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Thursday, July 02, 2026

My June selfie photo dump

The monthly round up post was a bit too long to include all the selfies I took. So here is a special edition photo dump.

Very early on in the month I went to Shrewsbury as an overnight stop on a work trip. I stayed at Hotel Mum and went out for tea with the proprietor.


I also saw Dave on tbe same trip.


Here's my football four person selfie with Sara, Steve and Scott, when we went to watch Wales women versus Czechia.


Sara and Scott are former work colleagues and it was a bumper month for selfies with people I used to work with.

I met Matt and Jo at a big charity expo - which was also at Cardiff City Stadium, funnily enough.


Kate was at the same event.


I took a selfie with Justin at a Plaid Cymru gathering.


And I met Heather for lunch as we continued our tradition of marking the solstices. 


And a few solo selfies. Firstly, my double-sided sherbet ice cream at Tafwyl.



Here's a selfie from on my way in to my Cymraeg exam in Treforest. My confidence was unfounded and I suspect I have done terribly.


And a selfie from my canvassing session in Treorchy to finish off.


Wednesday, July 01, 2026

My June 2026 round-up


Another busy month. On tbe blog I shared my good news about my diabetes recovery, my book of the month, my album of the month and my summary of the football season after I went to my final football match of the season and watched Wales women win against the Czech Republic. (And in tabletop sport, the dice were kind to me and unkind to Bryan when we played Blood Bowl!)

Cathy and I went to two gigs: Garbage in Cardiff Castle and Counting Crows in Bristol. We also had two cinema trips this month. The first was Masters of the Universe. I own one MOTU t-shirt and made sure I wore it. 


I liked the film. It was the perfect mix of homage and gentle mockery of the original 1980s cartoon. 

Cathy and I both wore suitable t-shirts when we went to see a tribute to the Muppets followed by a screening of The Muppet Treasure Island.


I had a nice work-related surprise when I was told I was one of a handful of people nominated as a 'Voice Champion' by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. I didn't know anything about this until I opened an email with this certificate attached. It made a grey Tuesday morning a bit special.



I made it to the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick this month. Nothing very exciting to report this time in the three bags of trash I collected.




After a few weeks off, I was back on the canvassing trail. I went up to Treorchy to encourage people to vote in the council by-election. 


I was back knocking doors with James from Pontyclun. It was like old times! (As in, just a few weeks prior!)


Canvassing is great exercise. I ended the session by calling into a chip shop for a tray of well-earned sglodion! They were delicious. #NoRegrets. (Richard, the Plaid Cymru candidate, won the election with 70.8% of the vote!)

Canvassing wasn't my only political activity of the month. I went to the Tafwyl festival to help out on the Yes Cymru stand. While working there I met several Senedd members I knew, and got pics with a couple of them.

Senator Gonzalez

Senator Crowley

We had lots of interest from passers-by, and with the Westminster government sliding into even more chaos, the discussion about independence feels as timely as ever. 

One of my longer days out this month was to Swindon for the AGM of the British Thematic Association, the stamp collecting group I've been a member of for 16 years now. The meeting was at the stamp fair, Swinpex. 

It's been a good stamp collecting month for me, with two new philatelic passports added to my collection (from France and New Zealand). At Swinpex I bought a few stamps for my collection of pangolins on stamps, including this one produced by Sarawak in 1950. For a 76 year-old stamp, it's looking very crisp.


And at the end of the month we had a heatwave that set new temperature records in Cardiff. My impulse buy to help is cope was half a giant watermelon. By the time we finished it the heatwave was over!


Hand for scale!