*+ Sunny Cornwall +*

Cornwall - just one of those British treasures you find and realise that the UK truly is beautiful.

Susanna invited us over to her house in Falmouth for the bank holiday weekend in May.
Open invitation to everyone - but only 4 hailed her noble gesture.

So we set out Saturday morning with the original aim to leave at 8am.

You know right, the famous Malaysian timing does not only apply to Malaysians. British people too.
I was the ready at 8.02 am on the dot, all raring to go as I figured that I should be good this year and make an effort to be on time in everything I do.

Mana tau...

All these british born people ...

Ended up leaving at around 9.30am, and even had a 2nd breakfast of toasted croissant on top of my cereal as one of our members took an age to get ready.

Susanna left the night before and she cautioned us that at night it takes 4-5 hours to get to Cornwall, in the morning anytime up to 8-9 hours.

By the time we reached Cornwall, it was almost 5 pm.
No joke. Because it was bank holiday, everyone was driving out towards Cornwall or that direction. It seemed like that anyway. At one point, we moved 2 miles in 1 hour! Madness!!

So when we arrived, we were pretty much cramped, tired and fed up being in the car. So of course, we moved on to the booze.

Welcome to Cornish cider - the Rattler.



A few hours of alcohol (by then which I have already turned red and tachycardic) we headed out for dinner.

Alcohol and me. The lack of the enzyme sometimes really suck.
I have narrowed down which alcohol affects me the quickest and also the many ways I can take it to ensure I have a good time.

1. Wine (red or white doesn't matter) and cider - shows the enzyme defect almost immediately. Blotching and erythema of my face, rash over my neck and 100bpm heartbeat is the first clinical signs and symptom.

2. Spirits - generally goes down better, does not get tachycardic too quickly. The facial rash and colouring comes on but much later.

3. Beer - don't like 'em.

4. Alcohol on a full stomach - able to stomach much more alcohol % but will feel sick almost as soon due to the fact that I cannot handle large volumes of food and liquid. Seldom regurgitate/vomit but have to spend the next half of the night placating waves of it.

5. Alcohol on an empty stomach - gets there pronto, but can only take small volumes of alcohol. Due to lack of food, might experience the horrible pounding in the head which means spending the rest of the night nursing it and pretending it is not there.

6. Alcohol while eating - probably best combination, with small amounts of food - only that when having dinner, one usually eats til one is full, and then forget to leave space for the large amounts of liquid to follow.

7. Best combination - dinner, followed by alcohol and dancing simultaneously. Truly work wonders as alcohol is burnt off, but leaving enough to intoxicate, but yet no side effects. Only bad effect is I sober up very quickly.

See.

Go out and drink also so many factors to take into consideration for me. Sometimes just not worth it.


Anyway, back to dinner at a neat bar called the Quayside Inn where we had 2 for 1 main meals of lousy pub food - but hey! 2 for 1. Eat what also can.


For me the night was combination no. 4. I spent the rest of the night refusing drinks because I felt nauseous but without the feeling of actually wanting to puke.

The other boys packed down the whole bar I think. Just the amount of times they went to get drinks was uncountable. And think of all the money they spent! (and I save. That's positive for being a lightweight) We were at a bar called Toast that had some Rastafari turban chap spinning hip hop music in a very cramped place. We of course left quite soon. We then moved on to Remedies which had 2 for 1 drinks (looks like Cornwall quite on with their 2 for 1 stuff) and we ordered like 7 drinks x 2, total of 14 gin and tonics!

Impressive boh

Arrived home after and then Sunday morning came.

Lovely Susanna thought of us and bought us ingredients for a post hangover fry up. I was kind of up the earliest and attempted to make scramble eggs - ok, so sue me, I didn't really know how to. I mean in Malaysia, since when does one have fry ups for breakfast???? NEVER! Or least, I never ever did. Can't even remember having much in the way of cereal... what did I use to eat before I went to school for 17 years of my life????

I need to ask Mummy tomorrow.

Anyway, a breakfast of bacon (grilled as an attempt for being healthy), fried mushrooms (allowed because we grilled the bacon), scrambled eggs and buttery toast was served up and I agree wholeheartedly that it is a fantastic boozy-night morning after cure.

Sunday was spent hunting down oysters and attending a local seafood festival where my cinakui friend and I queued up in front of Everyone for free oysters. After spending a good 15 minutes standing in front in the freaking spotlight for the shucked oysters, we finally got them only to have my cinakui friend spit them out right after putting it into his mouth.

Oirh. Seriuosly. British born chinese people. Fresh oyster also cannot stomach. Whats more enduring the stares of all while epitomising the chinese-freebies way only to not savour the fruits of our labour.

Should've just given it to me.



We then spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around tipping Pimms down our throats and dinner time was spent eating Cornwall's famous seafood at a little French restaurant.
When I say french, I meant that the name of the restaurant was french but nothing inside it is.

Maybe the picture on the wall was.

So £40 on wine and a starter of escargots and mains of fish soup. I love seafood. Did I say I love seafood?
But I feel still, nothing beats the chinese way of cooking seafood. I agree some types of seafood will be best eaten in their juices and au naturele - whatever man, the chinese way of doing it is packed full of flavour and tantalizes ones taste buds to no end.

Don't believe?

Try it.

Who can resist ham dan (salted egg) crab? What about butter prawns? Seong tong (soupy) lobster and even steamed fish with superior soy sauce?

Compared to the normal grill/pan fry/baked variety you get here, with a sprinkle of sea salt, coarse ground black pepper and fresh herbs. At the end of the day, it becomes the sort of thing you can do at home yourself. Why pay all that money to go and eat at a restaurant?

Don't understand max.

But the fish soup I had at so named french restaurant was quite good, although SO filling it was like drinking cream.

The last day in Cornwall was spent tucking into a poached egg and smoked salmon on English muffins (made by the boys - well done!) and then covering Cornwall for Cornish pasties and having cream tea with Cornish clotted cream. And yes, Cornish pasties in Cornwall tastes a lot better than the ones you get in London! They even have dessert/sweet ones like apple and raspberry pasty, custard pasty - the list goes on.

Our well set table for breakfast out in the sun, complete with juice and tea/coffee!

Oggy Oggy - pasties with a more doughy wrap, not as flaky

And yes, we enjoy our food...

Susann also managed to squeeze in a spot of sightseeing along the coastline.

Swanpool beach. RIGHT OUTSIDE SUSANNA'S HOUSE!

Sorry hunny, I can't remember what this place is called!

We left after purchasing 4 bottles of Rattler (must never forget souvenirs) to bring home with us and left for home well fed and watered with Cornish delights.

My verdict on Cornwall? I could live here. I really could. It's warm, by the sea, good food, and what made the whole trip one of my top getaways ever is the company. It is true that life is only as beautiful if you share it with someone and I am glad I had these people to share it with. I think the fact Susanna's house was so beautiful, the fact it overlooked the sea and the fact that it was surrounded with loads of greenery made the whole thing seem like an exclusive holiday getaway in a villa in the middle of Barbados.

The view from her patio out to the garden. Can so pretty or not?!

Obviously the real villa in Barbados will happen one day.

I also learned how to make scrambled eggs and poached eggs (an egg theme here I see) and sampled some of Cornish finest.

The only thing I missed out was Cornish clotted cream ice cream.
You know what? A great excuse to go back there again.