Sunday 25 September 2011

High Days



Do you ever finish a weekend thinking dismally about starting work on Monday morning and all you've had was a miserable TV Menu of "Pastry Watch Live", "Britain's Got Opportunity Knocks" and episode 218 of "Dad's Army"? The thing that would really cheer you up is - yes! - hearing about somebody else's holiday!

Well, since you ask, we've just got back from larging it at Bigbury-on-Sea in the South Hams district of Devon and it was a splendid week.

It proved my theory of Steam Trains.

People pay a lot of money to ride on Steam Trains but when they are inside the carriage looking outwards they just see telegraph poles and gawpers - they don't get the excitement and thrill of those simply standing on a platform watching the magnificent locomotive thundering past. I've a similar theory involving tents and urinating but there's no need to elaborate in present company.

So it was with the Burgh Island Hotel. Instead of paying £400-£600 to stay at the establishment and look out the window at the poor people opposite, we stayed on the front at Bigbury-on-Sea and enjoyed the wonderful exterior view of the Art Deco Liner Hotel building constructed in 1929 and visited by Agatha Christie, Noel Coward, Amy Johnson, Gertrude Lawrence and Edward VII.

We had this magnificent view from our balcony.....

...whilst the Bankers and Big City Dealers in their £600 a night front facing apartments sat on their balconies and looked across at this:

It's like Ansel Adams once said - it's all a case of choosing the correct viewpoint.

More Bigbury fun and japes to follow this week......

19 comments:

Z said...

Regarding your tent theory, we once had a really awkward parent, who was very good at drumming up public opinion. I promptly invited her to become a governor, where she soon became an asset.

You have cheered me for several reasons, Rog, one of which is that you have not announced your retirement.

Rog said...

Z: We few, we happy few, we band of bloggers....

Sarah said...

Well said Rog, neat perspective.

Pat said...

That's such an excellent idea. I've often wondered about that place. Look forward to hearing more.

Dave said...

It was the thought of having to write about my hols that stopped me blogging. Once you've all forgotten about them, I shall return.

Tim said...

I hope you had lunch at the Pilchard Inn and had a go at them for not selling pilchards. My brother, who lives just along the coast from Bigbury (and shares my surname, funnily enough), frequently 'larges it up' there.

Geoff said...

I agree about trains - you see more on a coach. But there's nothing like sitting opposite a whining child on a choo choo.

Macy said...

Lil and Oz look happy enough - which is obviously the main thing...

Martin said...

I'd love to hear how those Bankers and Big City Dealers describe their holiday view to their cronies.

Rog said...

Sarah: My perspective is normally a bit scruffy.

Pat: There IS more! Just need to get some work out of the way.

Dave: Threat or Promise? You decide readers.

Tim: The Pilchard was a funny place. The main bar had a big sign saying "Hotel Guests and Agreed Locals only" so I imagined a few theatrical Devonian folk were allowed in to create an authentic atmosphere.

Geoff: Don't tell me you're missing that commute.

Macy: You ARE perceptive.

Martin: "It was like a vertical Dale Farm"

Nota Bene said...

Did you get to go on the tractor at high tide? Great way to bring the view closer...

Unknown said...

Good to have you back Rog, especially since far too many bloggers are vanishing from our screens.

Richard WalkL said...

From the sun's azimuth & state of the tide (1.8) & I'm sure that's Tommy Pearce & his lovely wife Miranda on the sands (& Tommy would never take her out there on a rising tide), I reckon the view from your balcony was captured last Tuesday about 4 pm. Tim has accurately described me as a tidal bore.
You're spot on about the hotel & Pilchard.
Shame about Challaborough (which is not, of course, where you stayed), but you have a good zoom there.

Rog said...

Nota: I will be posting about the attractive Tractor later.

Mike & Ann: Don't worry, they'll all be back before long, mark my words.

Soaring: That is uncanny young man! If I lived there I would have the Tide Tables tattooed to the back of my hand. On Friday morning we saw a chap climb down the cliff to the East, get undressed, put his clothes in a rucksack and wade across the river Avon at low tide.
We stayed as you guessed in a very nice seafront spot which apparently used to be a run down amusement arcade. Hotel must have been delighted when that was redeveloped.

Richard WalkL said...

Not tattooed, but close - I have an app.
I seem to recall that the ghastly amusement arcade was owned by the same guy who owned the hotel. Of course the arcade was totally demolished to make those really nice apartments. Our sister Sue's family (from Norfolk) have stayed there several times.
Tim is being lyrical with my larging it at the Pilchard. Only been in there once & had a pint & baguette outside. Not local enough to be let in. (I, surprisingly, am from Soar, to the east).

Rog said...

Ah! We could find another 5 Tide-Table freaks and call ourselves the Seven Bores!
Those apartments certainly elevated Bigbury into the posh set. First self-catering hol we would gladly return to.
My brother had urged us to do Bolt Head but we couldn't fit it in - living in Soar must be idyllic - until you need to get to a Supermarket :-( Roads reminded me of driving down the Cresta Run.

Richard WalkL said...

Rog - it's a 4 minute level (by Devon not Norfolk standards) drive of 1.7 miles to the local Co-op, filling station, post office & 2 pubs. Or 10 minutes into Salcombe. Yep, a bit further to a megastore - I can live with that. You're probably thinking of the road to Bolberry.

Rog said...

Ah we drove past the Coop in Malboroigh. I hope they still do divvy.

Richard WalkL said...

Malboroigh? Sounds Scottish, put that in your satnav & you'll end up in Ardnamurchan.
Most people misspell it Marlborough, as in the fags or college or wine.