You may have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet for the last week and that’s because I’ve been on holiday-Yay!!!!! My Dad’s side of the family were invited down to Cornwall to Treglos hotel to celebrate my Grandparents 60th Wedding anniversary. Treglos is a lovely hotel near Padstow, and we were really lucky that the weather was beautiful all week.

Our rooms looked out over the beautiful Constantine Bay and we spent the week sleeping, eating, going for walks along the coast, swimming in the pool, reading, playing complicated board games and an epic snooker tournament. Steve surprised me by getting all the way to the final (there are 16 other Simpsons in the tournament, it was quite an achievement) and playing my uncle who makes some quite scary facial expressions when he’s concentrating. I haven’t seen most of my family for about 3 years so it was quite scary to see how much the younger boys have grown. It made me realise how amazing and funny and interesting and nice my family are, and I wish I could see them more often.

I stayed from Wednesday-Monday, and Steve joined me on Saturday. He’s never met that side of my family before so I can imagine it must have been quite overwhelming for him. We spent most of our time around the hotel, and also had a couple of ventures out into Padstow. I haven’t been there for years and had forgotten just how busy it gets with all the tourists whenever the schools break up. I suppose that’s the danger with the South-West though.

On Monday Steve and I left to have a couple of days together in Devon before getting back to work. We stayed in Combe Martin in a little holiday cottage, but it was quite basic so we didn’t spend much time there. We went into Ilfracombe a couple of times, looking round the town and taking  a boat trip around the coast looking for seals. We didn’t find any but it was ok because when we got back we found a Roly’s Fudge shop. Roly’s used to have a shop in the pannier market in Barnstaple, that I used to go to quite regularly. They make the fudge in the shop and the smell when you walk past is just incredible. It also happens to be the best fudge in the world.

The last thing we did was go over to Woolacombe (also very busy with it being Easter), and played a game of mini-golf. We just couldn’t resist when we parked next to a pirate-themed kids golf course. We played mini-golf on one of our first dates and got quite competitive. In the end I won, although Steve did give me quite a few points. there was one point where I hit the ball and it stopped so close to the hole I tried to blow it in. Unfortunately it didn’t work and the family behind clearly though I looked a bit weird. We felt this achievement needed to be recorded, so we bought the Cariad Cup, which was a very classy (!) snow globe from a tourist shop.

We then headed back to Combe Martin and went to the local pub for a quiz night. We weren’t doing very well but ended up being put into a team with another couple, which was particularly strange as they moved over to join us while we were still eating. We came second to last so it clearly didn’t make much difference either.

So I’m back to reality now. Holy Week is pretty busy in my line of work and that kicks off for me tomorrow with the Chrism Mass in Llandaff Cathedral, followed by a Passover Meal in St Athan. Exciting stuff. Really enjoyed my time away but looking forward to my first Easter in ministry.