My October 2026 monthly round-up

Looking back on October I seemed to pack an awful lot in. This could have been a very long post.

I started the month with a trip North for the Plaid Cymru conference in Llandudno. I stopped for a night in Shrewsbury on my way home afterwards, which meant I got to hang out with my mum.

We are bad influences on each other!

Cathy had her regular once-yearly appointment in Cambridge. We went via Kent to pick up some more art. We had what will probably be our last seaside ice creams of the year in Whitstable.

I went to two gigs - seeing the Hu in Bristol and Creeper in Cardiff. I've blogged about both gigs and they were both great. At the end of the month we went back to Bristol for an event at Bristol Planetarium where we met the author and artist Oliver Jeffers. He signed some books and was lovely to chat with.

In a work-related activity I went along to the Type 1 Discovery Day organised by Breakthrough T1D at the Cardiff City Stadium. It was great to meet up with several friends from the diabetes world like Ros and Chris who both now work for Breakthrough, and it was fab to hear my friend Sara address the conference.

On the theme of sports stadia, the Grangetown Historical Society put on a talk about lost sports grounds of Grangetown, including the race track on the Marl, speedway on Penarth Road, and a nostalgic reminder of Cardiff Athletics Stadium, where I used to watch Inter Cardiff play back in the 90s.

Here are two of the lost stadia:

The Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick was moved to Halloween due to terrible weather on the original date. We had a great turn out.

It was a lovely way to end the month. We gathered up a lot of rubbish and four shopping trolleys!

I left the litter pick and went to my fifth football match of the month, travelling with Steve to Bath to watch Bath City v Poole Town. Steve's son, Jon, lives in Bath and joined us.

It was my second Poole Town game of the month, as I also went with Steve to watch them at Chippenham Town. I liked their mascot, Chippy the Bluebird.

Speaking of bluebirds, one of the Cardiff Dracs games I went to this month was up in Ystrad Mynach where Trethomas Bluebirds were the hosts. The other Dracs game was a home draw against Carmarthen where both teams had a man sent off in the first 15 minutes.

I took a selfie with Scott and Nic at half time in the Carmarthen game when the Dracs were 2-0 down and we had nothing to smile about. We smiled anyway. The final score was 2-2, which made us feel much happier. 

In case you missed it...

I published a poem inspired by Paddington Bear for National Poetry Day

My Blood Bowl game against Bryan was a horror show of disastrous dice rolls 

My album of the month was A Version of Now by Peter Garrett

My book of the month was The Long Shoe by Bob Mortimer 

Hallowe'en candy review

I have been a big fan of Mike and Ike's (particularly Hot Tamales cinnamon candy) ever since I discovered them on our California road trip waaaaaaaay back in 2004. Sometimes they pop up over here, and sometimes even the weird special edition versions of the candy are available. 

As it's Hallowe'en, I thought I'd review a seasonal box of them I bought recently!

There are three different flavours in ghastly looking colours in the packet.

And the flavours are...

Unusually, I'd rank the grape the second best flavour in this packet. (Unusually, because 'Jolly Joes', the grape flavour Mike and Ikes, are one of my favourite flavours.) It's the sour orange scream that's the treat here.

Meanwhile the sour wicked watermelon is definitely a Hallowe'en trick, not a treat. They are VILE! I ate one and binned the rest of them. 

Book of the Month: The Long Shoe

The story behind me acquiring this book is part of the reason I finished it. I arrived at the station late to catch a train to London and realised I hadn't brought a book with me. So I ended up buying two books in Smiths on their slight special offer. 

If I hadn't purchased this new at almost full price I doubt I would have persevered with it and finished it. I found it hard to connect with the main character, Matt. That's not surprising because Matt is one of the most disassociated characters I've ever read. If he is disconnected from his world, it's no wonder I was too.

There was one bit at the end of the first chapter that made me chuckle, and that gave me hope for the rest of the book. Unfortunately after that the attempts at surreal humour got in the way of the story, which turned out to be a decent mystery surrounding Matt's missing girlfriend eventually. 

The long shoe itself represents Matt's desire to stand out even though he doesn't realise he already stands out due to his innate weirdness, like his regular two-way 'conversations' with his cat. 

From the start, Matt really felt like Bob Mortimer relating various events with an emphasis on trivial details. It's one of the few times I've read a book in the voice of the author and that was an initial barrier to getting immersed in the storyline.

However, what really stopped me from getting into the story was the peculiar conversation styles of almost all the main characters. They are very fast to pass perceptive comments on people they have just met and are far too open in their conversations to be believable. They know how they feel about stuff and then say it. I don't mind spoken exposition in books, but it often felt jarring here. 

It made an unlikely storyline premise - Matt being invited to move into a fancy apartment in exchange for performing some minor, probably illegal, tasks - even more unbelievable.

However, most of the characters are nicely complex with different takes for some of them on what makes a person wicked. There are some fun minor characters, like the blagger salesman trying to flog the titular long shoe, who add some depth to the story.

About halfway through the book things start happening, the mystery becomes apparent, and the challenge to the reader is trying to solve it. Unexpected suspects crop up and it's quite fun working out what's going on. But it takes a long time to get there and I almost gave up.

One final note, the whimsical endorsements on the back of the book made me laugh.

A night of horrors with disastrous dice

I frequently reference the problems that Bryan and I have with dice that betray us to ruinous effect in our monthly Blood Bowl games. And this month is no different.

A suitably gloomy score marker 

In a match up between my team of necromantic horrors and Bryan's lizard-men, the clear winners were the cubes of chaos that caused both of us (but mainly me) considerable grief.

Team photo before kick off

The game started horribly. I had two attempts using one of my ghouls to 'secure the ball' on my first two turns. All I had to do was roll anything but a 1. I rolled a 1. Twice. The second fumble meant a skink could run in, pounce on the ball in the endzone and therefore score! It was the first time a lizard had touched the ball since the kick off!

Things got worse from there, although I did manage to knock over and seriously injure the lizardmen's kroxigor on turn 1. After that it was all downhill. Double skulls rolls. Having a player sent off for trying to foul. Failing regeneration rolls and having my zombie linemen unceremoniously dumped into the serious injury box. Pretty much any dice roll that could go wrong... did.

My dice rolls peaked on turn 1

Another skink score 

Skulking in shame after being sent off

Splatted zombies 

My one breakaway saw my werewolf star player, Wilhelm Chaney, quickly surrounded and dispossessed. That was the closest my team got to scoring. On the very last turn of the game, another skink, a chameleon, ran in the third and final score of the game.

This did not go well for the wolfman

This emphatic 3-0 victory means that Bryan claimed the Blood Bowl Ball of Triumph and it will stay in his possession until I claim it back.

VICTORY!!

At least we had some great snacks for this game including seasonal spooky tortilla chips!

Album of the Month: Peter Garrett, A Version of Now

 

Peter Garrett, the former front man of Midnight Oil, popped up in my social media algorithm and I had a sudden thought that I might own one of his solo albums. I checked the CD shelves. Cathy helpfully suggested it might be in with the Midnight Oil CDs and sure enough, there it was, ready for me to have a listen.

This album was released 10 years ago and, according to the sleevenotes, was a product of Peter Garrett writing his memoir of life as the frontman of one of Australia's best known bands and his subsequent commitment to environmentalism and land rights that led him into politics. 

Peter recorded this album shortly before Midnight Oil reformed for the Great Circle tour in 2017 (which we went to!) and it does feel like a warm up piece. Oils guitarist Martin Rotsey plays on it and both late bassist Bones Hillman and the other guitarist Jim Moginie helped co-write a track each. 

Peter's explanation for the origin of the album

So, with that level of involvement from his band mates, it's no surprise that this sounds very much like Midnight Oil Lite. The tracks are melodic, reflecting more of Rotsey's guitar style. It was also a family affair with Peter's three daughters all contributing in some way, including harmonised backing vocals on the opening track. 

Overall, this is a musically solid, reflective album with some lovely emotional tracks on. As a solo project (at least in theory) it stands up with the output of the band, which is unusual. Definitely one to listen to if you are a Midnight Oil fan, like me, or even if you're not, it's a very accessible collection of tunes that I think many people would enjoy hearing. 

Details

Year of release: 2016

Tracks: 9

Favourite track: Kangaroo Tail, with it's line of "coming home to blue hills, in the morning". It gave me a small sense of hiraeth. 

Track to skip: There are only 9 tracks and the songwriting is very lean, so I haven't been skipping any. 

Gig review: Creeper (Tramshed, Cardiff)

I was absolutely delighted when Creeper announced their short autumn tour and my locallest venue was on the list. They are a band I have really fallen for this year and going to a gig that's walking distance from my house was brilliant.

Creeper's frontman William Von Ghoul promised theatrical vampire horror metal and we got it, along with a coffin, a guillotine and a throne decorated with skulls - several bulky props on the Tramshed's limited stage. 

Prepping the guilloutine

There were two support bands. I arrived shortly after the 7pm doors opening time to find one of the bands, Starburners, had started their set. I liked their sound, which was heavy gothy and rocky. 

Starburners

The second support act, Calva Louise, played Latin American inspired scream metal. They were alright, but either the mix was bad or my hearing wasn't up to it because it felt ragged. I wasn't as keen on their set as Starburners but I liked the lead vocalist who also played guitar and keyboards and talked to us about her move to the UK from Venezuela.

Calva Louise

Before the main event, a curtain was raised to hide the stage. Then we were treated to some back-projected theatrics as we were told that the show was being censored. This was greeted with loud boos until the censor was brutally axed to death.

The set started with Blood Magick and the crowd were into it straight away shouting "Drink the blood!" at the appropriate points. Incidentally, this is the first gig where I've been offered (fake) blood, from one of the many vampires in the audience. Some people went full on with the make up, other made do with a splash of blood on their chin.

The Mistress of Death appears

I had a decent spot right in the middle of the crowd, but during the third song a 'wall of death' opened up and I moved off to one side. The sound mix was unbalanced for me after that, which I think is a thing at the Tramshed. The sound is great right in the middle but deteriorates as you move to the side. 

I ended up quite close to the front so got a really good view of the theatrics that preceded Razorwire. The female vocalist, Hannah, who sings that song emerged from a coffin. I like that track, it's a burlesque lounge piece and Hannah was dressed to match.

I was surprised they didn't play the song Mistress of Death considering the Sanguivore theme is all about her. I also wished they'd played Chapel Gates off the first Sanguivore album. 

William got guillotined at the end of the set but reattached his head for the encore - three songs from their pre-Sanguivore days. The crowd's enthusiastic response to the early stuff seemed to genuinely move William who thanked us for a great night and said how Cardiff had given them some of their most special nights as a band.

And that was my first Creeper gig over. The vampires in the audience melted into the drizzly night along with the rest of us.