Summer 2014

Summer holidays in Wales are a lot shorter than in Canada and the summer weather ends at the end of July.  I have been told that the Welsh word for July means “end of the summer”.

Canal Boating

Our children with spouses joined us for two weeks.  The first week I was in school so they visited a lot of places near Cardiff. The night the first group of kids arrived was a Saturday at about 10:15 se we went to the Cottage to wait for them.  St Mary’s street was barricaded to traffic and there were screaming young people running all over the place.  Apparently it was a quiet night because the university students are out of town.  The next day they joined us in church and later that week the pastor organised a pub night in Cardiff bay where some of the younger people socialised with our children.

The day after school ended (the year end assembly followed by the staff lunch and the staff meeting at the Buffalo for drinks was great) we left for Ellesmere, north of Shrewsbury.  The train took us to Gobown and we were to take a bus from there.  While we were at the bus stop a person across the street asked where we were going and pointed out that what we would pay for bus was more than a taxi so taxi it was.

The B&B in Ellesmere was also a pub-restaurant and the publican was a chatty sort and, upon finding out we were Canadian asked Matt if he played hockey.  When Matt said “no but I wrestled” the publican said “so did I”.  It seems that he knew Matt’s coach and they knew a lot of the same people.  They reserved an excellent table for us for dinner and the first round of drinks were paid for by the owner.  The next night was “quiz night” and they talked us into being part of that.  It was so much fun – when we did get an answer right it was because another table (or the quiz master) told us the right answer!

The canal boat trip was a wonderful time and we will do it again.  Our destination was Llangollen (very difficult to pronounce).  Although a little nerve wracking at first boating is leisurely.  We went through a few locks and over some high aqueducts on the trip.  Most of us were renters but one couple we met sold their house ten years ago to live on their canal boat and don’t regret it.  We spent two nights in Llangollen and saw the sights.  Some went on a steam train and a couple of us walked a few miles to an old monastery.  The monastery was well laid out and a lot of it intact.  Early in the morning I climbed the hill to view the castle (Castell Bran – raven castle?).  It was very peaceful and gave a fantastic view of a number of valleys.  I wonder why it lasted only a few years.  We also visited a castle on the way back.  

Carolene spent a lot of her time over the last year planning this trip and we all appreciate her for this.

Short Trips

The rest of the summer was short trips around here.  We almost went to the Eisteddfod in Llanelli but it was rainy and we have  no boots.

We did a day trip to what the English call Llantwit Major (Llanilltud Fawr) and toured around the town.  We popped into the church again.  Since we were there last time they opened up the west end with some ancient crosses that had been discovered.  The volunteer was just about to leave to make cawl for her husband but gave us a brief tour.  Two hours later we insisted she feed her poor man.  She was a fantastic source of church history and welsh history.  Since we are not High Church she had to explain a lot.  We then went to the Old Swan Inn for lunch.  A pub has been here since the 11^th century and the current building is very old.  The food was terrific.

I have a book from the library on Cardiff suburbs and we have been making day trips in the city.  One trip was to an iron-age hill fort in the west part of town.  I actually didn’t find the fort but I found the old church that has been re-built and re-vandalised many times.

During the summer Cardiff bus runs a special on Sundays to Brecon that we took a couple of weeks ago.  We didn’t plan for hiking but a girl on the bus told us about several good hikes that we hope to make next year.  We enjoyed Brecon and had lunch at a ‘good old boys’ pub.  Sunday lunch there was terrific.  Sunday lunches are always great.  In the afternoon we ventured up to the church as it is a major attraction.  We had just enough time to view it before the afternoon sung service.  A large choir from Much Wenlock was there (I didn’t know there were that many people in Much Wenlock).

I stumbled on a news article about a week long Celtic Congress that was meeting in Cardiff.  I contacted the organiser and got permission to attend and pay by the day.  It was interesting and fun.  I even got to make use of my Welsh lessons – sort of.  There was an all Celtic church service at the Welsh Tabernacle that Carolene joined me for.  We even tried to sing the hymns.

In the City

There is always something going on here in Cardiff.  The whole summer is the Cardiff Festival.  Sand is trucked into the plaza in Cardiff Bay with all sorts of rides for the kids.  We often like to walk down the Taff river to the Bay to enjoy the place.  Last week we heard the three counties youth orchestra.  I have never heard such a good youth orchestra.  Eli Jenkins pub is there (google Rev Eli Jenkins prayer) although most people go to the larger gastro pubs.  In the Tiger Bay days most pubs had sawdust on the floor and boxing rings.  Only one of the original pubs is left.  It has a nice interior now with a friendly, rowdy group at the bar.

We are finding the district of Pontcanna a nice place.  It is quite Welsh.  In Coffee #1 I heard cymraeg being spoken.  On Mondays there is a welsh string group that practices in the Cayo pub.  They often sing in Welsh.  Y Mochen Du (black pig) is a pub where welsh speakers congregate.  You don’t get beer you get cwrw. 

The other night we and a couple of younger friends (Carolene helped them move the other week) went on a Ghost Tour of Cardiff Castle.  It started at 10:00 pm and ended at 1:00 am.  It was excellent.  We got into places that are normally closed to the public and heard all the stories.  It was well worth it.  I didn’t hear or see anything but a few people on the tour felt stuff.  When we entered a room the guide told us to turn our torches off and he told us all about the things reputed to have happened in that room.

Cardiff hosted a “super cup” football match between Madrid and Saville.  The city centre was full of Spanish football fans partying all day.

Carolene’s New Thing

I was actually happy to leave our garden in Canada behind.  Here in an apartment there is not a garden.  What people do is rent an allotment (there is a waiting list) and drive down to the allotment and do their gardening.  Our vicar has an allotment and it is all weeds.  Carolene volunteered to clean it up which means I do too!  May God reward my actions and not punish my thoughts.

Rugby Sevens

Sunday I went to a “Rugby 7s” tournament at Cardiff Arms Park.  The preliminary games were 7 minutes per half and the game was very fast.  I remember playing this in  junior high school in North Vancouver.  The first round of eight games were very uneven probably because of seeding.  The subsequent rounds of the single knockout tournament were a little more even.

Summer is Over

Today we will travel to Malvern to visit a number of friends from seventeen years ago then it is back to school.  I am looking forward to school and finding out what this year will produce.  I have already had a teacher dream but this one was optimistic!

Cardiff Castle

Prom

This year’s prom for Westbourne School was held at Cardiff Castle.  How great is that!  Two of the Lower Sixth form (grade 11) girls planned the event and organised it in such a way as to cost way less than other schools that were having theirs at hotels.  I cannot say enough good things about our Lower 6^th.  All of them are organising things and running assemblies for the younger students and are great students on top of all that. 

The initial reception was held in the library

Drinks in the Library

The dinner was upstairs in the dining hall.  We went up the queen’s staircase which is not open to the public.

The dance was deep underground in the crypt complete with chocolate fountain and cash bar.  And a photographer of course.

What a great place to hold a prom.  Being such a small school it included years ten (grade 9) to year 13 (grade 12).  Two groups were celebrating:  year 13 were finished their IB examinations and year 11 were finished their GCSE examinations.  The year 11s will probably go elsewhere for sixth form.

The students dressed up.  Most of the girls wore three dresses that day:  afternoon ceremonies at Penarth Pier; prom at Cardiff Castle; and the after-party on the town.  Many of the young men wore tuxedos.  My fellow maths teacher owns a tuxedo.  The walk up to the castle was interesting as there was a major football match the next day and Cardiff was in full pre-match celebration.  Everyone seemed to be in costume.

More pictures are available at the castle’s web site

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cardiffcastle/sets/72157633255126459/show/with/8653742901/

The Castle

There has been a fort here for two thousand years.  The name Caerdydd means fort on the Taff.  The Romans wanted to guard the crossing of the Taff so a wooden fort was built soon to be followed by a stone fort.  Some of the roman walls are still there.  Some castles and estates in Britain have had people living in them for hundreds of years but not Cardiff Castle.  Apart from a few armies nobody has really lived there and the castle’s history reflects that of Cardiff.  The Castle has fallen into neglect repeatedly over the centuries.  When the Normans came (1066 and all that) they were only casually interested but soon after one of the Marchers subdued the region and built a proper Norman motte and bailey castle by tearing down the roman walls.   Over the centuries ownership of the castle (and incidentally most of Cardiff) passed from person to person who had little interest in it.   Finally the third marquees of Bute (think Bute inlet and Stuart island) possibly one of the richest men in Britain at the time took an interest in the castle and hired an architect (cost no problem) who re-built the castle in the late 19^th century. 

 Coutts Connection

It should be noted that the first Marquees, who was rich in his own right, got even richer by marrying a phenomenally wealthy lady named Coutts – my mother’s maiden name was Coutts, so what happened?  He spent the remainder of his life, unsuccessfully, trying to spend his wife’s money.

Anybody Want to Buy a Castle?

 After WWII the Bute family didn’t want the castle any more so they gave it to the city and people of Cardiff.  Hence I am a part owner of the castle and my ₤5 registration fee gets me my key to the castle, good for three years free admission.

Proud owner of a Castle

Easter Break

Bletchley Park

I visited Bletchley Park during Easter break but cannot tell you about it as I am sworn to secrecy.  What I can tell you is that it was one of the highlights of my visit to the UK so far.  Having studied maths and some computer programming, I have read a few books on Bletchley and had to learn all about “Turing Machines” in logic class.  The men and women at Bletchley contributed a lot to mathematics and set the foundations for artificial intelligence.  (the first computer was made there and not Eniac but it was all classified until recently).  I hear a number of the results around Bayesian methods are still classified.

I had three weeks off for Easter.  The first five days were spent preparing work for term three.  We then took a seven day rail trip through Wales with a rail pass.

Central Wales

We took the train to Swansea then transferred to the mid-Wales line that went west to Llanelli (that is pronounced shaneshee but there seems to be a hard “c” in there somewhere) then through the centre of Wales spending the first night in Landovery a lovely town right in the middle of Wales.  We spent the night at the Castle B&B, a very interesting place.  After taking the town walks the next morning Carolene spent the afternoon visiting the shops and meeting some interesting people and I went for a three mile walk in the country that ended up being closer to nine.   I guess the information centre map wasn’t quite good enough.  When I realised I was “disoriented” I used my cell phone map – no GPS.  So I texted Carolene with a description of where I thought I was but her GPS didn’t work either.  When we got back we had a well-earned dinner at the King’s Head (this used to be the drover`s bank).  There are enough towns near-by that we want to return to and I can walk between towns (with a proper map this time) and Carolene could take local busses and shop, shop, shop at the charity shops (Brit for Thrift Stores).

Shrewsbury

Off to Shrewsbury for a couple of nights.  How you pronounce it depends on if you are Welsh or English.  Lots to explore in the crooked streets like this one: 

The tourist brochure said that Shropshire Gold is made by the Salopian  Brewery so  I went in quest of the rare ale.  No luck.  Carolene took me to the Brother Cadfael museum that no longer exists but they are preserving the historic building it was in.  The cathedral has a stain glass window dedicated to Ellis Peters who wrote the Cadfael books.  Another place worth more of our time.

 Bromsgrove

Off to Bromsgrove where we spent a couple of nights with a two friends who we met in 1996 and have since met with them in Canada and also in our 2003 trip to the UK.  They took us to a pub on the canal for dinner.  English pubs are a lot smaller and cosier than many of the big ones in Cardiff.  In the morning I went for a run along the canal.  Very pastoral.  And, of course, we visited Bletchley and learned all sorts of things that we cannot pass on.

West Wales

From Bromsgrove we took a zig-zag trip to Tenby.  Our hostess dropped us off at Birmingham University where she works and we took the train to Birmingham, transferred to Shrewsbury, changed to the Welsh line to Cardiff.  At Cardiff we transferred to a train to Swansea then transferred to one for Tenby.  It was strange transferring at Cardiff as our apartment is across the river from Cardiff Central.

Our Inn at Tenby was rustic but central.  I now know what a British seaside resort looks like.  Absolutely beautiful.  Now Llandovery was an old peoples place but Tenby was full of children visiting bampi (Wenglish for grandpa) for the week and grandpa did not have much control.  Note to self:  don’t go for dinner until after seven when the children are in bed.  We had another great hike – shopping day and ended up in a pub that has a picture of Dylan Thomas on the menu because he drank there.  Shouldn’t every pub in south Wales have his picture?

Another Castle

Pembroke was our final stop before the trip back to Caerdydd and laundry.  Pembroke castle was large and well preserved.  I believe 1797 the UK was braced for a French landing.  There was a fortress in Tenby ready and so was Pembroke castle.  The battle was in Fishguard.  Lunch was at a pub nearby appropriately named the Castle Inn.  The food and the service were fantastic.  A good reason to return. 

More Cardiff

Good Friday I went on a walking tour of Cardiff and was the only customer.  Even though I have read half a dozen books on Cardiff the tour was exceptionally informative.  So good that on Monday I went on the Cardiff Bay tour with Carolene and our new “Canadian in Cardiff” friend (she has a blog). 

Good Friday night our church had a Passover supper at “the barn”.  A young couple picked us up at the train and drove us into the hills.  It was run by a man who is intimate about such things.  I should have known that for church functions here one brings wine.  Never mind, there was plenty.  Easter morning a couple from the church offered their home for breakfast and a very informal service.  Church usually meets at the Welsh School of Drama and Music which, naturally, was closed.

This week, after making sure everything is ready for school, we decided to explore the Valleys.  The English make fun of the Valleys and the Welsh apologise.  We took the Rhymney line up to Rhymney, explored the town, then took a train down to Caerffili to have lunch and wander.  I wandered the town and Carolene wandered the charity shops.  She got me a shirt.  Back in Cardiff we continued our explorations of town and tried out a pub the walking tour man recommended as good on game day.  Lovely place and their feature beer:  Rhymney Bitter!  So I had to try it.

Saturday we will go to an organ recital at the Welsh Tabernacle.  It is a Welsh language church so we will have to use hand signals.  

 I am on the voter`s list so I plan to visit the local representative`s office as I will be voting in the next European election.   

I may become a card carrying member of Plaid Cymru.