A Slice of History and the Floating Pineapple

Monday began with a chunk of culture.
Many chunks of culture in fact - all covered in moss and lichen and hidden deep in a wooded valley situated just a stone's throw from Totnes and Torbay - provided the stone was thrown by an enormous giant with superhuman strength.

Totnes was summer busy.
We passed 125 vehicles large and small, three towing caravans and two trailing trailers, all queuing down the steep hill into town from the Paignton direction.






The KHT loves a bit of history and wandered around, very happily listening to the audio guide,
living out her own version of Horrible Histories.

It was our first visit to this particular ancient pile at Berry Pomeroy - well what remains of it,
after local folks pilfered what they could
after the gentry downsized when the money ran out.
Leaving this once splendid home to mother nature's custody.
It did not disappoint.
Staircases were scrambled up,
dungeons descended down,
towers toured
and parapets peered over.









We then headed in the opposite direction to the queueing traffic,
to collect goods ordered from Argos 'Click and Collect' at Sainsbury's.
I would have preferred to have made my purchases from local stores,
but after several days searching,
I sadly reached the conclusion that they were not stocking what we sought.
'Click and Collect' would be the only way to obtain the required goods.

The KHT had set her heart on snorkeling,
and had been casting covert and covetous glances at snorkel-sporting beachgoers.
"Are those things real, or just pretend?" she enquired.
As the conversation progressed, we ascertained that she had not appreciated the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving -  which requires oxygen tanks and specialist training - hence she decided snorkels were merely imitation scuba diving kit...

Now I have only used 'Click and Collect' at an Argos store or John Lewis,
so I imagined that this would entail a certain element of human interaction.
I joined the queue for Customer Services,
read the texts I had been sent,
and realised' that it was a dedicated 'Click and Collect' point that I required.
I left the queue that I hadve mistakenly joined
and went to the lonely screen,
lurking beneath the 'Click and Collect' sign.
I entered my order references, as instructed,
and waited.
Another customer was also in the vicinity.
I enquired if she too was waiting for goods.
She was.
"Have you been waiting minutes, or hours?" I asked.
"Minutes."
We agreed that there was hope...
We continued to wait.

A diffident member of staff appeared,
handed over her order
and advised me that my goods will be down in a moment.
They arrived and we departed.

On the beach, the KHT plods her way through the instruction manual.
She does NOT desire any assistance.











The next day she decided to experiment with the inflatable, purchased in order to keep up with the other exotic holidaymakers who frequent these parts.

"You have to sort of dive on" I advised her.
She looked at me, a trifle startled, and launched herself successfully onto the pineapple.
This is the KHT's first experience of inflatables.
"Use your hands as paddles to move around" I instructed her.

After a turning in circles a couple of times, she sussed that both hands are required.

To my amazement, she manages to turn over on the pineapple, without falling off!
Eventually, she did manage to tip herself off,
but the water wasn't very deep,
and she clambered back on with ease.


After about 40 minutes the tide had started to go out, so she was encouraged to come back to shore, content with her endeavours on the inflatable pineapple - there's a sentence I never expect to write...

I was reminded of the summer after my grandparents finally gave up camping,
when we were gifted their redundant airbeds and took them to the beach to use in the sea.
My siblings and I had great fun!
Mum decided that she wanted to have a go,
but when getting on, she would insist on sitting,
which caused the poor airbed to sink.
It wasn't that Mum was heavy,
she just didn't grasp what was required.
In desperation, my younger brother and I put one airbed on top of the other,
and encouraged my Mum to try and climb aboard.
What we hadn't appreciated, was,
that as the airbeds were not attached,
they would slide in opposite directions,
depositing Mum unceremoniously in the sea between them.
A gentlemen, paddling on the edge of the sea,
roared with laughter at this chain of events.
Mum regretfully decided that floating on airbeds just wasn't something she was going to be able to master. We tried...

Remembering all this, made me very pleased with the KHT.
Mum was very clever and achieved and so much,
but never mastered inflatables - pineapples or any other shape!