Cynhadledd meddwlau (Conference thoughts)

I spent most of Friday and Saturday last week at the Plaid Cymru conference in Llandudno. A few days on, here are some thoughts about it and, as you'd expect, some selfies!

It was my second visit to Llandudno in a couple of weeks as Cathy and I had a day there on our North Wales holiday in September. I'd had a late one on Thursday night, getting back from the HU's gig in Bristol. It was an early start on Friday, leaving Cardiff at 6am with fellow delegates Ben and Jose. 

On the way up we talked politics for a bit and about Warhammer for a bit, because serendipitously we all shared both interests. We got to Llandudno before lunchtime and in time for the big afternoon speeches at Venue Cymru, the large theatre and conference centre on the sea front. It was a bit strange being back there because I remember working a large NHS conference in Venue Cymru well over a decade ago.

Lovely Llandudno

This was my second Plaid Cymru cynhadledd (after last year's in Swansea). I was asked what I thought about it by Emily, a political analyst who was doing a "vibe report", and I said that overall I thought the vibe was celebratory without being smug. It was different to last year's, with Plaid Cymru now the party of (minority) government but it felt like everyone was very conscious of meeting the electorate's expectations.

I thought Rhun ap Iorweth's leader's speech was very good - managing that line between celebrating winning the election witb a sense of purpose and acknowledging the election only being the beginning of working hard for Wales. 

My favourite moments were hearing my friend Anna give her first conference speech as Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, and then hearing my chwaer calon Sara speak in support of a motion to give the Senedd more control over justice and equalities legislation.

Sara was also involved chairing a fringe meeting about improving nursing care. There were several similar thought provoking panels. One of our local Senedd members, Kiera, chaired a great session on youth mental health which included a powerful real life story. 

There was also a main stage session about social care that included an incredibly brave testimony from a care worker about the awful exploitative employment conditions many care workers are trapped in. She got a deserved standing ovation and I hope the campaign to improve things gains traction.

I voted on some motions, including an emergency motion for the party not to accept crypto-currency donations. I also voted in the party's internal elections and was very pleased when Sara was elected Director of Equalities.

In the exhibition I met Zahid from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. A lovely man who was willing to spend time chatting.

On the Saturday there was a protest about Palestine outside. It was the only time I saw any police in Llandudno. I think they over-estimated the likelihood of trouble with over 20 officers and at least 3 vehicles deployed. There were no arrests.

The exhibition also had a display of Plaid Cymru history.

Conference also provides a chance to catch up with friends and meet new people. Along with the South Cardiff representation, I had encouraging conversations with former Grangetonian Huw, and also met Danny from the Rhondda. 

Jose, Paddy and me
repping South Cardiff with Rhun

Gyda ffrind newydd Danny

It also was a chance to meet people who were there for other reasons. I told journalist Will Hayward that I'd read his most recent book (reviewed here) and thought his summary of the problems in NHS Wales was spot on. I also met Ben (a different Ben) who was there in a lobbying capacity but who I hadn't seen in several years - a most welcome catch up.

The two days went by really fast, and soon we were saying goodbye to Venue Cymru. I took a photo of the marvellous dragon on their information desk before I left.

Gig review: The HU

The HU are a Mongolian metal band that fuses heavy rhythms with traditional instruments and vocal styles to forge something quite special. Having discovered them this year, I was thrilled to have the chance to see them live when they visited Bristol last week.

I hadn't been to the gig venue, The Prospect Building, before. Fortunately my friend Dave from Bristol was able to help me with some local knowledge about parking. He also came with me to the gig and was excellent company for a very loud evening. (He took a lot of the photos in this post!)

Pre-gig selfie

The venue was great, with catering and bar area outside, well-organised inside with helpful stewards, and a suitably post-industrial aesthetic for the main warehouse room. A nice high stage gave good visibility of the band, although the amount of dry ice and vapour off the crowd combined with some of the lights rendered them invisible at times.

The support act were a Nordic-inspired pagan metal act called SKĀLD. The band had three percussionists and included a variety of unusual instruments including what I think was an elk skull, and also using horns. One of the percussionists had a shamanic vibe as he leapt between different drums. I enjoyed their set and found the rhythmic set very soothing.

The HU came on to loud cheers, bearing a militaristic looking standard. They lean heavily into the Mongol warrior mythos in both their look and their lyrics. Being Mongolian, banter with the crowd was limited but we were told they loved Bristol and we were thanked for our enthusiasm. 

The crowd was nicely age-diverse. Several oldies like me, but a real mix of ages appreciating the music. It was very gender-diverse as well and around where I stood it felt like the women in the crowd were enjoying it most. One woman next to me passionately sang the Mongolian lyrics to Echoes of My Father, which was impressive. 

The setlist was mainly from their recent album, HUN, and their breakthrough album Rumble of Thunder (which I reviewed in February). I was disappointed they didn't play Triangle, as I love that song. At the end they stayed on-stage to soak up the applause and seemed genuinely affected by the affection being shown to them.

A rapturous finale 

I bought a t-shirt. I saw people wearing t-shirts with 'Mongolia' written in the style of 'Metallica' but those must have been sourced elsewhere as they weren't on the merch stand in the venue. I chose the shirt with the tour dates on the back as a memento of a memorable night of Mongolian metal.

My September 2026 round up

I had three work trips to London in September.  That meant lots of waiting around at Paddington Station. Which in turn meant plenty of opportunities for photos with Paddington Bear! I was even inspired to write a poem about him in time for National Poetry Day.

He paused eating his sandwich for a selfie

I also noticed something on the street outside Paddington Station.

We had a really lovely week's holiday in North Wales, which included a bucket list trip up Yr Wyddfa on the railway. At the end of the week we stopped for the weekend in Shrewsbury where there were birthday celebrations for two of our niblings. 

How else do you look at a poster you've just
been given for a birthday present?

As a bonus, I watched birthday boy Zac play football on the Sunday morning. At breakfast he told me had scored four times against that morning's opponents in both previous games and he wanted to maintain his run. He scored four in the first half, before being subbed out for a bit, mainly to give the opponents a rest! 

He was also on corner-taking duty.

I made it to the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick this month. I remembered to wear my KGT green t-shirt, although the hi-vis vest covered most of it. 

We had a couple of sessions out canvassing again. Neil and I went to Pengam Green early in the month.

And on the last Sunday in September we had a session in Grangetown. We sought a blessing from St Francis before starting out. (As it was a Sunday.)

Just the four football matches in September, starting out with an FA Cup qualifying match in deepest, darkest Gloucestershire. I went to Bishop's Cleeve with my friend Steve and saw the Mitres play the Mighty Dolphins (Poole Town). It was a new ground for both of us.

I saw two Barry Town games with mixed fortunes for Barry. A 4-1 home win over Llandudno followed by a 5-2 defeat at Colwyn Bay. A total of 12 goals in 2 games, scored 6 and conceded 6!

At the Llandudno game I met my friend Dave from Bristol and Stefan, a German groundhopper that Dave knew from his travels. Stefan was heading up to York the following day to complete "the 92" Premier and Football League clubs for the 6th time!

I told Stefan this was the Welsh Space Agency's shuttle launch from Rhoose Rocket Range... but he didn't believe me.

An unusual photo angle for me,
of the teams entering the pitch

My final game of the month was Cardiff Draconians v Caerau Ely. It was a Cardiff derby and the visitors came out on top, winning 3-1.

And then, suddenly, we are somehow in October!

In case you missed it

My September Blood Bowl game with Bryan was powered by fruity Hot Tamales

It was the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and I blogged some thoughts about it

My Book of the Month was a Japanese tale of urban time travel 

I blogged about the entire run of The Mandalorian right up to the recent movie

National Poetry Day - "Blessed by the Bear"

On a recent work trip to London, I ended up waiting over an hour at Paddington Station for my designated train. As I waited I watched a stream of people visit the statue of Paddington Bear. I wrote the first draft of this poem while on the train home. As it's National Poetry Day today, I thought I'd share it.

Blessed by the Bear

Make haste to pause on platform one

His prints of paws guide pilgrims on

To selfies take with his saintly stare

Not hard, but warm; a gentle bear

See them come and seek to share

A sacred moment with the beloved bear

Take blessing from his worn-bright nose

And commemorate with smiling pose

Count them! Young, old, sullen, smiling

Teens too cool, then shyly styling

Greying couples grin for each other

And children clamber to shine for mother

And the bronze bear sees, and blesses, all

Safe travels, travellers, great and small

Bid adieu and quicken, journey on

Granted grace by Paddington

Previous poems:

We Are the Generation: X (published for National Poetry Day 2025)

Pethau Hen (published January 2024)

Older poems and stories

The Tomb Kings finally triumph (Blood Bowl match report)

Bryan and I have a new system where we roll to see which teams we will be managing in our monthly Blood Bowl contest. This month I was playing Tomb Kings for the second time while Bryan took charge of an orc team boosted by a star player.

The orcs were one of the teams in the starter set released in 2016 when Blood Bowl got a hefty reboot. They are one of the first teams I painted and the paint job on them is bad even by my low standards. 

Varag Ghoulchewer, the star player, was included in the second season starter box released in 2020. I've painted him as part of my Big Pink Nightmares black orc team. For the purposes of this game we just pretended Varag's red and white uniform went through the wash and came out pink!

The Tomb Kings were in the starter set released this year, which Bryan purchased. They have no star players. They do, however, have four stronger players (the Tomb Guardians) who had a power advantage over every member of the orc team apart from Varag. 

The game started with a kick off towards the orcs. A breach in the defensive line saw some Tomb Kings players approach the ball carrier, whose attempted pass went badly wrong. The ball was dropped, a Tomb Kings blitzer picked it up and was able to make it into the end zone for the first score of the game on the very last turn of the first half. 

The second half started with a kick into Tomb Kings territory. The big Tomb Guardians managed to pivot the defence and open up a gap for three Tomb Kings players to run through and score virtually unmolested. They even got to showboat in the End Zone.

The orcs made a game of it and got the ball into a scoring position with one turn left. A player needed to rush one yard to get into the End Zone ready for a scoring pass. All he needed was his coach to roll anything except a 1. 

Bryan rolled a 1. 

That was the end of the game. Bryan rolled again to see if he would have made the pass successfully (he would) and whether the player would have caught it (he would!) but as Bryan said, that was just Nuffle, the god of Blood Bowl messing with him. If he hadn't rolled a 1 it feels very unlikely he would have made both those subsequent rolls. Nuffle is a capricious god who does whatever seems funniest to them in the moment. 

Final score: Tomb Kings 2-0 Orcs - the first time the Tomb Kings have won a game in 5 attempts.

Injuries of note: I'm not sure how you critically injure an undead skeleton powered by magic. But Bryan managed it.

Snacks: Hot Tamales Tropical Heat candy, Van Holten's Pickle flavoured puffs, and some Korean biscuits that tasted like custard creams with a hint of pineapple.  

See all my previous match reports here