Bretonnian debut - Blood Bowl match report

After Bryan and I played our match last month, we did something new where we rolled a D12 die to select the teams we would be playing this month. Bryan rolled dwarfs. I rolled for Bryan to have a free pick and he decided I could play Tomb Kings. So I turned up expecting to get hammered by the dwarfs, only to find Bryan had finished assembling the Bretonnian team that had been in the season 3 box. 

So we ended up with Bretonnians v Tomb Kings, which was both teams in the box set. 

I like the Bretonnian team. They have a mix of skills. They are a bit under-strength compared to the Tomb Kings, but some of their players have the 'dauntless' skill - as befitting noble questing knights - which raises them up to the level of stronger opponents. However, the downside of that is they can end up within grabbing range of those stronger opponents who will attack back on the next turn and have a dice advantage. 

Stymied in midfield

It took a while for the game to get going but eventually the Bretonnian blitzer made it to the end zone to open the scoring. It was 1-0 at half time.

I like playing with fast, high agility teams like skaven or wood elves. The Tomb Kings are not a fast, high agility team. Still, they were able to run in a down after the 'Tomb Guardian' bigger guys bashed a hole in the Bretonnian defensive line. 

However, the Bretonnians came back, courtesy of a very long pass downfield. The Tomb Kings had an opportunity to blitz the ball carrier to prevent the score but I rolled a skull! And the Brets went on to score what turned out to be the winning down.

Noooooooooooooooo!

Fail!

The winning down

Even then, the Tomb Kings had a chance to salvage a draw at the death with two players heading for the score line and the ball in the bony hands of a designated thrower. 

However, Bryan cleverly blitzed the player nearest the line, meaning the remaining Tomb King player couldn't reach the end zone even by rushing. I managed to roll a 6 to complete a long pass of my own but the guy fumbled the catch anyway. It would have been more gutting to have fumbled it in a scoring position. But this is how close I got before running out of turns.

Final score: 2-1 to the Bretonnians 

Overall, then, I think the Bretonnians are the better of the two sides out of the starter box. Even with Bryan's penchant for rolling disastrously (he rolled a 1 three times in a row when all he needed was a 2 or higher) they seemed a much more balanced unit with greater flexibility to switch play between running and passing. 

Two game snacks this month as well: cheesy penguins and jaffa cake biscuits!

Definitely not cakes!

Book of the Month: Who Cares About Wales?

This is the second book I've reviewed on my blog by Will Hayward, who is now probably the most influential journalist covering Welsh politics and current affairs. (Read my review of Will's book on Welsh independence.)

This latest book, published earlier this year before Plaid Cymru's historic win in the Senedd election, was a birthday present from my friends Justin and Annabel. So, a big thank you to them!

The basic premise of this book is that Wales has been spectacularly let down by it's politicians in the first quarter of the 21st century. Whether they have been in Westminster or Cardiff Bay, the people making decisions for Wales have often got things wrong. 

Will thinks the people of Wales should get angry about this, and he certainly seems to be. There are plenty of swears to underline points of particular frustration. It gets his point across, but I didn't feel they were all necessary. 

However, he has also managed to produce the most readable explanation of the Barnett funding formula that I've ever read. That gets talked about a lot in politics chat in Wales and it's never entirely clear that people know how it works. 

I can't vouch how right he is on a lot of the issues he covers, but from my perspective of working in the NHS, the issues he identifies in the section on health are bang on. The section on transport, especially rail, is a neat distillation of how Wales has been woefully hard done by. 

There were some real nuggets of interest along the way. For example, the creative sector generates far more economic activity in Wales than agriculture does - and for a fraction of the government subsidies. 

Will is critical of all the political parties, although most of his anger is directed towards Labour as they were the party in government in Wales for the entirety of the devolution era up to the point this book was written. He is particularly scathing about how Labour blamed so many problems on having to work with a Tory government in Westminster, but since Labour swept to power in London in 2024, Welsh Labour was very reluctant to push for all the things they'd been saying Wales needs. 

There is a hopeful conclusion, with some ideas of what could change. Whether any of that will come to pass in the tricky terrain of the first Plaid Cymru government in the Senedd is yet to be seen. I'm sure Will is already working on a book about 2026 onwards!

It's my Plaidaversary

A year ago today I got 'Big P Political' and joined Plaid Cymru. What a year it's been! I've canvassed in 5 different elections and Plaid have won 3 of them. 

I have celebrated with a dragon!

I saw him last month at Tafwyl, where I spoke to the artist, Richard. After I got home I decided I should have brought him home with me so I contacted Richard and thankfully he hadn't been sold to anyone else! 

Due to hectic schedules I hadn't been able to pick him up until.today, but it worked out nicely that today was the day - on my Plaidaversary!

Gobaith means hope. I love his hopeful face

I also love how the date of Plaid Cymru's historic Senedd win - the 8th May - is included in the picture!

Read my election reflection here

Richard has a website with more of his great artwork on it: Baldhead Designs 

On the trail of the greatest secret agent in the world

A work trip to London meant a short stay near Baker Street and a chance to visit the secret entrance to the spy headquarters of none other than Danger Mouse himself!

Massive shout out to Gawain who humoured me and acted as my official photographer!

A quarter century being fast and furious

On a recent cinema trip I saw a poster advertising a 25th anniversary re-release of The Fast and the Furious. 25 years? That made me feel old.

I was working in that same cinema when The Fast and the Furious came out. (It's changed it's name since I worked there - RIP UCI!) I remember some co-workers being really excited about it - to the point of running across the lobby to watch the trailers.

25 years later it's amusing how a central theme of the film is a cop trying to track down a criminal gang stealing high end electronics, in this case DVD players! 

That also makes me feel old, remembering how excited people got about getting a DVD player, a massive upgrade from VHS videos, without suspecting how quickly those devices would become obsolete. Hard to believe that it was ever believable that stealing DVD players would fund a selection of high performance cars for a street racer gang, but we all accepted it.

The Fast and the Furious quickly spawned a sequel: 2 Fast 2 Furious, with one of the stars of the first film, Paul Walker. The other main star, Vin Diesel, was filming XXX at the time, another film with over the top stunts, fast cars and explosions. 

2 Fast 2 Furious came out so quickly I was still working in the cinema when it was released. My last shift there was spent watching the film while helping people navigate the stairs. The little safety lights that illuminated the stairs had stopped working so I was sat there with a torch to help anyone needing to leave to buy more popcorn or go to the loo. Needless to say, most of that last shift I just watched the film.

Neither Paul nor Vin appeared in the third instalment of the franchise, Tokyo Drift, but both came back for the fourth film that started using CGI instead of physical stunts. That rather defeated the whole point of the movies, in my view.

With XXX not turning into a multiple-film franchise like he'd hoped, Vin Diesel turned The Fast and the Furious into a spy adventure series instead, with the gang becoming mercenaries for hire. The films continued after Paul Walker's untimely death, adding notable action actors like Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson to their roster. (Stath and The Rock had their own spin-off movie too.) 

The franchise is still going with Hot Wheels cars and Lego sets to attract younger fans. I wouldn't have expected any of that 25 years ago when it all started because a street racer gang were stealing DVD players. 

Back to the castle for our third gig of the summer

Yesterday we went back to Cardiff Castle for the second time in less than a fortnight, this time to see Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner on their joint 'Bowling for Bones' tour. There was additional support from American Hi-Fi. We arrived in time to see all three bands perform.

We had 'accessible' tickets this time so were on a raised area with seating some way off to the left of the stage. It meant we were near the castle keep.

Although being in the accessible area was helpful for Cathy, it was a lot colder than the previous gig we went to at the castle. And being on a raised platform meant the area was quite exposed. Cathy ended up putting on extra layers. It was quite a contrast to when we saw Garbage on the brink of a heatwave!

All the layers - including rain poncho!

American Hi-Fi were decent. They have a very early noughties pop-punk sound. I enjoyed their set. 

Frank Turner's set list included most of his faster, louder songs. He started with I Still Believe and played most of my favourite songs, finishing with Get Better. 

There were a couple of slower songs in the middle, like Wessex Boy, which he introduced with an apology for being from Southern England. He had previously expressed a love for playing in Cardiff and name-checked Clwb Ifor Bach as a "legendary" venue, that he had performed in very early in his career. 

Frank concluded his set by saying he had met a bunch of American tourists in the castle earlier who said they were in a band and so he had invited them to perform a set. He asked the crowd to stay for at least two songs. 

And then Bowling for Soup came on for the kind of mayhem they tend to bring to the stage. There are only two band members left from when we saw them play the Student's Union Great Hall 20 years ago, but we still got the full gamut of classics like Almost, High School Never Ends, Ohio, Girl All the Bad Guys Want, The Bitch Song and 1985. They also introduced their "most popular song" early in the set and played the theme song to Phineas and Ferb. 

I particularly liked their Cymraeg rebrand!

Music aside, there were lengthy, sweary, funny rambles in between songs, an on-stage giveaway of a signed guitar, a dragon, pyrotechnics and flame projectors. It was non-stop entertainment.

This was our third big gig in less than two weeks. It's been a hectic time but great that so many artists we like are coming to Cardiff making it easy for us to see them.

My 1984 stocktake

I'm slightly envious of the guy who collected 1,984 copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and turned them into an art exhibit. It just feels like a really cool idea. As someone prone to collecting, and who had a meaningful number as a collecting target in the past, it's one of those ideas I wish I'd had.

But perhaps it's a good thing I didn't have the idea! I don't have space for 1,984 copies of the same book. But I do have a few different copies. 

This is my favourite cover. I didn't need to buy this when Penguin released it a few years ago, but come on... it's perfect.

You can see how the 'censorship' black-out strip is over an embossed title, so it can be read more clearly if the book is tilted slightly.

The write-up on the back is quite minimalist. Penguin were packaging George Orwell's work as "Great Orwell" at the time. 

Keeping to the minimalist theme, there is no introduction. There is a page of quotes by authors and reviewers though.

Here's an older copy that I acquired from my Grandma's house. I kept a few of her books. This cover feels very cluttered and chaotic, in keeping with the way the Party both demands order but pursues disruption.

The writing on the left continues round onto the spine and then the back of the book.

The back cover features a quote from Andrew Motion, who might have been poet laureate when this copy was published. (It doesn't give an issue date but the existence of an advert for Penguin Books's website implies it was published after 1999 when Motion took up the role.) There is a brief author bio in the front but no intro.

My other Penguin edition is my 'reading copy' and has an issue date of 2008. It also has a 4-page introduction by Peter Davison (the literary professor, not the actor who played Dr Who!)

The cover design by Shepard Fairey is quite striking and they designed covers for Animal Farm as well (as seen on the back).

The two endorsements on the back are from comic Jo Brand and author Margaret Atwood. They feel like an unlikely pairing.

I blogged two years ago that several companies have started printing Nineteen Eighty-Four because the copyright on the book has expired (as has the copyright on all of Orwell's writings) so it's been a bit of a publishing free for all. 

But, despite seeing lots of attractive copies I have resisted the temptation to fill out a shelf with them. However, I did buy this version in TK Maxx recently. It is published by Wordsworth Classics and I bought it because it had an interesting-looking long introduction and several other essays by Orwell included. 

Plus the cover designed by Becky Surridge was very cool. It has real Fritz Lang 'Metropolis' vibes. Given the opening line of the book, the man in the clock in the 8 is striking. It could be Winston. It could be whoever is spying on Winston.

The introduction by Sally Minogue, author and academic, is 30 pages long. And adding even more value to this edition is a selection of essays and other bits, like book reviews.

There are no endorsements on the back. The write-up lists all the words and terms coined by Orwell in this book - something I blogged about way back when in the early years of this blog.

The list of additional content looks intriguing. I'm interested in what he thought of Wells and Huxley, both of whom were authors of speculative fiction too. (I've categorised 'speculative fiction' previously.)

So, those are my copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four. I have two books about the book as well. I reviewed DJ Taylor's book On 1984 back in 2023. I also have a copy of The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey, which will hopefully make it off the reading pile and onto the blog at some point!

For now, it's sitting in my 1984 collection.

My June selfie photo dump

The monthly round up post was a bit too long to include all the selfies I took. So here is a special edition photo dump.

Very early on in the month I went to Shrewsbury as an overnight stop on a work trip. I stayed at Hotel Mum and went out for tea with the proprietor.

I also saw Dave on the same trip.

Here's my football four person selfie with Sara, Steve and Scott, when we went to watch Wales women versus Czechia.

Sara and Scott are former work colleagues and it was a bumper month for selfies with people I used to work with.

I met Matt and Jo at a big charity expo - which was also at Cardiff City Stadium, funnily enough.

Kate was at the same event.

I took a selfie with Justin at a Plaid Cymru gathering.

And I met Heather for lunch as we continued our tradition of marking the solstices. 

And a few solo selfies. Firstly, my double-sided sherbet ice cream at Tafwyl.

Here's a selfie from on my way in to my Cymraeg exam in Treforest. My confidence was unfounded and I suspect I have done terribly.

And a selfie from my canvassing session in Treorchy to finish off.