Happy birthday, starkers, from the County where the real pirates come from.
Thanks, CY, I appreciate that... and how true. The WestCountry pirates were the original and best... the inspiration for Robert Newton's version of Long John Silver. Now, whenever actors portray pirates, they try to emulate the voice and accent of the WestCountry pirates, made famous by the one and only Robert Newton.
As a lad I spent many an hour exploring the caves used by pirates and smugglers in Devon and Cornwall... and though I wasn't supposed to [was only 16 at the time], some of the inns and pubs as well. Yeah, even though his profession was listed as a trawlerman, my great, great, great grandfather from Brixham did a bit of smuggling and pilfering on the high seas, so I actually have some ancestral links to piracy on mum's side.
Speaking of mum, you will no doubt conclude from my post a #16, that mum and Dave will not be coming to Cornwall to visit after all, as much as mum wanted to. To cut a long story short, things ended up not working out too well with Dave and she felt the need to return where the majority of her family is, here in Australia.... and it's unlikely that Dave would do it on his own. Mum couldn't get him to drive down once they'd been to Switzerland and while she was there, so there'd be a snowball in hell's chance of him doing it now.
Anyway. thanks again. 
