Pendoggett Day 2 (Sunday) Blowout!

We woke up early, mainly due to the light but possible also some bird song, so by 7 am I had worked out how to use the microwave, cooked and eaten breakfast, and looked at two or three weather forecasts.  It’s supposed to be wet, even thundery for most of the day, but for now it is just cloudy.  We drive to the village to check the church times (11am Sung Eucharist), and while walking around the church the rain begins.  We drive through Port Isaac on the way back, but by now the rain is hard enough to deter another walk, so it’s back to the house.  At 9am we are sitting in the kitchen extension, under the clear roof, listening to the rain – which is quite loud and strangely soporific.  So a snooze soon results when I try to read.

10:30 comes, and we get ready for church.  It is still raining, but not so hard now.  There are streams running down the side of the roads.  On the way, we come across a rock in the road.  There is a driver very close behind, there is too much oncoming traffic and too little width to swerve, so we hit the rock.  For now, all is OK, and we arrive at St Endellion in plenty of them. Their car park is almost full with 15 minutes to go. When we get in the church it is strangely dim, it turns out there is a power cut, no lights and the leaders must speak loudly to be heard. 

It is a high church – lots of liturgy (some sung), ‘bells and smells’ and an eight-minute sermon. The incense has its usual effect, I slowly begin to feel nauseous.  Jo doesn’t like it either.  The service ends with the blessing of a new bell rope – not made of hemp, as the old ones are.  This will provide better responsiveness and feedback for the ringer. After the service, the priest is offering drinks to celebrate his 10 years at the church.  We are told that Pendogget is in the St Kew parish, so we will go to their All age service next week.

When we get outside, the rain has stopped, and we immediately notice that the nearside front is flat.  There are concerned noises from some of the congregation, but there is little they can do, most of them are well over 10 years my senior.  I managed to change the wheel, I’m slightly proud of myself and slightly surprised that I managed to unscrew the nuts. I said at the time, ‘I will pay for that in the morning’, but I already have backache.  The wheel is in the car, not in its carrier under the car – first job tomorrow is to get it fixed and hope there is no damage to the wheel.

We went ‘across the road’ for lunch, to the Trevathan farm restaurant.  It is a strawberry farm.  After lunch, we also bought some strawberries, I will report on them later.  We were squeezed in to the restaurant and sat at a reserved table, being told we must be out by 2 pm.  That suited me, as I wanted to be back in the house to watch the Austrian GP by then.   It took 5 hand washes to get my hands clean enough to eat. The food was very good, although I forgot to tell them to hold the gravy (again!).  We arrived back just in time for the parade lap – that was good enough.  I’m not saying anything else about the race.

After the race, we drove to Port Isaac and wandered around the village for a while, then followed the coastal path westward for about a mile before turning back at a flight of steps.  I made it to the top, and was breathless, with a thumping heart – more than enough exercise for 1 day.  Jo stayed at the bottom and waited for my return.  Back in the village, we bought fish and chips from ‘The Slipway’ restaurant.  They would not sell me two fish and one chips and charge me less, so we had fish and chips twice.  Nicely packaged, and the fish was lovely, but the chips were slightly under cooked – not good value for £17.00. We sat on the quay side, ate our food and watched a young Labrador playing in the water, we missed Brody.

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Peril Index +1 - stranded in church car park with a flat tire.