What I did on my summer holiday - By Ali Yates, age 27

Helen, Rob and I just got back from our holiday in Torbay, the place that I grew up in. This destination was chosen because of the beauty of the area and our desire to visit such a piteresque locale and had nothing whatsoever to do with the prospect of free accomodation in the form of my parents' as yet unsold house (they've moved to the States).

I will now detail what we did, I don't have pictures though, sorry, maybe Helen will also tell you about the holiday and give some pictures. She will possibly remember more details.

Sunday
Arrived a little while after 4, I remember because we'd just missed the local Somerfield for buying milk and had to walk to a further away shop with better Sunday opening hours. Settled in, drove to Broadsands beach only to discover that there's double yellow lines all over the nearby road where people used to park, so had to pay to park in the car park. As far as I can see, there is no safety issue with people parking in the road, and the lines have been put in to make sure that the council gets money from the car park. We walked across the cliffs to Elberry Cove. (so that we were able to take the dog onto the beach, as broadsands doesn't allow dogs in the summer months) watched Rob skim some stones and Rex run up and down by the waves, he wouldn't go in at all, but found stalking them to be great fun.

Monday
Went to Berry Head in Brixham to see the Tall ships race. Due to the poor visibility, this mainly consisted of loads of people standing, peering into white cloud, and suddenly pointing, saying: "Look, that slightly different shade of white there, that's a ship!" It was a nice walk though.

Tuesday
Shopping in the metropolis of Paignton. Bought random tacky touristy gifts for work. Also bought my brother a birthday present (which is a bit naughty as his birthday was the week before, but since I wasn't seeing him until Thursday I figured I'd get away with it.

Think we went to Elberry again on Tuesday evening, but it may have been a different night that we did that, walked down through the woods this time as there's no parking near Elberry (which is one of the reasons I like it, it gets less people there because of this), hence parking at Broadsands and walking over the previous time.

Wednesday
We spent the day on Dartmoor, we went to a less busy area just North of Dartmeet, I think it was North anyway, may not have been. We walked quite far, but Helen and I chose not to climb to the top of the tor we were near. Rob decided he would, so he set off, claiming he'd be back in two or three minutes. 50 minutes later he returned, I don't think that was a bad time, but I'm glad we hadn't gone up with him. We drove back to Dartmeet and went for a nice cup of tea and a scone at Badger's Holt. Well, I had a scone, Helen and Rob just had drinks. I figured I'd done enough walking to justify the scone, it's not like I put cream on or anything, though it was real butter, ummm.

On the way back we stopped at The Dartington Cider Press Centre and looked around in the shops for gifts and things until it closed. They had some very nice cards, but I didn't buy anything.

Thursday
Paignton Zoo. The third largest zoo in England I think, or at least it used to be, I haven't checked if it still is. What is the difference between a Meercat and a Prarie Dog? Are they related? Or just completely different animals from different countries who happen to exhibit the same behaviour?

FridayWe went on Paignton and Dartmouth Steam railway, always a nice day out, this time we bought a combination ticket where you get a round trip on the train, seeing the whole line, plus you get to go across the ferry to Dartmouth and then have an hour's tour on a boat. The ticket is imaginativly called the "boat train". I learnt something new, I had somehow never noticed that Dartmouth used to have a station (it's now a restaurant) and that in fact originally the train was meant to go to Dartmouth, hence the name Paignton & Dartmouth, they were going to bring it over the river and across, but due to opposition couldn't, so it had to be diverted to Kingswear and passengers ferried across. Making Dartmouth the only place in England to have a railway station that never had a railway leading to it.

Saturday
Lazy day, mainly spent playing Soul Caliber II on the PS2. Walked round Brixham harbour and across the breakwater.

Sunday
Left at about 11, traffic wasn't bad and we made it back in just under 4.5 hours with a half hour stop for lunch, my right arm is very sunburnt due to having the window open while driving, I hope I don't look too stupid if anyone sees both of my arms.

Over the week I also had plenty of time to read, so I read:
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffeneggar
Airframe - Michael Crichton

And started reading:
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction - Sue Townsend (not really enjoying it, Adrian is a very annoying man)
The Killing Joke - Anthony Horowitz (also not enjoying, I have read some of the Alex Rider books (kids books about a 14 year old spy, they've just done the film of it: Stormbreaker) and thought they were quite good so I'd give his adult book a go, but I think I'll stick with his kids books perhaps.