be and more. I can't believe I have only been here just over a week and can say this with all certainty.
Such a small country but with such diversity, all crammed in to make it so user friendly. It is a country made for walkers where towns are conveniently located within walking distance from each other. And the British people are out in it, walking dogs, eating ice creams and seemingly there to assist in any way possible. The pace of life is slow and apart from the walking convenience aspect, nothing else is convenient and refreshingly so. Everyone just accepts that cell phone coverage is sketchy and often non existent, that the shops and information tourist boards will close at inconvenient times, that it will be sunny one minute and pouring with rain the next. I had thought the English people as cynical, as always complaining, but even that notion has now been thwarted because every Brit I have talked to so far appreciates Britain for the same reasons as I.
I learnt a new word today, "grockles", a Cornish word for tourist. There were grockles galore today as I approached Padstow and almost had to queue to get into this gorgeous traditional sea side port (oh queuing is another national past time of the British). They were sitting on benches, outside pubs, drinking beer, eating ice creams, eating Cornish pasties, buying buckets and spades. It is quite a shock to be around so many people again after the hours of solitude on the path.
"Freyja" - my home for the night
A strange thing happened today. Someone stopped ME and asked ME for directions. I must be fitting in with the landscape now and looking like I belong here. In fact that is how I met Dave and Marilyn as well, they were out walking and stopped me to see if I had a map. I didn't, but never-the-less got chatting and before the end of the conversation I had been invited back to their boat for the night.
I am not sure I would receive this kind of hospitality anywhere else in the world. I picked such a good place to have my mid life crisis.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Bude,United Kingdom
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