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!