So, following on from "Shall we go to Matlock?" It's now day two of our insane dash down to Lynmouth in Devon, and it's now Sunday morning and our final few hours before we head back to the Midlands.
The last time we stayed at The Blue Ball Inn at Christmas back in 2023, our so-called cooked breakfast was so bad that I felt I had no option but to moan about it on Tripadvisor. If I didn't know better, I would have said the food had been cooked the night before and then shoved under one of those food warmers you see at motorway service stations. But because the staff do not arrive until eight a.m. and breakfast is served at eight-thirty, the food hadn't time to get hot, and so it was with some trepidation that I ordered: "Full English, please?" this time around.
Not only was the food piping hot, but the menu had improved with a choice of smashed avocado and crab, for example. They'd also made some changes to the "Help yourself" bar. There was now a toaster and a selection of bread to make your own toast, along with a wide range of Jams, Marmalades and Marmite! After breakfast, it was sadly time to slope off to the room to pack.
Last night, while sitting in those comfy leather armchairs and slurping my second pint of Cornish Best
I'd said to the missus, "I'm tempted to text my boss and ask for Monday off if they have our room vacant for one more night." But of course, I didn't ask, did I?
Now, there are two places the wife likes: Barnstaple for shopping and Ilfracombe, so it was a toss-up for a few hours before we had to start the long journey back home up the M5. "Shall we go to Ilfracombe?" she said: "Maybe we can get Charlie and Icecream at that place we went to before? And maybe watch them catching crabs in the harbour?"
(Picture from 2019)
I took Charlie for a last walk at the Blue Ball Inn, and he and I went to say goodbye to the cows.
Charlie had never seen cows before and was totally confused about what they were and what the mooing sound was. After the walk, we all headed to the car and set off for Ilfracombe. It's about a half-hour trip further down the coast, but around halfway there, the sky became pretty overcast.
Me: "It looks like rain?"
Wife: We should be fine; Google says there's only a 20% chance of rain."
We parked up in the harbour car park just as it started to rain.
Me: "Looks like we're in the 20% then?"
We both chuckled and headed off for a wander, unperturbed by the weather. We're British, after all; we're used to rain. We headed up to the seafront, where they were having a vintage car show.
What a shame there was drizzle, which meant not only did the vehicles have their roofs up, but some folk didn't want to look at the cars in the rain and stayed across the road in the amusements or cafe.
One of my favourites was the Opel GT—what a quirky car! It has a flip headlight system operated by an industrial-size manual lever. Unlike most cars, the headlamps don't flip up; they rotate right to left! The problem with some places is that once you've done it, you've done it, so we only spent about an hour and a half in Ilfracombe, and then it was time to head home.
I'm glad we went; we both love it there. But on Monday, it was back to reality and back to work. I arrived as usual around 8:30 a.m., and my boss arrived at the same time.
Boss: "Good weekend, Pete?"
Me: "You're not going to believe this, but I did something mental, and we drove to Devon for one night!"
Boss: "What are you doing here then?"
Me: "You're kidding me! I was going to text and ask for today off."
Boss: "You should have done."
The missus wasn't a happy bunny when I texted her a couple of hours later to tell her we could have stayed another night. 🤦♂️
