Hope Cove

I haven't been to Hope for years. I think the last family holiday I went on was 2007, but it could have been 2006. Stopped going down because I wasn't enjoying it. We went to Hope every August for a long weekend.

It used to be a family thing, eg everyone in the family started by my grandparents in the 50s (I think). They did every year through to 1990-ish and then stopped. By 1991 or 92 (I think) I had the all important driving license and me and a cousin started going down every year. We created a new family tradition that the grandchildren (of which we are) started joining us as they came of age and could drive themselves.

But I bailed in 2006 or 7. I wasn't enjoying it, and frankly people were starting to take the piss. I would take down an empty vehicle, and come back loaded with other peoples stuff. Don't think anyone understood the coincidence of why I used to take Goat in the end - didn't care if they loaded it up - which they still did.

Plus things like the apportioning costs got a bit stupid. Always seemed to pay more than my fair share for things. And then the straw that broke the camels back was people being plain old rude to me, whether it was the girlfriend of a cousin or an aunt in the end. Really had better things to do than go to Devon and get insulted. So I called time, booked an event the following year on that weekend and made my excuses.

Sad thing is that Hope is no different than the last time I went down. Nothing whatsoever has changed. I can't decide if that's good or bad. The more I see some of these places I used to haunt, the more I know I made the right decision to leave the UK when I did. I really feel that I'm not missing much.