LOOK What I Did

So we went off on our yearly trip to the big smoke – this time we decided to stay slightly outside of London in Richmond-upon-Thames for a couple of nights, venturing into town on the Friday to visit the Shard. I also decided to drive up for a change – as it was Richmond and not in the city it seemed like a good idea. Its around 120 miles and we set off around 8:45 on he Thurs morning, and sailed through the M4 at a good clip and arrived n Richmond town just and hour and a half later. Its a straight run until Jnt 2, then turn right and follow the signs for Kew, then its a straight road for 5 mins and you are there.

We left the kit in the car, and we headed off into Richmond with a variety of clothing, the day may have rained or been sunny so preparation was the key – something pops excelled at! 15 minute walk into Richmond, and I took then through the green and onto the River proper, after 5 mins we were overcome with the charms of the slug and had our first drinky poos. At this point a google car came past so hopefully we will now be uploaded into the street view in Google for the Richmond river front. We then walked up te river a little way – specifically so that I could have a look at Steins – where they sell massive sausages and massive steins of Erdinger – I wasn’t allowed in. We walked back and went to the Pitcher and Piano for lunch – I had a second best hot dog, with a sausage which withered in comparison with those massive German bratwurst but it was washed down with a couple of pints of Peroni – which was nice.

Next up was the mystery tour, I manage to get them from Richmond to Southfields pretty much before they realised where we were going. IN order to help this I got them out at Putney and onto the underground at East Putney, unfortunately Wimbledon was mentioned there, so I think Ma had a good idea when we left the station. Anyway, Wimbledon is an odd place to visit, Wimbledon station is further away from the Tennis than Southfields, but even here is a 15 minute walk to the center – which we stormed through, in fifteen minutes.

We were slightly early, so after a baggage check with the efficient security waller we had a quick drink and a scone before the tour proper. Our tour mate Andy, was a bit of a cockney who took delight in lightly taking the piss of the foreigners of which there were loads. One German guy ran a translation to his children louder than Andy was talking, and Mr and Mrs India took picture after picture after picture. We saw No.1 court, Henmans Hill, the press center and Center Court – all quite impressive, but we couldnt see the changing rooms, or the tunnels, or much of the grounds which was disappointing – I would have liked to have seen the behind the scenes stuff. It lasted an hour and a half, but only really a few bits. The courts were very impressive, and perhaps one day I will go back there to watch something.

After the tour we had a brief look at the museum and then off back to Richmond – the day was on its way over by this time, so as soon as we got back we called into Pizzeria Rustica and had some nosh. Pop’s fish soup was the best thing ever, and my Pizza was adequate. Quite tired already we got some provisions from Tescos and wondered home for an early night, even though we had to check in and mother had to swap rooms as her’s stunk – I was snoring by 10:30.

What makes you happy? I wonder what does, for me I like nothing more than visiting new places, but also, and almost more importantly I love having a beer and some good nosh. Being in another diet in my head time, it seems quite sad that one would have to think about what food and drink you were allowed – that’s rubbish. So diet is only for the days when I don’t do anything “special” with the ability to raise an exception on certain days…

Been doing quite a lot of running over the last week or so, went for a 10K run which went well, but also 3-4 miles a day and finally got back onto my bike again this weekend. Not touched it since the CarTen, but went for a 35 miler and it was quite successful – however the GPS seems to be playing up a little now. It showed my max speed of 84 mph – which I think it a touch ambitious.

So we headed off to Trowbridge, because we have not been there before – it was rubbish – the highlight was watching some Chinese people walk down the street opposite us.

I am not sure it has any redeeming features – Bradford-upon-Avon on the other hand was very lovely. The problem with places like this is that its a swine to park, we circled the car park like a bmw shaped eagle until we lucked upon someone leaving and squeezed into a slot. Its quite picturesque Bradford – very unlike the hole in the world that is the northern one, and we mooched and had a drink (at which point I was very keen to stay over, but there were no hotels free) and had a great munch in the pub. After that we went for creme teas in a hotel so old it might as well have been a cave, where the serving wenches went up and down tiny stairs continuously. I had a diet coke – so much for English tea dude.

After having our fill of Bradford (will take the train next time) we then set out for Castle Coombe – sounds rubbish, and is mostly famous for the racing circuit, but the village is a revelation. Many places seem to have the title of prettiest village in England and the most picturesque – well this is the real deal. Unfortunately the only crap part is all the stupid tourists walking up and down the streets. Its small, quaint, has a river and a bridge and loads of honey houses and to make it perfect it also has two pubs. We sat outside one, but as I was driving I had no interested what so ever so forced Sian to neck her wine and got back to the car asap. Would be a great place to have a walk from – or shoot a film.

Came home after that.

So it was me ‘old dears’ birthday over the weekend – so she took us down to Cardiff to stay for a couple of nights in the capital. Mum and Dad came down by train and arrived into the city around twoish, so I came into Cardiff to work from the Bay in the morning, and took the train into Cardiff from Cogan – just a ten minute journey into town.

So by two thirty I was in the Marriott bar and having a sneaky little Stella. My gang (well half of them) arrived around 4:30 and the rest a little later. After a quick check in and a couple more Stella’s then a move onto Lowenbrau – a lager I have not seen for some time. Guaranteed a head ache later..

Early food today, so a quick trot over to Park Place and Giovani’s by the New Theater. Unfortunately, and as usual, I picked the wrong thing – I had the veal, in breadcrumbs which was pretty tasteless – the others had a variety of tasty things and I think in general the food went down very well. I had a beer or two and somehow a bottle of red wine also appeared which I shared with not many people I seems. Quite a good venue, the staff were nice and the owner came and took some photo’s and brought my mum a desert with a candle in it and we sang Happy Birthday.

Little walk home, then a quick beer before beddy byes.

Next day, and with a thick head we met in the bar before breakfast to give out our gifts. My sister and I shared a present, but as I gave it to her, she thought it was from me – so I told her to read the card with it, and then she thought it was just from Claire – it was slightly more amusing in real life. Kate gave her a list of 70 things she loves about grandma – all hand written, which I think went down quite well.

After a massive breakfast of meat and bread and one hash brown, we got ourselves sorted for the trip to the Bay. This time we thought we would try the water taxi, which goes from the castle and dumps you in the Bay. Some of them stop off in Penarth, but ours didn’t so we walked out to the barrage. It was getting to be quite a pleasant day int he end, and they had ice-creams at the stall, and the children played in the park for a bit. I showed them the amazing yellow rings on the barrage, but no one thought anything of it, so its just me that likes it, and I will not bother showing anyone else.

Over to the pub just by the barrage for lunch – which due to having a massive breakfast was just a couple of pints – quite a nice place though – probably does do good food. We had booked into Cote for 5:30 so moseyed back into the bay, and sat around having a beer or two in the wind, then the rest of my gang came, and one beer later it was time for food. Slightly better choice this time, I had beef bourgeoisie which was okay, but small, and so was the beer – 1664 in a dolls bottle.

We walked back from the Bay and the children went by train – we got back before them – its only a short stroll back into town, but I have never done it before (other than running it in the Cardiff Half). So we had a final couple of beers in the bar and I tried very unsuccessfully to do some magic tricks with the rubbish cards – then matchmakers and peanuts and bed.

Another morning and loads of bacon and bread, then train home at 10:15.

Nice.

So this year I had to squeeze in some leave some we managed to get out into the country for a couple of Wednesdays – these are the pubs I had never been to before:

First stop was a little place in Caerwent which I had gone past a number of time but never stopped. We entered the Coach and Horses to be greeted by nothing at all, no punters and no staff. We stood by the bar for a little bit and then I snuck around to the “dining room” and managed to get someones attention. Once attended to we had a little beer – which I think I may have had 1664, but it may have been Stella I cannot remember. We threw a couple of darts – we are very shit, and perched on the lonely bar stools. They seemed to have a few in the food bit around the corner, but obviously there are not many alcoholics in Caerwent (unless we were a little early for them). There was a pool table which had no price on, and they had a bit of a beer garden, so might be one to pop back to if we ever get some sun (we could probably cycle to it in the summer).

6/10 (until the summer?)

Shirenewton, the town that supposedly is not called Shire-Newton, its called shurnewtun – which seemed a bit stupid to me – but then I didn’t name it. Another place I have been through many times and often thought about stopping, but never did – at one point I thought it would be a great place to retire to – they do have a couple of pubs at least. We visited the Tredegar Arms – Tredegar must be something relevant in these parts as a few places have this name – the only one I know is on the edge of Newport, so perhaps Mr Tredegar splashed his wealth all over the place. I don’t quite recall why, but I actually had some lunch in this place, and they did me a very adequate fish finger baguette, which I rather enjoyed. The lager selection was rubbish – Fosters being the best of a bad bunch – but it had just run out, so I had a bottle of San Miguel instead – fancy that lunch and a bottle of lager – ain’t I all continental all of a sudden. We sat in the Window seat, which was nice, and the rest of the bar was full of tables, but I thought it was okay – the view was just of the road.

7/10

Chepstow has a lot of pubs – most of them cack, and this one didn’t disappoint. It was cack too. The place itself is okay inside, a little olde worlde, but a good variety of lager, and a big sign outside saying that it won something to do with those beer loving freaks – Camra. Obviously Camera know cock all about lager, because both the Stella and Amstel were warm. Warm lager is for teenagers and poor people, and I loves an Amstel me – I couldn’t finish it. But as a softy poof I didn’t even mention it to the landlord as I left. It had old fashion “naughty” postcards in the toilet – that sums it up really – should have stayed in the past. So Coach and Horses, I wont return.

4/10 (If the lager comes out cold it would raise a point or two)

OMG! Never been in the Kings Head in Chepstow, not sure I will again. This is like someones front room, it had, what I guarantee is the resident piss head woman, propping up the bar, and two geezers one relaxing on the customers side of the bar, the other fiddling with a laptop. Customer ran around the bar and took our order – Stella for us, and thank god it was cold (Coach and Horses was just before). We sat on suitably sticky, marked tables and had a little chat, next think the boom boom boom of some type of youngsters musics ripped though the speakers. Person number two had managed to get his laptop to talk to the pubs speakers – wonderful. He was playing something from his Facebook page, and busting some moves by the bar. He was quite funny, he sounded to “posh” to be a bad boy, but he certainly wanted to be know as one. His moves got more erratic and then him and his mate stepped out for a smoke – just after blasting this shit heap music on. The lager was okay – and they were quite friendly in there, I can imagine it gets rammed at night time with all the young crowd – it would probably be nice to get drunk in there until you got stabbed, but I think I will probably give it a miss in future.

6/10 (extra point for comedy value)

What a weekend of excess. Pub on Friday for too many, then too much food on Sat (even though I managed to go for a decent 30 mile cycle) then big breakfast, big picnic and a load of pork – good job its not Mother’s Day every weekend.

The boys managed to get back this weekend, Ant was back in good time on the Friday, and Tom managed to arrive about 7 on Sat evening. So after a huge Chinese we rested our weary heads ready for the Wye. We had arranged to leave at 10:15 – we didn’t, as we never do – but only 20 minutes late we left, in the two car convoy for Symonds Yat. Tiny roads and a parking space in the mud, which my rear wheels didn’t like too much but we had arrived and the canoe owners didn’t mind too much that we were a fraction late.

Very bossy woman got us into our life jackets a little red crop top affair (even though we were on the concrete and 5 miles form getting into the river), we then got an oar, a map, and a barrel to put our picnic in and were directed onto the vehicle for transfer. I felt sick in the van. We got there,carried our (heavy) three man canoes down to the river and stood through the tremendously important safety briefing then I got my far ass into the canoe and although besieged by a load of two-maners we were away. It takes a little getting used to in a boat like this – they are quite stable, but you do feel a little vunerable until you get used to it. We took our time and waited for the chuckle brothers (and sister) to emerge. They were going quite fast, but not in a particularly straight line – it seemed perhaps there was more power on one side than the other, and the steering may have been slightly erratic. They certainally used all the river though, and the bank, and the trees – the ducks were dumbstruck.

We intended to get off at the first pub, but half an hour in we felt like we may have missed it – the signs on the river are rubbish, well they are not there in fact. So you have no idea where you are or how far you have gone. The water proof map was only good for being able to withstand water, as the river was so small it was impossible to see where you might be at any time. But as we headed around the island (to the left as instructed) we saw some white water. White water generally means one thing – rocks. We scooted around and took a tiny bit of the current, the keystone cops however managed to drive directly at the largest rock in the river and “beach” themselves. We sailed away as Ant managed to get out and rescue them from certain peril. Given their rubbish control they really truly could not have done that if they had meant to.

As we realised that the pub was now just a simple thought, we looked for a landing platform, we found a shingle beach and pulled up. Once on terra ferma I took the opportunity to move a little way down the beach and have a quick Jimmy. Once the rest had abandoned ship we sat on the bank (where there were loads of spiders I saw, so I stood) and ate our enormous picnic. The the other party would had shred our lift to the river arrived, and pulled in, with Ant bay watch sprinting through the river to save them and pull them in –  *a little way down the beach* luckily they did not say and sit in the the little sand river I had created. After some time, and a little bit of drying we set off, we got in and headed off, when the Marx brothers (and sister) tried to get off the shore. I watched in wonderment as Tom literally rolled into the boat, causing a slight disturbance in the stability and within 2 (very slow motion) seconds to my eyes watched in amused fascination as they capsized. Ant seemed to just step out, but Becs pretty much did an Eskimo Roll, and was drenched, you could plainly see her slightly “put out” expression from 100 yards down river.

From here we thought there might have been another pub, but none to be seem so we just rowed back to the start – pausing slightly for Kate to jump in so she was wet as well as the others. We docked and were then told to bring our canoes up the steps and back to the lot – they were heavier than before.Then a quick Peroni outside the Ferry Inn – we braved the car park and headed home.

Back on the cycle at the moment, have the CarTen in about seven weeks – 100 miles from Cardiff to Tenby, so I need to get back used to putting the miles in. I bought a new bike when we were Ooop North, but it still has not come – I hope it wil this week, because the creaking and clicking on my current bike is doing my swede in.

Out at 7:30 and it was a little chilly, I really should have worn my tights, but by that time it was too late, 10 miles in and things were okay, apart from my tootsies which were frozen – nice ride, tiring, as I am not used to it yet – but 33 miles not bad before 9:30.

Sian had decided to visit the boys in Swansea this weekend, so although Tom had forgot and buggered off to meet up with his bird, we took ourselves and Becs down to visit. For a change I sat in the back, and dozed there and back – now that’s living alright – like having a chauffeur although I don’t think Sian is too keen on being the driver, but it was a wonderful day off.

Got down to the student digs and picked up Ant, then into Swansea center and a couple of detours before we parked up. Ant took us to a place called the Smoke Haus, which was pretty damn good. They had all sorts of American type meet and bread – hot dogs, burgers, pulled pork the full nine yards. I was completely undecided and my Coors didn’t help matters, but eventually I picked the Brisket – I shouldn’t have. It was okay, but really i was expecting something out of Man Vs Food, all wet and dripping and thick – but it wasn’t like that. Quite tasty though and surprisingly filling. Rest of the nosh went down well, so a thumbs up for the Hous, will try somewthing else if we return.

After lunch it was time for the pilgrimage to the bowling alley – a very convenient thing to do on a Sunday in Swansea, sixty quid for two games mind – no wonder it wasn’t packed. But I did get to sneak in a couple of San Miguels. First game was a very tight affair with Becs leading up until the 9th, when I stuck out, and then finished with three strikes in the 10th, poor old Becs lost 131 to 133 – close. Second game was a different matter – four beers in, I was back to my professional form – all those years ago as “The Medics” bowling for Withybush – and slotted in a 203, probably the highest I have had since I retired. So that was the two frames all over. We dropped Ant back at his digs, and I spent the majority of the trip home having a little doze – epic.

Smoke Haus – 7/10

Got a blumming speeding ticket this week. During our trip Oop North I passed a sly police van on the way out of Gateshead – on a duel carrage way, which our sat nav said was national speed limit, but did have some 50 signs on – also stuck in the fast lane between two cars to tossers pinched me at 62 in a 50. I saw them and slowed as I got close, so I can only imagine the clocking was done some significant distance from the van. I know its my fault for “breaking the law” but it wasn’t obvious, and the road was perfect, it was 9:00 in the morning, perfect visibility and I was running with the other cars – so that’s it, I am never going to Newcastle again – hateful place ;o)

So this week we thought we should get out, and we visited Cardiff.

We went, we parked, we walked, we shopped, we ate Nando’s and visited the Museum. Then we came home.

It didn’t rain.

The great Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, someone who didn’t like him and bloody Brian Adams – all nothing like you heard they were.

Another earyish start from Newcastle and thirty mins down the road stopping for some McDonalds. Breakfast Wrap and a bacon roll for greedy chops, normal food for the rest. The trip down was about three hours but again we had quite a good run, until we got into Nottinghamshire, where all the roads had 50 mile an hour speed limits and average speed camera’s. I would kill something if I lived there (or perhaps avoid the roads?) – but we got into Nottingham and took a diversion into a residential street to find a Windmill. We almost gave up, but find it we did and quite good it was too. Another free visit, it is a working mill, and you can go inside and see the bits that hurt and maim you. Quite liked that in a Good Life sort of way.

Once semi checked in we followed the map into Nottingham itself and walked the canal to find the castle – we saw a house on a hill with a Welsh flag flying (it was St David’s Day) and carried on expecting something more castle like. We were disappointed. We went for a beer on the canal side, two pubs were completely packed, one had no one in. We had a drink in the one no one was in – Sian said it was the worst wine she had ever had (and she’s had a few), but my 1664 was okay. We sat outside as it was sunny, but then a load of people came and the sun buggered off, so we left.

It was getting a little late now, so we headed for a pub we had passed earlier right next to the so called castle which offered fish and chips. Now this was more like it, a really nice place, which was quiet and gave you fish and chips in a box, with “real” vinegar and wooden knives and forks., They dropped a bollox with our order and brought the wrong things out, so as an appology they offered us a free round – can’t be bad – I almost said no – but just couldn’t make myself. When the food came it was good along with curry sauce and gravy.

After food we went to the caves under Nottingham – they were fully booked – we didn’t do so well on attractions. So instead we walked back to the hotel to checkin. Room was good, all newly renovated – but there were 10 lads checking in before us – on a stag do – and on our floor, and next to our room – you can guess what happened later. So after the check in we headed back into town and to a slightly odd place where I had a grolsh, then we traipsed around Nottingham firstly following some ice hockey fans to see where they were going (we didn’t realise they were ice hockey fans when we started stalking them) then found the only pub which looked like it might allow Kate in. It was a “rock” pub, or at least a pub with rock music on the jukebox. We had a couple of beers listening to AC/DC and Stiff Little Fingers – and then Suspicious Minds – so it wasn’t all rock!

The Indian street was just over the road, so we went to the highly recommended one – they poured scorn on us when we said we haddn’t booked, so we tried the next “best” also packed, so we went to another, and there was plenty of room, they took our coats and were very very friendly. It may have been a quid or two more than the others (maybe, not even sure that was the case) but I really enjoyed it. Tiger beer on tap and a great Chilli Chicken Curry went down a storm. It was relaxed, and friendly and I really enjoyed it. Then we staggered home.

Nottingham – 7/10

Hotel – 8/10

Whey aye, Howay the lads, gun doon toon and all that nonsense we were heading for the Toon mun.

Had breakfast included here as it was the cheapo hotel, only £35 then 15 for brekkie – had in the TGI’s – which was sticky and not really as clean as you might like. But the toast was great, the butter was tasty and the meet was hot. Let the hotel at a reasonable time and headed out of Leeds and up the variations of the M/A1 towards Scotland. We had about 2.5 hrs to drive this morning and we flew for most of it. A lot of the motorway was quiet and we got up to treble figures on occasion – before we knew it we finally arrived at the Angel of the North. Which, sneaks up on you when you are coming from the South – it is in quite an odd place to be honest, we did notice coming back it looked a bit better, up on the hill, but coming from South you can barly see it until you are on top of it. Its a shame because the motorway takes you past some very open countryside and that would have been a great place for it – but anyway, it didn’t seem as big as expected, so we stopped for a look. It is quite big.

Only just outside Gateshead, so within 15 mis we descended the overly complex streets to the second hotel. The location was amazing (or so I thought) just under the Tyne bridge, which is an amazing iron construction, the block we were on was an good old fashioned square, imposing building which looked just like the home of the main character of GTA IV. I loved it.

The room wasn’t so great. We headed out to the Millennium Bridge, and across to Gateshead and back – which was a brilliant introduction to the better side of Newcastle. Fistly though we stopped in the Slug, which was next door because we had promised Kate she could have the Pud she was going to have yesterday before we were kicked out for being too young. It was clean and bright and really quite nice. We managed to get up the hill into town a little way for a quick pint in the Pleased to Meet you – then headed back towards the hotel for a pie for lunch. The pie was nice – in a real old fashioned place with little rooms and low ceilings – the Red House, they had specially made pies which were nice, with a tasty mash and gravy.

After lunch we mooched around Newcastle proper, and here we saw the slightly underwhelming part – where as the first part had been like Bath, the second half need one. Bus stations are always a bit crappy, and although it wasn’t awful, it just didn’t quite live up to the initial expectation.. Saw St James Park and “Chinatown”, and went down to the discovery center which was closing at four so we had to be quick – as it was already four when we got there we just couldn’t quite manage to be quick enough. So we headed back to check in.

Room was okay – not great, so we left after one of us managed a quick snooze (can’t quite remember which one of me it was) and ended up in The George as the town was filling up nicely with young boozers and there were bouncers everywhere. After a couple of beers here, we let Kate decide where to go so she picked Pizza Express – we went to the one down the road and although there were no people there – it was booked out. (Oddly the Slug had reserved tickets on (for 7:00pm+) when we got there at 11:30. Luckily there had another one, which was like a goldfish bowl in the shopping center which we managed to get into and stuff our fat faces with bread and cheese and meat. Tasty.

The toon was too scary after that, so we headed home after picking up some water and went for another early night.

Newcastle – 8/10

Hotel – 6/10

We have decided to spend some time up in the North of Englan. It is half term with us this week – where as England have already had theirs, so we can make the most of the quietness and visit some places we have not been. As it happens Day 1 was Leeds, chosen because Newcastle is too far away and we have been to Sheffield more times than Leeds.

Up and at them early doors, and managed to get away for 8:30 – great and quiet journey up to the first stop of Rotherham, and we made pretty good time – although the bloody roadworks before Sheffield were a right pain. They have about 15 miles of works, with average sped check all the way along it – so you have to do 50 – not that everyone did. I do wonder if these average camera’s are actually on half the time. Anyway, after a slow drive we eventually got to the Rotherham turn off and headed to Magna Park.

The reason for this pause in the journey was that this is where Planet X live. They are a bike shop, who seems to sell lots and lots of bikes and are amazingly cheep compared to other places. I was looking for a new racer, on a carbon frame wit the new Ultegra 6800 groupset. The price in Planet X is very competitive if you compare with Ribble and Cannondale etc. As this will probably be my last bike – I really wanted to push the boat out. Nice place on the Magna estate. Next door (almost) they have the “factory” where they do the builds – although all the frame are manufactured in China or somewhere like that – they are all designed by Planet X thought, to their specification and tolerances (so they say). The showroom has quite a few bikes on display – but apparently no place to test different frame sizes – which seems incredible if you think people are dropping 1500 – 6000+ quid on a bike – I suppose if you did buy a very expensive one they may push the boat out a little more? Had a small tough looking chap who was a bit crap as a salesman, and I was a bit crap as a customer – Sian piped up – “Why don’t you get this one” which was 500 quid more, and I was tempted – but that takes it to silly money and also the other one looked like an advert. So five minutes later and I am sitting the the car pondering whether I did the right thing, and ruing the fact I didn’t upgrade the wheels – as it would be £220 and he seemed to think I didn’t need them – what does he know?.. (Update: the following Weds I called and got the upgraded wheels for an extra £130)

After the little pit stop we were back on the little run up to Leeds, it rained a bit whilst in the car, and once we got to Leeds we sat in TGI for a quick bite to eat it rained some more. But once we had finished our burgers and chicken the sun had almost come out. We took a mosey along the canal in Leeds, something I had not done before and it was an okay walk – very quiet, until we got to the Armories – free to get into and a really impressive array of weapons and armor. We were under slight time pressures so we whizzed around and it was well worth the visit – then we went into town proper to search out an appropriate boozer.

Finding a pub was not as simple as we first though – initially we didn’t want to do the regulars and wanted to see a little a Leeds so we meandered around the center until we got to the other side, and somewhere I almost recognized from the days I used to spend in Leeds and fell into Mr Follys Ale House. They had Erdinger here – but nothing like I had ever seen before – it was cloudy, but it also had an odd name, so I still dont know whether it was crap beer, or supposed to be like that – it tasted okay, but did look pretty fowl.

Next stop was the Slug and Lettuce – we know they are generally okay with children, and we knew we were going to have a Chinese later, so thought we could get Kate something. Couple of Peroni’s later Kate is just about to order her dessert and the server says we should have left half an hour ago! Something to do with the council and they cannot have children after I thin it was 7:00 or maybe half six. Anyway we had to gulp it down a little bit, but we managed and set off for the Chinese. We had heard good things on trip advisor.

People on Trip Advisor are either liars, stupid, or have never eating good Chinese. Servers were a little abrupt but the Prawn Crackers were loverly. Satay chicken was insipid, and warm and the mains were some of the most tasteless stuff I have ever tried since Phil came round last and I tried some of his Number 32 Special Bland, Boiled Chicken with Bland Sauce. Managed to sink a couple of 1664’s though – so not all bad.

Hotel was just across the road – not bad – average Premier Inn standard – reasonably comfy, clean and a good shower – I slept.

Leeds – 6/10

Chinese – 4/10

Kates birthday on Monday so we have had my Mum and Dad up from Friday and my sister up on Saturday so we needed to get out and about man.SO on FRiday we decended on the Lion in town for an early doors bit of nosh – which was pretty good – I had the burger which was great – but the chips were not. Pops had a stew with the smallest dumpling ever – luckily we got the waitress and he had a load more sent over, and the rest had an adequate gammon. Just a couple of beers and then back for the rugby where Wales stuffed France – good times..

Saturday Claire arrived – and Kate let out a little yelp when she was surpised by her – so we set off for Chepstow. We come here quite a lot and there isnt too much here, but it is good enough to waste a few hours in. First stop was the overly complex parking meter, where the guy in front managed to win his money back, but no ticket, then he won his ticket. Then a quick walk down by the castle and a stroll over the iron bri9dge which takes you from Wales to Engerland – in the middle you can be in both places at once. It was windy and rubbish in Engerland, so we came back.

We had a waltz though the town and popped into the smith and jones pub at the top for some light refreshment. An odd array of quite reasonable food was provided – nothing great, in fact not even that good – but was edible, and then it was off to Tintern again.  To start we went up the 365 steps – which really felt like 365 steps and had a slip and slide around in the mud – once slightly tired we set off for the village itself..We parked, we looked, we got confused and then we went to the pub because to park you have to pay £3 which is refundable if you buy a drink. I had water.

We had a little confusion when we left as to where everyone was but we managed to get home and after some poncing about ordered a nice big ruby murry. I liked it, Ant ate four, yes four, onion bajis with his.

Next day we headed off Tesco to pick up some stuff and then did something which for the life of me I cannot rememeber.

On Monday, which was Kates birthday proper I had to spend the morning waiting for the gas man to come back and give me a saftey certificate, then we went to Celtic Manor for a walk, which involved walking around the golf course – slightly confused. Then we went to see the Lego Movie which was “awesome, everything was awesome” then home and a small for me pizza hut.

And that was the weekend of the 22nd Feb. It was nice.

Watched the Hobbit this weekend – what a pile of short arsed, hairy footed nonsense. Three hours which just says that someone finds a ring – that’s it. I preferred Lord of the Rings.

Me old mucker Phil came down this weekend – he was going to come on Friday, then Thursday night, then in the end about lunch time on Sat. Kate had gone to the pictures, so we nipped out to Tintern was a quick walk – a walk which entailed us walking from the car, to the pub and back to the car. It was drizzly, but was nice to get out of the house.

When we got back we went into the village for a beer or two, Phil had to get a sandwich, so we asked some of the locals to give him a great cheer when he finally arrived – he looked slightly surprised when a number of people shouted “Hi Phil, hows things” as he walked in… After a few beverages we headed home for a Chinese – originally expecting to eat at 6:30 it finally came around 9:00.

Phil buggered off the next day – on his way to Cardiff, so I took the gang on a mystery tour. I put my name down for the CarTen again this year, 1400 hundred spaces and it was full in four hours – amazing. I am also hoping to do one of the usual yearly cycles with the boys, although we haven’t decided on a destination yet. So due to all this I am going to splash out on a new bike, so first off I wanted to have a look in what I thought would be a massive bike superstore (after seeing their website), which actually was a little bike shop.  The shop was on the way and when we got there the rain was torrential – but we continued in case it dried up, and it did. We headed off to Cwmcarn which is well known as a off-road mountain bike downhill place – but it also apparently had some walks. We got there and it was reasonably empty and completely rainless. After a quick shufty in the visitor center we headed out for the trails. It was okay. At one point we had an opportunity to jump across a raging torrent – it was only a couple of feet across, but Kate was a little hesitant – then she went for it – aaarrrgggghhhhh she screamed as she sailed though the air.

I think we will go back here again in the Spring, as they have a 6 mile walk which I think we will do.

So first day of the entire year when it hasn’t poured down with rain. And the first main trip out was to wonderful Bath. It was a lovely, if slightly chilly day, and we set off in Bec’s car to the train station. Even with four of us, the cost was only £26 with a “group saver”, meaning that we actually paid for four adults which worked out cheaper than 3 and 1 child on a railcard. Anyway with station parking it was less that thiry quid – wouldn’t have been that price in the car…

So we pulled into Bath station after a leisurely 40 minute chuff, and immediately I realised yet again that I didn’t quite have enough clothes on – not meaning I had forgotten my trousers, just that is was chilly enough to allow for another jumper perhaps. Every part of Bath is now great, it must be one of my favorite cities, it has new shops, old architecture, buskers a plenty, pubs, restaurants, tiny alleys, big parks and its all pretty compact. Today saw bright sky’s and a manageable number of shoppers, we had a little mooch around then into a pub. This place had the beginnings of a stag do (which seemed a lot more sophisticated than some I have seen) and a weird, short Chinese student who severely lacked any type of social skill demanding to know why BT Sport was not playing on the TV’s – I am pretty sure he didn’t even have a drink.

After a quick read of the paper, we investigated a street we normally don’t go down and found some lights which were on a magnificent sale, so we bought two – then more mooching until lunch. We thought we would try FireHouse, which looked good, it mentioned pizza and chicken, but we didn’t look at the menu until we arrived. We walked in and the first thing the bloke said was “Do you have a reservation” – I would have liked to have left then. But we followed him upstairs and to our seats. One quick glance at the menu and it was clear this was not pizza express, so we just got back up, put our coats on and left. I legged it quickly to leave Bec’s and Kate to do any explaining – luckily the guy was to busy with his reservationists to notice.

So a little wonder later and we found ourselves outside the Slug and Lettuce, which are sometimes a little ‘WeatherSpoonish’ but this was nice, and as we had arrived early we had a great seat – Perroni and a super duper burger – it was really quite good.

The one problem with being on the train is that you have to plan ahead for leaving, so we walked around and had a look in the variety of shops and places until nearly time to leave, we then had to walk all the way to the lamp shop and carry the lamps 30 miles back to the train station – me being super efficient ensured that we actually got back to the train station half an hour earlier than we needed to – so we sat in the cold, with our lamps.

Great day in Bath – love it. 8/10

So this is Christmas, and now New Year, so I thought  had better mention a few things of which I couldn’t be bothered to mention whilst Christmas was in full swing:

Bristol – went to Bristol for a pint and a burger for Christmas with the crew. It was a good day, we started in the Green House which is pretty good and do decent food, then we braved the weather to Christmas steps to find the sugar loaves shut. So we went to zero degrees, where they make there own beers. After a couple in here we went over to the Ship Inn. It was pouring down now. Then we went to the Sugar Loaves as it had now opened, then over to the smallest pub in Bristol, the White Lion. Then we stumbled over to the Kebaab house and just about caught our train back home. Good Times.

Friday was Black Friday – and it was shit. Quiet, but I did manage to have more than three drinks. There were a load of police vans outside the Mango House around 10:30, when we stumbled past on the way home.

Sunday was non electricity day. So we walked up to the Rose, and had a pint as they were already booked solid for lunches. After a coup0le of three we went home to attempt to play games in the dark and eat food. I felt ill again, as I tend to do on non-electricity days. We also had a candle in the toilet which we didn’t realise was an outside one, and it left a load of black smoke trails all around the room.

Monday we popped over the Lion with Paul and his dudes for lunch. Lion really are doing goof food now, didn’t eat much, but managed a couple of beverages.

Christmas day had a slow beginning this year. No one was up early, except for me and Sian, so I went fdor a quick run in the morning – which was nice. Only saw one car (but heard a couple more) and was back and showered before we woke the crew. Spend the morning in the kitchen running though the list of timings for the food. We had duck and turkey this year – it was pretty good. Presents after lunch, and I had a surprisingly good haul – which I didn’t expect.

Back to Pembs on the Friday, Kate went to a Panto (Oh yes she did), and we visited people. Then food, then next day we spent at the inlaws and eat too much again. Sunday we had lunch then decided to leave early afternoon to get home.

New Year week was quiet, went for a walk behind Chepstow racecourse as we had not been there before. And had a quiet New Year with a couple of films and a massive Indian. Weather has been shocking all week storms and loads of rai9n, so hoping it will get a little better before I have to return to work…..

So in the film “In Bruges” there are a couple of scenes which are in the Bell Tower in the central square, they are movie magic unfortunately – and in real life the changes are quite significant. I did take a photo of where I think Ken crawled his way back up the tower – but he would never had made it.

So, had a nice weekend in Bruges or BROOGuh as a barman told us – this is a place that was named after a  film and lives in Belgium – a place famous for Chocolate and Poirot and, um, well nothing else. We drove up to Bruges on the Friday morning – leaving home around 06:00 and trundling up the M4 in the dark. We made good time and stopped just before the Chunnel to get a newspaper and a bacon buttie, then onto the wonderful Chunnel on the slightly earlier train about 10:20. What a fantastic business this chunnelling is, sailed through passport control, and didn’t get pulled by the police – although Paul had a gun in the boot which would have taken a little bit of explaining.

Drive upstairs onto the train, the we drove for ages actually inside the beast, then stop, engine off, segments closed and within 10 mins we were underground and undersea. After winning 64,000 pounds on “Who wants to be a millionaire”, after running 20 episodes of it – we came out into sunshine. Only about 30 mins across the sea, and another 10 mins and we were on the wrong side of the road and looking at all the silly building in this foreign climes. Straight off the train and into the motorway, then passed an oddly spelt Newport a little bit of traffic and then we arrived – around 13:00 Eurotime. Thanks to Mr Sat Nav we turned up just outside of the hotel and after a bit of faffing we headed off to the BatCave. The hotel had an underground carpark, which had a number pad which wasn’t very good at allowing codes to be inserted, but we finally managed and checked in. Nice big room, second floor on the Martin’s Relais  and 15 mins later we were off and running.

Bruges is nice – there is no denying that, it may not be  ” like a fackin fairytale town” as ‘Arry describes it in the film, but it is nice – at least the central main tourist bit is, and the canals are okay and they serve beer which is like lager. We did the first thing all tourists do, and that was to wander aimlessly around until you have gone passed the same thing four times, at which point you wander for no more than 10 minutes and stop at a place that sells alcohol and sit down and re-group. So we did that. We had some sandwiches type food and a few samples of the local brew – which in this case was a Pilsner Urquell. I then had to leave them have a final half, as I needed to pick up my coat and to drop “something” off at the hotel. Was back before they finished, then we walked around again. Found ourselves outside the “Irish bar”, which was like no Irash Bar I had ever been in, not because it didn’t look authentic – it had a bar and some seats, but it was the slowest bar I have ever been in. The poor server was a complete retard, and the sod in front of us ordered some type of exotic coffee beverage. There was also a man coming up and down out of the floor behind the bar. This is where Jupiler became our new favorite lager. After a quick drink after the long order, we tried a couple of other places, which were heaving and went back to somewhere we had seen previously on the journey – to try and get a drinkies. We ended up having a drinkies and some foodies in the Habit – which was good and bad. The beer (Brugse Zot until I realised the price and then large Stella’s) was good and we had a nice time before supper, and then decided that it was best to stay where we were to eat. The wasn’t wasn’t so good, especially the sausage with “magic potato”. Magic potato could be better defined as “Green poo potato”, I wont bother to describe them just see what I say – oh they were runny also. That special dish also came with a piece of gammon which had been hanging around for months – which was not as nice as you might expect. Reasonable price though, and the other three meals were fine. After this we had a number of extra Jupilers in a remarkable place which stayed open until 8 in the morning – 9:30 on a Saturday – and he said it didn’t really get going until 3 in the morning – and in the week – amazing, I was frequently amazed by this – each large one made me amazed again. We had a good chat to the guy at the counter and all in all, although it was very quiet here, cos we were early it was a good place to get ‘faced. After a few of these we went to get some water and then home, quite squiffy I think its fair to say.

Second day and a bad head, only wore my jumper again like a silly monkey, and after tea and croissants we walked the canals for a while, until we found the boats – early doors there was only a little queue, by the time we returned it was massive. Quite a nice journey, a little cold! but you did get to see things and gain a vague idea of where things were. At this point we decided to walk down one of the roads we had not been on. At the end of this bit we got to the swans, and the monastery – both of which were only slight less boring than a drill. After some more wandering we needed food and finally decided on a place where the server was a complete doofas. All I wanted was a pizza, with no tomato – unusual maybe, but not the most complex order in the world. He looked at me with his stupid foreign face and squeezed out a slight bit of English, then looked again with a face like someone who had just woken up to find his life was actually a vivid dream by a old hairless dog who lived with a tiny Saxon nun on a roundabout in Swindon, and said the chef was too busy. Oooh. At least we got away with a free round here ;o)

After this we decided to split up and us men went to the pub. We picked a “Blues” bar, which was pretty good – we only had a quick one, then it was four and we met up by the tower. By the time we all got there we just missed the entrance to the steps, so instead we walked off to another bar which was too full and so we went back to the Blues bar where I almost got fleaced by the barman, and being British I was too embarrassed to say, but when we had the next, Paul picked him up on the price and fair play to the guy he took out a tenner from the till and let me have it. Now that’s service. After this it was back to a food place just opposite the one we went to yesterday – this one was called “the hobbit”, we tried the bar with a million beers before hand but it was packed again (I thought it opened at 6, but it was 4). Tiny, tiny, tiny toilet but quite a nice place and tasty food. No Frites, and as frites are the things Bruges seems to be a little famous for this, I was surprised. You could have a jacket potato, for an extra tenner!!!. Fair few beers here, then back into town and to the pub – yep a place called the pub, and it was showing British football. Couple in here, then it was bed time again.

Final day, and we checked out, fought our way into the carpark to dump the stuff, then for tea. Wanted a big sausage but couldn’t get one, so we finally went up the tower. It was steep, and windy (what a weird word to spell – I don’t mean there was a lot of wind as in air I mean there was a lot of wind as in round and round) and people went both up and down. I don’t like that type of staircase, and I was alot happier to come down rather than go up. Luckily we were one of the first up, so didn’t meet many on the way up, after a 5 second look at the view from the top, and realising it was nothing like the film I ran down the stairs. I was hot by the time I got to the bottom. After this we set off for Dunkirk, to see the the landing strip. As we were a little pushed for time and there seemed to be a French marathon going on. We managed to get out of the car, walk along the front a little way, have a quick tiny coffee and a fanta, then we were on our way to Calais. A lot more queuing this way around, and the British passport control took ages to check our mushes against our passports – but we were in and over. Another 3 and a half hours or so and we were back home – in the dark.

Big thanks to Dawn and Paul who took us there, shows us the sights, force fed us beer and food and generally kept us entertained over the weekend.

It was a good place to visit – I liked it quite a lot, and would go back, but at a quieter time. There are many sites, and pubs and food places – it has a quaint feel about it, and yes, perhaps just a little like a “fackin fairytale town”.

8/10

So no rumpy pumpy for us as we “have the painters in”, this is something humans must have needed since the stone age, to come in and spruce up the cave with charcoal and dulux. It is a bit of a minefield as the first thing you have to do is find one. That is not a simple process. You can look in various places, but no where actually tells you if they are any good – perhaps in the big city, but out in the sticks like me, its just not there. So I got a couple over, and they look and give some prices, which include nothing, the one guy we had to add money for paint, rollers, sandpaper, filler etc etc etc I was sure I would see sandwiches and toilet paper in the list. So anyway, by means of picking the most “professional” we booked him.

Then you have to find a date that they can come, this was 5 weeks after we saw him, and we had tried some colour pots in our lounge 4 weeks ago, so we had a front room which was like an abstract picture – and by the end we started to like it!. Once you get the timings you then have to pick the paint. Liking the paint in a brochure is inversely proportional to the colour you get, but we decided on Mud and Orange. Two guys came, and stayed for 3 and a half days, they took their time, but did a really good job. Slowly slowly catchy monkey. We did try to get them back, but they are booked until end of Jan – with the speed they are I am not surprised.

Only problem was we didn’t have the front room, until Friday, then had to spend the weekend without any curtains – not great. And the fact they but the glossyist gloss I have ever seen, but they did take 15mm off the doors.

Next up was a visit to the pub to get another painter, Pete suggested one, who without getting into liable – was shit. But this week Pete got me another, and he seems pretty good so far, so we are getting our bedroom and the first spare this week – nice one.

Anyway we picked up paint, and looked at curtains on Sunday, then as we were in Newport we went over to Tredegar House for a look as we had not been there for a while and its quite a nice place.

It was shut.

So, the electronic marketplace – I don’t like it. We have been updating the house recently, and because of this we had some stuff which we no longer want and its all too big to take down the tip, so we stuck in on “the ‘bay”. The idea in my mind all the time is that even if we get a quid, its better than having to cut it all up and take it all down the tip – but in reality that’s not the point. I hate ebay, I hate the people who use it to attempt to get that absolute cheapest possible price. I am not too naive to realise that all people want is a bargain, but the way they do it makes my skin crawl. One bid we had this week was to trump an offer of a fiver, with a fiver and four pence, four bloody pence – the tight arse tw@. I really wanted to just set fire to the item as they came to pick it up. I mean I am probably just stupid, but I would bid by 50p at least.

We also had another imbecile who bid some doors up to 137 quid – great one I thought, then they didn’t realise that where I live was in Wales and not sodding Oxford – so they didn’t want it then, luckily the next in the list agreed to take it, but for a ton – still, that’s more like it, don’t mind selling things at that price, as it was useless to us. We also sold a bed which took a PHD in astrophysics to dismantle – so gawd knows how they will re-assemble it – still we only had 33 quid for it.

So glad I don’t have to use it much. Which brings me to Stella Tortoise, love it in its chalise glass looking moist and tempting, but it is the demons drink I tell’s thee. It must have been a couple of years now that I moved to the dark side, not any more. It’s not that it makes me mental or anything, but I have just stopped enjoying what it does to me – and I am sure it does something more than other beers. I had six Amstels the other night and felt really great and happy and straight headed. Six Stellas and the story isn’t quite as rosy. So for now I am switching to Heineken, or Amstel or even, heaven forbid – Fosters.

Sunday was a little deary, but we thought we would go out for a walk, I had jogged a little further than I had wanted to in the morning, and assembled Kate’s new wardrobe – so it was time to get out and see the world. We decided to pop over to Tintern and more specifically the Station. This is yet another place we used to visit before it got “commercial” – they even had a sodding pay and display there now, so if you are popping down in the winter for a quick walk you still have to feed it a quid. We had misty rain and it was getting a little dark, but its quite a pleasant walk along an old railway line and then down to the River Usk. We tried very unsuccessfully to creep up on some sheep, and Kate pulled me over, but we decided to go for a beverage in Brockwier, where we have been some time back when a walk we did didn’t turn out too successful. Tiny little bar and unfortunately a very limited budget as I was the only one with money and I only had a tenner. So just a pint, half and a coke – it was quite nice though, in the tiny room with a fire and a pint.

Off back then to the car and home – and because I had the taste I had to get some cans in – Fosters.

Nice walk. 7/10.

We decided to go away for my birthday this year, as it’s only really the three of us at home now, so we thought we would go somewhere to do nothing for a couple of days, other than perhaps a little walking, reading and sitting around with booze. Oh and food.

I had looked around and came across a place called the Queens Arms in a little place called Corton Denham. I think I came across it from TravelZoo, but I got in touch directly and arrange a two night trip from the Sunday until the Tues. This was three of us, two nights, breakfast and a seven course taster on one night – all for 240 quid. Bargain.

The plan was that we could take a walk on the Monday from the pub across the wilderness and to a pub in the next village, then have lunch and come back. Little did we know this weekend was to be “the worse storms in Britain (since the last big wind)…

Clocks went back on the Sunday morning, so we had plenty of time to get ready and out of the door just after 9:00 for the initial stage which was down the M5 to Bridgewater and then to a place called Street. IN Street there is a shopping center where they have outlet stores with discounts from loads of major retailers, such as Barbour, M+S, Le Cruseat, Timberland etc etc its called “Clarkes Village”, and it is pretty much the town center of Street. I am not a true fn of shopping, but this is great. Its clean and reasonably quiet if you get there early, and loads of things to see, and bargains to be had. I got a Barbour coat, some T-shirts and some chocolate – all with a good percentage off what you would pay on the interweb. So we spent some time here, and left sometime around lunchtime.

After a little bit of faffing to find a petrol station – where I was robbed my the sly pump which only had “super-dooper” unleaded and 10 pence a litre more than the regular stuff, we made our way down multiple back roads to Corton Denham, and very luckily into the only parking space around the pub. It was slightly confusing getting in, and it was rammed. I managed to get the bar tenders attention, and he basically said we had no chance to move in until 3, it was around 1:30 – so we nabbed a table, and got some beers in – the relax had begun.

The place was frantic until about 3:00, when we noticed some of the bar staff set off to make up our room, and we enjoyed a fresh, very lovely pork pie from the bar and quoffed a couple more ales. Once the room was ready we moved the bags into it, had a quick look around and went back to the bar for extras. The room was a decent size, even with the “Z” bed, it had oldish heavy, dark wood furniture and a big old fashioned free standing bath and shower and ginormous sink. Really good all in all. So back in the bar we played some games, read some books and drank some Amstel. Quite surprisingly the bar man kept reusing my beer glass, until after about 5 I did ask him for a clean one, as this one was holding less ale due to the white scummy residue around the sides. I had a scare from a dog who went mental at me, just out of the blue barked like a dog possessed, until it was taken out, then when it came back it growled a little then STFU.

We had some really good nosh for supper, and very reasonably priced – Burger for me, game pudding and chicken nuggets for the ladies. We went to bed expecting the hurricane, full and dizzy.

Next day was my birthday, so I celebrated by having a full English. It was great, nice bacon, tasty haggis, fat and meaty sausage, nice fresh bread for toast, but crappy unsalted butter. We still stole half the breakfast rooms butters though – they give you such a tiny amount ;o) After breakfast and after checking that actually the hurricane was a bit of a let down, we tooled up and set out for our walk.

It was windy, and a little rainy, but in all it was a very nice walk – across and through undulating countryside, with some terrific views. It was reasonably well signposted until we came to a farmers field, so we kept to the edge,  and then found ourselves at the bottom next to a new fence with no sign as to where the walk had gone. So we figured we would climb the fence and keep out of his field. Unfortunately for me a miserable twat on a horse happened by at that very point, and patronizingly told me what an idiot I was to not realise that this isn’t the way the walk goes and that we should have gone right across the field diagonally. Why do these country tossers have to be so awful? Anyway we found our way out, then across another field we lost the route and didn’t really know where we were. So we headed back along the road and finally got back to where we would have been if we had jumped the fence. We then headed for South Cadbury, which is apparently not the home of chocolate, but of King Arthur’s Camelot.

We climbed the hill to Camelot and found ourselves at the top, of a hill, with no castle. There was a plaque shaped like a well, which we climbed on.

Back down after the disappointment of the legendary Camelot (to be honest we sort of knew there would be nothing there, and after all Camelot is “such a silly place” ), we were met with disappointment squared then cubed. They had only closed the only pub for miles. We got there and it didn’t really look open, so we went in anyway, as there was noise, and the new landlord told us he was shut. The previous landlord had left the night before, and he was not opening until the 1st. Bugger. The next nearest pub was in the next village, but was closed on a Monday, as was the “coffee shop”. Bugger. So parched and cross we were told the only other pub was “The Queens Arms” – the pub we had left some hours before. Bugger. We walked the road – 3 miles back. Not happy bunnies.

The pub was pretty full when we got there so we headed off into Sherborne, which is supposed to be the prettiest town in the world or something, but isn’t (I thought I had blogged this before – but it appears I didn’t?) they were filming there, and we went to the White Hart pub and had a weird toasted sandwich. Then back to the pub now that the lunch rush was over. Opened my presents, I was very spoilt yet again, and down for a couple of beers and ready for our taster at seven.

Supper was fan-tast-ic. We have had a couple of tasting menus and they have all been not great, this one was.

Started off with slices of fried Chorizo and scallops – not alot but tasty. Then A thing like a scotch egg, but with black pudding inside, that was ace, and the sause and even the tiny peas – lovely. Then we had Risotto which was shit, mainly because it reminds me of sick and I just cannot swallow it. It was a wild mushroom one, so I ate them. Then the most tasteful sorbet I have ever had, it tasty exactly like a strawberry opal fruit – a bit much but really good. Then we had duck with onion puree and straw potatoes – great, great, great – oh and a carrot, which I left. Then we had cheese, which was small and sufficient, and the cheddar was fabulous. Then to finish some Panacotta, three of them, each with a topping, the blackcurrant was the most intense blackcurrant taste <clarkson> in the world </clarkson>, the apple was light and nice and the mango was a bit mongo, but the underneath was okay.

It was really, really good and I enjoyed it all, expect for the nobly sick. Great value, great place, very nice people – wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone – and that doesn’t happen very often.

Place – 8/10

Food – 9/10

Down to the cultural capital of Wales this weekend – blumming heck it was full of scary weirdos.

Initially I had planned to get the train, but as there was a car full of us, and the hotel had a car-park next door it made sense to drive. Left around midday, and drove through torrential rain, and began to get a little worried about the wetness of the day – but as we neared Swansea the sun put its little hat on..

We stayed in the Premier Inn at the Waterfront, I love Premier Inn, they are nearly all good, and reasonable value, and you know exactly what you are getting – this one was no different, great check in staff, and a great room – these new ones even get air-con – woooo!. Just dumped the bags off and set off into the town, we headed up to the train station to start with as I was keen to see where I used to arrive at Swansea all those years ago. We started on Wind Street, which is apparently known as Wine Street as it is the street of pubs. Well, I have never seen as many middle aged wino’s sucking their fags with there punch juice looking all tattooed and quarrelsome. We walked passed the Labour club, which had drunkards spilling out to the street, then going next door to the bookies, back to the club and round and round a little like a weather clock. Its rough. Very. But it does have beer…

Didn’t make it to the station as it was pointless to take everyone up there, so we walked along the top street where the last time I visited Swansea properly I was probably 19 and where we sat on the street boozing alot – not even a pub there any more. Back to the quadrant, and met up with Ant, bought a pen and a sticky tape refill and he took us to the pubs – so back to Wind Street and passed the scary men, and the odd woman. Then into the Piano and Pitcher which was the most salubrious place we saw. Student Ant has a taste for expensive beers, so I had to match that with a Peroni, two of those, a wine and soda, two cokes – 17 quid. We waited for a bit and Tom came looking like he had been caught in a river and then badly blow dried, so we had another and watched him open a package from Japan he honestly looked worried about.

Next stop was the bowling alley, which was over by the plantarium – yes plant-arium no stars. Realized I had last been here 20 years ago with the Prouts in Jase’s Granada for a quick trip from H/West. After an hour long game, which I just won by 117 points to 115, all on the last bowl. Two Stella’s here, in the nice glasses, and Ant bought one of them – which was nice.. All a little shabby here, and 35 quid for an hour – but that took us to supper time, so back down Wind street to Frankie and Bennies. Table for seven was no problem, Bud here, and a big menu to choose. I know what I should have had, but went for the biggest thing on the menu – Mixed Grill. It was crap. Chicken was overdone, steak was rubbish, gammon was okay and the sausage was alright – bonus was that for some reason I got a free pint. So another three here – lovely. Boys had some nice burgers and Kate and Becs also managed a dessert. I got a tenner off mine and a total cost of 120 sovs – not to bad. Slightly weird place as they kept turning off the lights and singing Happy Birthday to random people, they never sang at our table – don’t know why?! ;o)

Back to the hotel, Becs stayed and Kate shared with us, which meant that Sian slept on the floor for a lot of the night – I got up in the night gasping for a wee-wee, and waited for ages for her to come out of the toilet only to finally realize she was lying on the floor on the other side of the bed.

Slept okay, then we let the hotel and got in the car when it completely poured down real massive drops we were lucky to miss it. By the time we got to Ants it had stopped, rand him for outside, we were 10 minutes early, which means he had only been up for 5 mins. We then went down to the Uplands Diner http://www.uplandsdiner.co.uk/ for a big breakie. Quite a nice place in a grimy caf sort of way, I should have had the pulled pork sub – but went for the Beast Baguette which is six bacon, four sausage, 2 hash browns, two black puddings, mushrooms and two baguettes – because I didn’t have beans or eggs I has extra bacon and sausage. I made a miserable effort of eating it. It was very dry and the sausage wasn’t brilliant – but it was okay for breakfast, I just wasn’t really hungry enough – although I am not sure I would have eaten it anyway. Next time – it will be burger.

So that was it, we dropped off Ant, and set off home. Nice to have everyone together, its a pity they don’t go to Uni somewhere else! ;o) Not a fantastic place Swansea – is it butt?

Hotel – 7/10

Food – 5/10

Beer – 7/10

Breakfast – 8/10 (for the place)

1861 is a restaurant between Abergavenny and Monmouth, I bought a TravelZoo deal for a 7-course taster menu here a few months back, and we forgot it, so had to use it this month.

The parking was across the road and there were only two cars in the car park when we arrived. There was a couple sitting outside – you could tell they would just LOVE this experience. We went in and sat in a little lounge area with some easyish chairs, and after calling me Mickey and saying my phone line was crap, she gave us some wine stuff, some cashews and some olives. And asked what preference we had – I hesitated, wanting to say no veg, but thought I can take what they throw at me.

After some time, we were taken into the dining room. Enough for about 10 tables of varying size, two small rooms, only the outside couple sitting down – she showed us to our table, out of the entire rest of the room she sat us next to the first couple – we were a few feet away, and on a bigger table, but right next to them. It was a little awkward to say can we sit elsewhere, and I should have, but being British – I didn’t.

First up was some water, then a bit of a loaf. This was warm, difficult to cut straight and had some great butter – it was nice.. After this came course no 1.

1.  Courgette in Tempura batter with sweet chilli sauce with something else I didn’t like. Batter was nice, courgette is disgusting and the sauce looked exactly like the one you get from Tesco. Plain and I am sure I could have cooked it.

2. Vomit. (Actually beetroot rice pudding with Lavender). Awful. Warm beetroot has no place in the world, this was vile, the texture is hideous, the lumps made me gag, the beetroot didn’t work for me, and then there is the bloody lavender, you have that in a crappy scrunched up doily in your grandma’s cupboards and draws but not  in a bloody dish of food. It was like liquid pot-purri with lumps. Hate.

3. Hake with Fennel. Or a postage stamp sized scraping of fish with a giant fennel, in an odd sauce that made everything taste like fennel, including the supposedly light taste of Hake. The size of the hake was exactly the same size as the piece of fish Mr Burns coughed up in the episode of the Simpsons with the three eyed fish. And I think I would have preferred the taste of that.

4. Strawberry and Champagne sorbet. Okay, small but enough.

5. The main event – beef, woohoo. A “presentation” of beef, one like a sausage – okay but over seasoned, one like tiny sliced fillet – not very tasteful and chewy, and finally either skirt or shin I cannot remember. Cooked well, fell apart on the plate, but had no taste what so ever. Even Mr Blands blandish dish would be more exciting. How can a (small) lump of welsh beef have zero taste. And there was no salt and pepper on the table.

Then we were asked if we wanted an “extra” cheese course – no mention of price, or even whether it was part of the meal or not. The table next to us had it and it looked okay – in so much as there was some cheese on a plate, but we declined.

6. Apricot fritters and honey ice cream – lovely. Just like being the Chinese, the fritters were small and crunchy then soft and fruity and tasty and hot and the honey ice cream was a perfectly cold accompaniment – only two tiny bits, but that was enough.

7. A selection of  “berry” desserts. Crap, nice, okay, hot. A berry soup, a berry something, a berry crumble and a berry Creme Brulee. “Berry” seemed to mean a small berry like a blackcurrant but more horrible. The creme brulee was a revelation, I had never had one before and it was really nice. Luckily the portions were dolls house sizes so it didn’t make me too sick.

She came around and asked if we wanted coffee or tea, but  we’d I’d had enough by then so we just said – no we are going to shoot off, and we put our napkins down and left. I do wonder if they wanted a tip..!

Wont return. Its too far away and I don’t think the chef really showed me anything “wow”, which is supposed to be the point of the tasting menu’s. It was his indulgence of stuff that they had cheaply from the garden. Nothing exciting or interesting, and most of it was barely nice to actually eat. If I had paid 50 quid each for that I would have been most annoyed.

3/10

So – 1300 miles and 35 hours in the car and we successfully travelled from North Wales to Dublin – Belfast – Derry – Sligo – Galway – Limerick – Cork – Rosslare. We saw a real variety of scenery, some stunning, some rubbish – and in all it was a good trip. For me though, Ireland is just like Pembrokeshire – some of the things are bigger (Cliffs of Moher) and some of the specific things are not in Pembrokeshire, but in all, the scenery was very much like Wales, and in my opinion the villages are far better in Pembs.

The good things were:
Dark Hedges – loved it, natural and free – it was brilliant.
Giants Causeway – just so impressive, it takes a while to really appreciate how special it is
Galway Town – great place, what Ireland should be like
Churchtown – something about that graveyard
Blarney – over priced, but I liked it

The bad things were:
The “villages” were mostly horrible – I expected Cotswold type places, instead they looked like Glasgow sink estates
The rope bridge – massive rip off, far smaller than you could possibly imagine
The new “visitor centres” which have sprung up and the health and safety nonsense with has grown up around them
The cost – beer and food were about a third more expensive than here

Best Town – Galway
Worse Town – Limerick
Best Hotel – Cork/Raddison
Worse Hotel – B+B then Menlo
Best Food – Pizza Express! Or Galway
Best Site – Giants Causeway

Would I return?
Yep – in a couple of years perhaps, would like to revisit Galway, skip Limerick and base myself somewhere in Kerry. This is supposed to be the best area, and we didn’t get to see it at all this time.

Here we are then, the last day. Okay breakfast, then straight out for a full day of viewing the south of Ireland.
Straight out and onto the fast roads, and off on the next junction down to a little town called Cobh. A little like Tenby i suppose, but not so nice, it did feel the most foreign as we walked down from the car park. Nice little stroll and finished in the cathedral where we found the first electronic candles. Usually you have to light your candles, not here, you just press a button – odd…

Next up was New Ross, where they had an emigrant ship, which was an example of a ship which used to sail to america from Ireland, specifically in this instance when all the spuds died. It was surprisingly interesting – i had chips from a chippy after.

From here we headed south to the oldest maned, working lighthouse in the world. It had a light.

From here to Tintern Abbey, which was created and populated by monks from ‘our’ tintern abbey in monmouthshire. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs, but another sunny day, so we had a walk around, and Kate had a paddle..
Next up was wexford, which was rubbish. Although i need think i recognised some of it and i may have been there on a crawl some twenty years ago. Roads were odd, but we managed to fi d a parking space and had a little walk. From here it was just a hop, skip and a jump to the b&b – i don’t really like b&b’s – this one didnt change my mind.
Quickly out and a pub crawl in the village. The merry elf was first, with a couple of locals and a pleasant  bar man. We regaled them with tales of the ireland trip, mostly mentioning beer cost and weather. On to the next, and final pub on the crawl. We had food here too, i had scampi made out of prawns. It was pretty good. Then to someone elses home, and bed.

Cobh – 6/10
New Ross – 7/10
Lighthoiuse – 5/10
Tintern – 5/10
B&b – 5/10
Pubs – 6/10

Wonderful day. Best yet.
No breakfast in the strand, so it meant that we out and on the road early doors.. First stop was to a lough, or large pond. They had a toilet, but unfortunately as we were up so early the visitor center had not even opened yet. So we had a quick look around and a wee wee, then off in search of breakfast. Half hour later we were in a little town where we went in search of breakfast. We found a little cafe, which was pretty much the only place open – so butties and sarnies all around and we were set for the day.

Next stop was a little place called Chruchtown, which is a little village with a pub. It’s claim to fame however is that it was the village that oliver reed spent a lot of his life, mostly in the pub. After he arm wrestled sailors in Malta and had a heart attack whilst filming Gladiator, he was brought back to this tiny place, with its tiny graveyard to be buried. It’s fascinating. I loved it.

In what may be a cynical marketing ploy, the graveyard is locked now, and has a note stating that grave digging is a criminal offence! You get the key from the pub… Luckily, although it was only about ten, the pub was open, and a couple of lovely, if perhaps slightly drunk people were inside. They were more than happy to pass the key over, so we opened the yard and trooped through the overgrown yard and onto a little path around to his grave. After whispering a prayer to the god of booze, and taking a few snaps – we left.

Next up was a special treat for Kate, and it was only a few miles away
And it was free – woohoo. It was a donkey sanctury, which was actually quite good, and Kate loved it, so it was well worth it. She had a lot of patting to do, and the sun was shining. It is a little odd that we have a society which has the time to invest in donkeys given the other suffering in the world – but it don’t cost me oot, so no problem.

Both Kate and I  had our treats, so next up was Blarney for Sian. She had been here years ago on a cycle trip, so was interested to see how it had changed, plus we all need a little bit of blarney. Sun was out, parking was free, but of course there was a big charge to get in. In all it was worth it though. Nice grounds, little cave, and the castle itself is  okay. You go up and up through spiral staircases to the very top of the tower, the staircase is tiny, how the fat Americans get up there I will never know. I don’t like these stairs, it makes me sweat, and i don’t like heights, so by the time we got to the top I was a wet mess. Then we had a queue for a short while which was high, my legs were now aching from attempting to save myself from falling. Then it was my turn to kiss that greasy stone. You have to lie on your back then grab some bars and lean backwards and downwards. I didn’t manage downwards, and only just managed to get my lips onto the saliva soaked rock. You are not allowed to take a photo, as they have an Alton Towers type camera arrangement which photos you, where thick tourists pay another ten euros to pick up later. Had a quick pint in the village, then headed for cork.

We tried to go to a neat church in cork where you ring the bells, but we couldn’t park anywhere, so we went to the hotel. Great place, we had room no. 001, which I have never had before. Top room, it was a suite, with a lounge and bedroom – i really liked it. Sian and Kate went for a swim and i had a couple of pints and had a facebook chat…

Took the train into cork and had a couple of beers in a couple of pubs – one of which was “The Woodford”, where I had a Molston Canadian – then a real top draw Chinese. We noticed the time and had around 15 mins to catch the train, which was at least 20 mins away, we went quite fast, and luckily just made it – I was ‘glowing’.

Grave – 8/10
Donkies – 6/10
Blarney – 7/10
Hotel – 8/10
Cork – 7/10
Food – 8/10

Hopefully a better day today, had a reasonably good nights sleep in the Menlo Park – and was up at around 7:00. Shower and sorted, and down for yet another full breakfast, I really should say NO! But I am far too greedy. So bacon, black and white pudding, mushrooms, ham, cheese, sausage, toast and rolls. Greedy greedy. Got Kate a sausage and bacon tiny roll, then we were away and checking out.

After a bit of a faff with the Sat Nav, we headed east from Galway and then south towards the Burrens. This is basically the same as the brecon beacons only in Ireland, and with extra stones. But the first part of the trip was great – another coast road which really skirted the mountain and ocean. We stopped in a little pull in and examined the cliff face, which wasn’t, so we scrambled down it towards the sea. As it was a pretty nice day the waves were mediocre, it would have been very impressive on a stormy day. Continuing around the cliffs we arrived at Doolin which was supposed to be great – we must have taken the wrong road through it (there only seemed to be one) as we saw nothing but a street of nondescript houses and a couple of “pubs”. Don’t know what we missed, but Doolin was supposed to be good – we didn’t see the good side some how. We continued around the coast until we got to the Cliffs of Moher. These are some cliffs, you have to pay 6 euos each to view. From a bit of a distance thanks to elf and safety. They were pretty impressive, but you have to stay so far from the edge that we don’t really get the real magnitude of the sheerness. You could see where they probably used to let visitors go, which was a flat top of one of the cliffs which went right to the edge – no chance now. It would be amazing if they got one of those glass viewing platforms there have on the Grand Canyon (I think it’s there?). As with all of Ireland they had WiFi, and Chinese with cameras.

From the coast we made our way east to Ennis, nothing much to write home about on the journey, but Ennis town was pretty good. Small enough to be compact and with a great variety of shops/pubs and eateries. It was covered in buntings and was very pleasant. Kate choose our lunch and we must have gone to the Ireland Pizza Express franchise, the place was identical, but was called Milanos. I cannot believe it was a rip off (and subsequent googling and shown it is a Pizza Express, but they are not allowed to use that name). It was nice.

From Ennis we meandered a bit, but headed to Quin, where we looked at an Abbey and some Irish jobsworth told Kate off for standing on the stone frame of a doorway – something that had been there for 700 years and had survived all of those feet. We nipped in a pub here, which was completely empty, apart from the serving woman, it was a nice looking pub, and probably gets rammed in the evenings.. From here we lost our way a bit, and in reality we headed for Limerick to get an early checkin as Kate was desperate for a swim. Sian and Kate went for one whilst I type this…

After swimming we set off for the town and it poured down, then we couldn’t find a pub – in the whole of Limerick, I thought every other shop would be a pub, but we struggled to find one – as usual I asked an old dude on the corner and through his incoherent mumblings he pointed to a pub, just 10 meters away. Flannerys, we bought a pint and sat down next to the most sweary women in the world. She was at the bar, and we were by the window, but every third word was f&*k. She was using it like others might use a um, or ur. The rain had stopped, so we headed off to find another pub, which we found some way away – this one bizarrely was also called Flannerys – not sure if they are related, or that every pub in Limerick was a Flannerys. Off to nosh then in the Texas SteakOut, which was nice but very very rich, and the chicken was too hot for Kate – but 60 euros wasn’t too bad. Back to hotel then and up the glass elevator, which is not so scary in the night time, and I went to get my camera to take a night shot – I obviously do not know how to do that so the shot was rubbish – I think you probably need a tripod for evening work.

Coast road – 7/10

Cliffs – 8/10 (experience – 6/10)

Doolin – 1/10

Ennis – 7/10

Lunch – 9/10

Quin – 6/10

Limerick – 6/10

Shower – 6/10

Same routine in the morning again. Slept okay, then down for breakfast by the river (which sounds better than it was) with Kate having a lie in again. Okay breakfast, I soon tire of these full breakfasts every morning. The day was overcast with the promise of rain, although the weather man said it wouldn’t – he lied.

Set off down south to the Monolithic Burial site, which is the oldest in the world or something, and it shows. We had a walk round in between some rocks and I took some pointless photo’s, but a couple of flower shots which I hope will be okay. The best preserved burial monument can only be viewed from a distance because it lives on someone else’s land. AT least we used their toilet.

We then headed south again towards Cong, which was a long way through rubbish roads and scenery – the only highlight was when we nearly had a crash with a Heron. It was quite shite all told. Eventually we got to Cong – which was very nice, and it would have been good to stay longer, but we had a plan. The plan didn’t work. We did see some amazing scenery but with no real purpose, and we just sort of meandered around for hours. Along this route we came across a “Spar” which had some tasty hot food, and we had quite tasty port and chicken rolls..We came to a sort of beach, so stopped – to kill time and also sneak a wee in, and then we were at Galway – luckily just before rush hour.

Arrived and checked in and the room and a load humming noise in it – no good for me, so went to ask for a move, and the lovely reception woman managed it, to a room we hoped would be quieter, and it also seemed a little nicer anyway. had a beer then a 20 min walk into Galway itself. Galway is pretty good, lots of streets and pubs and restaurants. We sampled a couple, and decided on Oscars for food. I went for the lamb, Sian the Monkfish and Kate had to have the fish and chips – we also splurged on a sharing seafood platter for starters – which involved a variety of items including oysters. If you have never tried oysters, don’t bother. The experience is like drowning in the sea – slowly. I can never understand the love of oysters – I think everyone hates them and people just pretend – because that is what you are supposed to do. They are just slimy bags of seawater – terrible. The rest of the food was top nosh, although Kate didn’t like her fish, but then at a hundred euros I would hope it was okay – the lager was five euros a pop, so unusually we only had one each!.

Once finished, we walked the long walk home, stopping at MaccyD’s for a McFlurry for Kate, then home to sleep the sleep of the conquerors and hope that tomorrows visits will be better than today’s.

Monolithic – 4/10

Cong – 8/10

Drive – 3/10

Galway – 8/10

Food – 7/10

Shower – 8/10

Slept okay, not great, but okay – dreamt that someone shot themselves, so probably not ideal.

Down for breakfast at a reasonable time, Kate stayed in bed to get some beauty sleep, me and Sian don’t need that anymore!. Great normal Premier breakfast, and we made Kate a bacon sandwich, then checked out. As we went for down the hotel had a massive leak of water from above reception, we guessed that someone had left the bath on, i guess that is an occupational hazard in hotel, but not seen it before, the water was pi%%ing down through the ceiling.

As we didn’t get to Derry last night we went down and parked in a dodgy place, recommended by the hotel lady. We walking thought he new “city of culture” square, and across the peace bridge (TM), into Derry itself. As it was Sunday and early, we walked the walls in relative quite, although nearin the end we met three guided fat American tours. You would not believe the size of the behinds of some of them. We made the circuit in quick time, seeing the all too reality of large fences at the loyalist end, and the IRA writing on the roofs of Bogside – it does make you think – and Kate worried.

After the quick tour of Derry it was time to get on the road to the continent, and within 20 mins we were on “top of the world”, and Kate and Sian shouted from the top. This was some sort of fort, which was tall, and well made, but not very big inside. It was about a six bedroom, with no second lounge sort of thing. The views were immense. This journey had some of the odd up and down roads again, which are fun, until you begin to get scared of hurting the car. Back into UK, the out again, then back in and the next stop was Omaghn. These places are quite sobering, in the sense of death and nonsense reasons, ut also have very little open on a Sunday morning. we did find a bar, and I accidental ordered a beer. Quick Heiniken,  Latte and Coke and we headed off, with my head slightly spinning, into Enniskilling.

A day of town visits I guess today, but this was supposed to be good – it wasn’t great, I probably wouldn’t bother again – but we saw the square where the bomb went off, I realise this seems like a tour of bomb sites, but unfortunately a lot of N. Iron had it. We also had some food – which was good. Unfortunately we had a bit of an issue when I parked up, as I was looking for a toilet and had to walk for 2 miles to find it, I had my camera bad over my shoulder and was crossing my legs slightly – I had a lot of looks from normal people and quite a few from the mincers. We probably stayed too long here, but the pub was “busy” and it took ages for food – although Sian and kate had a free beer from it, I didn’t as by this time I had already had a couple of beers. we left and headed for the subterranean tunnels.

We finally got there about three thirty, and the queue was an hour long, as we had another hour plus home, we decided against it – thank christ. It would have been good to do it, but I was knackered, and the thought of leaving over two hours later made we happy for the choice. After an hour we arrived in Sligo and the Glasshouse. We parked underground and watched a dude slip over in front of us as we went in – which I am sure made him a little embarrassed – he even said sorry to us! We squeezed into a parking space (later we realised there was another two floors) and then checked in – cool room. Bathroom not as good as the room, but the room was massive and we had a balcony.

Down the bar, then into Sligo. We had some beers in some nice pubs – none serving food, but eventually we got to the final feeding pub. Looked great, really liked the interior, and they were obviously busy. I spoke to the waiter and he told me to have the rib eye. It was shit. As a “starter”, they gave us a loaf of really tasty bread with butter and a chilli “marmalade”, it was good. My steak looked good, the meat was grand, but it had bad fat and tough bits, it was rib eye from gods sake – the onion rings and thick chips were under cooked. I told the serving wench (the main man didn’t come back) and she didn’t seem to either give a shit, or know what to do. Sian’s was great, Kate’s wasn’t.

We seemed to get a beer for free, but no one came back over, and Sian paid to save me having a moan, so we came back to the hotel for a final beer – then bed – in our large, comfy room…!

Derry Walls – 6/10

The fort (views) – 7/10

Omaghn – 5/10

Enniskillen – 5/10

Roads – 6/10 (some 10/10)

Hotel – 8/10

Sligo – 7/10

Food – 5/10

Shower – 3/10

Here we are on the third day of the tour of ireland. Today we tour the antrim coast. I had a pretty good nights sleep, but was up at six, then hung around in bed awaiting the call to the throne.. Breakfast was okay, had crumpets and marmite, with bacon on top, so can’t complain. Then we were out of there.
Headed to larne to start, but took a detour of to see the glanoe water fall, which was really good, and free. On the way there i went down the most roller coaster road ever, i even let out a sad squeak of worriedness on one especially steep up and down. Then we hit the coastal road….

This was ace. Slow run, mainly because of the scenery the road was right by the sea for miles, you could see so far ahead around the bays, it was great. After a time we headed for the dark hedges, the driving to get here, which was a good ten mile out of the way, was immense. It went up and down through the Irish glens and we saw maybe ten cars in the entire trip, the road was twisty and turny and i spent most of it on the right hand side of the road… Really enjoyed throwing the five down here. Then after a slight wavier, thanks to the sat nat and postcodes we got to the trees. I loved them.

We were now way behind my schedule, but we rejoined the coast road which was no loinger on the coast, and made our way to the rope bridge. Didn’t like this. At all. Too busy, too pricy, too badly organised, no real pay off. The bridge is the one you may have seen in some photos, it’s a rope bridge across to an island, and looks amazing in the photos, is not. It’s shite. Although being a shandy i was scared crossing anyway. You queue, then you go 18 meters across the wobbly bridge, then you wait to come back – not great.

After this we went to giants causeway. I was unsure about this to start with, but only six pound for parking i heard, bargain. Not any more! They now have a ‘cool’ visitor center work needs to be paid for, so it’s now 21 quid, but to be honest it is worth it, it’s incredible. I was a little unsure to start with, but after looking at it for some time you realise that you can never see something like this for real  *anywhere*. We spent some time here, and we had not even had lunch yet, and it was after three, so we headed on. Next stop was a beach side town, we decided on Portsteward rather than Portrush, luckily from one point of view, as Portrush was completely packed out for some reason, but the other was rubbish. We parked up, for free, which was good and then walked down their promanarde which was odd, people just sat in their cars looking, sleeping or eating ice cream. It troubled me more than it should. We didn’t stay long. on the drive to Derry we passed an appropriate place  to retire to – Dungiven… !

Next stop was Derry, as we are so late we decided to see the town tomorrow, so we got the bar immediately and after quite a few buds i risked the chicken buffet, and the others tucked into fish and sausage and mash.

Waterfall – 7/10
Coast road (start) – 8/10
Trees – 8/10
Rope bridge – 3/10

Shower -6/10

So here we are on the trip proper and off on the ‘fast’ very to Dublin. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to stay at Dublin, so it’s a trip from Holyhead to Belfast today. Kate has been a little worried about the troubles which have been on the news recently, but we told her that’s just usual…

Bit of a lie in today as we had allot of morning to kill, so a doss around, and then went to MaccyD’s for bacon rolls this morning. Then to Asda to make a pic-an-ic. I was desperate for a wee-wee which seems to happen more and more these days, so i was out of asda quick smart whilst they took an eternity to decide which charity they wanted to stick there little green disks in. Fifteen minutes of more dosing and it was time for the ferry. Not having done this before i was a little apprehensive, but it was fine. We got there about half an hour before the start and were pretty much last. Wait wait wait as all the others slipped up the ramp into the belly of the waiting ‘fast crossing’ Irish beast. Finally it was our turn, and he stuck us, at a weird angle at the very very back of the boat. Not in any of the car channels, just pushed sideways into the back…. Managed to secure some chairs by the TV which was pretty good, but even before the beast moved i felt sick. But there was wi-fi, but the bloody fantasy football is blocked by their filter, as it’s a ‘game’ dag-nammit…

Had a sneaky try of outside on the boat, and by god it was windy, but nice – made the inside feel odd when we got back. Once the film had finished we were nearly over. We snuck back to the car, and due to the fact we were at the back we could join a queue to get the funk out of there. We were in a foreign place. It was raining…

Out of the port and though the toll charged tunnel, then on the m1 to belfast. Rainy, and just that little bit different, is not quite the UK – close, bit no e-cig. We followed a little yellow car for miles, keeping speed with him, assuming that he knew where to go fast and where to go slow.. Not sure he really did, but it was nice. One little bit of a queue and we cruised the rest of the way, and had to pay another toll.. Before too long we were back in the USSR UK.

Two hours and we were at the hotel, another great room from the premiere team. Quick checkin, then my time to shine and show the gang all the best things i know about belfast. BT building, the coroners office (which i think really sums up the troubles), the road passed the Belfast social club and the town hall. They were not awfully impressed.. Kate thought bombs were going to go off, and at the least some fires.. They didn’t. We had a pint and sat outside in the fug of the smokers, next pub didn’t let us in, so we went back to a place i knew well, the holiday inn. Couple pints here then to pizza express, were we had a weird server, who was ace, but started with a very broad Irish accent, then went into a special Italian one. The food was absolutely wonderful – really enjoyed it. Long walk back, then bed.

Ferry – 5/10
Driving in foreign climes – 6/10
Driving back in UK – 9/10
Belfast pubs – 6/10
Pizza Express – 9/10

Shower – 6/10

So here we are at the start of the nee journey. Up early doors at around six, after yet another rubbish night. Toilet, then tea, then decided to head into Newport and fill up the tank with some cheap petrol curtsey of Tesco. Snuck through the old steelworks again, hopefully they will open this road for real one day, but sneaking through world for me. Some toast and a completely jammed car, and we were on or way, three minutes early at 8:27.

Roads were empty which was great, because i always think we’re are going to hit rush hour, bit after a few hours in the car we made it add far as dolgeddlau. We had to take a bit of a detor here, as i just had to take the team up the massive hill i did when i was cycling. I am not convinced they were quite as into it as i was, but it was quite interesting seeing what it looked like from a car perspective.. ( it was still hilly) we had a little pause here to see the view and then through dolgellau and onto Caernarvon.
We had pretty much followed the route we went with paul, at the start of the lon las, but we veered off into caernarvon. It was a cracking day, and typically i think i have probably burnt my mush somewhat, but we did manage food in the black boy ( or bouy) which was quite nice, but my beef with hoi soon was cold which surprised me. After caernarvon we decided to hear over to Bangor, which was shite. Brendon had been trying to get a joke through to us regarding a girlfriend and bangor, which never worked, and even that nonsence was a million times better than the real place. I never want to go there again, i cannot think of one redeaming feature of the place, although i suppose the multi story was quite nice.. It was full of people which you couldn’t help but think they just ‘didn’t know better’, we also saw, what Kate called an old Sea captain, who would have great stories, but was actually a stinky old wierdo, with a Captain Birdseye dirty beard, a long mac and wellies – ah, the innocence of youth….

After Bangor we headed over the Menai Bridge, which is an amazing feat of engineering, and then up the road to llanfairpull… The famous long named train station. Not much to sees here other than the sign, so we soon set of to Holyhead itself. Nipped up the A5 and before we knew it, we were in the second worse place of the day. Quick Checkin to the travel lodge, then a walk along the “promenarde” to a place for stella. Couple of beers and then we examined the food options, there were none. Kate thought she would hop up the steps from the prom and thought she had broke her tendons – don’t know where she gets this air of the dramatics from… So we went to the chinky, it was surprisingly tasty, and compared to the rest of the holes we saw uber luxurious. It would have been good in any town, nevermind this hellhole. After Garlick and satay chick chick, sizzling beef and black pepper and some amazing rice, we paid up and returned to the lodge – knackerred.

Trip – 7/10
Caernarfon – 7/10
Bangor – 3/10
Holyhead – 5/10
Food, lunch – 6/10
Food, supper – 8/10

Shower – 5/10

Off to Cardiff for the weekend with me ma and pa and my sisters family. Not far for us to go, so on a roasting hot Friday we ventured into the big smoke of Wales. The Mariott is quite an awkward place to get to by car if you have not done it before, but we had little problem finding our selves within the car park.

Luckily mother had been there for a bit, and was already primed with a jug of Pimms, quick order later and a frosty Stella was on its way down. After a pint or two we checked in and realised that they charge fifteen, yep fifteen pounds a night parking the robbing shits. So for three cars we had to pay near a ton just to park!.

Couple more beers and the rest of the crew arrived, so we popped off for an earlyish supper at Nandos. Generally speaking Nandos is good, you know what you are getting, and at less than a ton for the eight of us it was cheaper than parking. extra hot Nandos goes down a treat and everyone pretty much enjoyed it.

We had a little walk around the city, just before it got too rowdy – and were soon back in the hotel for a final one before bed.

Next day we were up and about, and after collecting a picnic we headed over to St Fagens. Although before we left I realised that I didn’t have the car keys, and couldn’t remember having them since leaving te car – which is very unusual for me. Anyway, luckily;y they were in the hotel safe, so someone had picked them up – thankfully.

Decent place St Fagens, its billed as the Museum of Welsh Life, and they ensure all the staff can speak Welsh, which is a great touch. They have rebuild, brick my brick in most cases, a variety of houses from various times in history. Its free to get in, which is a bit daft really, and there is a lot to see. We knew the weather was going to break about 14:00, so we had our stroll and picnic just before the rain started. We had literally got in the car to leave when the pitter patter started.

Nipped over to Queen Street once back in Cardiff and took the train down the Bay – unfortunately it was still raining, so we had a walk around and a very stuffy pint, then back on the train ready for a cocktail before supper. We went over the Yard just after 17:00 for the cocktail happy hour and it was packed – there are so many hen and stag nights going on its incredible. We managed to get a seat near the rain and had a switfy before Jamie’s.

We had booked into Jamie’s Italian, which is an Italian. And has something to do with a fake, mokney dribbler. The staff were overly fakely nice, and the music was too loud (they did turn that down a touch) and they missed quite a few things out. The food was good though –  well, mine was and I am always on the lookout for a moan. Great bread to start, and the calamari was excellent. I had the special for mains, which was the bream with mussels – and very nice it was too – also had a few “Funky chips” – all in all I liked it – but it wasn’t something I would normally order.

The cheeky sods slyed on a 10% service charge, and forgot to take our gold card discount off (Jamie’s Gold Card membership is worth getting if you ever go – its free and you get some stuff.) and the alcohol is expensive (as it is everywhere) but its okay – he is really on to a good thing with these – they were packed – stupid really, he is only putting his daft name to it, and there are better Italians in Cardiff anyway.

Beer in the hotel and a £1:55 glass of milk, then bed – ready for another massive breakie and home sweet home.

Cardiff is a good place to go, everything is close, there are many restaurants and pubs and there are quite a few things to do – living so close though means that its lost some of its excitement.

7/10