A treasure hunt, of sorts

We brought medical supplies for Mikki with us, enough to change her dressings every other  day. Unfortunately, we've had to change them daily, so this morning involved contacting a local surgery to obtain further supplies.

This involved a drive to St Ives then a trip to the Treliske Hospital at Truro. This was slightly scary as a large part of the hospital in under quarantine due to an outbreak of Norovirus. The department we needed was closed, but the supplies had been left in an envelope for us in the (unattended) waiting room. Treasure hunt over!

Our original plan for the day was to drive up to take a look at Newquay. As it was only mid-morning and we were halfway there, we continued on as planned.

I wasn't impressed with the town - all bars and restaurants. I can see why it's a big hit with the younger set. I must be getting old. But the beaches are very picturesque...

We carried on up the coast road as far as Bedruthan then headed inland to St Merryn. The church there has some fine Green Man roof bosses and poppy head bench ends. I've seen these before but took some more photographs anyway. Also in St Merryn is Ed Prynn's house. Ed describes himself as a 'Christian Druid' and the garden of his house is full of stone ornaments - a copy of Men an Tol, Lanyon Quoit, a stone circle and others, all full size granite blocks! A true British eccentric.

We then headed back to Penzance for a Costa Coffee session, but there wer long queues again for the sales so we had a late KFC lunch instead, our last indulgence of the year, and an early end to the day.

A day of churches, open and closed

The plan today was to visit some churches on Bodmin Moor. A last minute change plan meant that we decided to pop into Liskeard, so the only thing that changed was the location - from north of the A30 to the south!

The first stop of the day was Cardinham, a church I've visited before, but which once again was locked. Warleggan was next, described by Pevsner as the 'loneliest village on the moor'. The church is fairly plain, and set back from the road, with an ancient cross i've not seen before. St Neot was a short distance away, and a complete contrast, with wonderful window glass (but surprisingly no available church guides describing them). I've seen the crosses at St Neot several times, along with the nearby well, so didn't revisit this time.

St Cleer lies closer to Liskeard than I previously realised, and is a church I've not seen before. The guide book mentions a Green Man in the porch, but I couldn't find it. There was another 'new' old cross for me to see though, and I've seen the nearby well on earlier visits to the village.

Liskeard is an interesting little town, with the Pipe Well, a small museum and an incredible newsagents which sells more magazines than I've ever seen!

As we'd not yet eaten, we asked in a second-hand bookshop for cafe recommendations (I bought a new book on Prehistoric East Cornwall). We dined in the Fat Frog cafe, I had a decent breakfast platter.

Suitably replete with food and magazines, we set the GPS for our next stop on the way home, St Pinnock. The GPS contrived to take us the whole way via single track roads. The only part I recognised was when we passed the Traboe Cross on the Duloe road. St Pinnock church was closed, and I saw no old crosses in the churchyard to compensate for the visit. The same was true of the last target for the day at nearby Braddock, and so we headed back up to the A30, stopping briefly at Kingsley Village shopping mall.

A wet day, shopping

Neither of us is sleeping well this week for some reason, and subsequently we had a late  start today. I'd stupidly left my shaver at home, so the first stop was Boots at Hayle, thankfully free of bargain hunters for a change, where I picked up a cheap reserve travel shaver.

We'd been recommended the breakfasts at Smokey Joe's diner near Blackwater, so we headed that way and had a pleasant enough late breakfast. Truro was next. The traffic in town was murder, but having miraculously managed to park the car right outside  the Royal Cornwall Museum, we soon discovered why. The museum is closed for refurbishment until February, so we headed back to St Agnes for some shopping at Presingoll Barns, a factory outlet.

After that we headed into Redruth, where I spent a short time checking out some books in the Centre for Cornwall Studies there, while Mikki picked up some craft materials. Pool market was next, to pick up some new earbuds for Mikki's personal stereo.

We then decided to try Hayle again, for an internet session at Costa Coffee, but the bargain hunters were out in force again, and I refuse to queue for parking, so instead I headed for Lanyon Quoit via the north coast road, to take some atmospheric photos in the sleety rain which had been falling all day. I returned to the car reasonably drenched, so we headed back to the chalet for some food and a couple of films on the box,

More socialising

After  breakfast in Morrison's, we'd arranged to have lunch with friends in St Buryan. We took a slow drive down, and stopped in Sancreed on the way.

I've never found Sancreed church open, though I understand there are some pagan symbols on the rood screen worth seeing, as well as some interesting bench ends. The porch roof has some interesting bosses, so I hope there may also be some Green Man bosses in the church itself.

As the church was closed again, I headed up to the Well instead. Sancreed Well has high levels of radon radiation, causing much of the moss inside the well to glow. People have reported a soporific effect when spending time at the well, so I never spend too long when visiting and it was soon time to head to St Buryan.

We went to the Lamorna Wink for lunch, with good food and conversation. Later in the day we checked out Crean Mill which will be rented by our friends later in the month. We finished the day by driving  over to Camborne for a run out to the shops, Hayle still being overrun by traffic for the sales.

Day 2 in Cornwall

After a wonderful Boxing Day meal yesterday with family, today it was turn of friends. We popped out early to do some shopping, but got caught up in the sale traffic at Hayle. So after a brief drive we headed back to Penzance and made do withTescos rather than M&S.

Phil and Cathy turned up (having remembered exactly where we stay) in good time for lunch, which consisted of 'picky bits', otherwise known as a buffet. They had brought the drinks and a good time ensued.

The weather had stayed bright and dry all day, and I can only hope we have more of the same for the rest of the week!

Arrived safely

So here we are in Cornwall once again. A later start than normal, but stupidly empty motorway all the way. I was pretty much the only car on the road, for the entire length of the journey - why can't it always be like this?

Off to dinner shortly with family, then we plan the rest of the week.

Waiting in the hospital again...

We recieved a call late on Friday from the hospital, asking if we could come in early on Monday for an ultrasound scan. So here we are, waiting to be seen, to see if they can make any headway in investigating where all the pus that is flowing from Mikki's stoma is actually coming from. As they called us in as an emergency appointment before Yule, I can only hope that means they are treating the situation with some sense of urgency at last!

...and later. The scan showed 'a collection' and we were advised to contact the consultant due to our impending holiday. So we revisited the ward where Mikki was recently an in-patient, and they contacted the consultant for us while we waited. He then suggested we book straight into A&E where he would see us. An hour later sat in A&E and we're still waiting.

Testing 'Blogaway'

Blogaway is an Android application, available in the Market that allows creation and editing of Blogger posts from Android phones. Luckily, I have a T-Mob G1 so am testing it out, and will  be posting various random thoughts here if it all works out.

The developer is very responsive to feedback and helped me over a couple of initial issues I had. Basically, Long-click is your friend!