My January 2026 round-up

A very busy opening month of 2026, including a big birthday party for my mum who turneed 80, a work trip to Glasgow and the restart of political campaigning after a brief break over Christmas.

I was busy on the blog too, with a Blood Bowl match report, a Book of the Month and, for the first time, an Album of the Month post. I did a review of 2025, a sports round up and listed my cinema trips. I also marked Appreciate a Dragon day with a drove of dragons.

My Mum's 80th birthday party was on the final weekend of the month.  We had a loose theme of '80 years around the world' with a cake shaped like a hot air balloon.

A wall of photos, including a banner of family members spelling out 'Happy Birthday'.

Fred the hound was immortalised in icing next to the main cake we cut and served. His obvious misdemeanour attracted a lot of comments.

Mum with kids and grandkids...

At Mum's request we ran a short quiz. I was quizmaster. The most successful rounds were the picture rounds and the round where people had to guess the song title containing a song name.

My work trip to Glasgow was a day trip with an early morning flight from Bristol airport and a late return. I set my schedule to see if there and back in a day was doable. Turns out that yes it is doable, but it isn't desirable. I'm not going to rush to repeat it. 

We are now about 3 months away from the Senedd election and canvassing has started in earnest. I've been out talking to commuters at stations and knocking on doors.

I also went to the first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year (photos by Fiona from KGT).

My top find was a dumped huge 80s style boombox, so I held it over my head like the famous scene in Say Anything.

On another weekend I supported the Friends of Grange Gardens 'Big Garden Birdwatch' on a wet Sunday morning. Despite the drizzle I saw goldfinches high up in the trees.

And I went to four football matches - three Cardiff Dracs games and a trip out to Cefn Cribwr as a random game at a new ground. That was just after New Year and they still had mince pies available with the half time cups of tea.