A capital weekend in Edinburgh

I spent the last week of February working at a conference in Glasgow. When the conference ended and we had packed the stand away I said goodbye to my colleagues and hopped on a train to Edinburgh to see my sister, Sarah, and her husband, Dan, and their three kids Iona, Jura and Finlay. 

Sarah and Dan moved to Edinburgh about 15 years ago and this was the first time I had visited them, which I know is slack of me. However, I was able to get there earlier than planned on the Friday to maximise the amount of time I spent with them.

On the Saturday I came down for breakfast to find the house had been decorated for St David's Day - so that I wouldn't feel homesick! Our main thing for the morning was driving out to the Falkirk Helix to see the giant 'Kelpies' statues. I love large-scale artwork and the Kelpies were magnificent.

We also had ice creams. Dan was the biggest kid, going for blue sherbert on his ice cream. 

After lunch I went with Dan and Finlay to watch a football match. The game was Spartans FC against Bonnyrigg Rose in the Scottish League 2. The ground is about a 15 minute walk from Sarah and Dan's house, so really convenient for us. A friendly steward took a photo of us on the way in. 

Once we had gone in and found some seats, Finlay told me it was his first ever football match. Privately I hoped it wouldn't be a dire nil-nil. In fact, it was a good game with both sides playing attractive passing football. There were four goals, with the Spartans winning 3-1. All 4 goals were crackers. The attendance was given as 701, so I told Finlay he was the 1. He was pleased about that. 

We also had some unexpected sunshine, meaning that weather-wise, the game really was a game of two halves!

In the evening we watched Gladiators together, then played a game after tea called Don't be a Dik Dik. It's an amusing game featuring animals that have rude-sounding names. I think the grown ups spent more time sniggering during it than the kids did.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny again. I went with Sarah to watch Finlay play for his junior rugby team. I met two other Welshies there and I had a little chat in Cymraeg to an expat from Carmarthen.

In the afternoon we went into the city centre and visited the National Museum of Scotland, a hugely impressive building with some great exhibits. I was thrilled to see a selection of the famous Lewis chessmen, and bought a replica knight in the gift shop afterwards. 

From the roof of the national museum there are fab views across the city, including the castle and Arthur's Seat. The views are well worth the wait for the lift. 

Other exhibits included Scottish-built trains and cars, and a huge array of stuffed animals and fossil skeletons. Along with the Tyrannosaurus Rex there was a glyptodont, the fossil ancestor of pangolins.

Later in the evening we had a home visit from a T Rex, which turned out to be Iona in a dino-suit. 

Our evening meal on the Sunday was at an Indian restaurant called Dishoom where I discovered one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten - okra fries. I demolished the bowl before realising I should have taken a picture of it. Never mind, that just means I'll have to go back some time. The hardship!

All too quickly it was Monday morning. I said goodbye to the kids before they went to school. Dan kindly drove me to the airport and I had a hassle-free flight back to Bristol and an easy drive home across the bridge to a more familiar capital. 

A full February with friends

Sunrise on the Clyde

I'm a few days late posting this review of the month, for reasons that will become apparent. It was a very busy month, prepping for a big week away with work. Despite the busyness, I still managed to squeeze in a game of Blood Bowl with Bryan - our third of the year so far! 

I also went to three football matches - two Barry Town games and seeing my friend Ben play for Caldicot away at Treowen Stars. Their ground features an impressive set of steps up from the changing room to the pitch. After slogging my way up the hill to the ground, the steps nearly finished me off!

Ben on the ball

Those three games took me to five games so far in 2025, and here are my season totals at the end of February. Treowen was my ninth new ground of the season.

Staying on the theme of football, I went with my friend Paul to an event called 'Ymlaen', organised by the Football Association of Wales. There were some interesting ideas put forward - about trying to move away from just being about football and being in the 'wellness' space. To that end, the FAW are trying to bring all kinds of football under their umbrella, and have recognised walking football as a particular growth area. 

There were also talks by the Wales women's national team manager, Rhian Wilkinson, and former Wales men's team internationals, Joe Ledley and Danny Gabbidon. 

I was very impressed by Rhian Wilkinson, who I thought was inspiring when talking about the challenges facing Wales this summer in the European Championships. Joe and Danny were funny, and I learned that Shrewsbury Town missed out on signing Danny Gabbidon as a youth because they never followed up on a promised phone call!

This month's Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick was very well attended. It was hosted by the Salvation Army citadel on the junction of Ferry Road and Corporation Road. It was a sunny day and one of those rare occasions when I turned up on time and made it into the official photo!

On one weekend we were able to coordinate our diaries with our friend Ella and visited her in Oxford for a meal out. It was the first time we had seen her since well before Christmas and great to catch up. 

I was invited to celebrate a milestone for my friend Wendy, at a surprise party to mark her 50th anniversary of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Wendy has been a persistent advocate for improved care for people living with diabetes and was a key ally when I was working in NHS Wales for the diabetes network. She was presented with a gold medal by Diabetes UK to mark her 50 years. 

I finished the month even further immersed in the diabetes world, as I was the lead for our team's stall at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference (DUKPC), which was held in Glasgow. I have spent most of February focusing on delivering the conference and making sure our team of young people from across the UK were featured as much as possible on the programme. The three days flew past, surrounded by former colleagues and friends from across the UK.

I had an unexpected surprise when I found my name was on a poster in the exhibition.

To make it even better, the poster was awarded second place in its category. I also had a further unexpected shout out from another presenter after helping bring together an advisory group for him. That was a very kind thing to do and I felt mildly embarrassed. 

The conference ended on the very last day of February, but that wasn't the end of my time in Scotland. But more about that in my next blog post!

The dice betrayed us

There's a comic strip I saw where a gamer is explaining all about his different dice. Special dice, collectible dice, rare dice. And then he shows some in a dark and manky box. "And these... these are the dice that betrayed me!"

Bryan and me both had sets of traitorous dice in our Blood Bowl game tonight as roll after roll failed. I had two attempts at dodging and rolled a 1 both times, so the guy trips up and my go was over. Then Bryan rolled double skulls which meant his player lost what should have been an easy block. And so on and so forth. 

In fact, one of my very first dice rolls was also double skulls. For my "star player".

We lost count of the failed attempts to pick up the ball. 

The game ended 0-0. 

We were playing Black Orcs (or 'Blorcs') against Lizard-men again with me taking charge of the Blorcs. Apart from a couple of times when I was able to shove little lizards into the crowd, resulting in their injury, and one roll when I took down the big kroxigor, the dice let me down every time. And Bryan fared no better.

But there was some mayhem along the way.

I've come to the conclusion that in Blood Bowl you aren't playing against your opponent, you're playing against the game itself, which is designed to make you fail heroically (or farcically). Tonight it beat both of us!

Book of the Month: To The Lighthouse

I feel self conscious reviewing "classics". I worry I'm not 'getting it' and will look ignorant. But then, I also feel that if I'm not getting it, that says something too. So, here we go. Bear with me. 

There are some spoilers in this review. But this book was published in 1927, so you've had 98 years to read it before reading my spoilers. 

What I knew before reading the book - it was written by Virginia Woolf, a female author often described as a key feminist writer. No surprise then that To The Lighthouse is written almost exclusively through the point of view of female protagonists, mainly Mrs Ramsay, the mother of eight who narrates the first chunk of the book. Male characters are given short shrift, variously described as shallow, prickly, idealistic, boastful and with sensitive egos. 

The story starts with Mr and Mrs Ramsay on holiday on the Isle of Skye with their eight children and another half dozen assorted guests plus serving staff. It's evening. One of Mrs Ramsay's sons asks her if they can go to the lighthouse the next day. Mr Ramsay says no because the weather forecast is bad. Mrs Ramsay is silently annoyed at her husband for dismissively crushing her son's hopes. 

That takes up the first sixty pages. I was beginning to suspect the title was misleading and the family weren't going to go to the lighthouse. 

There was, however, a surprise reference to Cardiff - as a venue where Mr Ramsay was going to take his lecture tour. So, it wasn't all unspoken angst between the married couple. 

Mrs Ramsay oscillates between a dark pessimism about marriage and progeny, and then expends a lot of energy engineering opportunities for her house guests to get together. There is a proposal as two people are successfully coupled, and then she is on to thinking about the next match she could make. 

I had my hackles raised by some passing references to Anna Karenina. Fortunately Mrs Ramsay stands in stark contrast to Anna. For one thing, Mrs Ramsay seems much more realistic about life and finds joy in the things around her instead of mooning away over some idea that love is "out there".

And then, just when we've got to know Mrs Ramsay, she unexpectedly dies, in a throwaway paragraph at the end of a chapter. I don't know if the author got bored of her, or what. But it's a sudden - and bold - shift in the story. 

What follows is a brief series of vignettes, as the local cleaning lady tries to maintain the holiday home over several years. In the same way that the house declines, so too, Mrs Ramsay's idealised visions of the future are shown to come to naught. One son Andrew, who was supposed to become a famous mathematician, is killed by a shell during the war. A daughter, Prue, who is supposed to grow into a true beauty, dies due to pregnancy complications. The couple who got engaged on Skye get trapped in a loveless marriage. 

The message seems to be that whatever our hopes for the future, life gets in the way. It's pessimistic in the extreme and more nihilistic than I expected. 

The book ends with the remaining members of the family returning to Skye. The kid who wanted to go to the lighthouse finally gets to go, even though by this point he is a pouting teenager who really doesn't want to go. They arrive at the lighthouse but before they get out of the boat the book ends. 

Final point - the cover art. This book was part of a set of ten 'classics' that I was given several years ago. The cover art is deeply uninspiring, although after I read the book it felt very apt. (It doesn't show a lighthouse!) Then a few days after I finished the book, I saw a copy with a very different, and much nicer, cover that makes it look like a completely different type of book! 

(I was tempted to buy it but decided that would be silly.)

January 2025 monthly review

I've seen several social media posts about January being the longest month and people just wanting it to be over. Personally, the month seemed to fly by - helped by a hectic work schedule and a week of birthdays at the end of the month that meant spending a weekend with family. 

In work we are gearing up towards a big conference at the end of February with lots to do in readiness for that. We also said goodbye to two colleagues, one who left for a new job and one who started her maternity leave. So, lots of change to navigate. 

I also had a midweek overnight stay in London, which meant I was able to catch up with my friend Gawain before I got my train home. Because I was getting the late train, I managed to score a special offer on a first class ticket at cheaper than standard rate - a brilliant way to end a long couple of days in London.

I fitted in quite a bit outside of work too. Last year was the year of "quels" at the cinema, and Cathy and I are following a similar pattern so far this year, with a trip to the flicks to see Moana 2. I managed two evenings of Blood Bowl with Bryan - game 1 was a narrow win for my giant rats, game 2 was a hard-fought draw. I also helped out at the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch event in Grange Gardens, organised by the Cardiff Park Rangers. 

A three day weekend in Shrewsbury celebrating three family birthdays included a successful trip to take my Mum sofa shopping. We found some nice new ones that will actually fit into her living room configuration. When we weren't sofa shopping, we were playing games of Scrabble. 

I won both games and Mum has already told me she wants a rematch. My best score was 104 for a word using all seven letters that hit a treble word score (anchore[d], top left). 

I also took my nephew, Zac, to his juniors football game, played in cold wind and icy rain. He was borderline hypothermic by the end, but he earned and scored a penalty and helped his team to a 2-0 victory. He's wearing number 7 in the team now, a bump up from number 14 last season.

I went to two other football matches besides Zac's game. Both games featured Cardiff Draconians - an 8-2 victory at home, and their first league defeat of the season away at Swansea University. Losing to a late goal was tempered by it being a new ground, and my friend Jon joining me and Scott at the game. I am gradually dragging Jon to lower and lower level games. We started at Newport County, then Barry Town and now the Ardal League, the Welsh third tier. Parks football next!