I had a lovely birthday weekend away down in Cornwall over the weekend. Unfortunately the weather was terrible. Whilst the rest of the country was sunny (not warm, but sunny) it was completely misty down in Cornwall. However it was still a great weekend all the same. Sarah has never seen Eden Project and its one of the things on her list of life ambitions to do, so I figured a nice weekend in Cornwall for my birthday would be quite nice, and it would give Sarah a chance to cross one of the little life’s to-do things off her list. So off we popped.

The journey down (expected to take 3.5hrs) ended up taking nearly 5.5 hrs! Constant traffic queues in Cornwall along what appears to be the only A road in the entire county. Still, we made it to Eden Project (after much seething in the car at the traffic). And found that the ticket price was the same as the annual membership cost, so we got a years membership in the off chance that we ever find ourselves down that end of the country again before the end of the year / a year from now (not sure how the card works). And we entered the biomes for a look around. Also managing to catch the end of the August cider festival that we didn’t even know they were doing

After the Eden biome walk Sarah bought a sensitive plant from the store (its quite cool, if you touch its leaves they curl up – sensing danger – and then don’t open up again for about 10 minutes). And we headed out to the hotel. Now I have to say, if you are ever in Cornwall near Eden Project you really should look up the Lanhydrock Hotel and Golf Club. It was really lovely there. The room was immaculate with a patio and a beautiful view over the whole golf course from the patio doors/patio. The room was very modern with lots of amenities, and it had a HUGE bathroom with a lovely walk in shower. So we got ready and headed down to the restaurant which I had heard good reports of online, and once again (another reason to check out this hotel) it was exceptional. The service was friendly but still very professional, the food was cooked perfectly. We both had pigeon to start – which was wonderfully tender, then I had the Rib-Eye steak (med-rare) and Sarah had the venison (? cant remember how well cooked). The Rib-Eye was a lovely cut of meat and was, again, cooked just right. Still bloody in the middle but light brown on the outside and hot all the way through, extremely tender. Perfect.

Anyway, the following day was one heck of a driving day. We set off after breakfast at around 10 – 10:30 and drove to Lands End (about an hour away), which was very windy and wet, so after a short wander around Lands End – and some photo opportunities – we headed back inland and decided to make a run for Stonehenge (about 5 hours away)… well unfortunately there was a bit of a bad accident on the ONLY A road that seems to be in Cornwall during our journey and the road ground to a complete halt. As in, everyone got out of their cars and started wandering around we weren’t moving for that long. 45 minutes of no moving, during which time 3 firetrucks, 1 unmarked police car, 2 fire support vehicles and an ambulance went past through the middle of everyone. Turns out (when we got moving again) a car had somehow done a 90 degree turn into the central barrier of the dual carriageway. The front was badly messed up and the driver must have been cut out of the car. Still, 6 hours later we finally arrive at Stonehenge (just as they are stopping the tours) but you stand so close to Stonehenge from the road side that it really doesn’t matter too much. It would have been nice to have got one of the audio tours and have a close up look, but the restricted areas only got you about 10 paces closer than the road anyway. I have to admit I am glad I have been there to see it now, but it really is not worth a special trip down to see. It’s actually quite disappointing. But if you are in the area already then it is very much worth a look at.

So from Stonehenge we decided to head off back up to Birmingham which was only about 2 hours away now, and the journey was, thankfully, quite uneventful. We arrived back for about 9pm-10pm. So that was about 11hours of driving that day

Anyway, this week I shall be moving things around the house quite a bit. Trying to rearrange the place a bit. Move things around to make more space and just make things a bit different. Both the living room and the office are on the agenda for a move around, but hopefully it will free up a lot more space around the house and make things a bit easier to use, see, and make things more practical