Sorry I've been so quiet...

Not too many exciting occurrences happening as of late. I have been working at our local Bakery, which is just 200 meters down the road. It's really convenient to live so close to work, and enjoyable to be able to walk there everyday. As much as I'm missing my car, walking is good, and good for you.

New family member, Bambi.

But one up on the walking, Kends and I have been skateboarding quite a bit lately. We made another trip down to Newquay on Tuesday, and I managed to procure a second-hand Sector 9. Kends has had her longboard for a few weeks now, and it is far more enjoyable to both have a board and skate around town than it is to share, haha.

Now wherever we go, no matter how near or far, we are accompanied by our new babies.

Oh, we also hit up our first buffet last week for dinner. Our local Chinese restaurant (there are an incredible amount of Chinese take-away places in Plymouth, but this place is the only real restaurant) is about 3km's walk. They have a buffet open everyday of the week, and you can gorge yourself on the largest array of Chinese cuisine for a measly £7. And that's not all... apart from the usual variety of fried meat and veg, sweet & sour meat and veg, spring rolls and what-not, Sushi was included in the buffet!
Needless to say, we were both glad we had to walk home, so we could start burning those calories, and not fall into an instant food coma.

Our harbour is also playing host to somewhat of a celebrity at the moment. The famous HMS Bounty, of Pirates of the Caribbean fame, has been docked in our craft harbour for the last few days. So a multitude of Pirate, Ship, and Pirate Ship enthusiast have been flocking down there. Kends being an enthusiast of all three of those criteria, haha.

HMS Bounty

Other than that there is nothing incredible exciting to report. The weather has still been treating us very well, apart fro being slightly more windy than usual.

Thanks for reading again.

Ooh, one more thing. Found this on the Hoe, which is the really big park that overlooks the bay, and could not stop myself from laughing. If you have seen the 40 Year old Virgin, it'll make sense.

She was a...

Adios!

Sorry for the tardiness.

Tom, the Merman, Merman!!

I apologise for the lack of postage on my side, we have had a busy few days with all the public holidays and whatnot. 

So last weekend was a banger of note. Kends finished her last week of work placement on Thursday (that would be the 21st of April) and was no longer working for the man, which meant no more early rising. Needless to say, she's a lot nicer in the mornings now. Kidding! But not really...

Anyways, as somewhat of a celebration, we went out to dinner on Thursday evening and treated ourselves to some wonderful pizza's. Eating out here is a LOT more expensive than it is at home, so this was indeed  real treat. Later that night we met up with Kendyl's friend Zennor, and we had a few drinks. Now, we are both getting old, so we called it an early night and made our way home.

Friday had finally arrived, the day I was going to see Comeback Kid, The Ghost Inside and Grave Maker!! They were playing at our local music venue, White Rabbit. I am doing a write up about the show for Rise Magazine, so I won't go into too much detail on here, as most of you aren't too interested in that, haha. Due to an arrangement problem on the bands' behalf, the show was nearly cancelled, but this was rectified at the last minute. The outcome resulted in the first band playing at 5:30, and the entire show being over by just before 9:00. It is a tad surreal to have the sun still out while the final band takes the stage. Although, the early end to the evenings activities was reluctantly accepted by Kends... not. Needless to say, the show was incredible. Sublime bands, awesome sound, great venue, fun was had by all. 

The Ghost Inside

Comeback Kid!

On Saturday morning we got up pretty early and decide to hit the tarmac at the Hoe with our longboard again, hopefully not literally again, in Kends' case. We arrived to some dismay. The carnival was in town, and their temporary monstrosities known as Fun Rides were hogging our prime piece of longboard heaven. They graciously left us a small piece to have some fun on, and we met a family of skateboard freaks. They had everything you could think of; normal skateboards, longboards, roller skates, and some other weird contraptions. We spent a few hours down there and made our way home before the wind moved in, which was particularly chilly that afternoon. The next day we met up with Tom and Elinor, two of Kends friends who are at Uni with her. Tom has a car, which is a kind of rarity to us at the moment, and generously offered to whisk us of to a beach for the day. We spent most of the day at Morecoomb beach, soaking up sun and staying well clear of their frigid excuse for seawater. After a good dosage of vitamin D, we headed back to Toms place for a barbi, or to us, a braai. We battled to get the fire going, it took us around 3 hours to see some fruition. Unfortunately we gave up on it earlier on, as we didn't have the required patience. We had already cooked our food in the oven when the fire decided it was time to make an appearance. It was almost as if it was mocking us, oh Murphy, why did you have to make up that law.

Fortunately, we hadn't resorted to doing our marshmallows in the oven, and still had them as some sort of consolation. After a good day in the sun, and a hearty meal, we meandered home and had ourselves a super sleep. Most of last week was spent skating and downloading the final few seasons of "That '70s Show".

Liquid love

This weekend was one many could not wait for, as it was the Royal Wedding on Friday. We arose just in time to catch a bit of it on tv, but I must admit, I don't share the nigh on maniacal obsession with the ceremony as the rest of the people here do. Maybe they perceive it to be patriotic or something, but I just don't get it. We headed over to a friends house for a celebration braai, but ended up sucking down a few beers, and heading home without eating anything, as beer counts as food, right? Oh, on a side note, FOSTERS is awesome!! Yes, yes, I know, it IS Australian, but I don't care, it is awesome. I also did my first official shift at Warrens Bakery, my new place of work. It's pretty basic, serve the customers with a smile on my face. Nothing incredibly exciting but it pays (part of) the bills. 

This morning we headed to our local to catch the Liverpool game, and I am pretty darn happy that we managed to smash the Magpies 3-0!

Whatup Suarez!

True to form, Sundays is Bean Bunny day in our household, and we just feasted on a big, hot one. It must be said, Kends' curry making skills have gotten dangerously good. I say dangerously, as I fear I need to watch out that she isn't abducted by some Indian bachelor looking for the perfect bride.

As I write this we are watching Indiana Jones and Kends is finishing off her dissertation. Miss all of you back home.

Adios!

Newquay and such.

Newquay Main Beach. - Kiff House, ne?

It is Monday morning, I am in bed, listening to the new Elbow album as I write this. What an incredible weekend I have just had. Hands down, the best of the lot since I set foot on these British shores.
I had my job interview on Wednesday (still waiting on the news), and I had found out that I would only learn of the result of said interview early this coming week. So Kends and I planned on maximising this weekend, as I would most likely be spending part of my Saturday's in a store if I land this job. We made a last minute decision to head for the North shores of Cornwall on Saturday morning, to Newquay, Britain's most famed surfing spot. Thursday night, we booked our train tickets, and spent most of Friday in palpable excitement and anticipation. We booked the early train, as we wanted to spend as much time there as possible, seeing as the journey was two hours each way. Alarms woke us at 6:30, the earliest I have woken since I have been here. We made the trek to the train station, and arrived there just before 8:00.

Newquay Bay

Newquay Bay

Newquay Bay

Newquay Bay

The train was pleasant enough, apart from being designed for midgets. I could not fit my legs in my seat, and had to sit sideways the entire trip there, curse these long pins of mine sometimes. Anyways, we arrived in Newquay at around 10, and headed straight for the beach, no surprises there, I know. Newquay is a really cool surf and beach orientated town, much like Margate or St Michaels, and is the first place I've been that has an actual beach, not a massive collection of pebbles along the shore. The beach is absolutely enormous, it must have been around 150 meters from my first steps on the sand to where the water met the land. Although, the tidal range was mindblowing! In 2 and a half hours, the tide had come in about 80 meters, I kid you not. Kends and I have both noticed how much larger the tidal differences are compared to ours back in South Africa.

So while I lounged on the beach and soaked up some sun; yes, SUN; Kends (my little Seal girl) donned her waterproof ensemble of a wetsuit and took to the surf. Her famous words of, "It's really cold, so I won't be in for too long, don't worry" still ringing freshly in my ears an hour and a bit later, when she finally emerged from the icy waters. It is actually quite funny how desperate the people here are to get in the water, I mean, Kends was wearing a 5mm wetsuit, a hoody, booties and gloves, all just to be in the water for a bit. It really makes you appreciate our lovely Indian Ocean back home.

My little Seal <3

So Kends got out of her Seal uniform, and we headed into town to see what this place was all about. And lo and behold, Surf shop - Food shop - Surf shop- Food shop. All a surfer really needs, haha.
We walked through the entire town and back, working up a mean appetite in the process. We decided to combat this development with a hearty English Breakfast. How delicious it was, eggs, bacon, fried tomato, baked beans, it was just what the doctor ordered. We spent the rest or our afternoon there lounging on a patch of grass overlooking the bay, watching the tide come in. We slowly trotted back to the train station, stopping in at Burger King for a chocolate milkshake for sustenance on our trip home, obviously.

Island house, High Tide.

Not my ideal food choice.

Now, the best part about the trip home, was the fact that we managed to acquire ourselves some 1st Class tickets for the same price as an economy ticket. We have no idea why, but we aren't complaining, or asking why. Bigger, more comfortable, leather reclining chairs proceeded to caress us all the way home. Aaaaaah, this is the way to travel. We arrived back home at 20:30, the sun still out, illuminating our walk home. Spring/summer here is something really special.

We spent our Sunday with our most recent addition to the family... a brand new downhill longboard. She is gorgeous, he name is Daisy. We bought her at a local skateshop, and I spent most of the day pushing Kends around town on it. We stopped in at home for a bean bunny (which has become a sunday tradition by the way, we make our own one every sunday), and watched the mighty Reds hold off Arsenal at the Emirates. At around 18:00, we headed out to the Hoe, where there is a massive tarred, flat piece of land, and skated up and down until around 20:30. We arrived home, beyond stoked, and exhausted. What a phenomenal weekend. Again, again, again, please?

Stoke Faces!

Adios!

Looe to Polperro, the Great Western Trek. Kinda.

Boy can they!

By most standards, Kends and I have had a very active weekend. After an intense evening of "Night Cops" watching (the most addictive t.v show ever) we arose on Saturday morning at the crack of 8.30. Kends had prepared us a lunch for our day on the road, and we were out the door, and on our way to the bus station. The plan was to catch the bus to a small town called Looe, and then walk to Polperro and back, haha, boy were we wrong. You see, Polperro is a little further away from Looe than we anticipated. My faithful Google Maps had failed me, and told me it was a mere 4.5km's away, it was incorrect this time...

Looe

Looe

We hopped off the bus in Looe after a 45 minute trip there. It was just before 11, and still a little chilly, especially when in the shade. We walked along the harbour front, and checked out the local multitudes of sea vessels. The thing to do on a Saturday morning in Looe appears to be crab fishing. It seems that if it is Saturday, and you are not "crabbing", you are not cool. Now Looe is a lovely town, your typical small fishing village. Not exactly a bustling metropolis, but rather quaint. We meandered through town, and it appears to be quite a tourist little place. Most of the shops are typical holiday novelty/curio dens, but there is one other type of store that appears to be rife throughout Cornwall... the Pasty shop. Honestly, every 3rd store at least, is a Pasty shop. Now don't get me wrong, I have no complaints, I love a good Cornish Pasty, but this was getting a little much. We stopped in at the tourist centre, which is where we learned of the massive flaw in our plan for the day.

Crab Bucket

Looe

According to the lady on duty at the tourist centre, our proposed walk to Polperro was going to take us a tad longer than we had originally thought. That being 3 hours, apparently. So, we modified our plan. Fortunately we had paid for a bus ride to Polperro, so we would walk to Polperro and then catch the bus home to Plymouth from there. So we left the tourist centre, map in hand, ready for our hike along the gorgeous coastal path, headed west, to a land no man or beast has seen before. At least it felt that way. Stopping in at a bakery to pick up some "essential supplies", to sustain us on our epic voyage. I grabbed a milk tart, Kends a lemon meringue. Haha.
So we embarked at around 12, planning to arrive in Polperro at 3pm, and have plenty of time to catch a bus home.

Coastal Path

Coastal Walk

Kends

Me

What a gorgeous walk it turned out to be. Along a tiny little footpath along the very edge of the coast, rising and falling, winding through trees and over rolling hills. We were never further than 10 meters away from the edge of a cliff that fell right onto the ocean shore. It wasn't a straight forward easy walk either, it was a little more demanding than we had envisaged, but well worth it. We were diverted away from the ocean path just before Polperro, as they are working on a sewage plant right alongside it, and it is not ideal. So we completed the 5 mile (8km) walk in around 1h40mins, and thus must have set some sort of record, if it did indeed take 3 hours to walk it, haha. The sun shone the entire way there, and we got a tad sunkissed again, I know, who'd have thought? It got a bit warm, and I got a little sweaty, prompting me to take off my shirt, and complete the walk in my vest, how very sophisticated, yes.

Polperro - Steep Hill

Polperro - Steep Hill

Polperro - Natal House

Polperro - Moat

Polperro - The Guns Show

Polperro - Englewood up to no good

Polperro - Bay

Polperro - Low Tide

Polperro - Pajeroboat

Polperro - Kends' House

We sat on a bench overlooking the main bay, and ate our delicious lunch Kends had made. We sat a while and just watched the sea. Polperro is an amazing little town. Apparently it gets very touristy in the summer. It has a river that flows through the town, and a few houses are built right up against it, much like some Venician houses. Some have a moat as a result of this. We stopped in at a little restaurant and had ourselves some tea. Thereafter, ambled up the road toward the bus stop, rather tired and ready for a slow bus ride home. We had just missed the bus when we got there, and had to wait another 40 mins before the next one arrived. We sat on a bench and had an informative with some older locals about Plymouth and Durban, and awaited the arrival of our bus. A few minutes later we were on the bus and pretty darn stoked after an awesome day in the English country side.

Needless to say, we slept like rocks last night.

Adios!

A little bit of this, a little bit of Cawsand.

Kends has just made us a lovely breakfast of her signature scrambled eggs, and I sit writing this on a sunny and warm day, much like yesterday was. We seem to be blessed with lovely weekend weather at the moment, our third weekend in a row of sun and warmth, and it is yet to rain. Wonderful.

Yesterday we spent the day en route to, in, and around Cawsand, which is a tiny little village in Cornwall. What a beautiful place of the world to find yourself in. Picture in your mind the most stereotypical little English village that you can, now make it even more stereotypical! Tiny, winding streets, cobbled and uneven in places. Houses literally on top of one another, only different colours of paint distinguishing one from the other. It is a sight to behold. The most incredible thing about many of these houses are their ages. A select few have the building completion dates proudly displayed above their front doors, some as old as 1794! That's older than most of South Africa. Wow.

Cawsand

Cawsand

But let me not get ahead of myself. The trip to Cawsand is half the story anyways. We left home at 11am, a tad later than our planned departure time of 8.30, haha. We took the scenic walk around the Hoe, which made the trip a little longer, but it was worth it. The Plymouth Hoe is definitely the most gorgeous part of this town, a wonderful grass embankment, around 50 meters above sea level, with breath taking views of the bay of Plymouth. Passing through the Hoe, we walked for another half hour or so and arrived at the Crenwell Ferry, which took us into Mount Edgecombe and the county of Cornwall. The ferry ride itself was only about 5 minutes.

"Jason's Gate"

We landed at Mount Edgecombe and leaped ashore. Kends suggested we take the shorter way, which involved ascending a steeper than average hill, crossing a field of sheep, an even steeper descent down the other side of said hill, and we arrived at a cattle gate, which would have confused little Jason, haha.

From there onwards, we walked along the coastal path, just a few meters away from the cliff that separated is from perilous fall into the cold Atlantic ocean. Haha. A little too dramatic?
We stopped for a few minutes and had a sandwich and water break. 10 minutes later, and after rescuing an old mans plastic bag, we arrived in Cawsand.

The Cornish Pasty

As I said, it is the most stereotypical English village imaginable. I can only liken it to Kalk Bay, but even that does not do it justice. We meandered though town and down to the beach, which was actually a lot nicer a beach than I had expected. We lounged in the sun (yes, you heard me right, sun) and Kends tested the water temperature. You see, she had planned on swimming, silly girl. She stood in the water for what could not have been longer than 30 seconds, and then came out, and complained that her feet had nearly started cramping from the cold. Needless to say, no swimming happened. We headed into the "commercial" part of town, where all the cafe's and restaurants were found. I indulged in a Cornish Pasty, in Cornwall. Can you say "from the source"? It was too legit. Kends had a soup, and we ran into a couple guys from the Uni Sailing Club.

 

It was nearly time for the final ferry of the day so we headed down to the beach and waited. This ferry ride was a bit longer, and way more scenic. We got home at around 6pm, and after being pointed out by my brother over Skype, we had even managed to get ourselves sunburned. Only us, I tell you.










Oh, did I mention my baby brother turned 18 yesterday?! So sorry I couldn't have been there, but this was not a bad consolation price.

Popcorn Party you say?

So last night was UPYC’s (University of Plymouth Yachting Club) end of semester formal dinner. True to my natural form, I was the least formal guy at the event.

Anyways, dinner was incredible, and everybody in the club seems really cool, and they like to party. After dinner, we headed down to a really cool Pub called Wetherspoons and had a tide-me-over drink until we departed for Oceana. Now Oceana is actually a really rad club, but for some reason the kids out here think it’s a s**thole. I beg to differ. Oceana usually throws themed parties, which is cool, keeps things fresh, if you will…

Last nights theme was a “Popcorn Party”. What is a popcorn party I hear you ask? Well, it is basically a foam party, where the foam is replaced by those delightful kernels of crunchy, salty goodness. Throughout the night it was being sprayed all over us from a cannon, being fed by a weird looking bald guy. I must admit I was slightly disappointed by the amount of popcorn used, as I was expecting a Tsunami like (too soon?) wave to engulf us, but it was more like a fine drizzle. Regardless, it was fun, and different. 

Yay!

It aint snow.

Popcawn!

Tumblr.

I also started a tumblr account, it is a tad easier to use, but both these site's will pretty much be the same.
http://thefourbeez.tumblr.com/

I thank you.