A Humdrum Mum

My roundup of bands - clockwise from top left - Shed Seven, Prince Brandon, Firendly Fires, Sleeper, Billy Bragg, Amazons, Reactor 1, Bluetones, Neneh Cherry, Libertines and Prodigy in the middle Friday - Day One Life is all about which choices you make. Wellies or flip flops. Shorts or jeans. Kaiser Chiefs on the main stage or Prince Brandon DJing in Beats n Swing. Whether to tune up your guitar over the DJ playing Martin Luther King's speech behind you. Whether to give Pete Doherty another chance after last year, or not. I chose to wear trainers and shorts! I was propositioned for my North Face jacket - what for, I hear you ask? Two portions of dirty fries! Coming Together - Arriving before the queues, we would have loved to have sat in the sun on the grass listening to Come Together play the whole of Abbey Road. They sounded really good but I'm afraid the lure of the bar and the shelter under Beats n Swing took us away; I hope we get chance to see you again though...

This is the second of three blog posts where I draw on my years of experience visiting Padstow as a child, and the last five years staying there and making new family memories. I've already written extensively about eating in and around Padstow , including an essay on pasties, but this piece is about doing .  Quad biking  ATV Centre  near Truro, 01872 560753  A couple of years ago, Messrs Humdrum Jr and Sr go karted at St Eval. This time, they fancied something different. Quad biking! An early start proved non-essential (we'd been used to St Eval being absolutely jam packed way before opening time), but this did mean they got the track to themselves. Down £75 with two overalls hired, off they went to train. Not believing Master Humdrum's age, they gave him a bigger bike which he managed very well. Until he crashed and broke it! I can't count the laps they did, but they had a full 30 minutes on the track and luckily all alone. I was impressed with the...

Normally, I like to review local products and businesses but after reading a few blog posts reviewing favoured activities in Padstow, i thought I'd draw on my years of experience holidaying there and recommend a few of our favourite things. I'd group them as: eating , doing and beaching . Obviously doing and beaching are similar, but I want to add more detail to the beaches. Eating can be done at the same time as beaching, so there's another overlap. If only I could Venn diagram my blogs... Eating Ice cream It occurred to me the other day while looking at the memories app on Facebook that we are creatures of habit. We have a ticklist of things we like to do in Padstow (speedboats, Greens cafe, cockles, The Ship Inn, Embers, surf wear shopping, walking out to the Monument etc).  Here is another one - eating ice cream, usually from Harbour Ice near the front. Clotted cream toppings used to cost 20p in the 80s - now it's £1 extra! But worth it. Always yummy, cash onl...

Premises on Albert Road Mr Humdrum is the main fan of the Southsea Bathing Hut. He's been buying me (and others) gifts from there for birthdays and Christmas and just whenever since its appearance at the craft markets. He made me stop off there after food shopping today, so I thought I would do a recommends post. Mr Humdrum particularly likes the Vitamin Sea Balm Mint and Orange , which he uses as a facial moisturiser and that is what he went to buy today. He reviews this product, "It hydrates me, with a hint of a nice smell when you put it on after washing, but it's not a lasting overpowering fragrance, I suppose. It doesn't turn your skin oily either." Mr H also came out with a Hurraw chocolate lip balm (£5) which, although not made by SBH, comes thoroughly recommended by me! I've had one for a few months now and I have to say I've been extremely nervous when I thought I'd lost it a few times on holiday recently. It's my go-to balm for the su...