Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

Earlier in the year I photographed the Valentine's Day storm ripping apart Penzance promenade, even though it is constructed of two-ton granite blocks. The swells were heavy enough to break up the jigsaw construction and scatter hundreds of them along the shoreline.  Valentine's jigsaw destruction The blocks were recovered from the sea bed and craned onto the top of the prom where they have rested all summer, awaiting someone to come and replace them. Someone genius enough to unscramble the pile and rebuild this jigsaw. Storm damage to the old railings Jigsaw pieces So yesterday I went down with a camera to see how the crane and workmen have been piecing it back together over the past few weeks.  Each block has been measured Main keystones laid Flat blocks laid down between key stones and held in place with steel bars drilled through the block. Holes drilled in the blocks so they can be lifted  The engineers st...

It's that time of year again, the one where winter has ebbed slowly away, and the sun has finally decided to get his hat on , which, it turns out, is exactly the sort of hat designed to convince you that there's a veritable heatwave happening, right here, right now.  And so when I was asked if I wanted to go sea swimming last Thursday, of course I immediately said yes.  But then, I had to say yes because people always say yes when the person who's asking the question is Big Frank . If you followed that link to the website of Big Frank, a massive black Dutch guy whose strap line is  ' When you want to make sure you get your money quickly ', then you'll be pleased to know it wasn't (luckily) him asking.  Although obviously I would have had to, if he had asked. No, this was my neighbour Big Frank, from down the way. There is another Frank as well, you see, known to all as 'Frank', and Big Frank is, er, bigger than him. Mainly by dint of Frank bein...

A relative emails to remind me of a promise made in a previous blog , and asks me how the training has gone. Well the training has been and gone, as indeed has the Yacht Inn Swim itself, delayed two weeks by yet another summer storm. Start Line I started training for the swim back in March or April where I was unpleasantly surprised to find myself breathless and tired after only 10 lengths (250 metres) of the local pool. This despite having built up over 20 years of surfing muscles. With some trepidation I contemplated the 1300 metres of the Yacht Swim,  from Newlyn to Penzance alongside the Promenade. A pool membership plus five months of stroke correction, style correction, searching for non-leaking goggles that actually fit my odd shaped face, bilateral breathing correction, sea swims across Perranuthnoe beach, from Gwynver beac h to Aire point, random beaches up in Wales, even inside Penzance Harbour during storms, and my vastly improved and confident swimming ...

Two magnificent pieces of architecture for the price of one

Every year a small group of friends used to swim from Newlyn to their favourite pub, about a mile away in Penzance.  Gradually the group expanded and this year saw over 500 hardy fools attempt this 'Wild Swim'. Having witnessed  Captain Indestructible  finishing this swim despite an ever-lengthening list of ailments, I rashly promised that next year there would be another less than hardy fool in the starting line-up.