This will be the first rugby match since I’ve actually lived in Cardiff.
First kilt sightings: yesterday at 5pm (45 drinking hours before kick-off)
Kilt count so far (20 drinking hours before kick-off): 6
There’s no way you can ignore the rugby here, it’s all anyone’s talking about, and we all now that tomorrow the city will be awash with red. Â The number of merry-go-rounds, belgian chocolate stalls and german sausage vendors in Queens Street have each gone up to a total of one of each. Â One thing I’ve noticed about Cardiff is there are a lot of TV screens. Â Not just in the pubs, but in the streets and even in IKEA (where notices promise all internationals will be screened – because presumably otherwise they might just as well shut for the day).
I’ve harboured a shameful secret during the whole Kraft/Cadbury controversy. The whole episode has stirred up such an emotional outpouring of chocolate-based nostalgia that I’ve felt quite remote from the whole thing. Because although I find the early history interesting and rather impressive, I find the chocolate mostly tastes like skimmed milk, fat and sugar. Which it mostly is.
I secretly thought perhaps the influence of Kraft might improve the quality of the chocolate. But I don’t admire what has emerged today about Kraft’s dubious business ethics. I used to enjoy walking along the river between Keynsham and Cadbury Heath; it’s sad to think there won’t be a chocolate factory there anymore, but it’s much worse that Kraft were so cynical in raising workers’ hopes.
Actually it would have been very handy to have a TARDIS to help with the move – infinite space and instant relocation – it would have saved a lot of stress over whether my worldies would fit in the lorry and the delay caused by a broken bearing (though the TARDIS would probably have veered off course and been stranded in the year 5.5/Apple/26, or been trapped in a Dalek time corridor, which might have been even more stressful). Moving has kept me busy for quite a while!
I’ve been settled here and working just over a week. Â Cardiff is very compact – people tell me you can walk everywhere but I’ve tried that and it’s not quite true (not like it was in Lewes). Public transport here is amazing though. There are several local train lines – each with around 6 services an hour in each direction – loads of buses, and a bikes you can hire with your phone
One consequence of being a very compact city is that you can walk straight from a nice old victorian street into a building site, a new development or an area that might be, shall we say, ripe for redevelopment. The bay, as it was when I first visited it just after it had been created, juxtaposes elegant new developments (and some not so elegant ones) with decaying victorian buildings and rusting lock gates.
My walk to work is great, and takes me down the river, past the castle and through the town centre. I miss Lewes and I had no desire to end up in a city, but there are lots of bits of Cardiff that are very nice. And being a city it has one advantage – an Apple Store (which opened on the day of my job interview) – and it’s only thanks to my iron self discipline that there have been a couple of days when I haven’t gone in on my way home.
Everywhere I go I suddenly find I’m somewhere I recognise, because I’ve seen it in Doctor Who or Torchwood.
I was down at the bay and I saw some flowers and photos, and I thought how sad, someone’s slipped into the water and drowned. When I looked at the pictures, I thought it even sadder, because I recognised the face. It was only when I realised it was actor Gareth David-Lloyd that I administered myself a kick, because I realised what it was.
Just testing a WordPress plugin for work… This allows visitors to sign up for an event, and then manages a list of attendees. If all is well, the form appears below:
I’m guessing they’re not short of bottles or tipples in the Ocado office…
It’s the season of plenty, so take advantage of the fact we’re open between Christmas and New Year to stock up on any festive essentials.
Friday 25th December 2009
No Deliveries
Saturday 26th December 2009
No Deliveries
Sunday 27th December 2009
No Deliveries
Monday 28th December 2009
Deliveries as usual
Tuesday 29th December 2009
Deliveries as usual
Wednesday 30th December 2009
Deliveries as usual
Thursday 31th December 2009
AM deliveries only
Friday 1st December 2009
No Deliveries
Saturday 2nd January 2009
PM deliveries only
Thursday 3rd January 2009
Deliveries as usual
Whether you’re running low on buffets, bottles, nibbles or tipples, we’ll get everything right to your kitchen table before you can say “…a partridge in a—â€
You’ve got to admire the crescendo of mistakes, though. Genius.
It’s not a rocket. They’re building a post mill a couple of miles from my house. It appears to be a traditional design, and it’s on the site of an old mill (with six sweeps) but with steels instead of wood and it will, apparently, generate electricity when it’s finished next year.
It’s probably paranoia, but I thought I saw a mouse watching The Unit with me last night.
There have definitely been mice at Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry. Â Giant mice, since Pen-Y-Bryn is a model by Michael Campbell. Â It hadn’t occurred to me that their droppings might pass for those of 7mm scale sheep, but then Mr Campbell seems to have a fairly philosophical take on the rodents’ rampage:
The polystyrene forming the hills had been excavated (quarried?) and carried along the track all over the model, and small black droppings littered the hillside (in O gauge they might have passed for scale sheep droppings!). The little blighters had nibbled the rock-face (cork bark), and even tried some of the people and animals (tell-tale flashes of whitemetal!), plus other people, animals, and details were strewn about, flattened by the giant rodents.
I’d recommend running a Relco track cleaner; those things used always to give me a shock, with any luck they might fry a mouse.
Apologies if you visited the site this morning and found it not here.
A Yahoo Slurp spider ate all my bandwidth overnight. Â Naughty spider (though in fairness, this was partly because of a malfunctioning plugin on one of my blogs).
A bit thank you to the nice folk at 5quidhost for being so quick to respond to emails.
Each of those I’ve been to is thoroughly deserving of its place, though I’d suggest there are a few omissions (even though I can’t authoritatively say the 195 pubs I haven’t been to aren’t better). Scotland and Wales seem a little under-represented, too.
I’ve been reading about this all week, but before I got round to blogging it the Guardian’s been and visited it .  A friend told me they’d linked up the Welsh Highland Railway and the Ffestiniog, as it used to be, crossing the mainline on the level and running through the streets of Porthmadog.  It’s true:Â
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Though that bit isn’t officially opened yet.
Ffestiniog trains can run from Blaenau Ffestiniog right through to Caernarfon (Welsh Highland trains can’t run through to the Ffestiniog though! The loading gauge is bigger on the WHR). That’s a run of 40 miles.
This history of the project is extraordinary, and actually encompasses two railway companies. The relaying of the line was bizarrely driven by the Ffestiniog’s attempts to block it. The politics and business arrangements are so complex I think I’m going to have to read several books on it.
The section from Dinas to Caernarfon, which has been open for 12 years, wasn’t actually part of the WHR. It used to be standard gauge, though originally Parliament approved a WHR extension on the route that was never built. There’s a nice symmetry to this, because the full length route is truncated at the Ffestiniog end, where the old Ffestiniog and Blaenau Railway route is now standard gauge (standard gauge transporters used to convey the narrow gauge wagons until the closure of the quarries).
Oh yeah, and I’ve realised what’s wrong with my job: unlike Partrick Barkham I don’t get paid for riding narrow gauge trains.
