There is no place in the world prettier than this. Anywhere. It has water the color of Bermuda. It has cliffs and ancient cobblestone streets lined with bakeries and restaurants and adorable shops.

Today began with a decision to run which was a mistake. I’m a retired runner after 25 years and came out of retirement to spend the morning with my daughter. I took her on the 5K I used to run when I visited St. Ives and got about 2/3rds through before nearly dying. And by nearly dying I mean I was fine cardio wise but the impact on my body felt dreadful and I decided to walk a bit as we worked up the South Coast Pathway. Lily ran on ahead which devastated me and elated her. She turned around eventually and we ran back together and then I fell to the earth in a sad and dramatic manner. I called out for Lily twice but she was too far ahead to hear me and only realized I was down when she looked back over the cliff and saw my crumpled body. Nothing broke except my screen protector on my phone and my ego.

After our run/walk we went and had a delicious breakfast on the harbor. We went back to the house and decided to do a morning shop where I found 2 dresses at the charity shop and Lily found some lovely green earrings. Lily treated me to lunch at a café and then we made our way to Porthmeor Beach for some sun bathing and a surf lesson. The wind was a little crazy and the ocean looked freezing but I had booked the lesson and was determined to give it a go. I had listed my weight in pounds as kilograms so the instructors were pretty relieved when I walked up and wasn’t 300 lbs. They had prepared a special surf board for me which they were relieved to switch out for a regular one.. Lily and I tugged on our wetsuits and booties and then feeling that we at least looked the part, we went down to the beach for our lesson.

Our instructor was a gorgeous, encouraging surfer girl who taught us how to paddle, push up and surf the waves on our stomachs first. There was lots of beach practice even to get the sequence of movements for this right. Then we went out and surfed basically in cobra pose and it was so much fun. We had a seal join us in the water and splash around. We went back on land and had the second half of the lesson where we learned how to stand up on the board. Again, we practiced the sequence: chicken wings, knees, finger tips, front foot and back foot. When our instructor was satisfied we were ready she sent us back out in the water. I had quite a few wipe outs but Lily did great, getting up a few times to ride waves in. I wouldn’t give up so after several attempts I stood on the board for like 3 seconds before biffing it. It was exhausting being tossed around in the sea with the surf. board but I’m so glad we did it.

After the run, my fall, and the having the ocean pummel me I decided it was high time to relax and begin dosing myself with ibrofen. We treated ourselves and my broken body to fries on the beach where we remained until late afternoon. In the evening we got dolled up and went back to Porthmeor Beach Cafe for tapas. We had fried artichokes with ricotta, prawns in spicy red curry sauce, arincini, homemade bread and mussels. It was divine!