I live in the village of St Germans. We are lucky to have may highlights throughout the year. One is undoubtedly the St Germans May Tree Fair weekend. It’s a time when the community gets together to enjoy live music, tug-of-war, stalls and more. The weekend is full of fun; there’s a mock mayor election […]
On the love of education
It’s funny how life twists and turns. Before our business Railholiday became the focus of my days, I was a music teacher. After two decades of juggling two jobs, a family and a band I finally realised I couldn’t do it all, so gave up teaching to focus on the business. Recently I’ve started teaching […]
We can be heroes. Celebrating extraordinary ordinary people.
The other day I found myself in Truro at a solidarity event organised in support of the Restore Nature Now march that was taking place in London. I always find attending such gathering is good for the soul, as it is an opportunity to meet new likeminded people and connect with friends. While there I […]
It’s a win-win. Show compassion and solve a labour crisis.
I feel myself fortunate to have friends of all nationalities. Of these friends a few have fled from conflict. These include a conservationist, artist, musician, doctor, economist, chemist and locksmith. The countries they have fled from are as diverse as Iran, Serbia and Trinidad. All showed enormous bravery in coming to an alien territory to […]
Take the bus! On the joys of slow travel
Do you ever feel the pace of your life is too fast? Much has been made of the importance of slowing down. This trend has inevitably been monetised, with a proliferation of wellness channels extolling the virtues of slow living, with books and merch to match. But are we heeding the advice? It’s quite hard […]
It’s action time! A campaign for cleaner seas for a healthy planet.
Last year I took part in a clean water ‘paddle out’ organised by Surfers Against Sewage. Joining others on boats and kayaks, we swam to the diving board off the Hoe, having persuaded a friendly kayaker to transport our banner. The message was one that we’ve heard a lot recently; pollution is damaging our oceans. […]
Defending our right to protest and speak the truth
In 2011 we visited an journalist friend in Kyiv, who at the time was a reporter for Ukraine and Belarus. His stories of Belarus were fascinating. Ruled by the authoritarian dictator Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, Belarus has long been criticised for its record of human rights and the silencing of journalists and opposition political movements. […]
On a quest for the best recycled toilet paper
It’s extraordinary to think that four years ago we were in deep lockdown, and life was so radically different. One of the memorable incidents of early Covid was the sudden rush to stock up on essentials leading to empty shelves, and a toilet roll shortage. Of all the things we felt we couldn’t manage without, […]
The importance of acting now for a healthy future
A few weeks ago I went to a talk about climate change by the inspirational Hugh Montgomery. Hugh was a professor of intensive care medicine at University College London before he decided, for the sake of his children, to put all his energies into fighting climate change. Hugh’s talk was impressive in that the data […]
Second homes; an environmental and social problem.
I was recently incensed by an article in a mainstream paper. The columnist chose to use his piece to complain about how inconvenient and unpleasant it was to visit his father-in-law’s second home in Cornwall. He went on to say they used to go there for a week every summer with his family, but now […]