Cardiff and Gower Adventures (earthquake update)

I relocated to Cardiff last Monday evening as Riona's flatmate was away for the week and I decided Riona would appreciate some motherly tlc (lucky Riona). From Tuesday to Thursday we were on the work treadmill, but I did get dragged - very voluntarily - to Riona's bouldering place on Wednesday night.  I started on the super baby routes and graduated by a single grade before we left.  A lot of fun, but a lot of arm ache for the next few days!

We both took Friday off so the adventures began then, except we were both pretty pooped, so had indulgent lie-ins, a Tescos shop, and then an explore of the nearby Sully Island which is tidal.   We naturally timed it so that we'd hit low tide and had a slippery walk across and a snoop around the island.

To be honest, there isn't much there - the old fort was non existent - but I just love visiting pieces of land that are off piste some of the time.  We enjoyed the high reed jungle and whilst I did a bit of homework (coastal asset inspections) Riona picked up more sea glass.  

Friday night we turned in about 2315 and nodded off.  Didn't think much when the bed shock as I was dozing thinking it was probably the upstairs residents (note: Riona lives on the top floor).  We were therefore surprised, but realised it explained the gentle shaking, when we found out there'd been an earthquake that night!

On Saturday we decided to visit the Gower.  

Riona hadn't been there before as it's well over an hour's drive from Cardiff, but we decided to have a day out and managed to visit a few of the key sights.  First off was the Mumbles. It was more touristy than I'd expected, but we popped down to Mumbles Head and walked over to see the lighthouse.  I think you can walk across to it at low tide but we were there mid tide.

We then went via a trig on the way back to the car: very important when you have a Ruth with you. We also learnt that the Welsh for trig pillar is piler triongli, which literally translates as "pillar triangle" (I work with Welsh speakers and asked).

We sat overlooking Swansea Bay for lunch munchies.

We then drove to Southgate and walked across the cliffs down to the broad estuary of Pennard Pill on the hunt for the beautiful Three Cliffs Bay.

The Three Cliffs.  And a cave to walk through. 

I holiday'ed as a kid on the Gower and wanted to revisit Worms Head.  So I added that to our list for the day.  It really is a rather magnificent headland which dries at low tide.  

We could have stayed and watched the sun go down but we were a bit tired and supper/warmth was calling.  

   

On Sunday we ambled down to the Bay.  Once again I treated Riona to the excitement of coastal asset inspections (she humoured it well), had coffee overlooking the Bay and a Welsh cake shop on our return.  

Schengen

I was over in Luxembourg for New Year and, as usual, when JC proposed a walk I wanted to find water.  Coastal opportunities are non-existent in Luxembourg but I cope by visiting the Mossel River.

Our walk on New Year's Day was in Schengen, the significance of which would mean more to me if I wasn't a Brit.  In 1985, the agreement signed in Schengen created a border free area which now spans 27 European countries.  Britain never joined, presumably because it was an island, but it means that, once on the continent, freedom of movement is seamless.  Bearing in mind Luxembourg is smaller than the county of Devon I can't imagine how wonderful this freedom was - to simply drive from one country to the other without border checks.  Added to this, to get a supermarket in northern Luxembourg the road takes you through Belgium - perfect after Schengen, but it became a bit of an issue during Covid lockdown when Luxembourgers were stopped by Belgium police for going to shop in their own country.

As Schengen is in the south east of Luxembourg it is super close to Germany and France.  

So, at the start of our walk, I popped into Germany and back again.

The walk took us past the height of the floods in 1947, up some steps and around the vineyards above the river.

 

Before we fully returned to Schengen I had to pop to France...

Once back to Schengen village we swung by the Chateau de Schengen and more modern art such as the metal handshake.

And it even had some pieces of the Berlin Wall. 

Christmas in Exeter, Basingstoke and Cardiff

It was Christmas on the move this year, mainly because Riona's shifts meant she only had the Saturday and Sunday off and we were working around her as much as possible.

Caitlin and Riona were around at mine on Christmas Eve and we spent the day wrapping, making crafty things and, critically, playing Overcooked and Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch.  We relocated to Roger's for the evening and enjoyed the new Glass Onion film.

Christmas Day was the standard Adams fayre - breakfast of poached eggs, spinach, salmon, bucks fizz, washing up, unwrapping stockings, walk (in which we got pretty wet) then present opening.

For lunch Riona presented us all with mini lego people - so cute!  If you remove my hair you can see I even have a hearing aid on.

Rog always cooks a feast, and this year it was roasted butternut squash with goats cheese and all the other roast accompaniments along with the essential brussels stir-fried in ginger, then it was washing up, TV, games, cheese and biscuits, and probably a tad of washing up for good measure at the end of the day - you know the score for a relaxed Christmas Day. 

On Boxing Day it was an early start as Rog and Riona left at 0600 to get Riona to Cardiff for her shift.  Caitlin and I rose a little later then headed to Basingstoke.  Caitlin drove my car for the first time ever - it wasn't half as scary as either of us thought it would be!

We popped into Whitchurch to see Mum.  She was awake and chatty which was nice, and we gave her some socks and the family calendar which she seemed to enjoy looking through.  

As my Dad and brother had covid we couldn't go to visit them, so we had a quick present exchange in the car port then drove to The Vyne to meet my uncle.  What a lovely treat!  The house was closed so we only needed to pay garden entry.  First off was much needed coffee and food, then we strolled around the west end of the lake and the woods, although I had the wrong footwear for the gloopy mud paths we encountered.  It was very nippy so we were glad to head back inside for a second hot drink.

The original plan for 26 December was that we'd all meet at my Dad's.  We'd divvied up the food provisioning between us and Mike elected to bring his much loved fruit salad.  By the time the plans changed Mike had already bought the fruit so, during our second coffee, announced that he had a fruit salad, bowls and spoons in his car.  So as we left, we parked up and ate fruit salad by the roadside in the cold.  Classic! 

Next up was a drive to Cardiff.  Nice of the cosy passenger to take a photo of me whilst I was filling up the car in the cold!

We got to Cardiff early evening, for another excellent supper cooked by Rog.  Riona wasn't back from her shift until 2145 but we then unwrapped another dose of presents from the Basingstoke gang which was fun.

On Tuesday, 27 December, we went off to see the sea at Penarth.  It was raining heavily (it's the only sort of rain I think Cardiff does) but we trotted up and down the pier before finding a warm and dry lunch spot.  

Another fun afternoon of Nintendo and crosswords before watching Knives Out with a takeaway.  It was wonderful to spend the day with Riona in between her shifts. A bit of late one home but back in Ottery by midnight and lots of happy Christmas memories.

Bournemouth Pre-Christmas Bash - 02 to 04 Dec 22

In October I bought JC a pre-Christmas treat of a theatre production of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" in Bournemouth.  A few days after, he realised he had to be in Luxembourg that weekend as his sister was home and, due to Covid, he hadn't seen for years.  Fortunately Caitlin was able to join me - Riona was on nights in Cardiff so definitely ruled herself out there.

Not being a fan of driving, I decided to catch the train from Cranbrook to Bournemouth.  The Cranbrook to Salisbury and Salisbury to Southampton legs worked smoothly.  We were held up entering Southampton Central, and I joked to the guy next to me that I might miss my connection.  What I didn't realise is that all connections to Bournemouth had been cancelled. I stepped off the train at Southampton Central into semi-chaos, as the line from Southampton to Bournemouth had gone down due to a failure of the electric 3rd rail.  I asked a station assistant what the plan was and they pointed me towards the exit stating "taxi replacement service".  So there we were - about 200 of us trying to exit the station to join a not-yet-formed queue, others were trying to exit to simply leave and more were trying to enter for another train.

I called my friend, Rosey, who lives in Southampton, who nearly came out to rescue me and drive me to Bournemouth. Meanwhile I'd made friends with other frustrated passengers in the static queue - Ran, Rob, Nick.  I stuck with it, as I really wanted to get to Bournemouth that night and I didn't want to put Rosey out.  After an hour or so, success! - we got to the front of the queue, did a shout out for "who wants to go to Bournemouth?" and myself and my now 7 new Bournemouth buddies were whizzed off westwards.  Ran's wife collected him from Bournemouth station and kindly dropped me to my hotel so I managed to reach my destination 5 hours after leaving Cranbrook.   Meanwhile, JC had gone to Luxembourg that morning from Cranbrook, via Waterloo, London City Airport and arrived home in 7 hours.  

On Saturday I headed for the sea.  I found Boscombe Pier and wandered up and down it.

I then headed off towards Bournemouth Pier.  I loved the rainbow of beach huts.

There is a lot of sand at Bournemouth - so much so that there are numerous steps down from the promenade to the beach where only the tops of the step railings appear.  The sand has accreted that much.  I'm far more used to shingle ;-)

Caitlin arrived on time, no such train fandango for her, and we strolled by the sea on the way to our supper.  There's always a reason to walk via the sea to go somewhere.

We ate at a lovely Sri Lankan restuarant, The Coconut Tree, then saw the show.  The show itself was fine although a lot more scripted than I remember: so much so that the cast were walking around the stage with their written scripts.  What made it unpleasant for me, though, was that the BIC's loop system didn't work.  It turns out that analogue T-loop are incompatible with digital hearing aids.  As I pointed out, the NHS have been providing digital hearing aids for over a decade so it's crazy that they haven't upgraded their technology.  Caitlin wonderfully switched on live-listen for me on her phone, so I kind of read that and kind of listened. Not being able to hear didn't ruin the evening for me, but it made it an experience I would not hasten to repeat, and I won't trust BIC again with their T-loop offering.

On Sunday we had a lazy first thing, then brunch in town.  Bizarrely, we ended up in exactly the same place I'd had lunch the day before - which just goes to show it was a Ruth-friendly cafe (the veggie + gluten free is an offering too far for many establishments).  We sat and ate, drank and did the obligatory puzzle.  Happy days :-)