Oh how I hate painting at the moment even though I normally claim to quite like it. I feel as though I have done nothing more or less than paint for weeks – and it’s more-or-less true, other than the time I’ve spent doing my ‘day job’. That has been neglected this week, partly because of jetlag that I just can’t seem to get over and partly due to the need to get the painting at the cottage finished before the new carpet is fitted. I went to the office on Wednesday, saw my diary was clear for Thursday and Friday and took the two days off to try to stave off the jetlag once and for all as well as get this bloody painting finished.

All(!) that’s left to do is the glossing of the woodwork up the stairs and on the landing but it’s such a difficult job because there is loads of wood and the access is difficult – it’s narrow and awkward to work in the space. Having the dogs in this situation is a nightmare because the paint takes ages to dry and the dogs drop hair and dander on it while it’s sticky. They’ve been banned from the house while I work and Rosie is sitting outside the front door crying which is tugging on my heartstrings and probably getting on the nerves of the whole village.

Becks and Iain suggested a night out and we readily agreed on the basis that too much time breathing paint fumes isn’t good for us and we’d be much better off with good company, wine and good food. They took us to a tiny restaurant – yep, that building that looks like a shed behind David, Becky and Iain is, in fact, a small restaurant that caters for a maximum of sixteen people each night.

It’s the Trefanny Inn, which is sort of mid-way between the villages of Herodsfoot, Lanreath, Duloe and Pelynt on the southern side of the Cornish peninsula. The owners don’t care two figs about cramming in as many guests as possible, in fact, they stagger their bookings to ensure each table, as they are seated, get individual attention. Their lack of commercialism means the quality of what they do is superb in every way. Not only that but they have a policy of only using local produce wherever they can and everything is absolutely freshly made. Just my kind of place in fact.

The food was wonderful, I’d not hesitate for a moment to recommend this little place, though if you fancy a meal there you’ll need to book because of its size. We’ll certainly be going off there on a fairly regular basis I’d say....and the cool thing is that I only have to look at this photo to be able to ring them as their number is clearly displayed on the sign! The menu had not more than a dozen dishes on it but there were two good veggie appetisers and two equally good veggie main courses – there are many other places that could take a leaf from their book in terms of catering for minority food needs.

Becky and Iain are moving into our cottage for a couple of weeks on Monday because the builders in their place are knocking walls down so it’s going to be horrid there for a while. Our place will be empty for a couple of weeks so the solution was obvious – they move into ours with the little boy, Fin. Cool – our little house needs to have people in it and they needed somewhere to go so we are all really happy with the solution.

STOP PRESS: finally our broadband is sorted - so I sit here at the dining table wi-fiing my pic and text into the ether! Hurrah Hurrah - well done David for discovering that the problem was a faulty phone socket in the house.

Two years ago I was doing battle with traffic and last year I was too busy working all night for creativity so it was a pure snapshot that I served up!