August 4-11 was the week of Newquay for John Fenton, Phil Snelgrove, James Travis, Martin Murphy, Tom Moreland and myself. And in a hostel nearby it was also the week of Newquay for Callum Robey, Peter Faulconbridge, Glyn Hanmer, John Gunstone, Alan Freer, Suzi Gregg, Sophie Ellerby, Jade Taylor, Charlie Crowson and Phil Riley.
I don’t have the time to document the whole week, so I will summarise and then provide highlights.
Saturday the 4th
We all got up at 6ish to make the train from Nottingham at 730. Myself, Tom, John F, Pete, Martin and Travis boarded the train to Birmingham and sat on the floor obstructing everyone’s way.
We then changed at Birmingham to catch the train to Newquay and found ourselves two tables opposite each other. We played a lot of gin rummy and listened to the girls behind us, who were being shamelessly chatted up by some losers. The girls seemed alright but John found them very annoying (a theme which would repeat throughout the holiday). One of the previously mentioned loser-boys asked us where we were staying in Newquay. We replied “RoseCliston campsite” and there was an excited roar from the girls behind us.
We arrived mid afternoon and were greeted by Glyn, John G and Callum. They took Pete off to their hostel and we got a taxi to the campsite. Inevitably we were placed opposite the girls from the train, along with their 20 friends. We got ourselves settled in and then wandered down to Morrisons for food and beer. Sitting around outside we all decided it was time for bed , but then upon looking at the clock and realising it was ten to eight, we went for a walk. Upon returning the girls asked us what we were doing that night and we said we were going to bed. They seemed shocked. We fell asleep at 1030.
Highlight: Seeing someone on the campsite and not knowing whether s/he was a girl or a boy. We all bet: John, Trav, Martin and Tom bet on her being a girl, and I bet on him being a boy.
Sunday the 5th
We awoke early at 830 and got ready for the beach. We chilled out on the sand for a bit before John and I pulled our wetsuits on, grabbed a board each and headed down to the waves. Neither of us were great (John was better than me but still quite poor) but we had an awesome time.
We then went to meet Phil and the train station and headed back to the campsite to get ready to go out.
Back in Newquay we met up with the other group (Callum etc) and some girls they were staying with. We wandered from beach to beach just chilling out and drinking beer before deciding to head to the clubs. Those who could get in went to The Beach, which had a foam party. For those who do not know, a foam party is where you go to a club and dance and whatever and then all of a sudden a machine starts pumping out foam all over the dance floor. It was amazing for a while. And when I say amazing, I really do mean it. Unfortunately after a while you realised that the only people on the dance floor were topless men and the foam started to seep into your nose and mouth, making you feel quite unwell.
Myself and Tom were up for staying out longer but the other 4 were not, so we went back for some more gin rummy.
Highlights: Discovering that I had won the bet from the previous day, much to everyone else’s surprise.
A conversation on the beach where Martin and Tom claimed that because it would take so long to count all the grains of sand on the beach, and that more would have come and gone by the time you’d finished, there is thus an infinite amount of sand. By the same logic therefore, there must be an infinite number of people on the beach. Ludicrous.
Monday the 6th
Things are starting to blur now so I don’t really know what we did during the day. I imagine it probably involved the beach and some arcades.
In the evening we all went to see Enter Shikari. It was one of the best gigs I’ve been to in a while. The move from hardcore to trance was very evident in the audience as the death pits melted into vibrant raves. One of the band members got into a rubber dingy and crowd surfed in it.
After the gig we walked onto the adjoining beach for a beach party. We were just settling in by the fire when the police came and put it out.
Subway then campsite.
Highlight: When we got back to the campsite some girls came to speak to us and asked us if we were “raving madheads” they then asked us if we were “bagheads” when we said that we didn’t understand they seemed shocked and told us that it meant ‘drug users’. The reason for this is that drugs come in bags…
Tuesday the 7th
Once again the day is a blur, it will be forever now.
In the evening the other group came over to our campsite for a BBQ. We had met two girls the night before and they also came over to our tent along with all their friends. There isn’t much to say except that Travis got amusingly drunk and it was overall a fantastic night. End of.
Highlight: Among the girls from the campsite was a 24 year old girl called Claire who completely psycho-analyzed John Fenton and his actions around people he didn’t know. It was hilarious and strangely wise.
Wednesday the 8th
We met up with the other group at a beach near where they were staying and went for a swim in the sea. We made the decision for only myself and Martin to go back to camp before going out in the evening, so as to save money on taxis. So the two of us brought a load of beer down to Newquay to meet the rest. We tried to buy a cake for Tom’s birthday (the 9th) but everywhere was shut, so we failed a bit.
We spent the night on a rock where we could see seals and then all went to celebrate the beginning of Tom’s birthday. The first word he said as an adult was ‘lampost’. This was planned and the reasoning behind it was that he “likes light, when it’s night”.
As hard as I try I can’t remember what happened on which day, and I fear I’ve already made a million mistakes. To summarise the rest of the whole week: we went to the beach many times, ate lots of subway, pizza and chips, drank a lot of beer, and spent a lot of time with the seals.
