So back to our Cornish adventure.

Woke up late on Thursday and it was still raining. Spent the morning looking for something fun to do and after feeding the ducks on the patio set off for the Bodmin and Wenford Steam Railway.

The Bodmin General station is located right in the middle of the town of Bodmin and has plenty of free parking for visitors. We decided to buy a rail rover for £10, which gives you the freedom of the whole railway for the day and set off on the 2.15 to Bodmin Parkway where the train turns around (well to be more truthfull the locomotive is unhitched and runs around the carriages to be hitched to the other end, a fascinating process you can watch from the platform) and then on to Boscarne Junction.

We were lucky enough to get one of the steam locos for our trip and its worth checking the timetable just to make sure its a steam rather than a diesel service to avoid any disappointment. The railway does have some classic diesel locos and its good to see that part of our heritage being preserved too, but hell you can't beat a steam engine for pure romance.

On the train Old Nick and I enjoyed a pint of Cornish Knockers - a beer that always comes in pairs according to the chap running the buffet car. Actaully the Knockers were a kind of fairy folk who worked in the tin mines.

Back at Bodmin General we had a look around the engine shed where a lot of restoration work goes on by the railway's volunteers.

"Funny" said Old Nick as we were leaving "I remember when you could smoke on one of those with nobody blathering into a mobile, who says things have got better since then."

That evening we fancied an Indian so we headed off for Tintagel where I had been entranced by the aroma emanating from the Indian Ocean (Atlantic Road, Tintagel) where after the poppadoms we enjoyed onion bhajees, vegetable samozas and shamio kebabs followed by a Chicken Vindaloo for Mab, a Lamb Ceylon for Old Nick, Chicken Tikka for the Powder Monkey and Lamb Pathia for me. The Vindaloo was just about right, the Ceylon deliciously creamy while the Pathia was a gorgeous balance of sweet and sour flavours.

All in a very good meal for about £80 even if the Kingfisher and the Cobra came out of the same tap.