This post was originally published on www.randomstoat.com on 24 August 2010.
I got off to an early start on Tuesday. It’s been four years since my last camping trip and I dont think I’ll ever get used to waking up with the brightest light in the sky shining in my face. So, I made toilet, showered and got dressed, forgetting every few minutes that I had to keep pushing the button to keep water running in the shower. Accursed timed water release…
I waited for the others to get up, making the most of the spare time by lounging about, watching the world go by and reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The lack of punctuation and speech marks was initially jarring but once you get into the story it begins to make sense. The plan for he day was to head into Newquay so the ladies in our group could do some shopping, which was all done rather quickly from what I recall. I think I can blame a combination of Mountain Dew Energy and the long trip the day before, but I ended up feeling a bit cranky and reached the point of no return when it was decided to head to the beach for a bit. I’m not really a beach person, so after lurking near the shops for a bit I decided to retreat back to the car and listen to some podcasts.
This caused a minor incident which I won’t go into too much detail with, but I decided to sit in the car for a while before heading back to the campsite, where I continued reading The Road and partaking in more anti-social behaviour like listing to podcasts with my headphones in while everyone else enjoyed the sunlight while it lasted and threw a whistling American football thing amongst themselves.
Dinner was at the Quintrell Arms, where I decided to have a chicken curry to bring me out of my stroppiness. It then transpired that they had sold out and I had to choose something else. That really didn’t help my mood, further compounded when I received a portion of cheesy garlic bread as a starter. A whole portion indeed of the half a portion I usually get. I could only eat one piece of it, not because it was unpleasant (it was incredibly nice as it happens) but I have a slight issue with digesting garlic, so erm… Yeah.
Adding insult to injury, I threatened to drive home and abandon my passengers in Newquay (harking back to a comment made to me earlier in the day), which didn’t go down too well, and which I managed to keep bottled up until the main course was served. Great timing. Sorted that out reasonably quickly though, and felt much better afterwards, both for releasing my inner annoyance and for having a hot meal.
I’ve had a think about how my little strops work, and I’ve come to the decision that it is 99% based on excessive tiredness. I’ve also decided the only way for me to get over it is to go off and do my own thing for a bit, so a word to the wise if I’m ever being a bit grouchy – just leave me to it.
I don’t really recall what we got up to in the evening, I think it was mostly a case of sitting around outside the tents until it was too cold to stay outside. Then, glorious sleep. I’m happy to report that the rest of my week was much better after a temporary blip in personality. Camping: it brings out the worst in you at times.
