This summer was so full
that I am looking forward to going back to work this week. As the school year came to a close Carolene
had some extensive tests and found that her cancer situation had not changed
since her good report of two years ago.
It’s my turn. It isn’t melanoma
so we are not loosing sleep. I am
putting some cream on my face that is rather nasty. I told my barber that it was the cream that
made my face look ugly and he pointed out that I didn’t need cream for that.
Y Fenni
Shortly after school
ended we went to a party in Abergavenny. The hostess, Carolene’s personal
trainer, has a farm on Sugarloaf mountain outside of Abergavenny where she and
her husband raise sheep and racehorses.
I made money betting on Double-D.
2.40 on a 4 pound bet. Although
Double-D is the horses real name she races under the name Multiview because the
tracks would not allow a horse that sounded like a bra size. Double-D is retired but the next generation
is ready.
The party was
phenomenal. The view was spectacular,
the neighbours were interesting. They
all seem to raise race horses. We had a
good time and also toured Abergavenny.
On Sunday our good friend from Bewdley came down and joined us for a
combination his birthday and mine lunch at the Chick and Egg. Trains and buses on Sunday in the UK are not
a good thing. While waiting for a bus we
saw the Brecon “Sunday bike bus” so we waited the hour for it to leave and were
blessed by a very scenic three hour ride up to Brecon and down through the
valleys to Cardiff. We both want to go
back to Brecon.
Wedding Cardiff Style
The next day! We attended a young friend’s wedding at the
650 year old church in city centre: St. John’s.
The Anglican vicar recently confided to me that it was the Anglican
service stretched to its limits. Both
families of bride and groom are charismatic to the extreme and the service
reflected it. The reception dinner was
in Cardiff Castle. What a setting and
what a meal!
Ty Dewi
Carolene had an
infusion for her immune system that week, then we left for St David’s. Friends who live in Richmond, BC recently
bought a house in St Davids and offered it to us for a stay. We love them.
We were there over a week. We
hiked the coastal trail, visited Fishguard, hiked the coast trail, visited
Haverfordwest, hiked the coast … We
attended a concert by the Welsh Guard (think changing of the guards) in the
Bishops Palace. Excellent band. We had tea twice with neighbours of our
friends. Lovely people (retired school
masters you know). We attended a musical
night, also at the Bishops Palace, and heard a lot of great Welsh talent. Mornings I ran along the coast path near
where St David was born. When it rained
I stayed inside and read the Mabingobion.
[that is kind of like reading Shakespeare in Stratford].
When we were taking the
bus into St David’s a man got on the bus with a shirt that had this on it a set theoretic statement about the existence of the empty set in purely symbolic form. Needless to say he and I had a great
conversation that was definitely not empty.
When he got up to get off the bus he reminded me that the sum of the reciprocals of the integers squared is pi over six and that he changed it around and posted it
outside his house because his house was number six. Only in Pembrokeshire!
We have all heard
expressions like “I bet you remember where you were when you heard Kennedy was
assassinated” or “when the market crashed.”
Well I remember exactly where I was sitting when I first saw the proof
that the sum of the reciprocals of the integers squared is pi over six.
Rambling Around Cardiff
Coast Path: Llantwit Major to St Donat’s
We took the bus to Llantwit Major and found our way
to the beach where we had coffee and hiked west along the Welsh Coastal
Path. We found St Donat’s and the
Atlantic College, kept going until we found the light house. The giant fog horn’s bell was elliptical
rather than circular. I wonder why? A number of WWII gun bunkers were there along
the way. Going inland we ended up at a
lovely village with a most engaging pub.
We decided to take the bus to Llantwit Major from there but really must
return to the pub for lunch someday. At
Llantwit major we visited the church (again), had lunch at the 400 year old
Swan and returned home.
Exploring Cardiff – Splott
There are a lot of hidden jewels in Cardiff. A religious farm, “God’s Plot” is now a
suburb of Splott. One afternoon we took
the bus to uncharted Splott to investigate the indoor flea market which, as it
turned out, is huge. Carolene will
return there some day. We thought it
would be a good idea to head from there to the coast and walk the coastal path
to Cardiff Bay and then take the bus home.
Not a good idea. As we crossed
the park we thought we might be in an air field. We were.
This was the Cardiff Municipal Airport from 1905? until 1954. Once through the park we found ourselves in a
mixture of abandoned cherry tree lined boulevards and empty factories. Here, we found out later, was Cardiff’s last
vain attempt of post coal industrialisation.
There was a Rover parts factory somewhere around here (we never did
figure out exactly where but the road “Rover Way” might be a clue). There was a steel smelter here for a short
time. Now there are junk yards garbage
incinerators and busy roads with narrow sidewalks. Not fun.
We made our way home past the University of South Wales can now claim we
have visited the cream of Splott.
Exploring Cardiff – Adamsdown
Another farm, owned by Adam, is just west of City
Centre and closely related to Splott.
It, too, has rough edges. We
found the site of a local cemetery that became full almost as soon as it was
set apart. It is now a nice little park with swings and gravestones. The beautiful royal infirmary, once the
barracks for the military fighting the Rebecca riots, is on Newport road. Found it.
The gothic church with flying buttresses was hard to find and when we
did it was closed. The vicar is on sick
leave and they are down to mass on Wednesday and Sunday. While we were leaving the caretaker stopped
us and offered to open the church for us – “just come and find me when you are
done and I will lock up, take your time.”
Organ recital August first.
Chester
A friend had to go to
Chester to babysit for her son so she invited us for the ride. We stayed in a hotel near the walled
city. Chester is a place rich in
history. We were sitting in front of
Starbucks having coffee and a police car marked Heddlu drove up. The man at the next table looked at me and I
said “I think he is lost.” He
agreed. I commented that I had heard it
is still legal to shoot a Welshman in Chester thinking, perhaps, he didn’t know
this gem. He corrected me: “but only
with a cross-bow!”
Malvern and the Waters
Back to Cardiff for
what I thought would be a restful August.
Friends from Malvern came down to visit Castle Coch so we joined them
for the day and visited Castle Coch, had lunch near an ancient Welsh
castle-fort, and visited Caerphilly Castle.
These people offered their house in Malvern during the week they were
away on holidays. Off we went. The basic premise was to do a lot of hiking
and visit a few old friends. We did hike
a lot but we also saw a lot of wonderful friends left over from my exchange
teacher days and we had a walk through the old school.
I always keep an eye on
what is happening in Cardiff and try to catch whatever is happening like a
rugby game or a festival in the park.
Last weekend cider seemed to be the important thing. A number of companies were giving thimble
size samples. On Saturday one company
had a taster in Bute park and gave out free burghers and free cider. Lots of points for them.
