Summer Holiday

The country roads of Cornwall are just not suited to capacious modern vehicles. Only this afternoon I realised I have swapped grid lock in South East London, for grid lock in Padstow. Would you believe a great Argos Direct van was coasting up the tiny country lanes? Dreadful city chain stores have no place in rural England. No place at all. How terribly homogeneous. I almost had a panic attack! Those dreadful blackberry briars do terrible things to my metallic paint work. My super Audi Q7 tdi cannot usually accommodate oncoming traffic of any description on these tiny tracks. The car park of Bedruthan Steps is simply bumper to bumper luxury four by four vehicles. We are at Dulwich-on-Sea!

I spent this afternoon perusing the shopping emporiums of the tiny Cornish fishing village. The streets were jammed with Bugaboo and Phil and Ted’s buggies, I was lucky not to have been run down by aggressive London daddies wearing White Stuff sweats and combat shorts propelling their precious offspring. What is the world coming to?

I visited a super shop called SeaSalt, selling all my favourite style of casual clothes virtually identical to Boden, along with Crocs (no cheap imitations) and Orla Kiely fare. It was just like being back in London! I bought James and tiny Max matching sweat shirts and shorts from the enormous White Stuff shop, and carried out my annual grand tour of the Rick Stein empire; Rick Stein’s Café for a Latte and biscotti, Steins interiors emporium for cushions and table wear, the Stein Patisserieto purchase Stein wine and perfect florentines for my darling Monster in Law, Steins Deli for interesting ingredients and preserves, the Stein Padstow Seafood School (to pick up a copy of their current programme) The Stein Seafood Restaurant to make a booking for myself and Vashi who arrived this evening, and St Petroc’s Bistro (owned by Stein) to book a table for lunch at the weekend. I even had the time to take a look around St. Edmund’s House (again a Stein) as a potential future destination (not a patch on Bedruthan).

How I love fine wine and fine dining. I called into Fifteen (Jamie Oliver’s trendy Cornish venture) to book a table for the weekend now that all of my chums have arrived.

How I love unspoilt authentic Cornwall. It really is the most relaxing holiday. I have had every treatment imaginable, and the children appear to be enjoying themselves too. They took a trip to Newquay earlier in the week to buy some trendy body boards. Newquay is not for me, it is far too commercial for my tastes, too close in character to Faliraki as far as I can imagine. My PA Lydia and au pair Ana appear to be enjoying themselves too.