It occurred to me a while ago that some of my regular blog readers, when reading about my various camping holidays, may be under the impression that I live on a permanent diet of coffee and cake as I seem to consume vast quantities of the stuff on a regular basis. The actual truth is very different though - at home I have a fairly healthy diet, only eat cake for a weekend treat and drink very little coffee, preferring tea instead.
The whole coffee-and-cake thing originally came about when I camped with my now-ex partner. He was an avid coffee drinker and whenever we were out somewhere during the day we would always find a cafe where we would have a mid-afternoon coffee - and the coffee always went down better if accompanied by some form of dessert. Sometimes it would be apple pie and cream - his favourite - but mostly it would be cake. Then when I became a solo camper I somehow continued the habit of having a coffee break while I was out exploring different places, and as coffee didn't seem right on its own it was inevitable that it would be accompanied by cake. And so a personal 'tradition' started back in 1997 has continued, and will no doubt continue as long as I'm on my camping travels. Add to that my own mad idea from early 2010 when I decided I would eat my way round the UK, having coffee and cake at each different place I went to, and it really does seem like I have nothing else.
So just out of interest, and as much for my own amusement as anything else, I recently decided to count up and make an alphabetical list of all the places where I've had coffee and cake since becoming a solo camper - and it's quite a lot, with four places having played 'coffee-and-cake host' more than once. So here it is -
Abergele, Alnmouth, Amble, Amlwch, Ardnamurchan Point, Bala, Beaumaris, Boot, Bungay, Caernarfon, Cheerio Cafe (name of exact location unknown), Cleethorpes, Conwy, Cromer, Deganwy, Durham Services, Elvaston Steam Rally, Filey, Fleetwood, Fort Augustus, Hemsby, Horning, Hunstanton, Llanberis, Llandudno, Llangollen, Llanrwst, Mallaig, Moelfre, Mundesley, Norfolk Shire Horse Centre, Oulton Broad (x 2), Pately Bridge, Penmon (Black Point), Plas Newydd, Potter Heigham (Latham's x 16), Ravenglass, Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Rhos-on-Sea, Scarborough (x 2), Seahouses, Skipton, Southwold, Thorpeness (x 2), Whitby, Wyre Estuary Country Park.
So that's 46 different places and a total of 64 lots of coffee and cake so far - that's an awful lot of cake! And just in case you're thinking that having consumed all those calories I must look like Mrs. Blobby....well thanks mainly to a very active home and work life I don't, and my profile photo at the top of the page doesn't lie! :)
About Me
- Tigermouse
- Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it
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Ha! You thought (mostly) correctly. I was beginning to think it was an English thing to eat cake every time a person went on a hike. :). Sounds like a great tradition to me. I'd certainly join you!
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's a bit of a silly thing really, but it's a camping treat I look forward to.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm out exploring and photographing I can go for hours without anything to eat as I'm so engrossed in what I'm doing, but if I do feel peckish then it's nice to have a mid afternoon break, and coffee just doesn't 'feel' right without the cake. It definitely wouldn't do for me to have it all the time though!
Cake and coffee spread out through the years hasn't made you spread out. That is clear from the photo.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely place names. My US tongue couldn't begin to pronounce most of them correctly, though I have an idea how Newydd might sound because a couple I know have a son named Dafydd, after the Welsh poet.
I suppose having a very active home and work life helps keep the calories at bay Jan - heaven help me if I ever become immobile, they'll hit me all at once from a dizzy height! :)
ReplyDeleteLL in Welsh is pronounced as Cl, eg Clan, climb, cling - but with a guttural sound as if clearing the throat. DD is pronounced as Th, W is U and F pronounced as V. Certainly not the easiest language where place names are concerned!
Nothing like a slice of cake and a cup of tea! Preferably in a bone chine cup and saucer with a large slice of batenburg!
ReplyDeleteSorry Jools, I beg to differ about the type of cup - tea in a bone china one tastes horrible to me so it has to be in a mug. And one reason why I always have coffee when I'm out but tea when I'm at home - a bad mug of coffee is still reasonably drinkable but a bad mug of tea is just vile. I agree about the Battenburg though - nice cake, but it's ages since I had any.
ReplyDeleteI love that first cup of coffee in the morning. I remember camping in Anglesey with absolutely pouring rain and being unable to boil a kettle outside. I loaded the kids up in the car in search of coffee and breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI remember camping on Anglesey on a March weekend one year, and although the days were sunny the nights were cold. We had made a bedtime brew using a small pan on an even smaller camping stove outside the tent and left some water and a teaspoon in the pan - the following morning the water was frozen solid with the spoon stuck in it!
ReplyDeleteNow, thats cold. After the above it was a standing joke that I would need feeding coffee at regular intervals. Did you sleep alright when it was that cold?
DeleteYes, I did actually. We were in a small 3-man dome tent and had a 4-inch thick foam mattress from an old trailer tent with a wool blanket as a sheet and another blanket and winter weight duvet on top. We were so cosy that we didn't realise how cold it had been overnight until we opened the tent door the following morning and saw the frozen pan.
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