I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane this morning. So I donned my favourite tee-shirt and faced it head on.
For those of you who read my post last week, it was today and it was all clear, phew!
Embrace the storm
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Making new friends
An ambition for our travelling experience is to meet new people and make new friends all around the world. People from other places and generations, with different cultures and lifestyles to our own. People who have experienced different things to us and know about different stuff to us. Meeting new people and making new friends was one of our favourite things about having WWOOF volunteers on our farm and we are somewhat isolated from “new people” at the moment.
Yippee – our adventure will be starting early in this respect! We are heading to Dublin in half term to see my Father for a few days and to have a little “test run” of travelling with the kids, as lightly as possible in both mind and matter. It just so happens that one of my favourite family travel bloggers is over in the Emerald Isle at the moment and we will hopefully get the chance to meet up. Their kids are a similar age to ours and they have been travelling since May 2012, which puts them in the “mega” camp in my head. You can read about their epic adventures on their blog Travel with Bender.
I told the team about meeting new people who have been travelling for ages over tea last night and suggested we think about some questions to ask them about their experiences. They were as excited as me. Alfie thought of a question he would like to ask their children, “was it a little scary when they first set off on their travels?” I said I thought that was a great question! I’d like to ask the parents the same.
Silent Sunday
Sam’s of Fowey
When travelling with kids a great tip is to find out where local families go for food, entertainment and so on. Going to fancy restaurants is great on holiday and for special occasions and I’m all for kids experiencing and learning to behave in such places. But the reality is you want to enjoy your meal too and not feel stressed out about the kids making noise, dropping food or loudly announcing they need a wee (or worse).
As we haven’t actually departed yet I thought over the next couple of months I would tell readers about a few of our favourite family restaurants and activities here in beautiful Cornwall as it is a holiday destination for so many families and well worth a visit.
Yesterday I asked Rob if he would sort dinner out for me to have a night off from cooking – “Yeah sure” he said. Come 4.30pm I asked what he’d got for dinner…. “ummmm…. Shall we go out?” Ergh, ok, but Orla is majorly tired and grumpy, very few places are open before 6pm and we’re all starving (We eat around 5pm in this household). “I know” he announced excitedly… “Sam’s”… GREAT! Shoes on, lets go…
Sam’s is a seafood restaurant in Fowey, a beautiful seaside town on the south coast. In the hight of summer it is heaving but just out of season it’s delightful, alive but mellow, sort of like a town relaxing on the sofa after a big Sunday dinner; enjoying the conversation and playing some games.
You can’t book at Sam’s and if you are coming in the evening, particularly in the summer, you may need to wait for a table in their funky bar upstairs. Definitely not a hardship if you indulge in one of their “like you’re in London” cocktails. But lets get real, not many other people go out for dinner at 5pm so you’re straight in with attentive service.
Established in 1988 and originally a burger bar, Sam’s has a reputation for great food and a lively atmosphere. It is also an ideal place for taking the family. The staff are welcoming, they have high chairs and nappy changing facilities and an extensive children’s menu. No processed sausage and chips nonsense, there’s Moules Frite (my kids favourite!), calamari, fresh locally caught fish, battered and served with mushy peas and there’s a variety of Sam’s famous home-made burgers with salad and fries, to name but a few.
The venue is ideal for entertaining children and a family game of I Spy is a must with so many things to see and spot, electric guitars and retro posters on the walls, chefs in Bermuda shorts and various rock and roll memorabilia. It’s colourful enough for the youngest kids to play, we do “something that is red/green/purple” for the non-spellers of the family. The other great thing is the music volume for families, not too loud you can’t chat and play games but loud enough that you’re not worried about disturbing other diners with random infant shrieks.
The food is simply spectacular and it’s a great place to get kids into more unusual foods. We shared a portion of shell on prawns and a portion of calamari to start. Despite prawns being a firm family favourite the kids had never pealed their own so teaching them how to was great – everyone loves messy food! The boys had mussels for their main which they adore and are very competent at extracting from their shells with another shell. I had a trio of fish and rob had a burger – both of which were cooked to perfection and demolition in the blink of an eye.
The staff made it clear on arrival that we were welcome to bring our own baby food or give her bits of ours on a plate they would happily provide, but Orla had the fish and chips; you wouldn’t believe how much that girl can put away! These little touches can make such a difference to your enjoyment – It’s miserable to be made to feel unwelcome because you’ve brought baby food to avoid allergy issues or you don’t want to have a full child’s meal for a one year old.
You really can’t go wrong with the menu at Sam’s and there is something for everyone. Personally I would steer clear of their salads though. It’s like they try too hard with all sorts of sprouts and veg in there – give me a simple leaf salad with a delicate dressing any day but I’m not that into “just lots of raw stuff”. It’s hardly a criticism though, they’re just not my thing.
After dinner the kids love a stroll onto the jetty by the harbour masters, (a great spot for crabbing too if you happen to have the kit in the car) and it’s a nice opportunity for you to enjoy the view across to Polruan in the evening light. Man I love living in Cornwall… Um, why are we going? Oh yeah, I remember, but we’ll be back here.
So what’s the cost of this great family dining experience? Well, It’s not the cheapest place in South Cornwall – there are table table pubs in the bigger towns with deals that are phenomenally cheap if that’s what you’re after. It really isn’t costly though. For the five of us, two starters, two adult mains, three kids meals, 4 soft drinks and a glass of house wine (I know – I’m a lush!) we paid just over £50. The mains are massive, even the kids ones, and to be honest we could have easily done without the starters as the boys didn’t manage all of their mussels. For the quality of the food and the overall experience it is great value for money. It’s also consistence – you can’t fail to enjoy yourself and the food, which in itself adds value.
Sam’s of Fowey has got to be one of my favourite restaurants for early evening family dinning, welcoming, fun and serving great food. The kids love it too. So if you’re coming to Cornwall with the kids give it a go and let me know what you thought.
Further details:
Sam’s Fowey is on Fore Street and is open 12-9pm every day.
Tel: 01726 832273
Website: http://www.samsfowey.co.uk
Parking: Early evening and out of season parking is easy in the small car park in the middle of town but out of season you’ll need to park in one of the towns other car parks and walk in. You need pay and display before 6pm.
NB. All opinions are my own. I did not receive any discount or payment for this review. Also, apologies for the terrible photos… I forgot to grab the camera!
Adult? Fine, whatever!
So having joked about being rather lax on the “being an adult” malarkey (the washing is still out there), this week has proved to me, yet again, that I am an adult, whether I like it or not.
We had stayed after school to play in the park, Alf was monkeying around on the climbing frame Patrick, despite being small for his age holds his own with the bigger boys because he is physically and verbally competent. He was playing with boys a couple of years older. Gradually it became apparent that they were picking on him, having snatched the stick he was playing with they were chasing and teasing him with it. Alfie shouted from the climbing frame “Oi, give him the stick back”… watching from a distance I let it play out, it’s no good to step in too soon and it wasn’t too serious. One of them complied and Patrick, who had been making a bee line for me turned and went back for the stick. But the second boy blocked his way and it was getting out of hand… I stepped in and announced we were going home. Now this is where being an adult is fun. I wasn’t mean or scary, I know one of the kids pretty well and his parents read this blog, but I said firmly “look boys, he’s only three – don’t you be picking on him, he’s a lot littler than you”, Pathetic perhaps, but I felt empowered having never stood up to the various bullies in my own childhood! It’s funny how so many thoughts can rush through your head in an instant. I didn’t want to harm Alfie’s relationship with this kid because they are friends. He’s a really sweet kid and to be fair Patrick can be really annoying, although in this instant he was innocent. I felt empowered, although my three year old looked deflated.
The next day Patrick didn’t want to go to pre-school, he even told Alfie he would pretend to be sick! Wow, I remember pretending to be sick… almost every day! Man I hated being a kid at that school – the bullies were bad enough but the teachers were bitches! I’m pretty sure I was older than three when it started though. My mum is also now following this blog, perhaps she can clarify?
Well, I’m a grown up now…. so I phoned the kid’s parents 🙂 Then I told Patrick and he was pleased enough to go to school. Rural communities don’t tolerate that nonsense, it’s a small school and we all know each other. When we got to school I was filling in his teacher when both boys burst into the pre-school chiming “sorry Patrick, we’re really sorry”, one of them looked like he’d been crying. I could see on his face he was chuffed and justice had been served. After school we were getting in the car and both kids passed by waving “bye Patrick”, apparently they’re great mates now!
They are nice boys and don’t mean him any harm but games get carried away and it’s easy to pick on the littlest one. I enjoyed being the spectator one hell of a lot more than being the victim. And from my own childhood experiences of nasty horrid bullies I can talk to my lads and help them to understand that generally it’s the bully with the problem and not them.
Anyway, moving on from the plus side of being an adult (Sorting out the bullies for your kids, in case that wasn’t clear, I’m not sure it was?). I kinda feel like we’ve had our fair share of cancer scares this year. Back in May, doctors thought Patrick might have lymphoma or leukaemia and he underwent various tests and appointments and now hates going to the doctors because it’s “soooo boring”. I haven’t shared this yet but it’s one of the key reasons we’re heading off travelling – you never know what is round the corner. Let’s do it while we can and while we have the most important thing in the world – our health!
Except that I now need to go for a mammogram and ultrasound next week thanks to a breast lump I noticed on Sunday… Great, just great! I’m not actually concerned… I wouldn’t be posting it on here if I was! We are pretty good at taking this kind of stuff in our stride but stress like this is definitely the more rubbish sides of adulthood and something I could do without right now!
So there it is… my week, and it’s not even Friday yet…. Time for another cup of tea…
Silent Sunday
Adult – Fail
On the whole I consider myself to be a relatively successful adult, in that I maintain my house in a reasonable order, pay the bills, feed my children with nutritious food and dress them in, relatively, clean clothes. I’m pretty good at my job and have a few skills under my belt at the pleasant age of 32.5 years. I enjoy being an adult and still get the occasional kick out of doing stuff which I can just do, because I’m an adult, like buying a pack of sweets whenever I want, staying up later than I should or buying an excessively expensive bottle of wine just because I can.
This washing has been outside on the washing line for about three and a half weeks (at least) – rather than bringing it in I have photographed it and written a blog post about it, I’ll probably post it on Facebook too – it is still outside on the line – Adult? FAIL!
Focusing on why…
The noise at the market was overwhelming, gates banging, stressed out cows mooing at their cubicle neighbours and trying to locate their relatives a few concrete stalls down, masculine farmers chatting away and the auctioneers rapid jabbering of numbers. As soon as we got there I wanted to leave. So did Rob. It was sensory overload, not just the noise but the smells too and the sights, looking for our cows amongst the stalls and spotting people we vaguely knew, trying to remember names.
Our cows are rather “precious”, having been pampered and groomed and out doors all year on lush grass. They aren’t used to concrete under foot or having people up in their faces. And they certainly aren’t used to be whacked and poked with a stick as the man in the ring was doing… He couldn’t hear my protests of “leave her alone” over the deafening auctioneer so I very nearly grabbed his stick to poke him back with it… I didn’t, instead I walked briskly away from the auctioneers stand and cried as he slammed the hammer down with a loud “SOLD” for our last and favourite cow.
Rob hugged me and reminded me to focus on why we were selling them.
I haven’t got a picture to go with this post – I haven’t taken it yet. Instead I am imagining all the pictures I will take when we are travelling: The Rocky Mountains, Monument Valley and Yellowstone in the USA; the forest and lakes of Canada; coral reefs in Australia, ancient cities of Europe; and a diversity of landscape in New Zealand that, as yet, I cannot even quite imagine.
Selling the cows was a horrid experience, but even the horrid experiences in our lives are usually pretty valuable ones and this one will certainly have been worth it when we take off.
Silent Sunday
Reality hitting!
Well the cows passed their TB test and early tomorrow morning will be loaded in a lorry and taken to Exeter market to be sold. Suddenly it all feels a bit more real! Yesterday I read a blog by a woman, Kate Hand, who has recently relocated her family from Ireland to Spain and although on the whole it’s amazing, but the kids are struggling at times – naturally. Since reading her post, A Heavy Heart I’ve been pondering just how I will cope with all the “I hate travelling, I want to go home” ‘s I’m going to hear. And I’m sure I will hear a lot of them.
Alfie came in a few mornings ago from playing outside, kicking his feet about and looking sad. “What’s up Alf?” I asked with concern. “When we go travelling I won’t see Rosa for a whole year” and with that he burst into tears. Rosa is his best friend who lives with her mum in a caravan on our farm. Alfie adores her and she him.
And so a conversation was had about all the things we will miss when we are away and about the friends old and new that we will be seeing around the world. I’m going to miss Ethel our dog… BIG TIME! She’s old now and the reality is that there is a chance she may not be around when we get back. I’ll miss our house too as I love it here. Alfie wished we could take Ethel and Rosa with us and I explained over his sobs that we couldn’t. Missing things isn’t a good reason not to go. Over coming the fear of missing things is a great skill which can set them up for a lifetime of adventure.
And so with the sale of our cows, some of which we love like pets, the reality, both the good and bad is setting in. Their sale equals freedom to travel but I will miss them.
Adventures of Muma Dean 