West Country Dumpling

Off on our hols -- the first since Latvia last year. Not quite so exotic this year; inspired by all the Brit porn on BBC2, we opted for a week in Cornwall. And glorious it was, despite (or perhaps because of) no access to the Internet or mobile phones. Who knew that there were still places in Western Europe that had, TV channels other than the original four, and no mobile reception! So, we read, we watched films, we devoured the second season of Life on Mars, and we even tried some cycling -- and discovered that the hills around Winchester have nothing on the hills round Bude. As a result, we took the car out to visit both childhood haunts (Trevone) and expensive private villages (Clovelly), admiring the dramatic scenery. The only slight downside was a lack of decent restaurants; great farm shops, reasonable pubs, and a pretty good pizza one night, but apart from that it was self-catering all the way. However, we had glorious weather for the first week of October and it was all rather relaxing, what with complete silence (other than the site's large gang of ducks) and no demands on our time. I'm not waiting another year for a holiday.