Miss Wigan's triumphant arrival

So Miss Wigan arrived on Saturday; her flight to England and subsequent flight to Newquay were uneventful. She was immediately given a beer and a chair so she could watch football; which she did for a while before, not suprisingly, hitting the sack.

Sunday we went to the Treguth Inn for Sunday lunch again, bringing Miss Wigan along with us; it was another lovely stroll and lunch was well worth the effort.

The Treguth Inn was built in the 13th Century, here we all are waiting for the pub to open.

Of course Sunday was the England-Germany game and anxiety levels were through the roof.

Gloom and Gloomette dressed for the occasion. Sadly, as we all know by now, it didn't help.

Kieron left after the game and shortly thereafter it all became very hectic. It appeares some poor soul got into distress at Fistral Beach and search and rescue helecopters and zodiacs were everywhere looking for him. As you can see from the picture below the sea was pretty rough that day. His body is yet to be recovered.

The rest of the week has been fairly quiet, we've been fishing off the rocks around the house, walks into town for lunch and of course watching football.

There's a house in Newquay perched on a huge rock and it's pretty spectacular; it's up for sale right now for 1.2 Million Pounds. How many houses have their own suspenion bridge though.

We're off on a boat trip for the next couple of hours, I hope it's calm as I'm as bad in a boat as I am on the plane.

So our return journey from the Bowgie was uneventful, even the ferry boat ride with 5 of us jammed into a boat the size of couch passed without event

.

We then settled down to watch the England - Slovenia game and even the calming breezes and more beer couldn't lower the anxiety levels. There was much pacing and cursing and ultimately much celebrating when the final whistle blew.

You may have noticed the 'lucky' red hat is no where to be seen. It stayed on the mantle for the duration of the game and that's likey where it will continue to reside until further notice.

Miss Wigan arrives today; we are filled with anticipation.

Two weeks in.

So we start our third week here at Lewinnick Cove House; the weather continues to be very kind which is really quite remarkable considering Wimbledon is on and it always rains at Wimbledon.


The pool has been put to good use, it's a bit precarious getting in and out but it's well worth the bother.











Here's Doom going for his early morning constitutional;

















Joined later by Kieron and as you can see from the look on his face the water is refreshingly cool; at least I think that's what he said.


















Recyling day came and went and after several phone calls to the local council the recycling bags were picked up. It's almost comforting to know that council workers all over the planet are cut from the same cloth. When the garbage was picked up the bin was tossed to one side and the lid no where to be found; just like home.







Here's Gloom standing guard over a weeks worth of recycling, you can be sure the bulk of the recycling consisted of empty water bottles, empty organic vegetable containers and cereal boxes.

























For our pre-game warm up on Wednesday; just to get in the mood for the England game, we all walked over the Gannel River to West Pentire to a pub recommended by Kieron called The Bowgie. Excellent views across Crantock Beach were the perfect relaxant to what we anticipated would be a very stressful afternoon. The three pints of Sharp's Doom Bar didn't hurt either.

Well we've had a busy few days here at Lewinnick House; Doom and Gloom JR came and went, one to Berlin and one to Sussex, Tony and Pan came from Sweden for the weekend and have since departed; back to Sweden. Keiron arrived on Thursday and hasn't gone anywhere, except to the fridge for another Stella.

Friday was spent preparing for and then analysing after the fact the dismally apalling and pathetic performance by the England team.

Some of the crowd in a jolly, pre-game euphoric mood as we anticipate a splendid English victory. The mood was very short lived.

You can see Doom wearing his 'lucky' red England hat given to him by an evil Scots shaman. Various members of the household have worn the hat, all to no avail. The hat has one more chance or on returning to Canada the hat will be returned to said Scotsman in an apropriate place, likely the Walker House.

Saturday was spent recovering and preparing for the Australia-Ghana game; we went into town and watched the game at an Australian barnlike bar called Walkabout. Security was everywhere, even at three-o-clock in the afternoon, but given Australia is entirely populated by criminals it's hardly suprising.

Sunday we went for a two hour hike across the cliff tops to be rewarded with a glorious Sunday lunch at the Treguth Arms in Holywell Bay

The first thing we had to do on our two hour journey was to cross the Gannel River which was achieved courtesy of a ferry.

The last part of the journey was to get down from the cliffs and into the village.

Post lunch was spent outside with occasional trips into the bar to replenish our drinks and to check on the New Zealand-Italy game. There was much celebrating over the Kiwi performance; as if we needed an excuse.

Well it's hard to imagine but we've been here in England a full week now; the weather has been very kind to us, way better than the long range weather forecast would have had us believe; it's way cooler than a normal Ontario June but it's been sunny and you can't ask for much more than that.

Doom and Gloom Jr went surfing at Fistral Beach; supposedly the best surfing in Britain. After checking out the waves here I think maybe we should market Southampton in August and September as being the surfing capital of Canada.

The wet suits essential as the air temperature and water temperature were 14 degrees

Football has been plentiful but not overly inspiring; of course that will all change when England play again tomorrow. We can only hope for a better performance and a much better result.

Last Saturday when England played the pubs were full of England fans getting their game faces on even at noon; I didn't stick around to see how they were doing by the end of the game but I don't imagine it would have been pretty.

Long walk yesterday to Hollywell, about a two hour trek around the cliff tops

Here we see Doomette tucking into strawberries and ice cream in the beer gardens at St Piran's Inn. The boys were drinking Doom Bar; just for a change.

Here we see Doom and Gloom in a calmer moment; I can't imagine it will be like this at game time tomorrow.

More pictures from yesterday

David and Michael took us for lunch at the Newquay Harbour. It was low tide so you can see the boats laying in the harbour. It looks really strange. We will go back one day at high tide to see the difference.

Here we are at our table.

This is the restaurant. Picture taken from the harbour at low tide.

This is the harbour from the restaurant.

After lunch we walked down and took this as the tide was coming in.

Sunset at the end of the day taken from our balcony.

Yesterday in pictures

We did lots of walking yesterday. The weather has been grand. The air quality at times is a bit of a struggle though. David and Michael are both suffering badly from enormous amounts of gas. They blame the beer of course. Not sure about that theory! I wonder if it is just them spending time together. A throwback to their choldhood?? Perhaps their childhood is not over?? At any rate. Malc and I and Paul and Janis just try to stay out of the line of fire... if you will.....

I wouldn't put my hand on either of their bums.

Walking into Newquay from our house.

The Hammers are everywhere...

Doom has his very own beer.....and delivery truck... a dream come true.

More later....

Tid bits from Doomette

Yes. it's finally real. We're here!!! The flight was pretty uneventful which is all you can ask for when travelling with Doom!

Upon arrival at Gatwick, I decided I needed a nice hot black coffee. Found a 'Costa' outlet and ordered a small black coffee - got the usual stare and restated my order AND got my first reminder that a dollar is a pound when you are in England. 1.80 for abovementioned coffee!!!

We stayed at the Radisson Edwardian the forst night because we got in a day earlier than Gloom and Gloomette. We had an amazing meal at a nearby Pub called The Pheasant. Malc's meal was so big he couldn't finish it. Highly recommeded.

We drove here on Friday and the trip was beautiful. Scenery was great. Lots of lush greenery.

The apartment is great. Lots of living space and the views are amazing. Here is a picture of my view from the apartment when drinking my morning coffee.

David and Michael are here at the moment, which is swell.

England game was disappointing but not so much as the Aussie game. I figure they got robbed last World Up so I was cheering for them.

NOTE TO CHOCOLATE LOVERS - We were in line behind a woman at the local grocery. She was fairly tall and slim and looked normal enough but her shopping cart was full of cookies. cookies with chocolate, chocolate and chocolate with chocolate. She did not have a single piece fruit or veg. It was amazing. 38 pounds !!!!! That is about 60 dollars. How is that for a challenge!!

We have lots of ideas for tours and walks. We'll keep you up to date.

Can you believe that Malc actually found a beer named 'Doom' AND he likes it!!!!

This is a picture of our place from the pub up the road. It takes about 7 minutes to walk directly uphill to the pub. I said we need to put in a zip line to get us home and then we discovered we can just hop a little fence and scale down to the driveway.

For Football fans - When asked what he would be if he weren't a footballer, Peter Crouch replied 'A virgin' - LMAO.

Cheers for now!!!

Well we've been here for three days now and it's all ben a bit subdued really. Subdued in a very good way; every one just chilling out, scoping out the local geography, grocery stores and pubs and sampling local brews and generally getting into full vacation mode.

The football has been suprisingly good, apart from the France game which was a snore fest and a disgrace. Obviously England's game was a dissapointment but then again they usually are; you don't get the monicker 'Doom and Gloom' for no good reason.

The location of the house and the house itself are spectacular, it's just high tide with a good stiff breeze and the noise is deafening from the wave crashing on the rocks; oh sorry, that's Doom snoring but never the less the noise coming from outside is still quite loud.

The path you see heading out of the top of the picture leads to the access road and also, quite conveniently, to the only other building on Pentire Head; a pub.

Here you can see Doom and Gloom JR enjoying a pint of Ginger Tosser at the Lewinick Cove Lodge while the Ghana-Serbia game plays on in the background. Does life get any better than this?

I wish I could tell you I invented the name Ginger Tosser for the beer but sadly if I did I'd be lying. Ginger Tosser was followed by a pint of Doom Bar and both are very respectable local ales.

Watched the Australia-Germany game last night and obviously given the make up of the guests here it was all a bit sad; Teutonic Robots (highly skilled and athletic robots it has to be said) outplaying the plucky Colonials. Of course it doesn't help when your best player is sent off; shortly after the sending off the local constable knocked on our door asking us to keep it down as there had been a noise complaint from the pub next door.

Here's Mr and Mrs Doom and Gloom dressed for the occassion. After the 4th goal the Australia noise makers were, not surpisingly, tossed into the ocean.

That's about it for now, no big plans for the day as yet; I guess we'll see what the weather decides to do and take it from there.

Doom and Gloom

Doom and Gloom 2010; The Cornwall Saga

I've just set up this blog and now feel the need to see if it's going to work or not so here's a brief outline of what to expect. Doom and Gloom are going to spend a month in Cornwall, with their lovely wives, taking in the glorious countryside on extended hikes and cliff top walks but only if World Cup games don't get in the way. This is all about football, beer and: well that's about it really. Doom and Gloom will do their best to keep you up to date with all the comings and goings at Lewinnick Cove as seen from their cliff top perch so stay tuned. First of all we have to get there of course so don't expect much between now and Thursday; actually don't expect much period; that way you won't be overly dissapointed.