Is anything too grand for Cornwall?

So Eden marks its tenth birthday and has brought billions into the SW economy over that decade. I guess I’ve got laid back about it that’s an incredible achievement! I’m so used to it being on my doorstep but it really is a global building and it’s here in Cornwall, just down the road. I see that Tim Smit’s next project is also going to be in the St Austell area and is going to be a water therapy park. I can’t wait to see what he does; will we be swimming in the gravel pits? Slides down the pyramids? Lots of seaweed wraps scooped up from Par beach? Given Heligan and Eden whatever it will be it will be a success and another total asset for Cornwall. Great things can happen when one person has a vision and has a team backing them up. Where things tend to go wrong is when they hit committees. “If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock”. Let’s hope that Smit manages to get his next project past planning without too many hiccoughs, after all his track record speaks for itself.

I was really disappointed to see the article in last week’s West Briton about the rejection of Prince Charles’s design for a new housing estate. One of the main problems was that of the centre piece construction, a Georgian style crescent building. This building would have provided many of the 97 homes, 35% of which will be affordable, either for rent or first time purchase. Some of the reasons for the rejection were because the building would have been “overly ornate” and “too grand”. A new, scaled down more subdued building has now been put forward. How incredibly depressing is this, too grand for Cornwall eh? Should we all know our place and keep looking down. What’s wrong with aspiration? Talk about paucity of expectation. Are scrolls and columns not for the likes of us then? Let’s keep things plain and quiet, let’s not rock the boat by doing something that might attract attention.



Can you imagine how wonderful it would be for someone going into their new council home and discover it was a place of beauty. People live up to their environment , time after time it has been shown that if you give someone somewhere nice to live they stand taller (I’m excluding teenager’s bedrooms from this you understand). I’ve driven through Poundbury many times (HRH’s development outside Dorchester) and it’s wonderful – everything looks good, traffic moves slowly as pedestrians have right of way and there are little corner shops everywhere selling all sorts of things, it thrives and buzzes and loads of it is affordable housing, that’s a council estate that I’d give my eye teeth to live on.



I’m not saying that the new designs for Truro aren’t nice, it’s just frustrating to hear that something is too grand. This is a stunning county, with incredible people who have shaped this nation through their endeavours and inventions, nothing is too grand for Cornwall, Cornwall deserves nothing but the very best. I know we are a poor county, disadvantaged and overlooked by central government but for someone in Cornwall to say something is too grand is terribly sad. It’s like being stabbed in the back by your own side.

(The image above shows the rejected design, the image below shows the more acceptable version for the crescent block.)

Bad customer service or just a bad customer?

So there I was at the level crossing, gates downs, clay train nowhere in sight so I thought I’d switch the engine off and listen to the radio. Eventually the train arrives and passes the gates are raised and my battery is dead. No phone, no wallet, loads of traffic that I’m holding up even more but thankfully there was a garage right on the other side of the crossing. In fact of all the places I could have broken down at least I was right near help. So I nipped over the line popped in and asked for help. I explained I couldn’t pay straight away but would call later. Less than five minutes later engine running again following a great jump start. Excellent, or it was until I got home and found that that had cost me £58. Standard call out charge apparently.



Now I know I should have asked first, I know that they are trying to run a business, but nearly £60 for a drive of less than 100 yards and 2 minutes labour? I doubt that they made any easier money than me that day. So I’m fed up, I’ll never use them again and if anyone asks me my opinion of local garages I’ll not be adding them to my list of good guys.



Which makes me wonder about good customer service. Maybe I’m being unfair, after all they came out and fixed my car, but if they had told me in advance what the cost had been, I’d have declined, found a phone and called Steve out. In straightened times, a smile goes a long way and costs nothing. Keeping your customers in the loop, giving them options, even if it might mean you lose the sale, will mean you’ll gain their gratitude. Hopefully, they’ll come back to you for something else or maybe they’ll just tell others how good you are.


It’s funny isn’t it? I can’t tell you which garage it was because that wouldn’t be “fair”, I can tell you about good service but not tell you when I feel let down. It’s all part of our sense of fair play. I made a mistake by not asking the price, they gave me a service so to complain would be churlish. And yet… Still I’m glad that it’s this way. I’d rather we all praised people to the hilt and named them but kept quiet about those we were less impressed with. But there’s lots of companies out there, that play exactly by the letter of the law, 90 day warranty means just that if your washing machine dies at 91 days then tough. Or that the excess charge was clearly laid out on page 14 of the small print. I’m sure we’ve all been caught out and left to feel stupid about it but it does rankle.


Incidently, just to make clear I am not talking about the garage at Twydreath Highway by the railway line. They are lovely chaps and I’d recommend them in a heartbeat.

Blowing out the cobwebs.

I’ve had a great weekend but it became obvious to me that it’s been a while since I’ve been out to play. I’m exhausted now and wondering if maybe age is more than just a state of mind. I got my first reminder of how long I’ve been out of circulation when I went to buy Steve and I a drink and the total came to £6 something. I say six pounds something because quite frankly when the barman said 6 my brain went into paralysis and a weird buzzing noise filled my ears, with a sort of dumb shock I handed over my £10 note and left with change that did indeed only include 3 shiny coins plus shrapnel. Sitting down with Steve I studied my small glass of wine, I deliberately chose the small option in case it wasn’t nice and at Steve’s pint of Doom Bar, with a certain amount of awe. We were in a nice country pub (I won’t name names) but it wasn’t somewhere where I expected city prices. In fact I had better not go to a city pub now without my cards, cash probably won’t be enough.




We were gradually joined by other friends who had all come out for a friend’s birthday party. It was great to see so many of us in a pub, in the evening, with no children, that in itself was a celebration and we all made the most of it. We also met some new people who were great company; it’s always such fun to discover new conversations and ways of looking at the world. A loud and happy evening eventually came to an end to be naturally followed by a delicate morning. Of course in the past I would spend such mornings being quiet and gentle, no sudden movements and the only strenuous exercise being to switch the kettle on. But not now. Not now that my boys play rugby and I have a dog that needs a walk. So dodging showers and it really lashed it down this morning we got Harry walked, the children suited and booted and made it to Truro – (it would be an away match) with only minutes to spare. The ground was very soft in fact the lower field had clover and reeds growing in it – not good signs! Our U12s were beaten by, I’m afraid to say, a very good team, but if you’re going to be beaten at least let it be by the best. Our U10s however won their match as convincingly as the U12s lost theirs so balance was restored and as both of my boys scored a try there was peace on the drive home.



Of course returning home still meant no rest for us as it’s back to school tomorrow so uniforms to be ironed kit to be scrapped down then washed, bags to be packed, homework to be checked, projects finished off all done at full volume. And in the middle of all this I’m trying to finish off my VAT return. Well I’ve done it now or else I wouldn’t be typing this. So a nice hectic weekend to round off an enjoyable half term, I hope everyone had a s good a weekend.

The grass is always greener....

Doing battle with the green eyed monster at the moment. I think I’m winning but every now and then it grabs me by the ankles and trips me up. Whilst I’m lucky in so many ways and have so many things that half the world might be grateful for I can’t help but look at those with more than me and think envious thoughts. Which is silly because I already have so much. But the start of the holiday season always seems to kick it off as I look at those lovely brand news cars towing jet skis and the like as they overtake me on the A30. Wandering around Truro in my walking boots and dog walking coat I look at families dressed to the absolute nines and think that it would be nice to dress my children in the latest styles (well it wouldn’t because they’d either rip them, stain them or grow out of them before I could blink an eye) but it’s nice to fantasize!




The problem with living in a tourist area is the sudden influx of people who view our home as a holiday resort, so of course they’re dressed up to the nines, they have literally pushed the boat out and like all of us on holiday they spend money with ease. This doesn’t mean they have lots of money on a day to day basis just that they have saved up and are now spending. They probably don’t behave with such financial abandon at home but that’s not the image I see. I just see the “what the hell, let’s have another one…” and so I get a little green.



Of course the thing that makes me really green are the second homes. Now let me make things really clear, I have nothing against second homes in principle, good grief if I had the money I’d have a second home in a heartbeat. My second home would be on the Lizard, oh and one up on the north coast, and one on the Norfolk Boards and one near Cley. The point is, oh I forgot and one up in the Hebrides, and finally one on St. Martins; that’s St. Martins on the Isles of Scilly not the one in the Caribbean. Oh what the hell, I’ll have one there too. Whoops less of a second home more of a holiday portfolio. I guess my point is that those with second homes really do have more money than me and every so often I have little human moments and think “not fair.” I think it in a very small voice but I still think it. It’s then that I have to get a grip and remember what I say to the boys, we are happy and we are healthy, if we had to drop one of those to be wealthy which would it be? Of course my boys are smart and point out that you can be wealthy, happy and healthy, at which point we all sigh.



And as we sigh, we collect the boys from school and head to the beach to catch some waves and have a barbeque tea. Or we scramble over the moors, not caring what we look like as we explore waterfalls and stone structures. Or we breathe deeply enjoying the sun above us or the wind in our face and the glorious surroundings that we live in every day and our sighs get a little less envious and a little more contented.



Of course if anyone out there reading this has a spare second home they no longer want, I’ll happily take it off their hands.

Launching The Cornish Bookshop

From time to time I’ve mentioned that I’ve been working on a new project and it’s now almost finished. Steve and I have launched a sibling business to Hurley Books called The Cornish Bookshop. It’s going to be purely online  but you can always give us a call on 01726 825245 if you would like to collect your order from the warehouse. The Cornish Bookshop aims to stock all books in print about Cornwall and also has a really large collection of secondhand and collectable titles. We’re also beginning to build up ephemera, postcards, leaflets etc.




So far I’ve added over a thousand titles and it’s exhausting. Each book needs to be checked, something needs to be written about it and it needs to get categorised. Right from the beginning I felt that when people shop online not enough attention is paid to how people shop. There is too much emphasis on selling, not so much on buying, so we’ve added a few “tweaks” to make life easier for the shopper. For instance you can search by subject i.e. maps, wildlife, mining industry but you can also search by area. So if you are interested in knowing what books there are about your locale then search under St Austell or Falmouth, I’ve also added a map so that you can see if Meva falls under The Roseland or St Austell. Some of the boundaries have been really tricky and often made trickier by my own incompetence. One day I managed to relocate all of Newlyn to just outside Falmouth. I had artists and sailing all jostling in the same camp until I spotted my error. This area search has also made my brush up on my Cornish locations. Where exactly is Treburgett, is Carnon Downs closer to Falmouth or Redruth? At the start of this I didn’t have a clue, I’m not sure how much better I’m doing now but at least I know where Newlyn is.

I’m also learning Cornish! Not by design but as I list books published in, what to me is a foreign language, I’m scratching my head trying to work out what it’s all about. My favourite word so far is kerenza; I’ve often seen it around but have only just discovered it means love. That’s not the only thinks I’m learning by osmosis, I’m also discovering where the main mineral lodes are across Cornwall, where the best place to spot a small blue butterfly is and just how many boats sink off our shores. On cheerier notes I can whip up a fabulous pasty and have found loads of new walks for Harry and I to explore. I’m also hoping that this venture is a huge success because I’ve discovered some fabulous painters whose work I want to buy. Those displaced Newlyn artists were incredible and terribly expensive.

It’s proving to be a really fun venture, we’re trying out lots of new things, including accepting book tokens online (tricky but we’re working on it) chatting to people on Facebook (people all across the world love Cornwall) and running special offers. Pop online and have a look, we’re still a bit scruffy in parts but we’re getting there.

The Cornish Bookshop