What we did on our holidays

What we did on our holidays Emerged from my refactoring hole and spotted a break in the schedule — we made a break for the surf in Cornwall. Weather was as mixed as Cornwall ever is, and the surf was good for the first day and the last morning. (We should plan a surf holiday in Oz.) More holiday pictures

Indulged M’s love for camping and toured a little on the way down, visiting Cheddar and Dartmoor. Penvose Farm has lost a little of its charm in the last two years, as the fishing ponds have expanded, removing the isolated corner, but the welcome is as friendly as ever.

With flat surf and good weather visited Lands End and Mousehole and saw Two Gentlemen of Verona performed at the Minack Theatre with a lot of Cole Porter songs that Shakespeare forgot to include.

Miki had to return to London to prepare for the forthcoming Lovelydisgusting exhibition in Mayfair. Encouraged by cheerful forecasts on impending swell, I put her on a plane at Newquay Airport, conveniently situated right next to the campsite, and learned a valuable lesson: Ryanair really will not check you in without government issued photo ID, and you really do lose your money. (Also learned that their website is unusable from a WAP phone and the front page weighs a hefty 230Kb. So much for media-independent technology. In contrast, try Google or even 5jt.com from a WAP phone.) Fortunately Air Southwest is more accommodating. Did we feel less secure? I don’t think so.

Newquay Airport is also RAF St Mawgan, and on the rainy days when I wrote and studied, the sound of the occasional Tornado's take-off would shake the car.

By the end of Sunday the promised swell had failed to appear and I planned an early start home the next day. Up before 7, I popped down to Watergate Bay to find the beach and water almost empty and the best body-surfing conditions I've found outside Australia. Two hours in my new Tiki wetsuit, a big cooked breakfast and an easy journey back to London in the kind of Indian summer they feature on old railway posters — Visit Newquay.