A Humdrum Mum

The Death of Mrs Westaway, In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Lying Game and The Woman in Cabin 10 - all by Ruth Ware I have read the first three of these and couldn't wait to start The Woman in Cabin 10. The Death of Mrs Westaway focuses on a tarot-reading girl who's lost her mother, who may have found a way to come into some money to pay her debts. I found the characters, especially the main protagonist, Hal, very readable and real. I loved the descriptive part of the tarot cards; this added an extra dimension to the story.  The Dark, Dark Wood is about a hen weekend gone wrong - but not in the Hangover sense - ending in a death. Again, characters made real with back stories that come out throughout the book. I feel this one could have made more out of the copycat element between the hen and her best friend as this was left unanswered.  The Lying Game is about a group of former public school girls who share a secret from their school years, which comes to light years later ...

(1) Lighthouse walk around Trevose Head to Booby's Bay Trevose Head round to Booby's Bay and Constantine We walked around Trevose Head from our campsite in Mother Ivey's Bay, but of course you can access it from the coastal path. Passing over the lifeboat station, this afford you a view back over Harlyn and Trevone beaches, Stepper Point at the lower mouth point of the Camel Estuary and even as far as Polzeath and Pentire Point and the Rumps on the other side of the estuary. Once you have passed the lighthouse and the blow hole, the view is south to Booby's Bay and Constantine beach. Last year, we walked this route starting off drenched with rain and ending up in full sun, with a pasty pitstop by the lighthouse on the way. Watching the waves crash into Booby's over the rocks kept us occupied for quite some time. (2) Padstow walk Walk the war memorial and beyond Padstow, or Padstein as it's sometimes unfavourably known, is seen as a touristy t...

Location and ambience: I usually only visit here during our local Victorious festival, for their bbq and the toilets, if I’m being honest.  Today after a short stroll along the front, we decided to pop in for tea and cake. For those who don’t know, it’s set in the courtyard of Henry VIII’s castle built in 1544. Sadly, he didn’t design the castle with enough forethought to have a cafe 500 years in the future with views over the Solent, so we are under the arches. We snuck into the comfy chairs at all the end, out of the main thoroughfare. Music came on at the end of our visit but it wasn’t intruding (unlike the Adele and Kylie blasting out at another seafront-based cafe ...).  Refreshments: The cake selection was good; we chose coffee and walnut. It was neither dry not cold, two of my pet hates. Not sickly either, even for the large slice.  The tea (Teapigs - breakfast I presume?) was hot (sounds silly but you know what I mean!) and brewed properly on arrival ra...

A new school term brings not only a new start for Master Humdrum in year 8, but a new start in year 5 for me. Thankfully, I know the staff very well, so it's been an easy first week back (or rather three days). This week also heralded a new beginning at the junior premier league team for us all. New kits for him, new crowd of parents for us to get to know. First game of the season. First win. I tried to start the term with a new attitude of exercising every day - a walk around the shore, biking to school, sea swim ... The sea swim afforded me two catch-ups too with friends. And you can't start the school year without new hair.

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...