Sweep sat and had a big think in his head about what had happened yesterday. He had gone from the coffee shop with everyone, and they had found the magic pastie shop. It was wonderful, and there were so many different kinds to choose from! Sweep had stood outside the shop looking at the menu board and had taken ages to decide what to have.
Eventually, Sweep decided that he'd try a traditional pastie since he needed a baseline from which he could score all the other pasties he was going to have on this trip - his Uncle Dave would want a full report, he realised. Uncle Bill was getting a Giant Traditional Pastie, but Sweep thought he might not be able to finish one of them, since they were bigger than Sweep, so he opted for a regular sized one. It was delicious. Sweep wanted to know why he'd never had a pastie before. He thought about Uncle Bill's friend and his song about fantastic pasties and thought "there's a man who knows a bit about life".
After pasties, Uncle Bill and Auntie Angela decided that they would buy things for a craft project. Auntie Angela wanted a light in the tent, so Uncle Bill bought a plug, some flex, and a light fitting. Auntie Angela said that he wouldn't need a bulb, because there was one in the lamp they'd brought with them.
They wandered about a bit more, and Sweep saw an interesting sign above a shop...
Sweep thought to himself "I thought a Shihtzu" was a kind of dog - but if they only have a Bored Lizard, maybe I was wrong..."
After that, and a bit more wandering about, everyone went back to the car and drove to a place called Tintagel. Auntie Angela said that was where King Arthur lived. Sweep was very excited about that - he'd never seen a King's palace before, and thought it would be lovely.
When they got to Tintagel, Uncle Billl parked the car and they had a wander through the village. Sweep saw lots of interesting things. There was one place, called "The Old Post Office", that Sweep thought was very well named - it looked like they needed a new one really. Sweep looked at the state of their roof, all sagging and out of shape. He thought "I had some travelling lads at the door last week who said they did roofs - I bet they could come and fix that". But Sweep didn't have their details, so he couldn't pass them on. "Maybe some travelling roof-fixers and driveway-repairers will pass through here soon and sort it out for them", he thought.
They had another coffee at the WI hut (Uncle Bill said it was called that because after you tasted the coffee, you said "WI did we come in here?", but Sweep wasn't sure what he meant by that), and then they said it was time to walk down to King Arthur's Castle, which was next to the Big Blue Wet Thing. Sweep was very excited, and very glad that he was wearing his best medal ribbons if he was going to a King's house.
It was a long way down a very steep hill to get to the castle. When Sweep saw it, he was a bit puzzled - it didn't seem to be in the best repair for a King's house. Sweep thought perhaps there would be a bit more work for his travelling friends here, maybe even a whole week's worth. They might even need a bit of scaffolding, he thought. But he was sure that they'd be able to fix it up so that the King could be warm and cosy when the weather got cold. That wasn't a problem today though, as it was sunny and very hot. And the king didn't seem to be at home today anyway.
Sweep was very excited when Uncle Bill told him that this king was a special king, who liked to get his mates (he called them ker-nigguts or something) round a table - perhaps they liked to play Monopoly and Scrabble, thought Sweep. Uncle Bill also told Sweep that he'd arranged for a very special thing - Sweep was going to be a special honorary mate of this king, and from now on he could call himself Sir Sweepalot whenever he wanted to. "Wow!" thought Sweep - "that's fab! Just wait till that Keith Miller tries to put his hand up my backside NOW!! I'll have him sent to the Tower!"
Then they all went down to see the Big Blue Wet Thing. Sweep looked at it in amazement. "Cor!!", he said. "Isn't it big?!!"
"And Blue?!!"
"And wet?!!"
"Yes", said Uncle Bill, somewhat wearily.
Sweep thought that the Big Blue Wet Thing looked lovely. He could see people swimming about in some places, and walking around in the bits that weren't so deep. "That's called 'plodging'," said Uncle Bill.
Sweep sat for a while sitting and looking out across the Big Blue Wet Thing. Auntie Angela said that across it, there was a place called America. Sweep looked very hard, and eventually he saw a little island poking up out of the Big Blue Wet Thing, a few miles away. "Well", thought Sweep, "that must be America. Can't say I'm too impressed - it's just a lump of rock and a load of seagulls. Don't know what all the fuss is about!"
After a while, they all walked back up the hill to the village. Sweep was enjoying the view as he sat in his special pocket on Uncle Bill's backpack.
Once they were about half way up, Sweep thought he could hear a steam train. He wondered where the chuffing noise was coming form, because he couldn't see a train anywhere. Then he realised that it was just Uncle Bill making steam train noises - chuffing and huffing and puffing his way up the hill. "That's nice of Uncle Bill", thought Sweep, "to do steam train noises for me when he's already slogging up this very steep hill. He's really wonderful, is Uncle Bill."
After they got to the top of the hill, and Uncle Bill had crawled into a shop to buy a bottle of water, they stood around for a while. Uncle Bill drank the water and slowly, he stopped making the steam train noises - "Oh well," thought Sweep, "I guess I can't expect him to do train noises for me all day". They walked back to the car, and drove home to the campsite. Sweep fell asleep on the journey back - it had been a lovely day, and he'd had lots of fresh air. He dreamt about all the wonderful things they'd seen and done, and about the Adventures of Sir Sweepalot, Ker-niggut of the Round Table. Or was it the Rotary Club? He couldn't remember...
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