I was down in Cornwall and four of my colleagues were visiting, the reason.. The total eclipse of the sun.

Yes, I did actually get to see it as the clouds thinned just after totallity began and closed over again just before it ended.

It doesn’t seem like five years ago.. anyway, what were you doing then?

PS. It’s clouded over tonight, so no chance to see the predicted first burst of meteorites tonight.

It’s about half five on Sunday afternoon, so a quick round-up of the weekend…

On Friday I outlined my “plan” and I’m pleased to say that of all the tasks on the list I’ve done all but wash the car, but that’s not highly important at the moment.

It was this afternoon I managed to see Spiderman 2. Excellent film. It’s very much set up for the third film. 🙂

Yesterday’s BBQ was fun, the weather was purfect. That’s all that needs to be said, really.

And I’m bored.

This weekend’s highlights.. getting my hair cut, going to a BBQ tomorrow afternoon and possibly getting around to seeing Spiderman 2 at the cinema if I can work it into my schedule. I would also like to be able to cut the grass and possibly wash the car, in that order of importance. Actually, cutting the grass is very much needed, especially in the front garden.

This afternoon I sent out an e-mail to all the postgrads suggesting a visit to the local speciallist ice cream café instead of the normal coffee/tea break. guess what.. that’s right no-one wanted to. The boring lot! It’s no-where as much fun going by yourself, so I didn’t bother in the end.

I’d better stop whittering on.

Just as it’s time to cycle home another flippin thunderstorm turns up and down comes the rain!

The last thunderstorm was at lunchtime.

It’s just too hot, muggy, cloudy and horrid today.

If only it could be either hot and sunny or cool and cloudy, at least then you could dress appropriately or be cheered up by the sunshine.

You can see all the pictures I took in July at www.lingula.org.uk including those from my barbeque and my holiday snaps.

Well, that’s it for another holiday. There’s that long drive ahead of me in the morning. It looks like I’ll be glad of the air conditioning as the temperature at home is likely to be hitting around 30°C.

Anyway, today was quite quiet. I tried and failed to get any further with Unreal II. We also visited Coverack and discovered that they were having their regatta. It was no-where near as big an even as I remeber it from the early 70’s. Then it was a big affair with life saving demonstrations by the local lifeboat and helicopter from Culdrose along with large numbers of boats. Today it was a handful of boats doing races across the bay. Until I read the signs I didn’t realise that there was anything special going on. There weren’t even crowds on the harbour wall. It used to be packed with people.

I guess it’s the product of three things; the decrease in fishing, the large number of holiday homes and hence less local people and the loss of the lifeboat in the mid-70’s.

Right time for bed. I need to be rested for the morning.

Today’s trip was to Godrevy, just to the east of Hayle.

There I did a bit of walking along the cliff and photographed some seabirds. I think that they were either petrols, kittywakes or maybe fulmers. Alec would be able to tell me in an instant.

(About the size of a pigeon, yellow beak with long cyan nostrels, white body with grey wings with the grey band crossing the top of the body. Radial slightly lighter grey lines marking the primary feathers at the end of the wings.)

Other than that I’ve been playing Unreal II in easy mode and have got well past the point I’ve spent 18 months getting to in normal mode. I’ve still got to a point where I’m getting stuck and repeatedly killed, however.

Again I reach the penultimate day in my holiday. Well, penultimate working day anyway.

After another slow start we trundled off to St.Mawes castle this afternoon. It was dry for a while after we got there. It started raining just as the automated tour system got to the bit where you go outside. My mum decided to go back to the car. I listened to the rest of the guide information from the handset before giving it back. I collected my big SAAB umbrella from the car boot and the returned to the grounds of the castle with my dad. After a quick tour of them in the pouring rain we gave up and went back to the car.

On the way back we went via the King Harry Ferry rather the very much longer road route. It was different, though it probably didn’t save any time (as we had to wait for the next turn on the ferry) and cost more than the extra petrol would have.

Anyway, it gave me more opportunities for taking pictures.

Quite a leasurely start to the day due to a poor sleep overnight.

After lunch it was off to Falmouth so as to go on a boat trip down to the Helford river and back again. Originally, the plan had been to do this on Monday but the weather wasn’t up to it. Today the weather was surprisingly good, better than forecast as the clouds broke. Hence the decision at lunchtime to take the trip today.

Unlike the previous time we took the trip, about 15 years ago, the boat didn’t hug the coast from Pendennis Point over to the mouth of the Helford River but cut straight across the bay. Even so, the trip took almost 2.5 hours in total, which isn’t bad for £8.

I didn’t do much this evening, though I did notice that “Babylon 5: Crusade” has started playing on the SciFi Channel so I watched the first episode. It’s a pitty that they haven’t got the rights to the pilot film, “A Call To Arms.”

Having seen St.Mawes castle from the upper deck of the boat this afternoon we may go there tomorrow. We’ve never visited it before.