Ranting about holidays

I was struck by the number of holidays the girls school has while the local school where a friend’s son studies has considerably less, so I did a quick analysis of number of holidays and both schools and found that the girls school has totally 4 months and 3 weeks of holidays and the local school has only 3 months of holidays. That means our school has on average 7 weeks more holidays than the local schools. And we are paying money for this? Makes no sense. Also difficult to justify me working if the girls have so much leave…what do you think?

Scotland trip with Ajja and Ajji

Ajja and Ajji are here (were here in London with us by the time I got around to posting this) and girls are enjoying spending their summer holidays with them. This summer turned out to be a bit of a mish mash, what with me getting a 3 month temporary assignment over the summer break and the girls being off for a long 2 months! The first five weeks was spent in a mix of summer camps, the hubby taking 2 weeks off to spend with the girls ( as detailed in the last post) and 1 week between the nanny and me spending time with the girls. The last 3 and ½ weeks have been a breath of fresh air and a sigh of relief for me and the girls, with my parents here. The girls enjoy going out with them to the garden, listening to Ajji’s stories at bed time, playing games, doing homework (Mummy has set daily targets) and generally goofing around, getting up late, being in pyjamas the whole day.

Last weekend we made a 4 day trip to Scotland with my parents. We were extremely lucky with the weather as it was sunny every day! It was quite an involved journey getting to Inverness. Being the start of the long Bank holiday we were worried that we would get heavy traffic on the way to Gatwick so we took the complicated route of Home –Uber- Railway station-Train-Gatwick South terminal-Shuttle-North Terminal, leaving home at 12 noon for a 15:20 flight. We reached pretty early and made the mistake of stopping for a coffee and ended up rushing to the flight after being delayed at security check. We were the last passengers on. We reached the hotel around 7 pm and after an unimpressive dinner in the hotel restaurant called it a day.

The next morning the hubby drove us to the Glenfiddich distillery, about 1 hour 45 mins away. The hubby, my dad and I went for  a 1 ½ hours tour of the distillery while my mum was in charge of entertaining the kids. After some nice whisky sampling at the end of the tour, we had lunch (again very disappointing, cold quiche and stale bread!)  and then headed back to the hotel. Everyone was too tired to head out again for the day, so I took S to the nearby park (A refused to come, would rather do painting with Ajji!) which turned out to be really nice with all sorts of playground and exercise equipment including a small zipline! We were tired of the terrible Scottish food so decided to go for Indian/Italian for dinner. Luckily I called up a couple of places to make a reservation and they all turned out to be completely full. Talk about everyone landing up in Inverness for the weekend and heading out for Indian food. WE decided to try our luck with an Indian takeaway which delivered to our hotel. The food was only comme ci comme ca as A would say but at least it was warm food with a hint of spice.

The next day we decided to venture out further to the Isle of Skye, stopping at many tourist and picturesque stops on the way. It was a 2 hours 45 mins drive to the Talisker Distillery in the Isle of Skye. We decided not to do a tour, which anyway turned out  to be impossible since we reached only at 6 pm after all our meanderings. On the way we stopped at the Loch Ness Information Center where we saw an exhibition/film which showed how people had scientifically proven that the Loch Ness monster does not exist. They had taken each sighting and claim and proven through various scientific experiments/facts that a creature as big as the Loch Ness monster could not be in the Loch Ness – lack of food, not traceable using sonar inside the lake, not visible despite cameras continuously filming etc. I liked the scientific approach as it showed us (hopefully the girls got something out of it) that we should not accept things at face value, but try to logically and scientifically see if they are true/possible. After we went to Urquhart Castle, which is on the Ness river. The castle was in ruins but parts of the structure were still there and the location was just outstanding. Standing on it you could see across the Loch Ness and it was a wonderful sunny day. Mum and Dad stayed back at the café at the entrance- which had a lovely view of the Loch Ness and the castle while we went to have a look around. There was a sheet for the girls which questions to be answered by reading the boards at various parts of the castle, including fun activities like counting the number of steps from the base to the flag on top. So they were quite entertained. After the castle we had lunch at the café itself. Just sandwiches for everyone – now we were really missing our home cooked hot food! We then drove to the Isle of Skye stopping to see beautiful landmarks on the way –  Seven Sisters of Kinteal, Eilean Donan Castle, the bridge at Kyle of Locaish, Beautiful lakes reflecting the sky on the way, a brief stop to feed some yaks by the mountainside. We reached the Talisker distillery only around 6 pm. We didn’t do the distillery tour, but went around the shop and bought a bottle of whisky. We drove straight back to the city centre of Inverness where we had booked an Italian dinner at Zizi. It was super crowded and we had to wait a long time for some pretty ordinary food.

The fourth and last day, we decided to drive to Glencoe which is a very beautiful part of Scotland and we were advised not to miss the drive there. It’s about a 21/2 hours drive from Inverness and we had to be back at Inverness at 4 pm for our flight back. It was more or less a drive to Glencoe, with a few stops on the way to look at beautiful sights/landrmark such as the Waterfalls near Loch Ness, Fort William area etc. Glencoe is really beautiful and I would love to spend a couple of days hikinh or walking around in that beautiful mountain/lake area. We had an Indian lunch at a restaurant in Fort William and then headed straight back to the airport.

That was our Scotland holiday. Short but beautiful.

Summer time fun with Daddy

Impressed and amazed. That’s how I feel right now. I hesitantly accepted a 3 month job offer doing something that I’ve always enjoyed doing and wanted to get back to for the longest time.Hesitantly because it co-incided with the 2 months holidays of the girls, and would mean that instead of spending time with them in the holidays exploring London, or going away for 2 weeks as a family to Europe, I would instead be working in a temporary job, which would in all probability come to an end just as school started. Still, I thought it would be a good work-experience for my resume and a way to build some kind of network here in London. And best of all its back in credit risk, which is where I have my expertise and skills, but working in a new market.

The downside, in addition to the girls disappointment was that I expected the hubby to be very upset about missing out on the Europe holiday and having to babysit the girls for 2 weeks in London instead of relaxing on the beaches of Corsica. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised, impressed and amazed. This is the first week of their holidays with him (last week they were in a multi sports camp from 9am -3 pm the whole week while the hubby was in Zurich and I was working) and in the first four days they’ve already seen more and done more in London than in the last 3 months. Their schedule has been like this

Week 1 :

Monday : Scootering down to London Zoo and spending the day at the Zoo. With birds of prey show where A wanted to sit right in front next to the big owl and the creepy mice. Am I glad I did not go.

Tuesday : Changing of the guard at Buckingham palace followed by lunch at Rainforest Café

Wednesday : London aquarium with becoming a certified  Dory rescuer, cruise on the River Thames to Tower Bridge, then Tower of London in the afternoon where I believe they were all disappointed with the size of the Kohinoor diamond, then down to Leicester Square where I joined them for dinner at Dishoom

Thursday : British Museum, where S amazed the hubby with facts about Cleopatra killing herself with an asp bite because her boyfriend died. They also shared a joke about life expectancy where ‘Mummy would be a Mummy by now if we lived in the olden times’. Ha ha.

Friday : Lunch at Salloo’s (a popular Pakistani restaurant) followed up an afternoon at the Science Musuem. I believe not as good as Technorama in Zurich, but some Science is better that no science I believe. Dinner at a friend’s house, back home exhausted at 11 pm

It’s been really awesome weather in London this week, in fact extremely hot. 33 degrees plus. I’ve been sweating it out in office while the hubby has been relaxing with the girls. I say relaxing because the hubby informed me that the girls are very well behaved and relaxed when only he’s around and they only start misbehaving when I’m there!! Well, anything which makes him happy..

Week 2 :

Monday : Wheelying at O2 with lunch at Wagamama

Tuesday : Greek lunch at Spitalfields, followed by browsing around the Spitalfields market (A got a smiley cushion and the hubby got some 3D greeting cards)

Wednesday : Rainy day at the History museum. The hubby and I squeezed in the latest Bourne movie at night with the girls with the babysitter

Thursday :  The hubby and I again went out this evening to the Book of Mormons. Amazing show, completely enjoyed it.

Friday : The hubby took the girls for Finding Dory at the Everyman cinema near the house. They loved the show (waah I missed it) and the large comfortable leather seats in that cinema.

Ok, before you think I’m just chilling while the hubby is getting all the brownie points with the girls, let me add that in the next one week I took the girls for 3 children’s plays. The Wind in the Willows in Kew Gardens, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (superb) and the Gruffalo (by now I was a bit sick of it and this last one was really quite kiddy!).

Summer time fun with Daddy

Impressed and amazed. That’s how I feel right now. I hesitantly accepted a 3 month job offer doing something that I’ve always enjoyed doing and wanted to get back to for the longest time.Hesitantly because it co-incided with the 2 months holidays of the girls, and would mean that instead of spending time with them in the holidays exploring London, or going away for 2 weeks as a family to Europe, I would instead be working in a temporary job, which would in all probability come to an end just as school started. Still, I thought it would be a good work-experience for my resume and a way to build some kind of network here in London. And best of all its back in credit risk, which is where I have my expertise and skills, but working in a new market.

The downside, in addition to the girls disappointment was that I expected the hubby to be very upset about missing out on the Europe holiday and having to babysit the girls for 2 weeks in London instead of relaxing on the beaches of Corsica. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised, impressed and amazed. This is the first week of their holidays with him (last week they were in a multi sports camp from 9am -3 pm the whole week while the hubby was in Zurich and I was working) and in the first four days they’ve already seen more and done more in London than in the last 3 months. Their schedule has been like this

Week 1 :

Monday : Scootering down to London Zoo and spending the day at the Zoo. With birds of prey show where A wanted to sit right in front next to the big owl and the creepy mice. Am I glad I did not go.

Tuesday : Changing of the guard at Buckingham palace followed by lunch at Rainforest Café

Wednesday : London aquarium with becoming a certified  Dory rescuer, cruise on the River Thames to Tower Bridge, then Tower of London in the afternoon where I believe they were all disappointed with the size of the Kohinoor diamond, then down to Leicester Square where I joined them for dinner at Dishoom

Thursday : British Museum, where S amazed the hubby with facts about Cleopatra killing herself with an asp bite because her boyfriend died. They also shared a joke about life expectancy where ‘Mummy would be a Mummy by now if we lived in the olden times’. Ha ha.

Friday : Lunch at Salloo’s (a popular Pakistani restaurant) followed up an afternoon at the Science Musuem. I believe not as good as Technorama in Zurich, but some Science is better that no science I believe. Dinner at a friend’s house, back home exhausted at 11 pm

It’s been really awesome weather in London this week, in fact extremely hot. 33 degrees plus. I’ve been sweating it out in office while the hubby has been relaxing with the girls. I say relaxing because the hubby informed me that the girls are very well behaved and relaxed when only he’s around and they only start misbehaving when I’m there!! Well, anything which makes him happy..

Week 2 :

Monday : Wheelying at O2 with lunch at Wagamama

Tuesday : Greek lunch at Spitalfields, followed by browsing around the Spitalfields market (A got a smiley cushion and the hubby got some 3D greeting cards)

Wednesday : Rainy day at the History museum. The hubby and I squeezed in the latest Bourne movie at night with the girls with the babysitter

Thursday :  The hubby and I again went out this evening to the Book of Mormons. Amazing show, completely enjoyed it.

Friday : The hubby took the girls for Finding Dory at the Everyman cinema near the house. They loved the show (waah I missed it) and the large comfortable leather seats in that cinema.

Ok, before you think I’m just chilling while the hubby is getting all the brownie points with the girls, let me add that in the next one week I took the girls for 3 children’s plays. The Wind in the Willows in Kew Gardens, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (superb) and the Gruffalo (by now I was a bit sick of it and this last one was really quite kiddy!).

Summer time fun with Daddy

Impressed and amazed. That’s how I feel right now. I hesitantly accepted a 3 month job offer doing something that I’ve always enjoyed doing and wanted to get back to for the longest time.Hesitantly because it co-incided with the 2 months holidays of the girls, and would mean that instead of spending time with them in the holidays exploring London, or going away for 2 weeks as a family to Europe, I would instead be working in a temporary job, which would in all probability come to an end just as school started. Still, I thought it would be a good work-experience for my resume and a way to build some kind of network here in London. And best of all its back in credit risk, which is where I have my expertise and skills, but working in a new market.

The downside, in addition to the girls disappointment was that I expected the hubby to be very upset about missing out on the Europe holiday and having to babysit the girls for 2 weeks in London instead of relaxing on the beaches of Corsica. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised, impressed and amazed. This is the first week of their holidays with him (last week they were in a multi sports camp from 9am -3 pm the whole week while the hubby was in Zurich and I was working) and in the first four days they’ve already seen more and done more in London than in the last 3 months. Their schedule has been like this

Week 1 :

Monday : Scootering down to London Zoo and spending the day at the Zoo. With birds of prey show where A wanted to sit right in front next to the big owl and the creepy mice. Am I glad I did not go.

Tuesday : Changing of the guard at Buckingham palace followed by lunch at Rainforest Café

Wednesday : London aquarium with becoming a certified  Dory rescuer, cruise on the River Thames to Tower Bridge, then Tower of London in the afternoon where I believe they were all disappointed with the size of the Kohinoor diamond, then down to Leicester Square where I joined them for dinner at Dishoom

Thursday : British Museum, where S amazed the hubby with facts about Cleopatra killing herself with an asp bite because her boyfriend died. They also shared a joke about life expectancy where ‘Mummy would be a Mummy by now if we lived in the olden times’. Ha ha.

Friday : Lunch at Salloo’s (a popular Pakistani restaurant) followed up an afternoon at the Science Musuem. I believe not as good as Technorama in Zurich, but some Science is better that no science I believe. Dinner at a friend’s house, back home exhausted at 11 pm

It’s been really awesome weather in London this week, in fact extremely hot. 33 degrees plus. I’ve been sweating it out in office while the hubby has been relaxing with the girls. I say relaxing because the hubby informed me that the girls are very well behaved and relaxed when only he’s around and they only start misbehaving when I’m there!! Well, anything which makes him happy..

Week 2 :

Monday : Wheelying at O2 with lunch at Wagamama

Tuesday : Greek lunch at Spitalfields, followed by browsing around the Spitalfields market (A got a smiley cushion and the hubby got some 3D greeting cards)

Wednesday : Rainy day at the History museum. The hubby and I squeezed in the latest Bourne movie at night with the girls with the babysitter

Thursday :  The hubby and I again went out this evening to the Book of Mormons. Amazing show, completely enjoyed it.

Friday : The hubby took the girls for Finding Dory at the Everyman cinema near the house. They loved the show (waah I missed it) and the large comfortable leather seats in that cinema.

Ok, before you think I’m just chilling while the hubby is getting all the brownie points with the girls, let me add that in the next one week I took the girls for 3 children’s plays. The Wind in the Willows in Kew Gardens, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (superb) and the Gruffalo (by now I was a bit sick of it and this last one was really quite kiddy!).

Work and other updates..

Dear S

Thank you for the lovely long email. Was delighted to read it and be updated on all your happenings. Things have been really busy here. The continuation of my part time job in DB via the branch in London did not work out. I went through the screening, got my offer etc, and in the last minute they retracted citing some compliance issue. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, but it was good for me to spend more time at the girls school, volunteering for school trips, meeting the teachers and other parents etc. I’ve now got a temporary 3 month role, again in DB, but in Credit Risk and not in Wealth Management (which I was doing in Zurich). I’m quite happy about this since Credit Risk is what I was doing in Mumbai for many years and is the part of banking I most enjoy. I was hoping that it would turn into a permanent role, but with Brexit happening and also DB committing in its annual plan to reduce costs and cut jobs (doesn’t it all sound very familiar) I don’t think they will be able to justify a permanent increase in the headcount. I started the job just 2 weeks back, and the upshot is that the timing is really bad- it will be throughout the girls summer holidays (starting this Thursday) and when they get back to school, the role gets over. Never mind. I’m glad for the experience. And my parents are coming for one month during the summer holidays so the girls would be well looked after.

Did you already finalise your house- are you looking for something near the school, or do you plan to drive the boys to school?  The academic level is pretty high here and the girls have been struggling to cope, to be honest. S had an end of year exam in maths and English and they look at these results on a national level. She’s doing well in English but maths needs some improvement. I think I will try to spend a little time with her over the summer focusing on  Maths. It’s the opposite for A, she enjoys Maths and is finding the level ok in class. English reading and writing is going a little above her head and there have been quite a few instances of tears in school when she’s not been able to do stuff. The teacher is very kind and doesn’t put any pressure on A, but she is really very sensitive and when she sees her classmates doing stuff much more easily and she’s struggling with it, I think she feels sad. I’ve told her not to worry, but I thinik this summer I’ll need to concentrate on her English. The thing is A doesn’t really like reading and S doesn’t enjoy maths so there’s always complaints and moaning when I ask them to come and study those subjects with me. Please give me some patience and forbearance!

 Thank you for all the photos on snapfish... Its amazing to see the kids grow up from small babies (A, LF and T were so small when we first met) to such independent children and for the older ones to become mini adults (or rather mini teenagers!). I think we won’t be travelling anywhere during the summer break this year. Due to the short term nature of my contract I don’t think I will be able  to take more than a couple of days off so no long distance trips. N has taken 2 weeks off in end July, but I think he will either stay in London and do day trips with the girls or just some 2-3 day trips to the country. London has a lot of stuff we haven’t seen yet so maybe N will take the girls to the museums for a couple of days. I’ve booked two shows for the girls in August – Charlie and the Chocolate factory and Gruffalo. We saw a lovely play- Running Wild in the open air theater in Regents Park. I guess I completely misjudged how cold it gets in the evening – other people had come with blankets and caps and scarves and we were all shivering in our spring jackets. But it was lovely, the whole experience. I really miss the beauty and calm and ease of life in Switzerland, I think the only thing to kind of make up for that is the cultural and food scene here! You’re so right about being in Zurich being a first class experience and how we all need to move to economy now. Only positive being I could get used to the economy cost of goods and service here. For eg, I can easily afford to go every week to the hairdresser and have my hair washed and blowdried here at a fraction of the cost in Switzerland ( I won’t of course, but maybe for a very fancy occasion J).

I’m overall finding the experience of moving quite underwhelming. I think with the kids school and house stuff there’s so much to be done when you move that it takes away the excitement of going to  a new place. Also it takes time to make new friends and settle down and sometimes (very often) I feel it would have been much simpler if we had just managed to stay back in Switzerland. Am hoping this feeling does not last too long. Does not help that the weather is damn awful here.. some sunshine but mostly cloudy and rainy. But its amazing how people take the rains with a pinch here – it was raining quite heavily on the day of S’ sports day and I expected them to cancel the sports day. But they didn’t. It ended up being sunny later, but I was quite surprised at the school’s decision and how all the parents didn’t seem too worried! Next task is to buy a nice rain jacket for myself! I think the summer dresses and shorts will remain in the cupboard this year!

That’s it for now. Hugs to the boys!

Best

R

Cornwall : Day 4 and back home

The fourth day was our last day in Cornwall and we decided to see one place and then drive back to London. It is a long drive back (about 5-6 hours) and we wanted to reach back at an earthly hour this time!
We decided on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and it turned out to be an excellent choice..
http://heligan.com

We were again very lucky with the weather and it was lovely sunny day. Its an amazingly beautiful garden with lots of children's activities in the outdoors and huge trees and plants for us to see and walk through. The girls were delighted by the sleeping giant and other statues and spent quite some time on the adventure trail - where they had to crawl through tunnels, swing on rubber tyres, climb, squeeze through ropes etc. The highlight for A was to roast marshmallows on the bonfire..and for S was the rope bridge across the stream...

                                                                   Exploring the trees

The adventure trail       

The weather turned bad after our barbecue lunch, it became extremely windy and a rainstorm hit as we started driving back. It was back to London and gloomy cold rainy weather..

More about what else we did in the half term break in the next post...

Cornwall Day 3

The third day was an especially sunny and nice day and we decided to do more cycling. I had read all about the Camel trail at Padstow

http://www.padstowlive.com/things-to-do/the-camel-trail

While I was in the local library helping S and A borrow books i came upon a holiday book on Cornwall. It was really good and helped me with good ideas for all the days. I guess i really missed that in Zurich - being able to go into a local library and get books in a language to understand. Its really good for the girls too. In the school library in Zurich the girls could borrow 5 books a week and S used to get through them pretty fast. Here in her school library she is only borrowing 2 a week and after 2 days she has nothing new to read. I guess i should take S once a week to the local library but right now it's in a  3 week pattern.

We drove to Wadebridge and parked our car there. Then we rode the bikes along the Camel estuary upto Padstow.

http://www.cycle-route.com/routes/The_Camel_Trail_-_Padstow_to_Wadebridge-Cycle-Route-243.html

It was a beautiful ride with the river alongside us and finally opening out into the sea. We had plenty of breaks along the way- it was the first time the girls were cycling such a long distance (it was 8 km each way) but they were pretty good about it. We had lunch at a lovely italian restaurant in Padstow. The hubby and I had carried only 30 pounds between us since we left our wallets and phones back in the car so we had to share a pizza while the girls had their kids meals. A good way to save on calories. Energised after the margarita pizzas the girls were ready for the 8 km back to Wadebridge.

We reached back in the middle of the afternoon and decided to explore the Tintagel castle which is close to Padstow

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/tintagel-castle/

It is the ruins of a castle, where legends claim King Arthur lived. Its location is breathtaking- on top of a cliff overlooking the sea on all sides. There is a cave below the castle where they have carved the face of the Merlin the wizard on the rock face and the girls were thrilled to hear that a wizard used to perform magic in the cave. It was a steep climb to the top of Tintagel castle but the girls and activities to do -they were given a map with things to find at each place (such as statues, hidden tunnels etc) and were happily climbing up and looking around.

                                                  View from Merlin's cave at Tintagel

                                                  View from the top of Tintagel Castle

We were quite exhausted after all the cycling and climbing and collapsed into a beer garden on the way back from the Tintagel castle to our car park. The beer garden had a lovely playground and grass area where the girls could run around and play noisily while we enjoyed our beer in the sun. There were horses and sheep grazing in the meadow next to the garden and it was as close to perfect as could be...

We had dinner at an Indian restaurant 'Asha' back in Falmouth. It turned out to be a Bangladeshi restaurant and the food was not that great but we were too hungry and tired to be fussy. 

Cornwall Day 2

The second day we hit the beaches in the beautiful town of St Ives. We spent the morning in two beaches - the girls were playing in the sand, making A into a mermaid, climbing rocks, building castles (with all my packing i forgot the sand toys on a beach holiday!!! so they were just using their hands) while the hubby and I lazed around watching the beautiful waves.

We walked around the old town area - very quaint and full of beautiful shops and had lunch in a seafood restaurant (i got some veg soup and salad). We went back to the hotel for a short evening siesta and then set out to explore the city of Falmouth where we were staying. They had a festival in the city centre with street food, a live band and lots of beer. All the restaurants were full so the girls had pizza and we had some indian food from the stalls. We then walked down to the beach, but it was a rocky beach and not a sandy one so we could not go right out into the water. We found many interesting rock pools on the rocks and the girls were thrilled to see the crabs and other sea life in the rock pools..here is a close up of a rock pool - can you spot the crab?

Trip to Cornwall : Part 1

So we had our first holiday after moving to London and went to Cornwall for the girls half term break in the first week of June.
We left late Friday evening and drove halfway through the night to reach our hotel in Falmouth at 2:30 am! It was Bank holiday weekend and there was a lot of traffic getting out of london so we decided to leave in the evening after the girls dinner so as to avoid the traffic and also to have the girls sleeping for most of the journey.
I had done a ton of packing as I wasn't sure what weather to expect. We had one suitcase of rain stuff -boots, jackets etc and sweaters for cold weather. Swimsuits and shorts in case it was sunny..so really the gamut of the stuff.
We were very lucky with the weather - it was sunny all the four days we were there. Many people were swimming in the sea but it wasn't warm enough for us. We had our fun playing in the sand and sitting on the sand watching the waves come in.
The first day of our holiday we drove to Penzance and did the cycle trail upto Marazion and back

http://www.cycleroutesuk.com/cycle-route/south-west/penzance-to-marazion-and-st-michaels-mount.html


It was our first time cycling together as a family (i got a cycle- yippee) and apart from a few whinings from A when the path turned gravely it was fine. We had a lovely view of the beach on the right while cycling on a traffic free path. What more to ask for.

WE parked our cycles at Marazion and walked upto St. Michael's Mount. It was low tide and we could walk across on the stone path. The girls were intrigued that this path was covered by water during high tide and A was quite worried that it should not become high tide before we left. I explained to her that it didn't change so fast but I think she was only reassured once we were back at Marazion!

After Penzance we drove to Porthcurno upto the lovely Minacks theatre - an open air theatre with a lovely view of the Porthcurno beach... (ok below picture is how it would be on a very sunny day)..it was still foggy when we were there but the view was not too shabby.....see second picture below...

we couldn't resist going to the Porthrcurno beach and it was really beautiful. A few days ago sharks had been spotted in this beach..we were lucky to see a seal swim by...

the girls got busy making a castle in the sand..

we ended the day at Lands End - its right at the tip of England literally where the land ends and from there its all sea and ocean out to the Americas...the view was just amazing...the hubby and I relaxed in a restaurant overlooking the Lands End with a glass of wine and some beer while the girls had their dinner of chicken..so all happy...

well that was day 1..more in the next post...