The final month of 2023 was relatively football-lite, although it started with a trip to Nottingham to watch Shrewsbury play Notts County. I went with my friend Paul, who is a Nottingham lad, so was able to show me around the city centre before the game. I got to see the statues of Brian Clough and Robin Hood, both of them much mythologised heroes in the city.
Before the game I also met Chris, who I've known from an online forum for a while. We were meant to meet up at the end of August when Brentford played Newport County, but I got on the only train heading east from Cardiff that didn't stop in Newport so didn't meet him then. Happily, a few months later there were no such transport mishaps and we were able to finally meet in real life.
The next Saturday I was helping to deliver a workshop in London, at the Diabetes UK HQ. It was an enjoyable, creative day and well worth getting on a train at 7.42am on a Saturday!
I put this work trip to good use and booked a late train home so I could meet my friend Gawain for a meal before coming home.
I've known Gawain for a few years now. He is my main source of baseball cards for my collection. We have had several virtual chats about baseball, collecting cards, and loads of other stuff. But this was another first time meeting up in person. We went to Passyunk, which is an American sports bar transplanted from Philadelphia to London.
I ran a risk and wore one of my Padres shirts to meet up - the owner told me it was OK to wear anything except a Patriots shirt. No chance of that...
For various reasons, including my travelling schedule and Cathy's health, we went for a restrained Christmas. The tree stayed in the loft but we still had plenty of decorations and Christmas stuff around, including 5 advent calendars. My favourite was the Star Wars Droid Factory calendar, which gave you the parts every day to assemble droids in festive colours. These were the first two assembled:
We saw friends and family in the run up to Christmas, focusing more on those connections than decorations. We had some mayhem with small children and a relaxing time meeting Cathy's uncle and aunt in Monmouth.
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| Awesome R2-D2 card from Connor |
For Christmas itself, we went to Shrewsbury. We travelled up the day before Christmas Eve and came home the day after Boxing Day. I went with my brother to the Midnight Communion service in the local Anglican Church on Christmas Eve (via the pub!) and we had Christmas dinner with my mum (and Fred the dog).
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| Photo and filter by Cathy |
On Boxing Day my sister and brother-in-law drove down from Edinburgh for the day with their family so we got to see all the nieces and nephews. It was a lovely time together.
Coming back to Cardiff with a few days spare before New Year meant we had some time to unwind. We went to see Wonka at the cinema with our friends Bryan and Elaine. I think it was only the 6th film I'd seen at the cinema all year. We also had a day trip to Oxford to see another friend, so I have chalked up a few miles in the final month of the year.
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