plymouth >> mayflower steps

just another day shopping & stuff in plymouth but this time we fancied a meal out in the evening, after embarrassing carol by taking pictures of the mayflower steps. ('we are not tourists we live here' she said). well we live in cornwall just across the river. I noticed a sculpture well a representation of a fish/lobster/shrimp. it is directly overlooking the steps. unbelievably I had never seen it before just goes to show how visually unaware I am. any way the sculpture must have inspired us as we then went to indulge ourselves with a lovely meal of seafood tapas.

sorry about the picture quality (taken on my phone).

land rover

I know its not that cool to like 4 x 4 cars at the moment, but I own one (a land rover) and I like it. I have obviously given up on trying to be cool. still that aside I was ambling through facebook this morning (yes a bit sad I admit) where I found a facebook group dedicated to the land rover. looking through there pictures I found a poster which I liked for a land rover owners club in columbia and just had to add it here.

on yes thebookyard delivered a new battery (at last) for my macbook this morning, a long story and not their fault at all, so thanks guys.

sleeping under the stars

it seems amazing that only two weeks ago today I was half way down the ardeche just about to spent a night by the side of the river sleeping under the stars. I make no apologies for going on about this part of france as the ardeche river valley is a special place even though I have been there many times now, l am increasingly impressed each time I visit. before I left this year I wanted to return with some man made images from the area, rather than the obvious natural beauty.

to be honest I sort of forgot while I was actually there but did remember to take this picture as we entered the bivi site.

surf, sun, surf relief and much more >>

it has been a good weekend in cornwall. not just as there was a bit of swell, and a lot of sunshine. it was great to be part of the surf relief uk fundraising surf competition and festival at watergate bay sponsored by 'the white stuff'. we got there really early to ensure a parking space. I got a short surf in before the crowds and managed to snag myself a couple of good waves on the pushing tide as well as being a stand in surf coach for (south cornwall's) gabi rowe who was competing / finishing with a very credible 3rd place. I am proud of you gabi.
I was also able to see my youngest son ben get some excellent one to one surfing tips (and some waves), from pro-instructor andy joyce. so pleased with ben can see a future of many more days at the beach. we even ended up being interviewed for westcountry TV, with ben explaining how cool it was to be surfing, and me just being impressed at how much he learnt in such a sort time.

surf relief UK (SRUK), formed in january 2005 to help co-ordinate the UK surfing communities’ response to the asian tsunami of boxing day 2004. check their web site to see al the stuff that they are doing for children and surfers all over the world.

we stayed late in to the night to see 90's band (still producing new music) stereo mc's and whilst they are not a band on the top of my most listened to on my ipod in fact they are not even on it. for the event, the sunset and the festival goers they were very good indeed. 

had to add this picture emailed to me from dave read of russell winter (ex-wct competitor) winner of the main event. picture: jason feast / UKPSA

a short long day >>

it has been a funny day. a day that I had purposely set aside to do very little. yesterday was a busy (even an emotional day) as a couple of people I have worked with for many years left for pastures new. it was also the day when I managed to get myself a new (additional) role in creative and media education. all I really did today was play with my new blackberry (delivered this morning) so far it is an improvement on my previous blackberry (now given to my eldest son). trouble is now that I am even more easily contacted which is a good thing for the most part except for those annoying calls from amongst others the alliance & leicester (that's a whole different story) but their customer service personal are not my favourite people at the moment. I watched the tour de france on the TV. tomorrow I am off to the beach things are not bad at the moment, just re-grouping a bit.

as another moan I am really fed up with the way apple have dealt with the non-working battery for my less than six month old macbook. it seems that through the couple of different agents involved in sourcing a whole bunch of apple computers at work are all blaming each other and refusing to accept responsibility for the 'care' so in short I have just gone ahead and ordered and paid for a new battery direct, in the hope that I will get it refunded. such a shame that a great piece of very necessary kit currently can only be used plugged in to the mains. oh well there are plenty of more important things to get worried about than a battery. I am rather tired and rambling a bit too much i'll stop.

perhaps I can relax a little now

well with the end of the teaching term today. I am now thinking about trying to relax a little before I have to start planning for a new challenge moving into the next academic year and a new/additional role. I will be taking a day or so to do nothing much before I can start to hopefully have some days at the beach.

with my head still a bit stuck last week (in france) here is another picture from the ardeche. the picture above was actually taken from the bivi-site where we spent the night. 

still haven't got back in to the swing

even though I am only one day away from my summer break (from my real work, I will still be posting here). the french trip last week and a few other work related thing have left be incredibly tired. so there was no chance of joining moby this morning as he hit the water at 6.15am for a pre-work surf. he did however have enough time to send me some pictures of what I was missing.
here are just two.

it has been a bit of a rush

you may not be at all surprised to find a picture of somewhere french here (picture above, ardeche river shallows). I got back at the weekend and haven't had time to post anything. I am not sure whether it is because I am still too tired or becuase I have just been very busy. still I had a great time in the ardeche, enjoying the best things about french culture and their country. more to come in the next days.

off to france tomorrow

I am off to france tomorrow, so while there I will not be writing any posts. no doubt I will have even more things french (and some not) to tell you about. right this moment I have still to finish things here before I even think about going away. hopefully by the time I reach the ardeche region. the challenge of another river descent will be more than enough to rid my worries about the things I haven't finish this week. I am even going to turn the email function off on my blackberry and just use it as a phone. all being well my next post here should be on monday the 21st of july, have a good week.

tour de france >> mark cavendish

as followers of this blog will know I am a very keen follower of the the tour de france having been lucky enough to have watched stages n both france and in england on its two occasional visits.. and today is a good day for british cycling fans, as world madison champion, super fast sprinter 23 year old mark cavendish won todays stage (the fifth) from cholet to chateauroux. this years longest stage. there is as I have said before something so special about 'le tour', as I mentioned yesterday I am off to france on friday to the ardeche region. so not to see the tour this year but may well get a chance to pop down to narbonne so watch the stage down there as it is near and fits with the timing of other things. but that's silly to be decided. something I will say that I am still impressed with the online coverage especially from the tour de france official site, as well as the guardian online and surprising as it is to me the telegraph is good as well. 

pic courtesy telegraph.co.uk.

toothache >>

toothache well more like gum-ache (I won't go in to detail), and I am of to france again on friday afternoon this time for my (now seemingly) annual trip to the ardeche. the trouble with my mouth that I seem to have tonight (well for the last couple of days) needs to get dealt with as soon as possible. luckily I managed to get a  visit to the dentist sorted for the morning. I am not feeling to bright still trying to get things done. so just a short post today.

local surfing >> south east cornwall

I could not let this week go by without mentioning the very exciting news that local surfer and daughter of a work colleague of mine; gabi rowe won the newquay leg of the girls quiksilver king of the groms (surfing competition), at fistral beach yesterday. for more info and find the other results check the bbc surfing pages. I am really pleased with this result not just because I know gabi and her family or that she lives near where I call home, but because she is one of a growing number of surfers based on the south cornish coast who are challenging and sometimes matching the largely newquay centric uk surfing world. the north coast of cornwall does get (better) well I prefer to call it more consistent waves, but the south creates a particular kind of surfer who for the most part never takes the supply of waves for granted, and will surf in conditions that others would over look. well done gabi.

summer in cornwall, surf, music and weekend surfers

I love watching the weather, especially if it is to do with surf forecasting in my home area cornwall. I have just taken added pictures from the bbc weather forecast pages for 1.00pm tomorrow (saturday 5th 0f july) not that the day has any significance other than it's a weekend in the cornish summer when the SW is already full of tourists and weekend surfers. trouble is the wind will be strong the rain will be plentiful and the air temperature lower than it has been all week. but there will be surf and some seriously good surf for those who bother to search it out. oh yes and jack johnson is playing two nights at watergate bay (nr. newquay). me I am set to spend the weekend under a deluge of course work that has to be moderated by next week, why do I always leave things until the last minute.

surfing as design inspiration >> first in an occasional series

for a while now I have been thinking that it would be a good idea to explore the huge impact surfing has had, and continue to have on the design side of mainstream clothing/fashion (textiles),  as well as its influence on printed media. of course it is not one way traffic the surfing industry continually borrows from art and design movements throughout history. to start this series above are two examples both borrowing heavily from others, the first a 1970's lighting bolt shirt fabric the second a roxy (quiksilver) graphic made in the last couple of years. I will add that this is intended to be an occasional series so will hope to post a couple of examples each week.

re-visiting brighton and hove

as I mentioned in mondays post I was back sussex over this past weekend. I grew up sussex, having been born in brighton. always say that brighton is a lovely place to come from rather than a lovely place to live. having moved to cornwall many years ago now I consider cornwall home. very occasionally brighton & hove becomes special, this past sunday was one of those days. we went to palmera square, hove for a lunchtime picnic. the weather was really good sunny with a cooling breeze, sometimes things really are worth re-visiting.

some people will be pleased to see this

Just thought I would add this as a fair number of people will be pleased that the balloon race (orange) has finished. I still am not sure. I didn't really get involved in following it. I did find the balloons a bit intrusive, but I do know people who thought it was great. I hope that it hasn't stopped people visiting.