WASHED AND READY TO EAT

There were two attractions I had to bypass on my recent holiday in Cornwall. The first was The National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow, which advertises among those quaint racks of tourist leaflets you still see in hotels. The promotional material shows a little kid holding a baby lobster on his finger and suggests families might while away a happy hour staring through glass portholes at giant specimens. The immediate reaction of the female contingent of the Woodford clan was no, NO, NOOOOOO!! What? You don't want to meet the 'resident giant lobster' and lots of his other 'crab pot friends'? You're not interested in adopting a lobster? The fact that the Hatchery had featured on The One Show , Autumn Watch and Three Men in a Boat didn't cut any ice, I'm afraid. We headed off to sunny St Ives instead. As we arrived on the beach, we were greeted by uniformed staff who were handing out sweets and magazines to kids and teenagers. There was a whole ...