Thursday 27 June 2013

My Cornish Love Affair

Having spent a week away from the shire, I have returned with a renewed perspective and that lovely bubble of excitement that comes with having discovered somewhere that you instantly fall in love, and feel at home with.

My Manfriend and I arrived in St.Merryn, Cornwall, on Friday at about midday following a 4am start in Tenby. The sun was out and the coast was beckoning.  We went for a surf, me at Treyarnon, a smaller kook-friendly cove and Manfriend at Constantine, where the waves were breaking above slabs of rocks on high tide. It was so nice to be in the water somewhere different, especially where it's a fair few degrees warmer and a hell of a lot clearer. I felt instantly content, catching fun little waves with a few friendly locals and watching the light slowly dim in the warm horizon.



We stayed in a campsite that is really pushing its luck calling itself a campsite. I mean really. Hagrid would not have looked out of place here. In fact there was a man that looked decidedly like a three way cross between a wizard, Hagrid and Father Christmas. Still, that didn't bother me. Something about those rugged, 'roughing-it' places appeal to me largely.

Meeting a young couple who have run away to live in some overgrown field together, and who are so blissfully happy that it is almost visibly seeping and spilling out of them, made me really think about the beautiful synergy of love and simplicity. It's a no brainer really, isn't it?

It's all the extra bits that make love complicated. It's the past and the future and the circumstances that make it hard. It's never the love itself. Love is far too pure to ever infect something. It's the poison of external factors that cause the pain.

This week away made me a mix of contentment and melancholy - a kind of reminiscent drizzle of warmth, mixed with a little regret that it was only a passing experience. But meeting a couple who have come through hard times made me realise how relationships, platonic or romantic, have this incredible ability to bounce back. To hit somewhere dark and cold and hard, and then ricochet back up into the sunlight and the warmth with startling speed.

My best friend Biki and I often argue, in our own little secret code of jibes and subtle mood changes. We get sick to death of each other and each have traits that infuriate the other to the point of wanting to slap each other across the face. But it's normally after we have reached that climax of irritation that our friendship peaks again.

I think this happens in all relationships and friendships, you are so completely blinded by the blurry, dusty frustrations of minor details and little niggles that you can't see what's in front of you. Then, when you get to the top of that mountain, you get a glimpse above those clouds and you see that person's love and kindness, their hilarity, humility and endearing qualities. You knew they were there, but they haven't looked quite so striking in a while. That's when you realise that if you let this person slip out of your life, your view wont be half as beautiful. So, as it's falling down the mountain, building speed with every rotation, you swoop down with all of your energy to catch it, to hold it and to keep it safe. Because you remember how perfect it is after all.

Tryeyarnon Bay
 After five days in beautiful Cornwall, having met some of my Manfriends lovely pals, drinking far too much Cornish Rattler cider, and catching up with the gorgeous Esme from Newquay, I feel a great and unexpected sense of disappointment to be home. Not to be in this house as such, but to be back in the area. That old shadow and heaviness has returned, the one I used to get when I was in college, when I felt like there was so much more, but that I couldn't quite reach it yet. I'm starting to feel suffocated here. It's time for me to move on soon I think. But that's okay, exciting plans are in place.

For the time being I am extremely grateful for my beautiful Mother, who loves me endlessly, unconditionally and relentlessly, she is a good pal of mine and I am so grateful for all that she does. I am grateful for my incredible friends and of course for my gorgeous Manfriend, who still makes me crumble at the sight of him on the regs.

St. Merryn, I will be back. You've got a little piece of me already.

That's all for now


Jojo xxx