Hello everyoneeee! Sorry for MIA-ing for so long again. It’s finally summer now and I’ve been really busy enjoying the sun and travelling around UK and Europe again, and also working on the dissertation of course 😛 It’s really hot right now and the temperature reaches about 30 degrees last few days, which is almost like Malaysia! The British are really happy about this and alot of them started to organise garden parties, picnic or BBQ beside the lake!

As for myself, I had been travelling with my family around Europe from mid June to mid July. It was really an amazing trip and I will blog about it in the next post and share it with all of you! 🙂 After coming back from Europe and sending my parents off, I made another HOST visit again, this time to Cornwall! Cornwall is a county located in South West of England and is very famous for its beautiful harbour villages and picturesque beaches, and also Land’s End, which is the most westerly point of England! Me and my friend, Iadi were really happy to be invited by Mrs Lesley and Mr Alan Harper to stay a weekend in their lovely house in Stoke Climsland, Callington, and also decided to further extend our trip to visit Penzance and its nearby coast for another two days since we are already heading to Cornwall.

On the day of departure, we left Guildford at about 11.45am by train and reached Plymouth at about 3.00pm. Lesley is already there waiting for us at the station and gave us a really warm welcome upon our arrival 🙂 She then showed us around Plymouth, the Mayflower Pilgrim Fathers and also part of Plymouth’s old naval history, whereby we get to see the old naval base and also the statue of Sir Francis Drake. We then head home and get to meet Alan, which is not feeling too well and thus couldn’t meet us at the rail station. Both of them are really nice and made us feel really at home 🙂 Lesley is a really great cook and prepared a really nice dinner for us while Alan showed us around in the gardens. He’s really good with gardening and their garden is really beautiful full with different types of plants, apple trees and flowers! After dinner, Alan and Lesley brought us to the nearby Kit Hill for a walk which is the perfect place to have a good view of the whole Callington town and nearby villages. We also drove a bit around the countryside after that before heading home.

On the second day, we woke up early, had our breakfast and then prepared sandwiches and scones before heading to Cotehele. I’ve always loved eating scones but never tried baking them myself. Lesley taught us step by step and it wasn’t that difficult after all 🙂 We really had fun baking and drawing our initials on the scones to differentiate our products 😛 We then head to Cotehele after everything is done. We parked by the Quay and walked up to the House. Lesley volunteered as a room guide there and she told us a lot of the history of the house. The Cotehele house is a Tudor house built in the medieval times and was still well preserved. The interior of the house is decorated with tapestry and there is a huge collection of medieval furniture, tableware, potteries and also 17th century armour! During the visit, we also get to learn more on the history of the Edgcumbes family who owned the house more than 600 years. After finish visiting the house, we also walked around the gardens whereby the flowers are blooming beautifully. We also climbed up the Prospect Tower which gives us a good view of Calstock viaduct and Plymouth. The tower was really amazing as we didn’t notice that it only has 3 sides before getting really near it! We then proceed to visit the Cotehele Mill from the 19th century. The waterwheel is still working which is really cool! The Mill also grinds organic wholemeal flour which is for sale to the public and Lesley bought one to bring home as her mum really loves it! After that, we went back to the Quay and had a picnic by the river with our sandwiches and scones! The freshly made scones are the best in the world and taste much better than those sold in Tesco 😛 It’s my first time having picnic since I came to the UK and it was really amazing. The sun, cold breeze and nice views just make picnic the perfect past time! No wonder the British people loves picnic so much 🙂 After that, we head home and had a short rest before preparing for dinner. We had BBQ dinner in the gardens and it’s really relaxing. Phillip, Alan and Lesley’s son also came back for the weekend and they were really happy catching up with their son. Me and Iadi then followed Lesley to her friend’s house party and it was again another good experience of the British family’s lifestyle. Lesley introduced us to her friends and we had a really great time drinking and chatting with them. The host also invited a band to play in the party and everyone had a great time dancing or catching up with their friends. 🙂

On the last day of our host visit, Alan brought us for a walk around the village. Stoke Climsland is a really pretty little village and the view of the countryside is breathtaking. On the way back home, we bumped into Alan’s neighbour, Edah which is also from Malaysia originally. She was really excited when she heard that I’m also from Malaysia and invited us into her house for a cup of tea. Her husband, Michael is a British but had worked in Kampar and Ipoh for quite some time in his younger days, which is also where he met Edah. We had a really great time chatting and I was really happy to speak to someone that shares the same language and culture as myself and Edah even invited us to come visit again! After the tea session, we bid our farewells to Edah and Michael and also the Harpers and left to Penzance.

We were joined by another friend when we are in Penzance and then started our adventure! The sea breeze was really strong despite of the hot sun. We bought a 2 days bus ticket that allows us to ride on all buses in Cornwall and set of to our first station, which is Porthcurno. The beach is really beautiful and I just couldn’t help myself by snapping photos away! Thinking it was Malaysia, I took off my shoes and run towards the sea happily before getting shocked when my feet touches the water. The water is icy cold! I really couldn’t imagine how could the water be so freezing cold when the weather is so good with the super hot sun and was even puzzled when I saw people swimming in the sea! I guess the locals must have been well adapted to swim in cold waters 😛 We then climbed up the cliffs and reached the Minack Theater, which is an open air theater by the seaside. We were told to keep quiet upon entering as there is a performance going on. However, when we entered and sat down, the performance has came to an end and the only thing we get to see is the finale of the show. A bit depressed, we sat at our place and read the brochures we got while waiting for the crowd to go so that we can go down to the stage to take pictures. While flipping the brochures, I suddenly noticed one of the pages stating “a special visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall”. Thinking twice, I suddenly remembered that the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles is also known as the Duke of Cornwall, which means that the royal couple is there! Me and Iadi immediately become excited and started to lookout for the Prince and we saw him walking up the stairs. We ran and stood beside one of the stair case and managed to get a very good view of the Prince walking up and passing right beside us! What an honour! 🙂

After the Prince left, we proceed to our next destination, Land’s End, which is the most westerly point of England! We took picture with the signature sign post and walked around the beautiful cliffs. We then proceed and visited the last destination of the day, which is St Ives. St Ives is another beautiful seaside town and we had a really good time strolling by the beach and seaside. We also managed to see a seal before heading back to Penzance for the night!

On the last day before heading home, we get to visit the nearby St Michael’s Mount. St Michael’s Mount is a very unique place which is also one of the main reason of us visiting Cornwall. To reach the mount, you can choose to walk over using the causeway during low tide or take the boat during high tide as the causeway will be flooded. We reached the causeway at about 11am in the morning and walked over to the mount. The castle on the mount is also a very nice place to visit due to its long long history and existence since the Neolithic era and also the legend of a Giant that was killed by a young farmer’s son named Jack. Before returning back to Guildford, we managed to witness the rise of tides and see how it floods the causeway, which was definitely an eye opening experience! 🙂

I guess that’s all for today. Accidentally typed a long long post again but hope you all enjoy reading 😛 Stay tuned for the upcoming posts whereby I’ll share with all of you my family trip to Europe!

Love xx

Adeline