Football season review 2022-23 in figures

Here's my season in stats courtesy of the lovely Futbology App.

The blank team logo in the highest score is Aberystwyth Exiles. Their logo isn't included on the app. I'd never seen a team score 16 goals in a competitive game before this season. I doubt I will see it again. Cardiff Corinthians are probably going to be my all-time top scorers in one game. Strangely, a few months later I found out that a new guy in my office called Charlie played in goal for Aber Exiles in this game! He made some good saves in the game as well and prevented it being an even higher score. 

I went to 21 new grounds - one fewer new ground compared to 2021-22. They had a nice spread to them, though, with those far-flung grounds in England all places where I watched Shrewsbury play.

My new grounds in Cymru were all in the South. 

This southern bias is mainly because the furthest North that Barry played was in Newtown and it wasn't a new ground. Oddly, I've seen Barry play at Latham Park in Newtown more than I've seen Newtown play there!

Some other random stats

488 - the miles in the round trip to see Ipswich Town v Shrewsbury Town. I wasn't driving. 

15 Shrewsbury Town games - which is a new personal record in the 21st Century! I haven't been to that many Shrewsbury games in a season since I was a youth. This also included 'home and away' games against Cheltenham Town and Peterborough United and both teams 'did the double' over Shrewsbury.

3 Trophy Presentations

2 cup finals - both won by Barry Town

2 penalty shoot-outs

1 nil-nil scoreline (in May! It was my first 0-0 for over a year and 75 football matches)

Another highlight was seeing the son of one of my longstanding friends as Shrewsbury mascot for the day in a fantastic win over Cambridge United. We also took my youngest nephew and niece to their first ever Shrewsbury game and they even got certificates to prove it, although they were more happy about being given Easter Eggs. It feels like the flame is being passed on to a new generation of fans!

And some Futbology milestones

I loves me a Futbology badge. I picked up a few for total numbers of games, grounds and times seeing particular teams. 

(I blogged about this particular badge back in November because I realised my behaviour was being shaped by the app!)

Two badges for Cardiff teams - the Dracs...

...and Cardiff Met. Getting this badge for my only 0-0 game of the season was amusing. 

And finally, a day out in Brizzle earned me my first badge for another English football league club besides Shrewsbury.

Although there is something reductive in describing a season in stats, I feel this is probably the best way to summarise it!

ACCA 2022 - Bible verse update

During a couple of previous audits I've noted which Bible verses feature on Christmas cards when I do my Annual Christmas Card Audit (ACCA). This is more to satisfy my own curiosity than anything else. This year, four cards featured Bible verses, including the one on this card that was printed on the front and inside!

I only count this verse once in my list, even though it appears twice on the card, because I'm just counting the cards.

For reference, because I realise not everyone knows this, the Bible is split up into a number of "books", each book is split into chapters, and each chapter is split into verses. This is to aid the reader to find a particular paragraph or sentence. Sometimes the names of books are shortened as happens on this card. "2 Cor" is short for 2 Corinthians, which is the second "book" called Corinthians. 2 Cor 9.15 means the quote is from chapter 9 and verse 15. The word NET refers to the translation of the Bible the quote has been taken from. I haven't bothered logging which versions of the Bible are most quoted. That feels too nerdy even for me!

Two of the four Bible verses that featured this year were ones I hadn't logged on cards before. In order of where they appear in the Bible, the verses were:

• Psalm 33.21 – For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
• Isaiah 9.6 – For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. 
• Isaiah 40.5 – And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (This was new)
• 2 Corinthians 9.15 – Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. (As pictured above - a new verse and the only one to appear on the front of a card!)

Chapter 40 marks the start of the third distinct section of the book of Isaiah, which is is a big book in the Old Testament. The third section is often described as the 'messianic' section (following the 'prophetic' chapters 1-35 and the 'historic' chapters 36-39). Some of the verses get borrowed in the gospels to describe Jesus, although Isaiah 40:5 was an unusual choice for a Christmas card because the verses around it aren't particularly focused on the Messiah.

I also thought it was a bit strange that this year there weren't any Bible verses taken from any of the gospels, where the stories of Jesus's birth appear. However, with five appearances in previous years, Luke 2.11 is still the most popular Bible verse to feature on a Christmas card (in my data sample). 

In order of popularity the verses are:

1. Luke 2.11 (sometimes with a bit of Luke 2.10 attached) - 5
2. Psalm 33.21 - 3
3. Isaiah 9.6; John 1.9 - 2
4. Psalm 46.10; Psalm 139.11-12; Isaiah 40.5 ; Matthew 2.11; Luke 2.4-5; Luke 2.7; John 8.12; 2 Corinthians 9.15; 1 John 1.5 - all with 1

This is very likely my final post related to the ACCA for this year. I haven't decided yet whether to continue doing it next year but I have had lots of positive comments which has encouraged me to consider carrying on.

The eleventh Annual Christmas Card Audit (ACCA)

Here we are again - it's time for the Annual Christmas Card Audit (ACCA), which has become a feature on this blog, even to the point where people have got in touch to send me cards because they have read the blog. (Well, one person has done that - hi Jon from Melbourne!)

The postal strikes and knock on effect on deliveries meant some cards didn't arrive until well after Christmas so we left them up on display a bit longer than normal this year. That prompted my friend Stewart to contact me a few days ago asking where the audit was. I reassured him that it was on the way.

Last year I included the cards designed by kids in the audit post. Here's the one Stewart sent us, designed by his daughter Delilah. 

Delilah's card got counted in the reindeer category.

Anyway, on with the audit. As ever, I've included the previous year's figures for comparison.

Total number of cards: 63 - This is actually a huge drop from last year's total of 91. Whether this is because of the rising cost of living, the spiralling cost of postage, or disruption caused by strike action is hard to day - probably it's a combination of all 3. But anyway, it's quality, not quantity that matters!

Hand-made / home-produced cards: 5 (8 in 2021)

Cards designed by kids: 2 (1 less than last year, when we had 3)

Cards with glitter: 3 (A quarter of last year's total of 12. It would be good news for the environment if glitter disappeared altogether.)

Cards sold in aid of charity (or fundraising): 38 (Down from 53 - which feels a proportionate drop given the overall drop in cards received.)

Total number of charities represented: 37 (40 in 2021) 

Most popular charity represented: Mind, with 10 cards. This is the first time Mind has been the most popular charity, although most of these were on multi-charity cards. There was one card that was just sold in aid of Mind. The second most popular charity was the Alzheimer's Society with 9.

Charity card cause breakdown

Cards raising money for cancer charities: 14 (down from 24)

Cards raising money for other health issues: 16 (down from 36)

Animal charities: 1 - the RSPB, (Was zero in 2021)

Children's charities: 6 (8 in 2021)

Overseas development charities: 8 (down from 11)

THEMES

There's always a bit of a challenge with some themes - the card above, by Zachie, featured spiders and cacti wearing Santa hats. Obviously it is absolutely brilliant and would raise everyone's joy levels as much as it did mine, but for avoidance of doubt, it got counted under 'other animals' rather than 'Christmas foliage'.

Religious themes

I always start with the religious themed cards as technically, Christmas is a religious holiday. However, the number of religious themed cards does seem to be about the same proportion every year - more than a fifth, less than a quarter.

Religious-themed cards: 14 ( down from 19). 

Cards featuring the Nativity: 7 (down from 12)

Some of the following characters from the Christmas story may have featured on the Nativity cards, but they only get counted if they appear solo on the cards. 

Three kings: 0 (This might be the first time ever that the kings / wise men / magi didn't appear on a card. They were on 2 cards last year.)

The shepherds: 0 (Again! That's three no show years in a row.)

Angels: 1 (The same number as 2021.)

'Cartoony' religious: 0 (This fluctuates year on year between a few and zero; 2022 was a zero year.)

Other themes

Santa: 3 (down from 6)

Christmas Elf: 1 (Relisted this year after being dropped as a category.)

Penguins: 2 (Half of last year's total.)

Bears: 2 (After a bear-free Christmas last year, they have returned!)

Reindeer: 3 (down from 6)

Christmas trees: 5 (down from 6)

Christmas food: 1 (down from 3)

Christmas decorations: 2 (down from 4)

Robins: 4 (A rare category that increased! Up from 3 last year)

Sheep: 0 

Dogs with or without Santa hats: - I'm delighted that after a zero showing last year, we had 2 dogs cards and 1 had dogs in Santa hats!

Other animals with or without Santa hats: 8 (Up from 6. It was a bit of a menagerie, with a koala and a narwhal featuring on cards.)

Winter scene/scenery: 3 (down from 8)

Snow & snowflakes: 0

Snowpeople: 2 (After a good showing of 8 last year, this is quite a drop.)

Licensed characters: 3 (Down from 6 in 2021.)

Hares & Moons: 1 (Another stable category with 1 last year as well.)

Christmas foliage (formerly listed as "holly and wreaths"): 3 (Up from 1 in 2021)

CARD FRONT MESSAGES

Word 'Christmas' on the front: 27, of which 4 were religious. This is an increase from 25 overall and 2 religious cards in 2021. 

"Seasons Greetings": 3 (down from 4)

Mentions "Jesus": 0 (For the second year in a row.)

"Peace": 3 (Up from zero last year - perhaps it reflects a year with a fairly big war kicking off on the eastern edge of Europe.)

Bible verse on front: 1 (This is one of the most consistent categories. We always seem to get 1 card with a Bible verse on the front.)

Lines or titles of Christmas carols: 2 (down from 4)

Lines or titles of Christmas songs: 1 (down from 3) - I sort of cheated here because one of the cards had the words "A Child is Born" on, which is the title of a Christmas song. Otherwise it would have been zero.

Message in Welsh: 4 (up from 2)

Puns: 1, which is a huge drop from 8 last year. Is the era of puns over?

In conclusion - we got a lot fewer cards this year so the overall trend for all the categories is downwards. There were a couple of categories that bucked the trend. It was nice to see bears reappear and, of course, the dogs in Santa hats, which just epitomises Christmas to me.

In fact, any animals in Santa hats epitomises Christmas to me. In addition to Zachie's spider (above), our friend Helena drew chickens in Santa hats for her Christmas card - which I include here to finish off the eleventh ACCA in style!

2022 - a year in review

Rather than a long reflection, here is a month by month rundown of highlights and happenings during 2022. I published over 100 blog posts in 2022 and I will also be linking to some of them. 

January

We spent my Mum's birthday weekend with her and met up with some of my cousins who we hadn't seen since before the pandemic started. I went to several football matches and also supported Gambia at the African Cup of Nations. I published my tenth Annual Christmas Card Audit, and also blog posts about beliefs versus reality, "doomscrolling", and the five dimensions of personality. 

February

Whatever I was up to in February was overshadowed by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia - as I said in my review of the month. I didn't blog too much in the month, but I did write a piece about how one of the characters in The Mandalorian was being removed from the merchandise following the transphobic social media posts by the actor involved. 

March

Cathy and I had a week away in Calstock, on the county border between Cornwall and Devon. While we were there we watched the film of The Day of the Triffids from 1962. It hasn't aged well. 

April

I called my review of April 'A month of endings'. I finished working as the manager of the Children and Young People's Wales Diabetes Network ahead of starting a new job. I also attended the final service at Hope Church in Shrewsbury as the trustees had taken the decision to close the church down. I saw 10 football matches, making it a "decamonth", and unfortunately saw Barry Town close out a relegation season, ending their time in the top flight of Welsh football. 

May

I had a week off before starting my new job. During that time Cathy and I visited Oxford to see a friend who had moved back to the UK and took some fun photos with street art that I now use across all my profiles on social media platforms (and at the top of this post!). I also caught covid, which prevented me from going into the office for my first week and a half at my new employers. For Star Wars Day I blogged about the Disney Plus series The Book of Boba Fett, which I didn't feel actually went anywhere. I also blogged about how the FA Cup final makes me sad since my Dad passed away.

June

I rounded off a record-breaking football season with my 60th game of the season. Cathy and I said goodbye to the Snoopy statues that had been around Cardiff for a couple of months, at the farewell event outside City Hall. I went to my first stamp fair since before the pandemic, at Swinpex in Swindon. We also made a rare foray to the cinema to watch the new Pixar movie, Lightyear, the origin story of the character Buzz Lightyear. I completed the Prince2 project management course to Foundation and Practitioner levels and blogged about the barriers to project success that came up among the group of people taking the course. 

July 

After several months of scandals and shame. Boris Johnson finally got the boot from being Prime Minister. This felt at the time like it was the end of a chaotic era. Little did we know what was in store! I described it as 'popcorn politics' in my blog post about it and also wrote about the 'lucky unlucky' students studying politics this year. We took part in the Grangetown Zoo for the third year in a row, and I even dressed up as a dinosaur as the zoo went Jurassic this year. For the second month in a row we went to the cinema, this time to see Thor: Love and Thunder, which included some naked anti-theism that I subsequently blogged about. I watched a lot of the Women's Euros - the second international tournament of the three scheduled for this year. 

August

I booked a summer week off and we spent a week in Shropshire, including attending the relaunched (and slightly disappointing) Shrewsbury Flower Show. I went to the Cardiff Model Railway Exhibition in the ice rink in Cardiff Bay. August was another "decamonth" of football, including three Shrewsbury games, and a game with a very rare scoreline - a 4-4 draw. I also had a short article published in When Saturday Comes. 

September

Another major event in the wider world, with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II shortly after a new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was finally appointed. The late monarch passed away just before Cathy and I were due to spend a week in Caernarfon, where we stayed within a few hundred yards of the castle. It was a slightly subdued week although that didn't stop us from enjoying some lovely days out in North Wales, including trips to Anglesey and a scenic drive around Eryri / Snowdonia. 

October 

Cathy and I went to our first gigs since before covid shut the world down. We saw Counting Crows in Manchester and at the end of the month we saw Tony Wright, the singer from Terrorvision, at a small venue in Newport. I saw three Shrewsbury games - at Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Portsmouth. The latter game was the 450th game I have attended and I blogged about how I passed up going to other games so that I would record the trip to Portsmouth as a significant number on the footballing app I use. My blog post about it has been one of the most read posts ever on my blog. Politics went chaotic again, with Liz Truss ousted and replaced by Rishi Sunak who became the first British Prime Minister of Asian origin.

November

As a family we lost Cathy's Grampy at the start of the month. I blogged a tribute to him where I said how blessed I felt to have acquired another grandparent in my life. As ever, all the occasions come at once and at the end of November I became a godfather for the third time, as our friends Tom and Helena asked us to be godparents to their son, Herbert. It was a Catholic christening, so each time I have been a godparent has been in a different church denomination. The bizarrely timed World Cup started as well, but my sporting highlight of the month was a "two-sport twofer" with my brother, Dave. 

December

And the year closed out with the usual pressured excitement of the run up to Christmas. We spent Christmas and the subsequent few days in Shrewsbury. I captured some of the other stuff that happened in my monthly round up last week.

This wasn't meant to be such a long post, but it turns out a lot of things happened in 2022!

2022 in review - 55 football games

Football doesn't divide into calendar years, but even so the Futbology App can give you a summary. So here is what my footballing 2022 looked like. 

My 55 games is a record for a calendar year, as is the number of new football grounds I visited. The 16-0 high score is my all-time record as well. 

Football only restarted in Wales a couple of weeks into the New Year after the 2021 Christmas lockdown. My first game of the year was my first visit to Lydstep Park, home of Cardiff Draconians on 15th January. My final game of 2022 was on 29th December at the Montgomery Waters Meadow watching Shrewsbury Town contrive to lose 1-0 to Cheltenham Town. 

I went to two cup finals - the Welsh Cup final at Cardiff City Stadium and the first final of the new Ardal Southern Cup, at the Bont, home of Penydarren BGC in Merthyr Tydfil. I saw one Cymru game, a defeat to the Netherlands. And I went to several Shrewsbury games including a trip to Portsmouth, which is the furthest I've been to see them play in a long while. 

There is a funny twist to the record score. The game was Cardiff Corinthians versus Aberystwyth Exiles in the FAW Trophy. A few days before Christmas I discovered that a new work colleague, Charlie, was the goalkeeper who let in 16 goals in that game! I'm not sure he was happy to be reminded of the scoreline. 

I have already kicked off 2023's matchgoing by seeing Barry Town win at Llantwit Major today! It was also my first new ground of the new year.

December 2022 - stepping into Christmas

December is a month dominated by Christmas and the build up to it. This photo of one of my nephews made me laugh. I feel like doing this sometimes!

My December started with the sad occasion of attending the funeral of Glyn Price on the 1st December. Glyn was a well known Shrewsbury Town fan, podcaster and fanzine editor. I had sat close to him and had a nice chat with him at the Cheltenham away game on 1st October. A couple of weeks later he announced he had been diagnosed with cancer and 5 weeks later he passed away. 

My brother, Dave, took Glyn's funeral, at Glyn's request. The hall at Barnabas Church in Shrewsbury was packed with well over 300 people attending, including representatives from the football club. There were lovely tributes to him from family, his work colleagues, and his fellow fans. It was a sad start to the month. 

Going to the Shrewsbury game the Saturday after the funeral was slightly surreal. I saw Shrewsbury beat Lincoln City for the second time in the calendar year. A few days later I was wearing my blue and yellow bobble hat to Barry's game against Cwmbran Celtic in proper "big coat weather". It was the start of a sustained period of cold weather that did for the next few fixtures for Barry. 

Being in Shrewsbury for a few days at the beginning of December meant I finally visited the new Salopian Models shop. The proprietor was selling off some Games Workshop items, so I added some Tau Empire Stealth Suits to my ever growing 'pile of shame' of unbuilt models. 

Still that's something for me to do in 2023! I've also added an expansion pack for Dungeon Bowl and a star player for my Blood Bowl team of giant rats this month. So the pile of shame is as large as ever.

We had a nice Saturday in Monmouth in the middle of the month, meeting up with Cathy's uncle and aunt. We discovered a lovely toy shop, where I bought myself a wooden train that is meant to be a British Rail Class 07. I couldn't resist the vintage 1970s blue and classic British Rail logo. 

That train actually kickstarted something for me as it was my first "Toy of the Day" post on Instagram. I've decided to revive my Insta to post a picture of a toy of the day every day until I run out of toys in my house, or until I get bored. 

We were back in Shrewsbury for Christmas, staying with my Mum and her cheeky hound, Fred. 

We travelled up on Christmas Eve, with a traffic-free clear run that is a contender for best journey up to Shrewsbury in a long while. I went with Dave for our traditional Christmas Eve pint in the pub followed by the midnight communion service at the Anglican Church.  On Christmas Day we had Christmas Dinner next door in the new big kitchen that Dave and Esther (my sister-in-law) have had built. It was a lovely meal and time together.

We stayed for a few days after Christmas as well, which meant we could see some friends and have fun with the Shropshire-based nieces and nephews. As Christmases go, it was a nice relaxing break and a good way to see out what has been a very busy year.

A Hoggy Happy Christmas

The blog mascots - the Pantpert Hogs - wish you a very merry Christmas. 

The "boys" like to dress up for various occasions and Christmas is no exception.

It's been a busy couple of days. I went to two services so I have some more carols to add to that particular audit. Post has been disrupted by strikes and we seem to have had fewer Christmas cards than last year. But the annual audit is coming...

Snack of the Month - we're going to eat the zoo, zoo, zoo

My final "Snack of the Month" for 2022 is a packet of cute animal-shaped biscuits that make up the "Leibniz Zoo". These are another Snack of the Month that was sourced by Cathy, who nabbed the last bag on the shelf in our local Lidl. 

The cute giraffe on the front caught her eye. Packaging design for the win!

There's a cute design on the back along with a recommendation for deer snacks - which is a tenuous enough link to Christmas to make this a seasonal snack!

There is a decent volume of bite-size biscuits in the bag. I was reasonably impressed by how many were in there. 

And the variety of shapes was impressive too. A proper zoo of creatures, including ducks! This is one of each type - but there were three or four of most of them. The duck was the rarest as the one in the picture was the sole one in the bag. There were lots of horses. 

As plain biscuits go, these were nice. They tested like a more buttery version of a rich tea biscuit. They weren't very sweet and they were good dunked in tea.

I won't be rushing back to the zoo, having tried these once. But I did really like the rhino biscuit - here's a close up to close the review!

A week in the 'Shire

The Shire in question being Shropshire. Originally we had planned to stay with my mum for a week and then realised that my brother and family needed to share the space as well, while building work happened at their house next door. So at short notice, we booked a holiday apartment in Oswestry, not too far away.

We liked Oswestry, particularly the very tricky minigolf course in Cae Glas Park. 

We also had pizzas at the Stonehouse Brewing Co with some friends who live nearby. We sat at the tables in the orchard where the brewers grow their cider apples. We didn't eat in the wig-wam at the back of the orchard that Cathy liked. 

Oswestry is almost right on the border between England and Wales, and we had some days out either side of the boundary. On the English side we went with my mum to the Jackfield Tile Museum in the Ironbridge Gorge. I think I have now ticked off all the museums in the Gorge now. Jackfield is a mix of art gallery tracking the different styles and fashion for tiles, and explaining the industrial process of tile production that took place on that site. 

Here's a picture of Cathy with a tiled frieze of the young Princess Elizabeth with the little Welsh cottage that was her playhouse gifted by the people of Wales. The mural was saved from a hospital in London that was being redeveloped.

On the Welsh side of the border we went to Llangollen on a baking hot day. We had a bit of an explore, including nosing around the heritage railway.

I have a soft spot for the Llangollen Railway. Somewhere I have a certificate saying that I have bought a foot of track - it was a fundraising initiative back in the 1980s. The railway ran into financial trouble during the pandemic and is now run by volunteers again. They didn't have a steam engine on duty - I'm not sure they still have one on their manifest - but we weren't taking a ride anyway. I had a cup of tea and a scone in the platform coffee shop instead.

Our proximity to Shrewsbury meant I got to go to two Shrewsbury matches - a league defeat against Accrington and a cup win against Carlisle. For the latter we were in the safe standing section behind the ground. It was the first time my niece and nephew had stood at a football game. My niece was initially very unimpressed with the idea of not having a seat, but the kids both liked jumping around as Shrewsbury scored a late winner directly in front of us.

Before the Accrington game, my nephew got to meet a Shrewsbury legend.

Our week was picked to coincide with the Shrewsbury Flower Show, which was always a huge deal in the town when I was younger. The show wasn't held in the past two years, and was on a smaller scale than I remember it from 30 years or so ago. Given the heatwave and tinder dry conditions, they had to cancel the evening fireworks display. 

The flower arranging competition was incredible to look at, although reading the judges comments, competitive flower arranging is savage! Here's the winner of the theme ' fireworks', which were the only fireworks in the show.

But my favourite horticulture on display is the fruit and veg competitions. Carrots that are so long they don't fit on the table, onions the size of your head. That sort of thing. Incredible stuff.

Not all veg comes out perfect. But even mutants can be winners.

And if flower arranging isn't your thing, how about fruit and veg arranging? This crab made from red peppers was a worthy winning entry.

Because the show was smaller than we expected we decided not to go back on the second day. Instead we drove home in the heatwave and tried our best not to melt on the way. Thus concluded our highly enjoyable week. 

July 2022 month review - sporty summer

The Welsh for July is Gorffennaf - literally gorffen (end) and haf (summer), which given how it always tends to rain in August seems right. This July we had a three day heatwave that badly disrupted things and is possibly a sign of things to come unless humanity can collectively get its priorities in order and prevent the climate changing drastically. 

The heatwave coincided with the Grangetown Zoo. We also had a visitor stay with us during the hottest few days. She was a good deal younger than us so Cathy and I took advantage of having a helpful young person around and bought new phones. My previous phone had served me well since I bought it in January 2016. If this phone lasts a similar length of time it should be good until 2028. 

July was also a sporty month. I enjoyed watching the Euro 2022 football tournament, although I didn't get around to putting up the wall-chart for this one. It was an excellent tournament and a great example of how football is football, regardless which gender is playing it. The goal of the tournament was an audacious backheel that actually made me yelp with shock it was so unexpected. 

I had decided not to go to any friendly matches in the run up to the new season. My first game of the season was therefore at Taff's Well who were playing Ynyshir Albions in the league cup. 

My first goal of the season was a toe-poke from three yards out after the Ynyshir goalie dropped the ball from a cross. I went with my friend Paul, who also accompanied me to Barry's first league game of the season, over in Ammanford on a Friday night. A long trip after work!

On the last Saturday in July, I went up to Cwmbach to watch Cwmbach Royal Stars play in the Welsh Cup. I went with my friends Sara and Leanne, and we took their twins, who were too intent on watching the game to pose for a selfie.

We also met up with Allan, who is the club photographer and committee member. He is a great source of local football knowledge. I met Allan through my previous job and had been promising to go up to watch  Cwmbach for ages, so I was glad to finally make good on my promise and see him again.

To cap off a great game, Leanne won the half time raffle!

In addition to all the football, BT Sport were generous with their coverage of San Diego Padres games this month. I watched four and a half Padres games - against the Twins, Dodgers, Mariners and twice against the Giants - but I only saw them win once! I was beginning to think I was cursed until I finally saw them win a game at the fifth attempt of watching. 

And I shouldn't forget the two Blood Bowl games I managed to fit into the month as well.

And finally - and what a way to finish off - I got to meet up with my buddy Connor for a Saturday as well. 

Connor brought me some belated birthday presents, including the epic Lego minifigure at the top of the post, which he had designed himself on the minifigure printer in the Lego Shop in Birmingham. He really timed his visit perfectly because both the Lego Shop and The Entertainer toy shop were giving away free Lego on the day he was in town. A double free Lego day doesn't come along very often. We made the most of it!

June 2022 - a summer month of wet weekends

Well, June is gone and we are now over halfway through 2022. I had a busy month settling into my new job with plenty keeping me occupied at the weekends too. Unfortunately it felt like the weekends were wet when I wanted to be outside and sunny when I wanted to be inside!

At the start of the month I cashed in the Lego Store gift card that my former work colleagues gave me as a parting gift. Among the heap of Lego goodies I purchased was this epic set.

Yes, that's right. Optimus Prime, heroic leader of the noble Autobots, in all his original 1980s style glory! I remember this being an apex toy when I was a kid - I envied my friends who had one. This model actually converts from robot to truck and back without having to take the Lego apart. It's fab!

The Dog's Trail display of Snoopy statues located around Cardiff, Caerphilly and Porthcawl came to an end with a special weekend extravaganza outside City Hall. Cathy and I braved the rain to visit the statues, including Tally, which was one of the statues that we saw had been vandalised in the first few days of the trail. We were glad to see Tally had made a full recovery.

After seeing all the Snoopys we walked back through the city centre. There was a pop up shop selling American sports merchandise. Long story short, I got myself a new lid (as the kids say).

I spent the one sunny Saturday visiting a stamp fair for the first time since before the pandemic, mainly to attend the Annual General Meeting of the British Thematic Association. I wasn't intending to buy anything, but I picked up a few items for my 'Cymru a Gymraeg' collection that I'm working on. 

I got a couple of fun stamps for Cathy too. They feature the mascots for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics. 

Another wet Saturday was spent at the Grangetown Festival where the Friends of Grange Gardens had a stall. The weather was a mix of thundery downpours and bright sunshine. At least we were able to prove that our tea towels with a screenprint design of the park were both very absorbent and colour fast!

Our gazebo was also conveniently located next to the war memorial statue so I felt pretty safe when the lightning started because that is a massive lightning rod right there.

And I even had time to experement with some paint schemes for one of my Blood Bowl teams. I wanted to paint them chocolate and cream, and mixed my own pinky cream. But I wasn't too happy with that and bought a more yellowy shade on one of my trips to Firestorm Games. Here is a half and half shot with both shades of cream on show.

I had already played a game of Blood Bowl in June and I'm delighted to say that it wasn't too long before these guys were getting an outing. A game review will follow!