WAS 1984 REALLY THAT BAD ?

 Hello again readers.  

To me the year was one I will never forget. Firstly the romance side of my life was eventually going into overdrive. Work was good and I was getting great annual assessments, which were great for my plans for my future career. Because of my new romance, some of my outside activities began to reduce, so my involvement with the Life Saving ended, which was mainly due to the fact I moved out of the Barracks at St. Mawgan and initially moved into a house share in Camborne, which was closer to work. Jane had found a job at Treliske Hospital in Truro so I was seeing her a lot when I wasn't at work. 

At Easter, my mate Tony got married, and that weekend I proposed to Jane, and she accepted. Eventually we found a place near Truro to rent, and we moved in together. The property was a bit unusual as it was part of a farm. The landlord lived in the main house, and there were a couple of apartments adjacent to the house. He had initially had them made as holiday lets, but found it easier to rent long term. The choice of animals he farmed was also not what you might expect for Cornwall. No fields of cows or sheep. Rather several barns of pigs !

Our mornings were usually woken by the sound of pigs getting excited when the pigman brought the food around. It was quite noisy and sometimes the din was made louder when the farm hand started shouting and cursing at them when they were being naughty.

As I was becoming domesticated I had to  get used to having my holidays in the summer, and so we went off on a touring holiday of South Wales and Pembrokeshire. We took our own accommodation in the form of a tent and camping gear. The weather was perfect for this trip and the drive up from Cornwall was great. No delays on the A30 or the M5. Those were the days before the major delays that happen currently.

We camped for one night near to the Brecon Beacons park, but then made our way to St, David's in Pembrokeshire

This part of Wales (as is most of the country) is very beautiful and there was so many places to visit and  to explore. We had plenty of opportunities to hike, especially along the coastal paths. The city of St, David's is the smallest in the country and in most  places would be considered a village. The main attraction is St. David's Cathedral which draws in many visitors every year.

We ventured a bit further away one day and drove to the other side of St. Brides Bay in order to catch the ferry to Skomer Island. Skomer is a national nature reserve, home to many wild seabirds, including Guillemots, Gulls, and of course the fabulous Puffins, which nest there during breeding season.

 
Apart from an old farm building used by naturalists during study periods, the island is uninhabited. The daily boat trips drop people off to spend the day following the footpaths around the island then takes them back later on.

We spent the rest of the year going about our daily lives as everyone else does, basically getting on with life and going to work. We started to make plans about our wedding the following year. We decided we wanted to have the big day in February, as not many people tie the knot then, so we could  pick which ever weekend we wanted and the decision was made that our honeymoon would be in Switzerland to take in a bit of skiing. Jane did say that we might have a problem with snow in February, although optimistic me said we probably wouldn't. (Famous last words - more about that later). As Jane was from Shropshire, that's where we would be holding the service. We had to visit her home to arrange the bans to be read in the church, as we did for my home church in Old Windsor.

We spent Christmas Day in Truro and drove to Newquay to say we had been to the seaside . It was a dull overcast day and freezing cold. The sort of day when you need to wear a duffle coat or parker to keep out the cold. The next day we began an epic roundtrip journey. We drove 300 miles up to my parents house to deliver presents and see my family. After spending a day there, we set off again to see her father in Shropshire. Again another long day driving, although only half the distance of the previous day. Again we spent a day with her dad then set off finally to get back to Cornwall. We were shattered when we got back and spend a day recovering, before Jane had to get back to work. I, being in the RAF, still had a couple of days before I returned to work.

As we were both off on New Year's Day we drove down to the Lizard Point and on finding a small shop open, had our first ice cream of the year, at the most southerly point in the UK.

So that in a nut-shell was 1984. The following year was going to have several changes to our lives which meant moving away from the county and starting a new job, but I will talk about that next time.

All the best 

Rob