Hey everybody, guess what I just did?

I walked home in the middle of a thunder/lightning/ rain storm. It’s really cool The rain was really really heavy, almost like Mother Nature’d gone ‘Hum, why do I have all this water?’ *checks clip board* ‘Aw shit! Britan was supposed to get this over it’s winter. Ah well, I’m sure they won’t minf me delivering it all at once now’. Hehe.

I like storms

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Didja miss me? Blog entries from the week will be posted tomorrow

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The rest of today, i mostly spend wandering in little allies, doing shopping. There were some very nice jewelry shops that I could have, and wanted to, spend quite a lot in. As it was, I only really bought Kat and Alex presents. After I’d finished in the town center, I decided to head to the bay, thinking it wouldn’t be to far away. I was wrong.

It felt like it took me an hour, but i think it was worth it. When I got there i had a look in the ‘crafts on the bay’ place [again, resisted spending money], then wandered round mermaid quay, and the pontoon thingy. Considered going into to assembly building [it was 30 deg. c again, and it looked cool] but the security guy put me off. Wandered around a bit more before sitting on the steps of the out door auditorium thingy in the shade and people watched.

I got another call from Owen saying where was I? was i ready to go home yet cause Sarah was tired? I said I was at the bay, not ready to go home yet, and he said he and Sarah would come down to meet me.
And so they did. We got an ice cream, then looked in the Millennium center at the exhibitions, before getting a bus back to where we’d parked.

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So, Cardiff today. I’m sat in a really nice café called Madison’s, after just finishing lunch [Go-for goat salad: lettuce; ham; a cheese that was kinda like Brie, but was meant to be feta; sweet chili-peppers; courgette; olives; with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil]
This morning, after finding the visitor info center, Owen and Sarah left me to my own devices to go and eat before their tour of the Millennium Stadium. I’ve spent the day so far wandering around St. David’s and Queen’s shopping centers. Nice but I’d rather go find the little shops.

Oh, and the loo.

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Today was quite disappointing.
We spent ages driving around looking for something called the ‘Cinderbury experience‘, only to find out that it’s not half built yet. It’s supposed to be a replication/ living history project about Iron Age life, much like the West Stow Saxon one. But we met the project leader who gave us a quick tour and told us about what he planned/ was hoping for it, and showed us these really cool things called scowles.

By this time it was lunch, so we headed up to Symonds Yat to eat. While we were there, Mum thought it would be a good idea to go find the visitor info. place and find a map of trails in the Forest of Dean [which is where all this is], but all we got was some snotty cashier who unhelpfully told us that ‘this area isn’t for cycling in’. So that, and the woman’s attitude got Owen pissed and thus he ranted and said he didn’t was to go cycling any more. So Sarah suggested a walk.
So, okay, a nice gentle walk to make everyone happy again. Not quite.

By the time we’d finished a 5 mile trail that constantly seemed to be going up, I was hot, tired, thirsty, sweaty, on the verge of tears, and down right miserable. All I wanted was to go home. Don’t get me wrong, Symonds Yat Rock is a nice place, with fantastic views. I just wasn’t happy about having to walk 5 miles constantly uphill in 30°C.

Even so, Mum thought it would be a smart idea to go to the cycle centre and Forest of Dean’s proper Visitor Info./ heritage museum place. The cycle centre just made Owen even more angry. According to the place one is ‘only allowed to cycle on the designated gravel paths’ to ‘preserve the Forest’. So that sucked. We progressed to the VI place to get a map and maybe look in the museum, only to discover it cost £4/ adult and was almost shut anyway. [at 1600].

Very despondent now, we made to head home, but then I spotted an ad for a ‘Taurus Craft Centre’. I’m glad we went there, because it really lifted our spirits. There was some really cool stuff, one of which I bought: a huge cocktail glass with a swirl of black around the bowl. Very cool and pretty. A nice end to a generally bad day

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So, with the heat and alcohol, we left the pub very tired. I tried reading for a bit, but ended up gong to sleep for a few good hours. The rest of the day was again spent eating, drinking, talking, reading and watching tv.

Today we left early-ish and made our way to Blaenavon and ‘Y Pwll Mawr’ or The Big Pit, where they have the welsh national museum of mining. A tour of the underground workings, a simulation of said workings topside, a wander round a more conventional museum in the bath house and that was pretty much it. I realise I sound rather blasé about it all, but after a while, all museums seem alike. It’s added a little more knowledge to me, sure, but it’s not really left any lasting impression. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m reaching my saturation point of culture, history and geography….

Anyway, after Big Pit, Owen went and looked at the iron works and I [with parents] went and scoured the second hand book shops. There are 13. 4 of them where open. Only one of them had any kind of sf/fantasy section clearly marked. Needless to say I’m pretty disappointed, though I did manage to get 3 on the list Andy gave me [3001: Final Odyssey by Arthur C Clark; The Game Player by Ian M Banks; Snow White and the Seven Samurai by Tom Holt] as well as one I just liked the look of.

So after Blaenavon, we came back via Abergavenny for food shopping, and then when we got home Owen, Sarah and I went to Chepstow to finish food shopping. After that, a rinse and repeat of last night.

[Something I learnt last night - cows snore, but its a strangly settling and conforting noise. Cows are great ]

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So, Owen and Sarah arrived soonish after I finished writing that last entry, and after Sarah had a shower we went to Trelleck to the beer festival. I had a pint of Stowford press cider, and a half of Old Orchard, as well as tasters from Owen and Sarah’s. The barbecue was nice, had the feeling of walking into some random person’s family affair. But we and our money were well received, they played good music, and the glass the Stowford’s [incidentally, the better of the two] came in had a picture at the bottom of an apple with teeth that said, ‘the apple bites back’

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Well, the journey up here on Saturday wasn’t too bad, took about 3 hours [1100-1400] with one loo stop. Got let into ‘nightingale cottage’ by “a proper Welshman; bearded, round face and short” [my mum]. The cottage it’s self is much smaller than I think any of us expected. It’s very… compact. David, the guy who let us in said a family of twelve use to live here.

After everything was unpacked, mum and I went to find a local paper for dad. We ended up going all the way to Monmouth, but the scenery was fantastic. All we really did after that was read and eat. I took a few pictures of the valley we are at the top of, and we went to bed at 0000, after watching a film. It’s quite hard to sleep with no server…

This morning [Sunday] we didn’t wake/ eat until 1000ish, and now I’m really quite bored. I want to go and do something, that’s what holidays are for, but we’ve to wait for Owen and Sarah to arrive

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