Five days by the sea

Since the Olympic Test Race, which will be four weeks tomorrow, I have been trying to decide where if anywhere I shall go for my next holiday at the end of September. Orignally I had planned to take a full five days holiday, stretching it around my days off to nine, but when I realised that this would not allow me sufficient time for a trip to Lundy in the late winter/early spring, somewhat reluctantly changed this to three days, seven when you allow for my regular days off. My working schedule means that I have Thursday and Friday off one week and Saturday and Sunday the next. Since this is a seven day a week business, in order to have these weekends off, I have to work for seven days in a row beforehand, which really is exhausting. Having to chnage my plans in this way is then less than ideal, since it now means that I will have to work for seven straight days upon my return, but in this case, it cannot be helped.

This could have been avoided if I had not taken a long weekend off for the Olympic Test Race, but at the time I felt that it was necessary to get the pictures that I thought we would need for a special Olympic edition of the newsletter that I hoped we would publish next summer. Unfortunately for me, the rest of the Box Hill News team, for reasons of their own, did not feel that this was a good idea, and so those two days were in effect wasted. Coran and I were not best pleased about this, but what can you do?

The combined effects of this, Corans health issues (he continues to have tests to find out what is causing his sudden energy dips) and constant staff shortages at work, has not surprisingly left me extremely depleted and lacking in energy, so much so that I have been going to bed most nights this week by 8pm. Sleep when it does come is fitful. I wake up several times a night, and once awake, find it extremely dificult to get back to sleep. I wish there was some way top break this cycle, but I have no idea of what it might be. I suspect that what I need is to get out into the fresh air in nature, in particular to sit near the sea. I realise now that it was a mistake to rent a car for as long as I did on the Isle of Man, as it meant that I was unable to do this, and I am now reeping the results, in that I have not had my full quota of light to set me up for the winter months ahead, hence the fact that I find myself now craving the outdoors in a way that I haven't for quite some time.

This is why, despite the long drive, I have decided to go to Cornwall again at the end of the month - actually Cornwall and North Devon. I enjoyed that week that I had there last year so much, walking by the sea and breathing in the air, that I really feel that I need that again, before the winter sets in and I lose the chance. So, I have booked two nights at the youth hostel in Tintagel and three at Westward Ho. I know that part of Devon well from those previous trips to Lundy, and it is a beautiful part of the country, ideal for relaxing by the sea, or on a clifftop with a good book, or in my case, a collection of good books on a Kindle. I can't wait.