Post by Dave on Nov 17, 2012 9:46:36 GMT
Polperro & Looe One Year On 1st September 2012
So many times we hear on the news it’s the anniversary of some event that happened or the death of someone famous. We then question if that event really happened that many years ago as it seems it happened far longer ago than we imagined. When we are waiting for the clock to tick down to some event that might be happening in our own life, time so often seems to drag and the event never seems to get any closer. But the truth is that life is ticking away faster than we think and at the age some are on the TFF, many will ask just where has all those years gone.
Life for me is all about choice, trying to live it how I want too and while there will be times we all make the wrong choices, as long as we avoid the ones we really will live to regret, then we have a chance to live what years we have left happy and contented. There will be events that happen in all our lives we had no control over, such events may break your heart, make you feel you do not want to carry on living as you fear your heart will never mend, or it might be the case you do not see any worthwhile future ahead of you.
But time is a healer and once we are able to accept what has happened there comes a time when we do have to dry those tears and try and find happiness again. Its back to that word choice again, we can choose to grow old and grumpy and bemoan all that has happened to us, or we can try and rebuild a new life where love and happiness once again is at the forefront.
When is the time right to move on? One thing I have learned is its only you that will know that and sadly others may feel its too soon and end up turning on you and excluding you from their life. It ends up feeling that you are getting the blame for what happened, even if nothing could be further from the truth. Life does have to go on and we all deserve to find happiness and love, I know I do not want to live in a world without that.
When you have been widowed, some expect you too walk around in black for two years at least and have no life while they continue to have theirs. They all say in the beginning they will be there for you, but soon forget you as they go to work and then go home to their wife or partner, while you come home to that empty house and that empty bed.
If we have a chance to be happy then we should take it, we can never know at the time if that chance will ever happen again. We have all gone into a shop and saw something that was on special offer and not bought it at the time, gone home and decided to go back into town the next day to buy it, only to discover the item has been sold out and as a result we missed out.
On the 1st September last year I arranged to meet a lady in the Toys R Us car park in Plymouth to go out for the day as friends. We had decided to go and spend the day in Polperro and Looe and we ended up spending over eleven hours together that day.
Poor lady had her ears talked off and at one point asked me in as polite as way as possible, to shut up for a while just so her ears could have a rest. It was a great day and there was no talk about starting a relationship but at the end of the day as we both did have such a great time, we agreed to go out again soon for another fun and enjoyable day out.
That we did and soon we discovered that we were so good together and just maybe both our own personal circumstances meant that we were meant to be together. We had the chance to both be happy again and we took it.
So one year on and what better way to celebrate what turned out to be our first date, than to go and relive that day all over again. With all the rain we have been having lately, I was worried it was going to be a wash out so to speak, but the sun decided to shine on us both. I was also worried if I would be able to walk anywhere, due to the fact I have had a sciatic nerve problem that has resulted in me not even being able to put on my own pants and socks. Having to still go to work as there was no one else to cover me if I didn’t, driving everyday had not helped me recover and possibly caused even more damage.
I struggled out of bed on Saturday and feared for the worse, but strangely the pain seemed to go away (at least until I go home that evening) and I was able to walk around both Polperro and Looe without any real problems. Mind you I did not attempt any cliff paths etc as that might has been fatal in more ways than one.
Places like Polperro and Looe are caught in a time warp, you can return there years after a previous visit and nothing at all seems to have changed. There are no new modern buildings and the streets are as narrow as you remembered them. But changes over the years there has been and so many of the cottages in Polperro are now holiday homes and a place that was once nothing more than a fishing village, is now just occupied for a good part of the year by holiday makers.
Lyn and I looked through a number of windows of some of the holiday cottages and as we read the prices being asked, we wondered why some people would pay such high prices to stay in them. We got held up while a man from Wales was trying to get his Merc around a very tight turn into a small driveway of one such holiday cottage. His wife was out of the car trying to make sure he did not hit the wall.
Lyn being originally from Swansea heard those welsh tones coming from his wife and soon struck up a conversation with her. She told Lyn her son and booked the two weeks in Cornwall for a family holiday with his wife and kids. The first week was somewhere else and the second week was at this holiday home in Polperro.
But the kids got bored and so the son phoned the owner of the holiday home and said he wanted to cancel if possible. At first the owner said he would lose his £300 deposit but then turned around and said it was too late to cancel and he had to pay the full amount even if he was not going to use the holiday home for the week he booked it. So he asked his mum and dad it they wanted to stay there instead and they said yes and just as well as the price the son would have had to pay for nothing was unbelievable. A staggering £1400 for the week and to be honest, if I could even afford to pay that for a weeks holiday accommodation, I would be looking to spend it in a far better place than Polperro.
We spent the same eleven hours out on this date, the only marked difference was that I did not talk nearly as much as I did on the first date we had there. The second big difference was that I did not drop Lyn off back at her home in Plymouth as her home is now in Paignton with me.
None of us knows what tomorrow will bring and just what we might have to face and deal with. But having someone to share all those happy times with , someone to be there to give love and support has to be worth more than anything else in life and I’m so glad I found Lyn when I did.
There are times I have discovered, when we do need to put ourselves first and do all we can to try and be happy and enjoy whatever time we do have left on this earth.
