We’re home!

I’m sure that it’s not just us, but Mr R and myself have come home from our fabulous holiday disillusioned with urban living and the jobs that we do day in day out, which in the main we quite like, but in reality would love to give up and have the opportunity to pack up, wave adieu and follow our dreams.

You arrive back home, dump the mounds of washing in the machine, and wish, more than anything to reverse the car out of the drive and head back to that idyllic little hide away that was home for a week or so.

Of course, after a few days we all settle back into the humdrum of daily life. Go to work, do that ironing, wander up and down the local Sainsburys, Tescos or wherever, looking for inspiration for what to cook for the next seven days, and picking up the odd chocolate bar, because the holiday is over and gaining a few pounds doesn’t matter anymore as no one will be seeing you again in shorts or cossie! You download the photos only to be popped in a folder and not looked at again. The holiday becomes a lovely distant memory, the suntan fades and we move on. Of course, Christmas is only a few months away so there’s that to plan and look forward to!

It’s only back home, day one, for us so we are still very much in that “let’s upsticks and start again somewhere else” zone. That somewhere else for us is of course Cornwall, and not just anywhere in Cornwall, but the far west in particular. An area that we have stayed both in summer and winter, and have fallen in love with. Mr R is lucky in that he can freelance in his line of business, so for him, he can pretty much work where ever, although west Cornwall is still a long way from anywhere! I could try and find a job as an almost ancient but experienced teaching assistant, but it’s not what I want to do forever more. The knees aren’t coping well these days with getting up and down from diddy little chairs!

I have had a good idea for a long time what would be my dream job and that is to own my own  little cafe, but yesturday I had a eureka moment and knew exactly the sort of cafe I wanted. West Cornwall has few villages of any size and many tiny communities, some only a handful of houses, are to be found down very narrow lanes where passing places are sometimes few and far between. In summer the population grows with holiday makers, but in winter I imagine it can feel rather remote, especially if your neighbour isn’t within sugar borrowing distance! Being a holidaymaker and not local, I don’t know how well catered the communities are for places to meet apart from the pub!

I would like my cafe to become a centre for people not just to eat, drink and chatter, but to meet up and join in activities or events. It could be used for knit (or stitch) and natter groups, film and music nights, mums (or dads) and babies get together, kids activities, learn new skills, pasta, paella, curry etc nights. The list goes on. Mr R as you may know, is a keen cyclist. so it could be a place where bikies could meet up and discuss whatever bikies discuss before going off on one of their jaunts!

My cafe would of course serve the very best of cafe food. Lots of freshly made yumminess and locally sourced ingredients. There would be sofas, a book swap corner, magazines, notice boards and items crafted by clever local people for sale. It would be a cafe that welcomes all but is first and formost a community cafe.

Well, that’s my dream. Dreams are free, but setting up a new business isn’t. At the moment the cafe project money bank is all but empty, but, as they say… never say never.

Meanwhile, the ironing needs doing and an early night calls as it’s back to reality with a bump tomorrow when the new school year begins again!