The Sennen Cove Diary
May 14th - Tuesday
It had been raining some more during the early part of the morning and there was still some in the air when I stepped out with ABH first thing. It then proceeded to rain quite heavily from time to time catching out the few people who had foolishly thought they might get away with it today. It gave no long term respite for the rest of the day but in between the showers there were some bright and warm spells in the strong sunshine. Some refugee from the south coast reported that the wind was quite strong down there, so we should be glad we were out of it.
Even without the wind there was not much warmth going on in the shop and having slipped into something more comfortable for the day I found myself running upstairs for a fleece halfway through the morning.
At some point during the morning, I managed to resolve the issue I had with the new cash and carry website. Thus enabled, I started to work my way through the grocery list that I had compiled. It did seem like a good idea to try and whittle away at my list of lists and since this was the biggest it was a good place to start. While making good progress on that list another of my lists was coming home to roost from The Farm.
The Missus postponed her journey up there yesterday due to the weather. There was no particular hurry for the items, but it was quite an extensive list and in some areas not very specific. I would regret the not being specific when I was inundated with flip flops because I did not realise we had quite so many up there. I still had not finished the grocery order when she returned but dropped that in favour of emptying the truck which luckily, she managed to park outside.
I really could not recall writing a list that long. I suppose some of the items came in bigger bags than I remember and, as I just mentioned, a plethora of flip flops. With our shelves, or rather hooks, in the shop empty I did suppose that we did not have that many in the store. In fact, the stock count had suggested as much and I have to conclude that somehow they were missed off the count. Many will have to go back up to The Farm as we do not have enough space down here for all the ones that will not go out. So far, though, I have managed to squeeze out all the men’s ones.
I had to abandon my work there in the end as I ran out of time. We had the obligatory irregular succession of shoppers throughout the last hours of the afternoon that had slowed me up a bit. It only leaves the shoes that need some processing before they go out, stuffing taken out and hangers arranged to dangle them by. Perhaps the fairies will do it in the night or the Missus while I am at the gymnasium tomorrow morning and frankly, I do not believe in either.
I attended an Operations Team meeting in the evening over at the Lifeboat station. Thankfully, it was mercifully short and quite short enough for me to return home just as the Missus was taking Mother home. It meant that I was able to run ABH down to the Harbour beach and around the block afterwards. I had taken a fleece but really did not need it. We were still sheltered from any prevailing wind and, in the sunshine low in the sky, it was still very warm.
It was not a particularly long walk and both the Missus and I were able to get back and settled early enough to watch the television programme, ‘Saving Lives At Sea’. It is a series where David Attenborough films Lifeboat people in their natural habitats and explains the strange things that they get up to. David usually manages to highlight rescues without being too over-dramatic but, of course, it does need to capture some excitement to make it watchable.
Tonight, it showed our very own Boat Crew in, erm, action. The programme makers had chosen the call-out to the Mazarine, a huge cargo ship, which briefly parked itself on Wolf Rock lighthouse back in July. I wanted to watch the programme to discover how they would make the Lifeboat standing by for eight hours look exciting. I have to say it was very well done and they even used a short moment of very excellent Shore Crew conducting a textbook recovery. For those sharp-eyed enough you will have noticed I was using a stunt man for this event.
May 13th - Monday
I think that ABH had the right idea. She tried to get me out of bed at half past five o’clock this morning, which was before the rain really kicked in. I, however, made her wait until six o’clock which was after the rain started to come down a bit more heavily.
There was not much avoiding it at some part of the morning and ABH was not too badly wet with her little waterproof coat on. I still have to dry her chest and paws but normally wait until she had jumped all over the Missus still languishing in bed. I had to venture out in it twice more. Once was to get all the display out to the front of the shop and the other was to head for the gymnasium where I had to be careful where I went because the floor was flooded.
The rain was easing off when I stepped back out again after my blistering session. Actually, it was not that blistering as I was not feeling quite on top of my game today. It might have something to do with being kicked out of bed at ten minutes to six o’clock after being kicked out of bed the previous night at two o’clock. Even after all that I was still good enough to take her down to the Harbour beach when I got back.
I think that it was the first time I had been down to the beach since the shop opened. The rain was just tailing off and the beach was consequently empty. She has never been one to chase a ball, although a lump of seaweed stalk will do for a couple of throws. If there is another dog handy, well, that is her day made especially if it is willing to play chase. If not, she is quite adept at making her own entertainment and today it was finding a small lump of crab shell. This could be rolled over, thrown up the in air and run with from one side of the beach to the other. When it came to lying down and chewing it, I intervened, which itself turned into a game of chase.
We ended up going around the block to prevent us from being on the beach until the tide came back in again in the evening. The rain had well and truly gone by then – although it did make a light and brief appearance an hour or so later – and the sun put in a muted appearance through the full cloud cover. We remained bright and not so bright for the rest of the day but at least it remained mainly dry.
As you might imagine, we were not blessed with a rush of customers during the morning. This improved probably more than we might have expected after the rain stopped as people emerged from their hiding places. I thought to chastise them for being fair weather shoppers but then again, they might have run away, so I restrained myself.
The quietness of the morning allowed me to chase up our cash and carry person so that we might have access to do our ordering again and I also spoke to our local interest book man. I had called him several weeks ago, which perhaps I should have done when we opened, and he told me he was going on holiday and would organise our stock of books on his return. He had either been on a very long holiday or he had forgotten his pledge, which was what had happened and he promised me again that they would be here tomorrow or the next day.
In the quietness of the afternoon, I got on with refilling shelves and writing some more things on the list for the grocery order. I have also been compiling a list of beachware that we need from the store at The Farm and from our supplier for the things I know we do not have. I now have lists in notebooks and on sheets of paper here and there. I had better write a list of all the lists I have so that I may keep track of them.
Yesterday when I walked ABH around the block after I shut the shop, the sea was misbehaving after some time of quiet calmness. Waves were thumping over the Harbour wall and attracting a few onlookers and the bay was running with swell. It had largely gone when we walked around this evening. It is quite amazing how quickly it can change from one state to another.
I imagine it was all to do with air pressure, which had dropped a little from late on Saturday. I know this because grandfather’s barometer is definitely working. Well, the arm that shows the current air pressure is going up and down. Whether it is pointing at the right numbers is another matter altogether and I must confess that I have not spent any time checking it. I will add it to my to do list.
May 12th - Sunday
Even with a bay full of thick mist through the morning, it was not unreasonably chilly. In fact, quite the opposite. Where skin made contact with the damp air it was refreshing rather that uncomfortably cold. It was warm in the shop, too, on the cooler side of the street and I soon had to go and put on a shirt sleeved shirt for the first time this shop year.
Both the Missus and I forgot about the Lifeboat training launch this morning. It was a customer who reminded me by asking if it was still going out. Fortunately, for me, it was early enough for me not to panic but for the Missus who had arranged to go and visit her friend at the top, it was a bit more complex. I duly attended and discovered that we were over-manned on the shore for a change and being the kind and doting sort of grumpy shopkeeper I am, I bowed out of today’s duties to let the Missus go and visit her friend. I arrived back at the shop to be told that it was far too late to be changing arrangements. I agreed and did not go back.
The Lifeboat exercise included a contingent from Gwennap Head (windiest place in the universe) National Coastwatch Institute. We alternate such activity with the staff at Cape Cornwall where a buoy is thrown into the water and the NCI guide the boat to it. Today ramped up the jeopardy of such an operation by no one being able to see the buoy more than a few yards distant in the fog. I am sure it all went well, assisted by a gradual lifting of the mist during the later part of the morning.
Over the last few weeks our every move has been scrutinised down to the last detail. We have a volunteer photographer on board the team compiling photographs and moving pictures to combine into a rolling film for use in the viewing gallery when it is complete. It will be cunningly devised to entertain the public and drive the shop staff up the wall through its repetitiveness.
On Friday we had a drone hovering around our heads like an insistent fly while we were setting up for short slip recovery. Today, as well as the drone deployed at launch time, our man was on the slipway with his long lens as the boat came into the bay at the end of its exercise. I had missed the conversation, but there was clearly some last minute agreement to film the boat as it sped away across the bay thus making me wonder if it had received a shout just as it came in.
After showing off for a turn or two across the still waters, it returned for what looked like another textbook recovery up the long slip at around half past twelve o’clock in the afternoon. We are, after all, a very camera-friendly, very excellent Shore Crew.
It is a good job that all the photographic work was done in the morning and the early part of the afternoon because later on, the mist thickened up a bit and cloud rolled in. I was still comfortable in just a shirt in the shop, but I think the edge went off the day outside with no direct sunshine to bask in. There also seemed to be a little damping in the air which did not seem extreme enough for the rain ponchos I found myself selling. It was only a few minutes later that the damping turned to wetting and cleared the street in an instant.
The wet bit did not last very long but our visitors did not return in great numbers after that. I found my enthusiasm button again and carried on with restocking the grocery aisle. I had started the day filling the drinks fridge, so that was an achievement I could be proud of. I also discovered that we were quite well provisioned and at present, we did not really need a cash and carry delivery. However, under the new regime, we will be delivered on Saturday and unless we want to have a big delivery on the first day of the, hopefully, busy half term, we have to get it done this week.
During the process I frequently check the cash and carry website to see what products are available. I had tested this out when the manager of the Redruth store said that he had redirected our login to them. It worked just fine. At some point between then and now, someone else had changed it again so that we were pointing at the old, no longer of any use, store in Hayle. It was a little irritating but thankfully we picked this up now rather then when we were actually doing the order.
I will have to sort it out with Redruth in the morning, but I was distracted from my restocking anyway by a small resurgence in customer activity. It took me almost until closing time when I automatically brought in the display from outside. In doing so I noticed the newspapers sitting on the shelf and remembered that part of the newsagent role we have again, is counting them and wrapping them up for collection. I will get the hang of it eventually.
May 11th - Saturday
Well, the newspapers arrived today, so there was that. It I were to nitpick, the numbers were not quite what I asked for but the fact that we had them at all was quite an achievement. I had specifically requested not to have magazines; I would sort those out the following weeks. The delivery driver, being smarter than the people further up the food chain told me that he had refused to bring the magazines that had anyway been allocated to us. They were issued on Tuesday and would be returned on Tuesday. Anyone who had wanted one would have already bought one, which is why I asked not to have them. I will be charged anyway and although I will get the credit the following week, the money will go out of my account in the interim.
Restarting the newspapers did make me realise what it was that I disliked about doing them: everything.
Perhaps it was the newspapers, but we were quite busy first thing this morning. Some were buying things just before they left on long journeys but others were clearly newly arrived. There were quite a few pasties (sorry, MS) that went out the door early on, so I brought forward my timing to have some in the warmer. We even had a young man buy a large container of fabric softener. I am sure it was a great comfort to him.
Today’s subject du jour was the northern lights that everyone in Cornwall saw apart from me and the chef next door. People even reported seeing them in Mousehole and that faces south. It is much the same as ‘did you see the dolphins last evening’ when we had dolphins turn up occasionally. The chef next door and I reckon people are just trying to gaslight us and the pictures we have seen, fakes.
I concerned myself instead with what I could see between customers. The day was a little more hazy than yesterday and the breeze a tad more robust. I still warmed up considerably in the afternoon and will have to think about wearing flop flops in the shop again soon. I may change my mind next week so I shall wait and see. The beach was as crowded as I had seen it in a long while and there was a small line of camps along the high water line. If you had come to surf, I think that you would have been a tad disappointed as the bay was largely flat. There was a little bit of action out toward North Rocks or so at least a bunch of a dozen hopeful surfers thought, anyway.
There was probably a little more action on the tables opposite the café and we too saw some fits and starts of business into the afternoon. A couple of young lads had plans for barbequing later and asked if we had any charcoal, which we did from last year. They enquired if it the sort that was self-lighting and I told them that I hoped not and indeed the shop still standing was testament to the fact that it had not yet done so. I suggested that it probably needed a match to help it along. I think that such humour sailed freely above their young heads, and they decided to look elsewhere along with their search for self-cooking burgers.
Somehow, amongst it all, I managed to clear the last of the gift deliveries that had arrived over the last couple of days. It is all priced and what can be out on display has been put out. I deliberately kept the orders to a sensible minimum so that there was little in the way of overstock. There was no particular advantage to buying more and some disadvantage at having to find space for it. Spurred on by such a success, I advanced to topping up the small sweet packets that disappear so quickly there are gaps before you know it. There was no stopping me after that and I moved onto restocking the crisps and had just finished with the shampoo when, inexplicably, I suddenly became terminally bored and sought solace back behind the counter doing begger all.
Thankfully we had a few more customers in the run up to closing that kept me occupied. In fact, we had a lot more customers in the run up to closing and a proper five minutes to closing rush. I shall have to top up our drinks tomorrow morning as the gaps are significant now, after putting it off each time I thought of it.
I took ABH around the big block after we closed. I only needed a t-shirt in the warmth of the early evening and was perfectly comfortable. The Harbour car park was still at least half full with no sense of a major exodus any time soon and I suspect it was sunset watchers queuing up for the main event and a few late day swimmers.
The Missus said she was staying up in case the northern lights came on again, but I think that particular horse had bolted. I do not think I could have stood another day of being asked if I had seen them, anyway.
ABH takes an interest in the local flora
A closer look without her head in the way, sea pinks and a flowering hottentot fig.
May 10th - Friday
It must be a good day. I had a response from the Laurel and Hardy Newspaper Company after three weeks and a last minute prompt. A little more certainty would have been nice but what I got was, “You would start receiving the deliveries from 11th of May”. There seemed to be quite a lot of room for a ‘but’ in there, which was worrying, ‘but we cannot be bothered, so you may not’ or ‘but we are so bad at the only job we have to do that you may not through our incompetence’.
I think we stand a pretty good chance of getting newspapers tomorrow because I copied the managers at Redruth depot in on my request. We may not get everything that I had asked for, but they usually cobble something together for us.
Buoyed by such great news, I sent off the contract termination letter to the satellite television company. The terms are that we must give notice either to expire in 31 days or at the end of the initial contract period if it is later. I have no idea when the contract expired or is set to expire as the bit of the website that has that information did not work. When we agree on a date, I must send the recording box back and the remote control, which is currently on the missing list after all our moving.
Also on the missing list is the Surf Bar or Beach Restaurant as was. It is closed for the foreseeable future and after a little digging, it appears the company went into liquidation on the basis they had no liquidity, which I have always found odd. The original family who built and operated it seemed to have had little trouble and it existed as a classic restaurant for some while. It was then leased to a ‘celebrity chef’, and I use the term advisedly because it appears his celebrity centred around being adept at turning any viable business into failure in a short timescale. He went on to run a gourmet inn on the Helston road into the ground in under a year.
The Beach stuttered along after that picking up raving reviews and changed hands during last year. There seemed to be some hope and the Lifeboat station enjoyed a well-organised Christmas party there last year. It fell upon hard times, rallied and failed again partly due to some bad luck with its financial backer.
Without knowing too much detail, such as how much the lease is, it is difficult to imagine any venture there falling on its bottom. It is in a prime position and is flooded with potential customers all through the main part of the season. Like the rest of us, it suffers in the off-season, but with innovation, I am sure there are things that can be done to sustain it during the quiet months. The biggest loss to The Cove is the absence of much needed serious competition for the OS. We wonder what will happen next in this long running saga.
It must have been the start of one of those sorts of days today. We had four grocery deliveries due in the morning and three of them arrived at the same time. It kept me occupied for a while and we even had some customers to go with it. It kept me out of trouble until the Missus came down to let me go off to the gymnasium. She had come down early to see off the in-laws who were going home today, so I was able to get ahead of the posse for a change.
I was quite happy to leave the environs of the shop today. Our builders had chosen today to carve geet chunks out of the concrete they so carefully laid a few months before. This work required the noisiest tools in the box, and it went on for quite some time. I was glad to note that my false ears accurately amplified the sound so that I had maximum benefit of it. I did ask the Highly Professional Craftsperson why they had not made provision for these grooves when the concrete was laid. It seems that they had not anticipated a different brand of cladding. The old planks were thick enough to support a different attachment, I was told, whereas the new cladding needed batons behind it to latch onto. Of course, it could just be that none of them were as clever as me thinking ahead far enough. I thought I might keep that to myself.
The day had started out quite glorious and had gone on to improve in measures as the day went on. I had taken ABH around the block on my return from the gymnasium in my two sweatshirts and had been a mite hot under the collar by the time I reached the end of Coastguard Row. I did not waiver from my long trouser selection for shop use today, as it has been generally colder in the shop than it has been outside all week. For the last couple of days, the easterly breeze has made it chiller still, so I had no expectation of it being any warmer today. By the middle of the afternoon, however, I was starting to regret it but with Radio Pasty making it clear the world would come to an end next week, it was not time to change direction – unless, of course, they are wrong.
We were busy and quiet in equal measure throughout the afternoon. There was a bit of going home present buying and some grocery buying from those still intent on staying around. There was quite a bit of sun lotion buying, which was not a surprise and earlier in the day, quite a lot of aftersun buying. This did not surprise me either as the wind yesterday kept the temperature down while those under the sun burnt to a crisp unknowingly.
Our builders did quieter things in the afternoon, which was something of a relief. I busied myself with the remnants of our yesterday’s novelty delivery and the new delivery that arrived while I was at the gymnasium. The Missus had salted away the fresh crab meat delivery that also arrived at that time and I had quite forgotten about it. I came across it in the fridge close to the end of the day and quickly labelled it for the freezer. This activity was small beer compared to what the Missus was up to in the flat.
I ventured upstairs for a cup of tea in the early afternoon and had to fight for space in the kitchen while she measured up the window for wood venetian blind that had been there before work started. The window space has shrunk during the works and the blind needed to be shortened. The next time I came up on an errand, the Missus had the blind on my toolbox with a circular saw in her hand. I was pleased to see The Highly Professional Craftsperson on hand to provide advice, but he was gone when I heard the saw start up again when I was at the back of the flat. If this carries on, I will have to handover my pink DIYman overalls to her.
The shop day ended after the what is usual now hit and miss sort of afternoon. I telephoned the Aged Parent with the good news that we had sold, via the local auction house, some of the chattels we had run away with when we visited two years ago. Some of it fetched a good price and there was still some left after the auctioneer’s cut and, of course, our own for facilitating it - it was business, after all. I think he was delighted and when I asked what he would do with his cut, he told me he would marry my mother.
Hold tight, dear reader, there is more.
Just when I thought that the day was nearly over and I was takin ABH around the block while the Missus took Mother home after tea, my pager went off in my shorts that I had changed into. I was the other end of the Harbour car park at the time and had to run from there to the station. My evening shorts are none too tight around the waist these days and with my mobile telephone in the pocket, threatened to entertain the few amblers and dog walkers I met on the way. ABH was also quite bemused but sat patiently in the crew room while we launched the boat.
It seems many crew, like me, were scattered abroad when the pagers went off and we were thin on the ground for a while and the boat left with a thin crew, too. It was a timely launch to some paddleboaders out by Pendeen Watch that some casual observers thought may be in trouble. They were not but when the boat arrived they were advised that with strong current and offshore winds, they were not in the most risk free position where they were. They duly headed for shore while the Lifeboat saw them safe and came back.
I was not ever so mindful of the time, but I was back home before nine o’clock and the pagers had gone off at twenty minutes past seven o’clock. By the time the boat arrived back in the bay we were at full strength on the shore and we had set up the short slip while we had waited for the excitement to pass. With the sun on its way to setting, we brought the boat up the short slip in what was clearly, even to the casual observer, a textbook recovery. We are, after all, a very just-in-time, very excellent Shore Crew.
I found myself taking ABH out on a fruitless mission at near midnight. I met a visitor staying on Coastguard Row who is friendly enough especially with ABH. He asked if I had seen the aurora earlier in the evening. Darn it, I had not even thought to look but there again it might have just been the bright city lights of St Just as they party big time up there, I have heard.
May 9th - Thursday
If we kept the windows and doors closed, it was a fine day. The breeze however had gone around to the east then southeast and blew constantly through the first electric sliding door in The Cove.
The Highly Professional Craftsperson and his reluctance to reroute our satellite television cables and his suggestion that the same service could be achieved across the Internet led me down a veritable rabbit hole. Having met a blank with the current supplier, I looked at others. The company providing our Internet connection seemed like a good place to start but we were tripped up because we have a commercial agreement for the Internet and could not mix it with the consumer television service they offered. Enquiring from one provider it was suggested that I could get a clever box from Tesmorburys that would do the job but on looking afterwards it seems such things have been discontinued.
In the end, I took a step back and considered exactly what we needed from a television in our living room. The answer to that was very little as neither the Missus nor I watch very much on it and after a brief discussion with the Missus we resolved to do away with the current contract altogether. We would rely solely on what the free provider could give us across the Internet and purchase a recording box if we wished to save anything. If we really find that we are missing any essential televisual excitement, we can always start afresh.
With all the fish in the store room freezer awaiting transfer to the shop, nothing in the way of regular orders coming in during the morning, I had very little to occupy me for the majority of the morning. It gave me the opportunity to chase the Laurel and Hardy Newspaper Company to see if they were going to send newspapers from Saturday at the end of this week as I had requested. Given that I had also requested an acknowledgement and did not get that, I did not hold out high hopes of getting newspapers either. I sent another message with a ‘read receipt’ request attached to see if I could generate any response from them. At least I know that someone has opened the message. Whether or not we will get newspapers is another thimble full of tin tacks altogether.
I got the impression by the middle of the day that the breeze was either easing off or had changed direction. Whichever was the case, I was much more comfortable behind the shop counter. Perhaps I had just got so used to it I no longer noticed it. Regardless of the breeze, the beach had looked resplendent in the bright sunshine under a cloudless sky. The spring tide, low water gave us acres of sand and pastel coloured sea through which you could see right to the bottom with precious few waves disturbing the surface. Further across, at North Rocks and Gwenver, there were some waves and some surfers, so it looks like there might have been something for everyone.
There were precious few feet disturbing the sand, too. In the middle of the day, there were no more than a couple of dozen people down there and a dozen of those were a surf school. I was reminded by one enquirer that the dog controls on the beach are only a week away now. It is still a divisive topic. I think it is possibly a little early but on our beach it is designed to encompass the half term, which can get very busy. Starting and stopping it for half term to be introduced later would just be confusing, so I think that the much maligned council has done the best it can under the circumstances – if only they had followed the same thinking for the bus times. The control itself is also a compromise, starting at ten o’clock in the morning and lasting until six o’clock in the evening. Depending on the tide, that is not a bad deal but is still viewed with derision by many dog owners. The ban used to be complete, so it is an improvement over that. I guess some people are difficult to please.
The building boys have pressed on with the outer parts of the windows and the completion of the outside of the porch. I had asked for an overhang – twice – but looking at the completed roof it was near enough flush with the door. It seems they had forgotten like they forgot the satellite cables. I was told that instead of an overhang there was a raised lip that would prevent rain water from dropping in front of the door. I remain to be convinced and will ensure that the culprit who made the executive decision not to have an overhang, is kept waiting at our door if it drips the next time it rains. Forgetting my satellite cables is one thing, withdrawing my overhang, quite another. Perhaps I should consider myself lucky that they remembered to put the roof back.
I tried to hide my disappointment by involving myself in unpacking and pricing our latest delivery. I had discovered that our keyring display was not all it could be a while ago and those remaining keyrings might be described as tacky. I aimed to resolve this situation by placing an order for replacement keyrings, some tacky, some remarkable not tacky at all along with some soft toys to bulk out the order a bit.
As we know from our fish packing yesterday, attempting to concentrate on such things only results in a sudden surge of customer business and today was no different. I did, however, manage to put out the soft toys, some pasty (sorry, MS) magnets and one type of keyring. I will have to be sharp about it tomorrow to finish off because I am expecting another delivery of a similar ilk to arrive tomorrow.
The Missus had provided dinner for the boys when they stopped for a break in the middle of the day. I did point out that we were already paying them handsomely and that providing dinner, especially one that used two pots of crab meat, seemed a little extreme. I brought this up with the boys, really to remind them how lucky they were that I had a soft Missus, and they pointed out that not only were they getting fed, but I was paying them to eat it as well. I was able to appreciate this in fat greater quality when I sat down in the evening to my bowl of rough gruel.
May 8th - Wednesday
It was a wonderfully welcoming bed that I climbed out of this morning, but ABH and the needs of a small, independent shop rather insisted upon it. In fact, she went further and bothered me for the rest of the morning before I had to go downstairs to open the shop. I am wondering if a four minute plank with ABH on your back is some sort of record.
I was wondering also just how hard it could be to get some fish from our very good wholesaler in Penzance. I had spoken with the very pleasant lady on the front desk about it yesterday. She had seemed uncertain, so I had pressed her, particularly about the oysters for which I had taken an order, but she failed to convince me that everything was in order with words like ‘I assume’. I had tried to impress upon her that I was more concerned with my customer order than the bigger order I had called in for the shop and had been forgotten about but by the end of the conversation I was getting nowhere, so gave up and trusted to luck.
This morning, I was pleased to have a telephone message left for me from the very pleasant lady on reception. I would have been more pleased if I had managed to accept the call because when I called back, all I got was an engaged tone. When I get this several times over a fifteen minute period, it is more a concern that the telephone system is broken than someone is on a very long call and so it turned out to be.
I managed to call the boss, but he was frantic that the problem was affecting his business, so I called back in the afternoon. He was still frantic but told me that our order would be available at four o’clock. I explained that this was for a customer order and the reason I was keen not to tie the two together. He called back a few minutes later and told us it would be ready by two o’clock. I felt it best not to press him on the oysters and called around other suppliers as a contingency in case they were not present.
The fraught half hour in the morning did not stop me from heading down to the gymnasium, although I decided a shortened session might be appropriate under the circumstances. It is clear that no one has been in there since the drilling in the floor and on Friday when I go down there, I will put everything back as it was. I still undertook my 5,000 metres of rowing, which is the main bit of exercise and threw some weights around but cut out most else. I had not had my call back that I was promised, which is why, when I came back to the shop, I called them.
Our merry band of working boys are charging ahead with the launders, the porch and other things they can do while the scaffolding is incomplete. They must be doing something because the second skip, or is it the third, is now full and I had to organise another, which is coming tomorrow according to the very pleasant lady at the waste company. Two of them are working on the flat roof that gets a lot of sunshine from the middle of the day onwards. Looking at them with their wide brim hats and sunglasses it might have been easy to mistake them for holidaymakers. I almost wish that we did deckchairs in the shop because it would have suited them well.
We had spoken some while ago about the satellite television cables that run the length of the building from the dish at the back. They were conveniently run through the launder that runs to the back. I was told by the Highly Professional Craftsperson that it was very untidy and that, being Highly Professional Craftsperson, he would run the cables inside the roof where they would be much neater. That was until he forgot all about it and one of them asked yesterday what I wanted to do with those annoying white cables lying abandoned on the roof.
The Highly Professional Craftsperson, clearly keen to recover some command of the situation, told me that having a satellite dish was so yesterday and that the same service from the same company could be had through the internet. This was a very good idea since it would mean being able to get rid of the unsightly dish – that once rusted off the wall every year until we discovered ceramic ones – and not have to worry about the cables. Instead, we could switch our contract to have the service delivered across the Internet instead.
I investigated the supplier by looking at our account with them on their website but was sorely disappointed by the lack of information available. I could, for instance, discover that we had two packages but it was impossible to see what channels those covered. If we were going to change service, it would be rather nice to know we were getting like for like. There was an option to select the service we wanted. This led me to a second page where the only option was to select a service that we did not want.
Eventually, by not logging into our account, the website worked properly and I could select the correct service. It is not quite as simple as it looks nor as cheap as the headline rate. Part of the attraction was that we would have one less box under the television to plug in but that is not true. The system requires a different box, albeit smaller, and that needs the same plugs and cables as the existing. There is also a £40 set up charge for doing begger all and the ongoing charges are similar to what we are paying now. I shall deliver the bad news to the Highly Professional Craftsperson tomorrow so he can run the cables down the launders again.
Leaving such issues aside, the Missus headed into town to collect the fish. She collected the in-laws on the way as they clearly needed to be there while she purchased new blinds for the newly decorated bedroom - I had wondered why it seemed so bright in the room this morning. Since I was not overrun in the shop, I set up the vacuum packing and weighing machine in readiness for the arrival of the fish. I had looked out my oyster shucker last night and established that as long as I did not sever the oysters from the shell, they would last a good ten days shucked if they were not picked up immediately.
We had drifted into quietness during the middle of the afternoon and I was left to discover the truth about dishless satellite television viewing. Then the fish arrived.
It was the moment that the small gods of grumpy shopkeepers was waiting for to release, one at a time, a succession of shoppers into our little store. They had clearly hand-picked the sort of people that would cause most disruption to a grumpy shopkeeper wearing fishy rubber gloves and packing fish. The browsers and perusers came and lingered and when they were done, the question askers arrived. Sometimes we had question asking browsers and perusers just for added interest.
With some purchases, I can just about manage to work the till and the card payment machine with my knuckles, avoiding the need to remove my fishy gloves. Clearly, there is not much entertainment in that, so the small gods of grumpy shopkeepers sent customers requiring their shopping to be bagged and packed after removing my fishy gloves. One customer purported to have goods that did not need packing and then, right at the end asked for stamps, which definitely requires some dexterity. It made me regret not having the old stamps that required licking.
Given some enough warning, I can remove my gloves carefully such that they may be used again. In every instance during my fish packing session today I was caught out and had to tear off my gloves and having to use new ones when I resumed. I was still working well after closing time but at least then I could do so without interruption and far more efficiently.
The regular ladies who ordered the oysters insisted that I have some of them. I do like a good oyster and since they insisted, it would have been churlish to refuse. Taking the oysters upstairs to eat seemed an unnecessary complication, so I had them while I worked with just a dusting of black pepper. They were sublime if a little sharp edged. I shall have to practise my shucking.
May 7th - Tuesday
It looked a bit bleak early on today and it was reflected in the absence of people for the first part of the morning. It bucked up considerably by the middle of the day after the sunshine came pouring down the hill and over the cliff. It was followed by our visitors who mingled with the sunshine and brought joyousness to The Cove. Alright, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was more joyous than it would have been had it been piddling down.
Our builders turned up again this morning, which was good. They commenced, sawing, sanding and nailing things with a nail gun. The latter sounded very much like a shot being fired and would have had me hiding under the table had I not known better. It would seem that our visitors were quite used to being in shot firing environments and completely ignored it. Either that or my false ears accentuate such things.
Just to add a little interest to the day we had a delivery from our ‘farm shop’ cash and carry. It was not a very big order but filled some gaps in the shelves where we had actually sold things. Yes, it surprised me greatly, too. One of the gaps that we had been unable to fill, however, was the little long life tubs of hummus that were extremely popular. I had at least two customers ask why we had run out after the last one went at the end of last week, so I called the company to find out why it was out of stock. They too were aghast that they had run out as it sells very well but it seems they are having trouble having it supplied as well. They said that they will contact me when they know more. An hour later they knew more and reported that it would be back in abundance toward the end of May. If indeed it was back in abundance, it would be here too before long.
One thing that will not be coming back again for sure is our somewhat iconic black wood frontage. I spoke with the builder this morning and he has been trying for several months to source a supply of replacement planks with the distinctive wavy edge. The only thing similar he had been able to find were in oak. This came with two issues: one was the weight that might be a problem and the other was the price tag, which was frankly, unaffordable. The last option was to use some thin pine panels than were meant for fencing, but these were unlikely to last more than a couple of seasons and would probably look awful.
The builder, the Missus and I discussed this and we felt that it was better that we have something completely different rather than try and emulate what was there before with some cheap substitute. We settled for some composite cladding that will be uniform across the front and the sides. Ah yes, the sides that I had spent some hours meticulously sanding and painting two coats on, which are now firewood.
It had not taken me long to clear the small order that had arrived. Mindful that our commercial waste is collected tomorrow along with our cardboard I tried to clear as much rubbish and card from the store room as possible. This led me on to rationalising some of the fishing gear that had spread to a couple of boxes on the shelf and some loose items that I managed to get down to one box. There were a few old display items that had not been used in a couple of years that once they are taken away will become utterly necessary, of course. It was when I had cleared those that I noticed a box on the shelf that I could not put my finger on why it was there and what was in it. I was therefore most surprised to find half a dozen copies of The Cove Diary 2 or The Last Cove Diary Book Ever (Honest!) in all their pristine but far too chunky loveliness. I put a couple out of the shelves to see if there was anyone daft enough to want to purchase one.
Anyway, tidying up and making space in the store room very quickly became tedious, so I settled for sitting behind the counter scratching my behind instead. As business days go, it was busier than a similar day before the weekend but, of course, the weather was not as pleasant last week. We were busiest just after the middle of the day through to the middle of the afternoon. The order of play after that was hit and miss and consisted mainly of ice cream buying since the ice cream kiosk next door was closed today.
A neighbour alerted me to a stop me and buy one ice cream vendor who has secured the spot at the top of the OS slipway. His unique selling point is that the ice cream is homemade. The unique selling point of the kiosk next door was a dollop of clotted cream on top until someone suggested to the street vendor chap that it might be a good idea if he did too. The vendors at the top of the OS slip never seem to last very long, which gives me cause to wonder if none of them have long term business strategies of they just vanish in the night.
It reminds me of an advertising strategy employed by a famous manufacturer of prophylactics that used the term ‘buy me and stop one’ at one point. It was the same company who had British Leyand Mini motorcars with advertising on the side, ‘ the small family car’.
Moving swiftly on, in the doldrums in between customers in the afternoon, I remembered that we needed an order from our St Just butcher. We had run out of bacon a while ago, but since we have a cheaper alternative, it was more convenient using that than worrying about the expensive stuff going out of date. I was also painfully aware that I had been missing the deadline for our local bread, so I sent it early today to make up for it.
With all in order, I did very little in the run up to closing. As soon as we had, I took ABH out for a spin. She had the company of Mother and the in-laws for most of the day but since the Missus was busy in our bedroom and making tea, she had not been out. It was perfectly pleasant for a walk around even though the breeze that had been unnoticeable all day, ramped up again but I did not need a thick jumper or jacket. The car park was not as busy as the previous few days but there were still several cars parked as The Cove is slowly filling with staying visitors.
There was only one thing foremost in our minds during the evening: sleeping in our own bed again for the first time in six months. It is a huge leap forward and suggests we are in the end game of our works. Utter bliss.
May 6th - Monday
ABH had decided early on in the night to decamp to the living room. The Missus checked on her before she went to sleep, and she was quite adamant that it was where she was staying. She vocally let me know she was awake around half an hour before I would normally have woken up but at least that was not two o’clock in the morning. That was good enough for me and I will make sure we close the bedroom door on her tonight.
I never got as far as the gymnasium this morning. One of our deputy launching authorities put his head around the corner and told me that there would be a shout any minute. It was early enough for us not to have inconvenienced many potential shoppers, although the milkman had just arrived and was about to deliver. I asked him if he would kindly close the first electric sliding door in The Cove behind him, which I assume he duly did. The Missus had taken over by the time I checked back after the launch.
The boat was tasked to a drifting empty RIB spotted off Land’s End. Such things always have the potential to be something more than just an abandoned boat, so we launched the boat into the stillness of the bay pretty smartly so that they could investigate. It was unclear to us on shore exactly who had reported it in, but it was found quickly and seen to be very Marie Celeste, with fishing gear on board and the engine switched on by not running. Further investigation revealed that it had been up the coast as far as Gurnard’s Head and someone else said that it had been spotted at Porthcurno. Our Coastguard reasoned that the sharp about turn at Gurnard’s Head was worth looking at in greater detail and despatched the Inshore boat to have a look.
In the meantime, the Boat crew had a good geek around the abandoned RIB and found some ownership documents. The owner, it transpired, was French and came from France as indeed did the boat. What was even more astounding was our token Liverpudlian on the boat crew had been put on board and he managed to translate the document into Scouse and then into English. Our Cornish Coxswain, then relayed the information to Falmouth Coastguard. We take our inclusivity very seriously in The Cove.
There must have been some complicated communications going on between Falmouth and whoever they spoke to in France but eventually the message came back that the owner and driver of the boat had been rescued off Brittany yesterday. The French Coastguard could not take the boat in and it had been left, it was not certain whether it was under power or not, but eventually it had been drifting around our coast. Knowing that there was no longer a casualty at risk let everyone relax a little. The Inshore was stood down and the RIB was towed back to The Cove where there were all sorts of questions and very few answers about what to do with it.
After much discussion, it was hauled out of the water and whisked off to a local farm for, erm, safe keeping until the matter was properly resolved or everyone had forgotten about it, whichever came sooner.
When we heard that the search had been stood down, we arranged ourselves at the bottom of the long slipway to wait on the big boat coming back. We had been a bit premature and underestimated the time it would take to sort the political issue of picking up a drifting boat at sea. It was pleasant enough down at the bottom of the long slipway with the tide out on a spring tide. We watched as slack water passed and the tide started coming in again under a mostly blue sky with some high level cloud. It was a bit chilly down there as the wind that had been swirling about all over the place for the last few days, had gone to the north today.
Eventually, the boat came into view towing the RIB. It handed over to the Inshore to bring it in and lash it to the breasting buoy just outside the Harbour. Not letting such things distract us, our attention was fully on the big boat that gently nudged onto the bottom of the slipway toe where we executed what was clearly a textbook recovery in calm conditions. The Inshore boat took a little longer while the fate of the RIB was decided. In the end, one of the fishing boats did the honours of pulling it in and it was loaded onto a flatbed trailer and taken to a local farm until what happens to it is decided. We are, after all, a very flexible, very excellent Shore Crew.
It was probably as well that we have some excitement in the morning because very little of it in the afternoon. Yesterday was obviously the jewel in the crown of our bank holiday weekend and today was the paste replica – that had fallen out of its fitting. There had been a few around in the morning but I had missed all of those and the afternoon rather fell on its face. No one was laughing, least of all me.
To add insult to injury the northerly breeze picked up in the later part of the afternoon and it became very chilly. I had omitted to bring down a jacket or a fleece since the earlier part of the day had been comfortably temperate, and because it was late, I thought not to bother. By the time we closed, I rather regretted that decision and was happy to get out of the draft in our new highly insulated living room.
After being distracted by having to run the shop during the morning, the Missus returned upstairs to start on shampooing the carpet in our proper bedroom. It is nearly ready to move into and, if the carpet dries as expected, I have no doubt she will be pulling out the stops to have the room set up to move into by the end of tomorrow. We are slowing inching towards normalcy, whatever that looks like.
May 5th - Sunday
I was not expecting rain. Well, that is not such a surprise as I rarely look at the weather guess, but I do vaguely recall the Radio Pasty’s weather guesser saying that it would be dry for several days. It rained during the small hours of the morning, which should not have really mattered very much. Indeed it would not have unless you have a small errant ABH who decides that two o’clock is a perfectly reasonable time to need a run out.
The rain must have carried on a bit, too, as the street was very wet when I stepped out again four and a half hours later. The sky then spent the rest of the morning trying to shirk the thick cloud that had come over us in the night. It was doing alright, too, as we had bright spells on and off and the whole day was lifted by the absence of that cruel easterly wind. That did try and make a resurgence later in the day, but it was a half-baked attempt and far too late to be a bother, in the shop at least.
It took a little while to get going in the morning but when it did there were a fair few people milling about for most of the rest of the day. Oddly, it all changed very suddenly. One moment the street was empty and the next I had a stream of people coming into the shop and there were people gathering on the tables of the café. It was like someone had opened a gate where a crowd had been waiting to come in.
The continued busyness took me rather unawares and as late morning and early afternoon came on, pasties (sorry, MS) started to fly out. The early spring bank holiday is not known to be ever so busy, but we seemed to be doing better than I imagined. It is most likely that I had some very low expectations after the last few weeks. As the pasty buying increased in pace, a quick assessment told me that we would undoubtedly run out before peak time. We have frozen and uncooked in the freezer, which we have found to be the best place to keep frozen and uncooked pasties, so I slipped some into the oven for their hour-long cook. Incredibly, I got the timing spot on, and they were ready just as we were into the last few delivered ones in the pasty warmer. It does not get better than that.
I do not get out much during the season – which might be entirely obvious from the restricted circle of subject matter in The Diary – so when I do, I rather enjoy it especially on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so the licence that I was out on was dependent on making a grocery delivery to our neighbour a little way up Stone Chair Lane. Do not get any sudden ideas, dear reader, that the shop is doing home delivery now. This is purely because the lady is a deserving case – although the offer of suitably large amounts of cash to perform a similar service would also, quite possibly, find favour.
I tarried rather longer than might have been appropriate having dropped off the groceries mainly because it was so delightful standing in the warmth of the sunshine and looking down on the Harbour and the rooftops all about. We also have a chat about all manner of daft things which is largely a ruse so that I can get my breath back after the hard climb. It will all be different when the chairlift is installed and working. It would be even better if it started at the bottom of Stone Chair Lane instead of the bottom of her garden.
It was back to work soon enough, and it remained busy in sporadic surges throughout the rest of the day. We even had a five minutes to closing rush, which is always a good sign. It was the first proper bit of business since Easter and does raise the hopes that it might be the start of the climb into the season. It certainly left me with some rather large restocking orders from our fruit and vegetable supplier and our ‘farm shop’ cash and carry, which I missed out last week.
The Harbour car park was still busy when we went though in the early evening as it was at the same time the previous evening. The late gathering is probably to do with sunset potential, although it did not look like it might amount to much today. Despite it being such a reasonable day, there was still the threat of rain about and there were some threatening looking clouds out to the east of us. It had tried to rain in the middle of the afternoon, but that came to nothing. Perhaps it had seen the forecast and realised it was in the wrong place, or the right place at the wrong time.
When I came back from a run around the block again at the last knockings, I noted that someone had left four empty bottles of beer outside our door. It was not even beer that we might have sold earlier, which might have been vaguely understandable. No, if the busyness in the shop was not an indicator of the start of the season, the arrival of folk who cannot walk twenty metres to the nearest bin certainly was.
May 4th - Saturday
It was glorious again at the very first thing this morning, but we had rather more cloud turn up shortly after that took the edge off slightly. We were also blessed with a southeasterly breeze that due to our local phenomenon, blew in through the first electric sliding doorway in The Cove and made grumpy shopkeeper life a little chilly. The breeze must have started up after I had taken ABH out for a walk because I was fooled into thinking I could get away without a fleece. I thought very wrong and scurried up the stairs after half an hour of being open.
My coldness was not a result of being idle. Despite the breeze, we had an uplift in the number of customers frequenting the shop from early on in the morning. So much so it interrupted my breakfast. Ahead of any inkling of improvement I had diverted my attention to our ball display outside. I had been aware that my balls were dirty and could do with a brush off but more than that they were deflated after sitting out unattended for so long. I took the ball pump to them and then thought that while I was at it, I may as well bolster the meagre stock that was there with some more balls. This turned out to be a remarkably prescient as we sold all the additional stock by the early afternoon.
I was quite surprised that we also sold a number of swimsuits, flip flops and other beachware items. The additional cloud slipped away at some point leaving a much sunnier afternoon but even then, that southeasterly appeared to be keeping the temperature down. Perhaps it was a bit more sheltered on the beach and it was only in the shop it was Siberian.
I must have found my enthusiasm button because I managed to stock up the soft drinks fridge. It was mainly because we had a delivery from the local cash and carry that somehow manages to outprice the big boys on several items that we buy regularly. Had I not put the drinks out I would have struggled to find space in the store room that still has various boxes from upstairs clogging it up. I was very pleased with myself that I managed to clear the pile between customers.
I was also spurred into action regarding our display of keyrings and souvenir badges and patches. A lady came into the shop early on and asked if we had any of the ‘tacky bottle opener keyrings’. I assured her that we had plenty and that they could be found down our tacky product aisle. She was duly delighted and bought one.
Many people might feel that we should have been offended by the use of such inflammatory language regarding our carefully selected and high quality products but frankly, what’s in a name. That which we call a keyring bottle opener by any other name will still open bottles – until the soft metal it is made of shears off after a couple of goes - and as long as the customer shells out the appropriate number of shillings and is satisfied, why should I care what they call it.
The one thing I did care about was the parlous state of the display that was much depleted. I had avoided buying any such stock last year because I had plenty from the year before. This year, we have finally come to the end of most of the overstock and investment is required. There are two suppliers of such things that we use and so I fell upon their catalogues with a pad and pen at the ready. Once again, between customers, I cobbled together a couple of lists and will pursue these on Tuesday with the relevant supplier. Bit by bit and very carefully the shop is filling up in readiness for the season.
Just to add a little excitement and mystery to the day we had an almost launch of the Inshore boat to an injured party over at Gwenver in the middle of the day. It amounted to nothing for us, and the Cliff Team extracted the casualty over land and family took her along to hospital. In these parts waiting for an ambulance is only an option if you are not going to get better without one.
The mysterious part of that was a shout that actually happened later in the day. I had no customers at the time and was first to the Tooltrak and drove it down to the Harbour. I handed over to one of our keen and eager supplementary Tooktrak drivers, we have several, and having done the heroic bit went back to the shop. Because I abandoned, erm, boat so quickly, I never did find out why we were launching the Inshore boat. I do know that it headed up around Cape Cornwall rather rapidly and was then stood down after twenty minutes. I might find out later if I ask the right people, but it was clearly nothing particularly serious.
The shop coasted into closing time just as a rather pretty looking catamaran coasted into the bay under sail, which perhaps is not coasting but I shall claim poetic license. I seem to recall a similar one being here before but did not get a close enough look to confirm if it was our regular visitor. I thought that it might have moored for the night but had gone later when I looked.
Once again, I took ABH out twice in the evening. She was climbing the walls after tea. It must be most frustrating for a young pup being constrained to a slow amble around the block when what she really wants, and needs, is a good zoom around the beach, chasing and playing. We are stuck with this until Thursday when I hope we will be given the all clear.
I did find out later why the Inshore launched. Someone had reported a fishing net in the water which was on the rocks by the time the boat got there. Still, the boat needs a good run every now and then and the youngsters that now respond to the calls are full of enthusiasm for it. Bully for them.
May 3rd - Friday
I might have expected a bit of a corker today when I was out with ABH in the early evening yesterday. It is just that so many times it has looked good the previous day and turned to rubbish the following morning I wondered if I should dare hope. It was therefore most gratifying to find the sun shining and there being some real warmth in it right from the outset today.
It would also have been pleasant if the upturn in the weather had translated into a material improvement in business, but it did not. We did see additional people today and perhaps I should not be too fussy on a change over day at the beginning of May, but it is frustrating, nevertheless.
I managed to slip away to the gymnasium after missing out on my Wednesday session. As it transpired, I would not have been able to go on Wednesday anyway because someone with a big drill was making a hole in the floor where my rowing machine usually resides. Given the amount of concrete dust and mud across the floor and on the walls, it was a big job. I still managed to undertake a blistering session, but no records were broken today.
I understand that the Sennen Cove Recreation Centre, for that is its proper name, has won its planning permission to knock the place down and put up a two storey building in its place. The plan has not found universal approval and I was not overly delighted to note that they intended to put the gymnasium upstairs. I will have enough exercise in the gymnasium without having to struggle up stairs to get to it. Anyway, I presumed that the drilling was part of the preparatory work.
If you are interested in such things, dear reader, the people involved have done much work in securing funding from various sources to pay for the rebuild. They need to raise some funds themselves, as it is not done to be seen to be wholly reliant on handouts. There is a crowdfunding page which launches on May 8th or your hard earned can be sent direct – which might include paying for a stairlift for grumpy shopkeepers.
I had come back to the shop shortly before the middle of the day having spent fifteen minutes taking ABH around the block. She is nearly back to normal after her little operation but still needs to wear her romper suit for another week. She has made no particular fuss about wearing it and is now completely at ease wearing it – but what do I know. She might be harbouring dark thoughts about it even now as I write.
Let us hope not and instead think about the afternoon that passed without hardly being noticed. It also passed with the shop being hardly noticed, either. We had a few people coming and going, but I had enough time to distribute the fishing tackle delivery to our shelves. It was absolutely astounding that it had arrived at our door less than twenty-four hours after I had placed the order. They either had very little else to do or were super efficient. It is more than can be said for the combined building trade sorting out our build. We have had three weeks of nothing happening but one day of frantic scaffold knocking down. It is not even in the configuration that will enable the back end of the roof to be done.
I sent a message to our builder to ask what my expectations should be for the coming weeks or possibly months and where, perhaps, we should hang the Christmas lights. He advised that he was just as irritated with the scaffolders not turning up as I was and apparently they are serving other clients before us. I was sort of expecting a bill from them for the reconfiguration, but I have heard nothing. It leaves me in a bit of a difficult position. I do not want to cause too much of a stir in case they had intended to do the reconfiguration under the original terms. I also dream of winning the lotto and believe fairies will come and do the housework overnight.
Having it all finished by the half term would have been a ‘nice to have’ but I think that is now out of reach. There is therefore no imperative to having it finished in a particular timescale as there are no cost implications that I can think of. We are losing out on saving by not having the solar panels installed but what we do not have we are not missing is possibly the way to think about that. In short, I have reached the point of ambivalence about the whole thing.
It was so pleasant in the evening that I took ABH out twice. It was also because she had been stuck inside for a good proportion of the day while the Missus continued her decorating of our bedroom. She set a target of moving back in there at the weekend, but I think that was a little ambitious. Again, there is no particular hurry other than we are both fed up with living in squalor. It was a bigger job than the other rooms, too.
We have a very serious damp issue in the corner that I suspect came from when the mews behind us was built and the gap at the back of our wall was filled in. It needs proper tanking against the damp that has the wall paper soaking after a few months. We might get around to that one day but in the interim the Missus put a couple of coats of PVA glue on the wall as an undercoat. We shall see how that works out, but she is single minded about it and it will certainly be finished before the weekend is out.
In the meanwhile, I shall gird my loins for a busy weekend – just as soon as the fairies have finished mopping the floor.
May 2nd - Thursday
Oh, well, that was disappointing. Our little taste of better weather yesterday was fleeting, a mere tease. Today we were back to grey and the breeze from the northwest was chilly though mercifully light. It was a good job I had not cast any clouts, well, not permanently anyway.
Just for added measure we got a shower of rain at the end of the morning. Mother had told me the forecast that she had seen suggested rain for yesterday and today. The Meteorological Office had decided it was not going to rain on either day, so between them they got it bang on.
It certainly did not help encourage anyone into The Cove and we were quiet the whole day long. There were a few more people around in the afternoon but through the morning I was denied any human interaction at all – and no customers, either.
I thought that I had better do something rather than nothing and finished off the barcodes for the jewellery stand. I then went around the shop to see if I had missed anything and discovered that of the few things we have been selling, the fishing lures had taken a bit of a beating. It is mainly a small group of local boys responsible for the depletion. They are in several times a week when the sea state is suitable and head off to the end of the Harbour wall. It is heartening to see a group like that finding some harmless pastime to consume their free time and they are all good and amiable lads. I saw them later in the evening. One had grabbed a spider crab by hand, no snorkel and mask, just dived down and got it. Pleased as punch he was and told me his mother was mortified.
The last time I placed an order for lures and jigs, the supplier stepped in to recommend some. It was a bit of a risk, but it paid off and the ones they sent have been very popular. It is comforting to know that there are still suppliers out there who know what they are about and have their customers’ best interests at heart. I reordered a bunch of them to replace our missing stock.
The afternoon saw a clearing of our cloud blanket and a broad arrangement of blue sky and white fluffy clouds. It apparently offered not the slightest encouragement to visitors to come and enjoy it and we were just as quiet as we had been for most of the day. By the afternoon, I had also run out of things to do, or things that I felt I needed to do and found myself at the bottom of a bored stupor. I was not even compelled to rage at the thirty percent mark-up our pet insurer had deemed necessary to levy onto next year’s cover for ABH. She has not materially changed much in the twelve months since I commissioned it, although conceivably she might be thirty percent bigger. I will consider this overnight and just pay up because it will be much easier than filling out numerous online quotes and forever more batting away the ensuing avalanche of messages and telephone calls asking why I did not sign up with the companies I enquired with plus all the one they sold my details on to.
It was a good job that someone had organised a launch of the Lifeboat for a spot of Thursday evening training. At the very least it was something constructive to do and made me feel so much more valued – even if it was me doing the valuing. Mind, I probably get a better rate that way.
We launched both boats into the calm bay and a rising tide at around seven o’clock for them to go tearing off in two different directions. We have not got quite as far as full spring tide, in fact we are halfway between neaps and spring, so there was plenty of water in the Harbour to launch the Inshore boat. For a change and because we were a little light on numbers on the shore, I took the Tooltrak out. It was perfectly mild for a change and I eschewed any additional layer when I went out to launch the boat. Unfortunately, I thought the same when it came to recovery when the temperature had dropped some and the northwestly breeze had kicked back in again. I was down there in the cab for some time, too, waiting on the boat because someone said it was coming in when it was not.
Aside from that we fell into our respective roles and executed our duties with calm professionalism. We even managed to maintain some decorum when the boat arrived back in the bay, enough so to carry out what looked like a textbook recovery up the long slipway at around a quarter to my bedtime. This extended a bit because there was some fuelling up to do and I eventually got away as it was going dark at around half past nine o’clock when I took ABH for her last walk. We are, after all, a very dedicated, very excellent Shore Crew.
A textbook recovery underway taken from the cab of the Tooltrak. You can see the 'span' cables off the back of the boat. The Inshore just arriving around the pointy end of the big boat.
Spring is here up Mayon Cliff with a blankets of tri-cornered leek everywhere. The smell of garlic in the air is intense downwind of it.
May 1st - Wednesday
The scaffolders and the builders turned up this morning to make a start after a two week hiatus. The builders were here to move all the various bits building materials they had carelessly left where the scaffolders wanted to put scaffolding and the scaffolders to reconfigure the scaffolding into the bits the builders had vacated. Fortunately, no horseshoe bats had moved in during the break and the collared doves were quietly taken away and murdered. (Not really, Mr Packham, if you are reading. They were asked politely to move on.)
It was a cracking morning for such things, too. The sun was shining from the very off and it stayed dry and reasonably temperate. Almost miraculously, The Cove filled with trekkers passing through and more casual visitors mooching about and occupying the tables of the café opposite. Quite what they made of the merry sound of power drivers undoing bolts is anyone’s guess, but it was soon very testing on my false ear enhanced hearing.
I called the cash and carry people early to try and resolve our outstanding credit and got to speak with the elusive lady in accounts. I did not fully understand what she was saying at the time, but it amounted to the issue having been resolved and I should no longer worry. What passed for ‘resolved’ was two further invoices for services that had hitherto not been raised for both orders amounting, very roughly to what they owed me for goods not delivered. Both invoices detailed ‘handball’ charges, that is the carrying of stock from the cages into the shop. Of course, had I known that this was being charged, I would have sat back and watched our man bring the delivery in by himself.
One of the invoices had a ‘delivery’ charge on it, which was odd because the company adds delivery to the price of each item and therefore I had effectively been charged twice for it. Being a somewhat cynical grumpy shopkeeper, it struck me that these charges that had never been raised before on our deliveries, had been added to avoid paying the credit. Furthermore, one of the invoices related to the order placed at the start of April and was therefore an afterthought. Naturally, our lady in accounts was unavailable when I called back to discuss the matter. I am now very glad that our original supplier has come good, else we would be stuck with these crooks.
The boys really cracked on with the scaffolding. The new lengths at the back of the property will wait until Friday, they told me, but all the rest was nearly all taken away. We are left with one storey at the front and similar halfway down the side opposite our steps. It looks very strange indeed without and I had a sudden sense of insecurity with it gone. I told one of the boys it was like having a bushy beard for 40 years then shaving it off.
It had not been a particularly quiet morning and getting away for the afternoon would have been pleasant had it not been to a shuffling off ceremony. Two of us had been asked to represent the station for our ex-winchman whose turn it was up at the venue in Camborne. I took one of our neighbours who was short of a ride. On balance, I think it would have been preferable not to take the truck which has not been washed for some time. I know that we were not exactly going to be part of the motorcade, but it seemed embarrassing, nonetheless. I was going to park a little distance from everyone else but when we arrived, we had no choice. Our man was very popular and had known a lot of people in a number of jobs over the years.
We congregated at the place where they take our man away and replace him with fond memories, and they did it very well. As it turned out there were at least a dozen Lifeboat crew there, past and present, and together we formed a guard of honour and one of our number joined the pall bearers. All very nicely done even if not one us knew what we were doing.
I had not realised when we left that the truck was low on fuel. My plan to fill up on the way was scotched when we fell in behind two tractors at the top of the hill and followed one all the way into town. It necessitated a detour through Hayle on the way back to a small independent fuel station that I favour. I also had plans to stop at the post office when we got back to post a parcel to Brittany where a regular visitor had discovered that we sell goods on our website shop. You may have seen labels for it, dear reader as you pass by on your way to read The Diary each day. Just thought that I would mention it in case it had eluded you.
With two additional stops we were already behind everyone else leaving the event. We were further delayed by heavy traffic along the route and narrowly avoided being involved in some sort of incident that had blocked the Longrock bypass. In all it took us much longer to get back than our fellow mourners for which I was roundly admonished. Well, that is life being a grumpy shopkeeper.
Despite it all, it was quite a lovely day and warmer than we had had it since the middle of December. We had been in short sleeve order up at Camborne and walking around The Cove later in the evening it was still perfectly temperate. We do rather hope that this is no flash in the pan.
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