My February 2026 round-up

February is always a short month and this year it felt really short. The big highlights were a weekend in Malaga with my friend Jim and a bucket list gig in Bristol. But lots more happened too, like going on a pancake day date with Cathy and fielding a new team in my monthly Blood Bowl battle with Bryan. 

On the blog, my second Book of the Month in 2026 was also a second science fiction book of the year. My album of the month was a heavy metal band from Mongolia.

In other news I made it to February's community litter pick organised by Keep Grangetown Tidy. 

Fiona, the organiser of KGT, took a sneaky pic of me and my friend Neil extricating rubbish from one of the big hedges! So here we are in action:

It was a big month in politics generally. I was pleased to see the Green Party win a by-election in England. I'd talked about it with Jim quite a lot in Malaga - he had been part of the campaign. More close to home, the Plaid Cymru conference at the end of the month went really well. I missed out on going as I had other commitments but it seemed like everyone else I know went and had a great time. 

The campaigning has continued in Grangetown.

I enjoy my early morning sessions leafleting at railway stations, and sometimes I indulge myself taking pictures of trains. I liked this juxtaposition of old and new rolling stock at Eastbrook.

And at Dinas Powys I spotted this train named after Gavin and Stacey!

I made it to three football matches in February. I've already posted a full write up of the game I watched in Malaga. My two other games were a disappointing home defeat for Barry and a great home win for Cardiff Dracs. I watched the latter with Scott and Nick and made them smile for a selfie!

 Time marches on... into March.

Bucket list gig: Thousand Yard Stare

I discovered Thousand Yard Stare in about 1992 when I bought a copy of Vox magazine that came with a free cassette that included one of their songs, Wideshire. When I moved to Cardiff in 1994 I found their album Mappamundi in a sale in HMV. I played that cassette to death in my room in uni digs. 

Mappamundi was their 'difficult second album'. The band split up almost immediately after releasing it and the 'shoegaze' scene they were part of declined rapidly. Over the next couple of years I collected most of their back catalogue. But I resigned myself to never seeing them live. 

Then about 10 years ago the band reunited and cut a new record. I had lost track of what they were up to and didn't realise until a couple of years ago, so I had another back catalogue to collect!

This tour was meant to happen last May but got postponed due to one of the band having health issues. It got rescheduled for the last day in February, which means it was my first gig in 2026.

I'd not been to the Louisiana before. It's a (lovely) pub with a gig room upstairs. A couple of years ago I met an online friend called Dave at a football match. Dave is also a gig-goer. He lives in Bristol and advised me to get close to the front at the venue. He wasn't wrong - it's a long room with no slope to the floor and a low stage. I ended up about 3 rows back and got a great view.

It's a standing only venue and Cathy found that hard so she headed back downstairs where there was a comfy sofa she could curl up on. She says the staff were all very kind when she said she wasn't feeling well. 

It might have been for the best that she went downstairs because the gig got a bit "moshy", no mean feat considering most of the people there were in my age bracket. Me, I felt 19 again, listening to songs I thought I'd never hear live.

And wow, they were good. They played a couple of post-reformation songs, but they knew what we wanted to hear and belted out the classics like Comeuppance ("our only hit"), Buttermouth, Wideshire, 0-0 (aet) and Version of Me. 

Stephen, the singer, introduced my absolute favourite track, What's Your Level? as "a song I wrote in response to people calling me a 'wordy twat'". They played it quite early in the set, and that's when it first got a bit moshy and sweaty. 

He is also the only singer I know who snacks on apples during a gig.

Stephen is heavily involved at Bristol Manor Farm FC (scene of my first football match after lockdown!) and had hung up some flags behind the stage. Some of the Farmy Army had come along to enjoy the show. Cue lots of banter as he kept scolding them to behave.

He also said that he didn't listen to the bands' second album until a few years back, because the band were splitting up as it was released and the reviews were negative. I was able to shake his hand at the end and tell him that I played that album until the cassette died and how much I loved finally seeing them live.

So that was my bucket list gig. Massive thanks to Dave for the advice, the great chats about gigs and football, and also sending me some of his photos to use in this blogpost!

Maps from the algorithm, Cymru edition

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant, pawb!

In celebration of all things Cymru, here are some maps of Wales that have popped up on my social media feeds recently. (Or at least since I last posted about maps from the algorithm!)

A nice topographical map to start

A humorous guide to Wales, according to people working in call centres 

A topical one - the 16 new constituencies for the Senedd elections in May

And a relevant political one - markers of economic and social poverty combined in one map.

A rather beautiful map of the Mabinogion.

Repost - Castles of Wales

Lots of castles... but a couple of years back, the friendly guys at Welsh Bollocks provided two maps of castles to help distinguish between Castellau Gymreig and, er, other ones.

Have a great St David's Day, whether you live in Cymrutopia or not!

Malaga street art

Another post about my Malaga trip - I thought it would be fun to have a post about some of the brilliant street art I saw there last weekend.

This was my absolute favourite:

I walked past this purple shark in daylight but didn't take a pic. He looks alright at night though.

Good slogan:

Down by the river:

Lots to see on this wall:

This guy looks like he's spotted something disconcerting: 

There is plenty of official street art too. Like this sculpture:

And we found a glorious independent bar called El Mura that had some great art inside.

And even on the menu board!

Book of the Month: To Be Taught if Fortunate

I read my book of the month this month on the plane out to Malaga, which is why I'm squeezing it between some posts about Malaga (yes, I'm not done yet!).

To Be Taught if Fortunate came in a bundle of books by Becky Chambers that Connor gave me. I read her first novel last year (it was Book of the Month last July) and have since read two more set in the same futureverse. I'm not sure where this book is meant to be set. It feels like it could be a prequel to her other works but it also functions fine as a standalone.

The story is a broadcast home to Earth by a long-range exploration team of astronauts. The book's title is part of an address included on the Voyager space probe. This team has been sent out by a crowdfunded humanitarian grassroots space agency, which felt like the most far-fetched part of the whole thing to be honest. 

What I like most about Becky Chambers' science-fiction is the careful consideration she gives to details like how waking up after being plugged into a machine would feel, and why you would want to wake up alone and not surrounded by your crew members. It all feels properly thought through and things like hibernation aren't just plot devices to get the characters into the action.

The crew experience some difficulties, but are never really in jeopardy as they explore the exo-planets they have been sent to survey. The psychological disconnect from Earth is very realistic. News messages are 14 years old when they arrive, and so they become meaningless. The astronauts switch off long before the broadcasts cease with no explanation. 

So the astronauts send a long message home outlining their activity. It's sent in hope of a reply but with low expectations. The conclusion is left very open and the story could go in any direction from where it's left off. I liked that ambiguity. 

Match report: Malaga CF v Albacete Balompie

The main reason I went to Malaga was the opportunity to watch the football team my friend Jim supports. Malaga CF play in Liga Segunda - the Spanish second division - in a stadium that was rebuilt for the 1982 World Cup, La Rosaleda. (Scotland played their 1982 World Cup games there.)

I'd not been to a game in Spain before and I'm pleased I made my Spanish matchgoing debut at an authentic lower league club in a ground with a bit of history. Although saying it like that does make me sound a bit soccer hipster!

Malaga's opponents were Albacete Balompie. I'd not heard of them before. They are from Albacete and Balompie is another word for football (bal-om-pie, ball with feet). I think balompie is my new favourite alternative word for soccer. 

We had seen La Rosaleda in the distance when we climbed up to Gibralfaro Castle the day before. It was a short walk from the city centre along the heavily canalised river and we got a good view of the stadium as we approached.

We had plenty of time to get to the game as it was a 9pm kick off. One of Jim's friends, Salva, is a die-hard fan so we met him before the game and went to greet the team bus as it arrived at the stadium. That also gave me an opportunity to buy a scarf at one of the merch stalls set up opposite the ground. 

I decided not to buy the Jesus scarf.

There was a protest by the ultras just before the game started. Some ultras dressed as cartoon burglars scurried about the ultras terrace representing corrupt referees "stealing" points from Malaga. We were sat next to the ultras section so we had a good view of their antics.

They were soon back to their normal boisterous support.

As mentioned, this was my first game in Spain and it really was a cracking match. Rapid end to end play with pacey strikers pouncing on defensive errors, midfielders dribbling the ball forwards from box to box, and nobody given much time to dwell on the ball.

My only disappointment from the game was not getting a close up encounter with Súper Boke - the Malaga mascot. At half time he was in a penalty shoot out down the other end of the pitch. 

Given the pre-match protest, the ref did OK in a very hostile situation. But he did bottle one decision when he should have given a second yellow card to an Albacete player who had just been booked and then scythed down another opponent almost immediately. The manager hastily subbed him while the ref dithered and that kept the game 11 a side. 

The only goal was a magnificent screamer into the top corner early in the second half. Like the half time mascot penalties, it was down the far end from where we sat. The stands had already been buzzing but they got a bit buzzier after the goal. 

Albacete almost equalised when a Malaga defender sent his keeper scrambling to retrieve the ball before it crossed the line, and also from a free kick on tbe edge of the box in the fourth and final minute of added on time.

But the home side held on and it was a very happy crowd that headed out into the chilly Malaga night. 

Post-script

I got a Futbology badge for seeing a game in a new country, and my map of European grounds I've visited now has an outlier!

4 days in Malaga

I was very fortunate to go on a long weekend to Malaga, with my (almost lifelong) friend, Jim, who used to live there and so knew how to find the real city that many tourists miss. 

It felt like we went on the opposite of a 'lads weekend' because we actively avoided the tourist trap bars full of other holidaymakers. Our main focus was going to watch Malaga FC play a home game. We booked some extra days either side of matchday just in case the game time changed - and then it got scheduled for late on the Sunday evening. 

So we did some tourism stuff. The extra days gave us time for plenty of sightseeing and tapas. One of the main sights to see in Malaga is the Alcazaba Castle. We then climbed the hill behind Alcazaba to the Gibralfaro Castle on the top. The views across the city were incredible. 

We could see the football ground in the distance too!

We saw the beach

And the lighthouse in the port

Went to the Picasso Museum

And the Cathedral

Had delicious seco at Picasso's favourite bar, which serves fortified wine from barrels and has authentic sticky floors

Had churros at Casa Aranda

Were entertained by chatterbox parakeets in the park. They were in raucous nest-building mode.

The parakeets avoided the free-range cactus

And most of all just enjoyed walking round and discovering stuff!

I've got to say a big thank you to Jim for being such a great guide, sorting out so much of the travel admin, and being a patient translator when I asked him what some random words meant! Both of us felt sad when the trip drew to a close and we had to head out to the airport. At least we got to ride on a train before getting on a plane!