Beach Barbecue

In St Ives there were a lot of notices about things one shouldn’t do (see earlier post), so I wondered if barbecuing on the beach might be prohibited too.

In the local co-op, I asked the shop assistant,

“Is there any problem with having a barbecue on the beach?”

“Yes,” he replied, “You’ll get sand in everything.”

But a beach barbecue on a warm evening looks magical.  What could be better?   Usually, our family is fairly quiet about it.  It probably looks as if we are enjoying sunset over the waves.  In fact, the shop assistant is right - we are concentrating very hard on not letting our courgette kebab slither off our bendy paper plate and into the sand.

This time, we found some convenient flattish rocks and perched at the sea’s edge.  But we were a tad uncomfortable, aware that for the nearby diners in one of St Ives’ trendy, faux-casual seafood restaurants we were The View. 

And to add to our self-consciousness, we were pretty sure that a family we knew were in there looking out at us.

Bravely, I sliced up a water melon in mid-air.  One false move and it would get covered in grit. 

Perhaps we should have paid up and gone to the trendy restaurant too.

But as I stood up to wash my hands in the sea, I saw we had guests – two curious seals had arrived and were bobbing only a few feet away, regarding us with great liquid eyes. 

However good the ambience in the restaurant, it couldn’t compete with that.