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Cardiff

Pic of the week 25/9/22

Its been exeat weekend, so yesterday Becky & I headed up to Cardiff to see the bambinos. (Its handy having them both in the same city)

First stop was Sophie’s flat which was clean, tidy, neat and compact: a lovely place to live. Then we hoped on a train (you can see the line from her balcony) for a short train ride, and then we walked to Sam’s house.  A different vibe to the streets as we approached his new home: litter strewn streets and front “gardens” full of burst open bin bags. And then we arrived at his new home – certainly not clean, tidy, neat and compact! A different way of living, but its a right of passage to live in a student hovel house. He will, I’m sure, survive …

We went out for lunch together at Zi Zis, then Sam headed home (to return to bed, apparently he had only got in at 6am, which made him somewhat tired and grumpy), we wandered the streets of Cardiff for a while, before getting the train back to Sophie’s and driving home.

A good day out!

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It’s all gone quiet …

Pic of the week 18/9/22

All of a sudden the house is quiet and feels empty.

On Tuesday Sophie moved up to Cardiff, and on Thursday Sam returned to Cardiff to (re) start his first year at uni.  Their return does see to really mark the end of summer – whilst we still have dry days (although Tuesday, when Sophie moved pretty much rained all day, although fortunately not until she had got all packed up) and brightness and sunshine, it is now noticeably colder, almost surprisingly so. After such a long hot summer it doesn’t feel right to be cold!

Anyway, both Bambinos seem happy to be in Cardiff, embarking on the next stages of their life.  I think they were enjoying the comforts of living in “Hotel Home”, but now they are both moved in I think they are looking forward to the coming months.

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The Queen is dead

Pic of the week 11/9/22

On Thursday, the Queen died.

It all happened quite swiftly.  During the day, news kept breaking that various royals were travelling to Balmoral, so it was pretty evident that we were in her final days, but then, at circa 6.30 pm, her passing was officially announced.

I was a little surprised at how sombre I felt.  I suppose it was because it was a moment in history, a constant has gone. And, as with any high profile death, it makes you think of those close to you that you have lost.

We are in a slightly strange state of affairs, but I get the sense that most of the country want to remain respectful, but now get on with our lives. The muted TV and radio broadcasts are beginning to bore a little. She was a good women, and history will look back kindly upon her life and reign, but life goes on.

On Friday, Sophie collected the keys to her new flat.  She hasn’t moved in yet, that will happen on Tuesday, but it is a significant moment in her life.

 

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Farewell to summer

Pic of the week 4/9/22

By pretty much any metric, summer is over.

The most important metric is that I return to school tomorrow, but this weekend has also seen a notable shift in the weather – its still been warm, but the glorious blue sky and wall to wall sunshine is no longer here. After brilliant, beautiful light for months, it did seem remarkably dark under the leaden grey skies yesterday morning.  There has been a little rain – enough to annoy my washing! – but not the significant deluge we need.

It has been a great summer. The holidays, to me at least, have seemed really long. I think that’s been because of the wonderful weather – no day has been wasted, sat inside watching the rain and wondering what to do.

Kefalonia was wonderful and the sun has shined ever since we jetted off. We’ve also been to Sophie’s graduation (hot, hot, hot!), Coldplay, Bristol … the only thing we didn’t achieve was our balloon flight – cancelled three times, twice because of weather, once for a technical hitch.  I’ve refereed a lot (and found myself enjoying it again) and spent many a happy hour tinkering on cars – its a shame I didn’t get the 205 through an MOT, but I’ve enjoyed working on it, and I’m also pleased to have cured the knocking noise on the Corsa (replaced a drop link) and also (finally) got the oil change plug out.

The sunflowers – both front and back – have been the success of the garden.  Initially it was a little disappointing that we didn’t seem to have a mass of high sunflowers, but over the course of the summer, we’ve always had several in flower and it has been fun watching them blossom.  Two pumpkins have grown – must tray and grow a few more next year – one is smallish and already fully orange, the other quite big and only just starting to change hue.

And on Monday I saw a grass snake!

I was driving along a country lane near Castle Cary (returning from Jago’s house) and saw it in the road. It was long: a good metre to 1.5 m long. an impressive site!