blacktie on the beach

On Friday lunchtime I got a phone call from Charlie saying that she was lost… she was at the beach and needed directions to town. In Salcombe there are so many different beaches it was absolutely impossible to know where she was, but sooner or later thanks to the trusty Devon road signs (there’s no signal for satnavs down here) Charlie’s mini pulled into Whitestrand car park… she had arrived! We immediately said our long awaited hellos and then, in true Parrott style, headed to the Harbour House Hotel for afternoon tea. Despite it being a bit chilly, it was a beautifully clear day and so the views that we had while overlooking the estuary from the hotel terrace were beautiful. It was soon time to head back to the house as that evening Ewan and I were presenting a Jack Wills prize at the yact club, something we needed to look smart for… This was easier said than done when we were both houseless, with all of our belongings crammed into the back of the landy. Luckily, however, we have nice enough friends who volunteered to have us to stay, so we could temporarily use their house and we got ready for our big presentation. At the yacht club, everyone was so lovely and knew all about the Jack Wills race and so had reserved us seats at the front so that when the time came we could jump up and hand out our prize. Before that though, we had drinks outside on the yacht club terrace with all the commodores and chairmen of the club, we felt so important! The actual presentation itself was very sweet with families and young children winning all sorts of prizes and soon the Jack Wills prize was announced and we jumped up to hand out our gift. As it was Ewan’s birthday, after we’d done our bit, we headed down to the Bar and Grill for some drinks, dinner and lots of deserts.
On Saturday, thankfully, the weather was absolutely beautiful and so after a quick breakfast at home and completing the errands that needed to be sorted, we headed down to the beach on the water taxi for a very needed relax and sunbathe under the bright blue sky. We managed to spend basically all day at the beach until finally it was time to move into our new house and so we got our belongings and our new house keys and moved into our last house of the summer. The evening was filled with yummy pesto pasta and a film for Charlie and I.
On Sunday Grandma and Grandpa were arriving into Salcombe and so we got up, went into town for a quick brunch at the wardroom and then headed over to the Thurlstone hotel to see them. The hotel was absolutely stunning with a quaint rooftop terrace where we met for morning coffee before having a little explore of the hotel and town and then heading into the hotel restaurant for a delicious Sunday roast, something I’ve been missing so much since I got here. The weather was once again perfect and so after lunch we napped on the lawns comfy arm chairs and then went over to the pool for a swim and a sunbathe. When the afternoon arrived and it was time to go back to Salcombe, we had a phone call from the Rock Seasonnaires, to say that they’d arrived in Salcombe and so we met them for dinner and drinks at the Bar and Grill before calling it a night and turning in for a very needed sleep.
On Monday the weather was absolutely stunning and annoyingly we had a lot to do, so we got up extra early, drove around town like headless chickens sorting out the arrangements for our ‘fabulously british evening’ that we had planned that night, such as sorting out the table and chair rental, pre paying for 25 portions of fish and chips, etc, then soon it was time to head out into the sunshine. Our friend Dan had his boat out on the water and so we spent the rest of the day bobbing about in the ocean, relaxing on the water and even having a little picnic. Then it was time for our extravagant evening that we had planned. We got dressed up and headed down to South Milton beach, where our newly rented tables and chairs were waiting for us. We set up a banquet style table on the long beach, with table clothes, cutlery, champagne flutes, pimms jugs and even special party gifts on each seat. Soon everyone had arrived, all dressed in shirts and dresses and ready to mingle, chat, enjoy the sunset and play some fabulously British games, such as croquet and boules. When the fish and chips arrived everyone was absolutely starving and so we all sat down at the banquet table to eat as the sunset. After dinner we attempted letting off lanterns as we thought it would be a cute way to end the night however about 9 of the ten lanterns we had went up in flames, it was absolutely hilarious and as the sunset finally one lantern flew off into the sky.
After brunch with Charlie and the grandparents on Tuesday morning, it was time to say goodbye. It was such a lovely few days and I just wish she could have stayed longer!