August Bank Hoilday weekend and I was able to escape to Scilly for one night. The main reason being that a school reunion had been organised for my class and any excuse to pop back home is a good one. So leaving Stuart in charge after breakfast on Saturday, I jumped on the Skybus and flew into St Marys.

It was a beautiful day and the islands could be seen as soon as we topped the hill over looking the airport.

20140823_104442 Cot valley

 

We landed at St Marys and I was met by Sandra who had organised the reunion, we dropped my bag off at her place and then I caught a boat up to St Martins to catch up with cousins and aunt and to see the newly revamped Sevenstones pub.

TrescoTresco 2

Views of Tresco as we went up to St Martins. Pentle Bay with Tresco Abbey in the back ground. Borough beach looking towards Old Grimsby and the Sea Garden cottages.

A great few hours on St Martins catching up with family and sitting in the sun, then popping up to the Sevenstones pub to see how Emily and Dom were coping with their first season as landlords. They are in the process of transforming the pub which had been closed for two years. I remember having fun climbing through windows when my uncle was originally building the place (back in the 70’s!) and getting into trouble for scuffing my new shoes!!! So nice to see it being bought back to life and serving the island community again. Good luck to Emily and Dom.

Back to St Marys and a quick change before heading out for the reunion. I was a little nervous, as some people I hadn’t seen since we left school 34 years ago!! I’m glad to say I wasn’t the only one with nerves, but we needn’t have worried we had a great time. A few drinks and a bar snack and the time flew by, before we knew it, it was time to go.

On Sunday I caught a boat up to Tresco to meet up with friends and family. The weather could have not been more different from Saturday it was grey and cold. After a quick cuppa with Mike and Isobel, I headed for Boro to see Nic and Al, Harry and George and also Dan and Cesca who had arrived from Manchester on Saturday. Then up to mum and dads and a lift down to the New Inn for family lunch. A very enjoyable afternoon was spent in the New Inn until it was time for me to catch my boat back to St Marys and the Scillonian back to Penzance. By this time the heavens had opened, so my nephew Jake, lent me a pair of waterproof leggings so I wouldn’t get too wet on the boat to St Marys. Jake has a fishing boat and goes potting after work each day so I was lucky enough to be able to bring back a lobster for tea, which ensured that I got a lift home from the Scillonian:-).

Only 34 hours away but it was so nice to have one breakfast off and leave my responsibilities behind for a short while, a real battery recharge.

Bank Holiday Monday dawned with a monsoon!! We had a big change over with lots of rooms leaving, so it was all hands on deck to get the work done and try to get a couple of hours off. By the time we had finished at midday the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. So Stuart and I decided to walk over to Newlyn and get some lunch at the Fish Festival.

Fish Festival    The display of fish that were later auctioned off at the Fish Festival.

Because of the earlier wet weather the crowds were not quite so big as other years that we have been, it wasn’t quite such a fight to get to see the stalls. Stuart had a crab wrap and I tried some roast potatoes with garlic mayonaise and chilli sauce for lunch, both were lovely. After a few hours of wandering around checking out the various stalls and bumping into people we knew and catching up on the news we headed into the main covered area and bought some Monkfish and Crevettes, we didn’t have time to wait for the auction this year as we had to get back to check in guests.

Crevettes

A healthy tea of garlic crevettes and salad at the end of a busy Bank Holiday weekend.