My July 2026 round up

It's been a very hot month. However, that meant when we welcomed my sister and our three niblings for a day visit, we had a nice sunny day on Barry Island (it was also windy, as you can see from the picture).

It was so sunny we had to buy hats for niblings!

It was desperately hot earlier in the month when I went to London to attend the Talking About Diabetes (TAD) conference. The night before I went looking for the tribute to the greatest secret agent in the world!

TAD was great. Thought-provoking, inspiring, encouraging, and fun. My friend Ros was on the organising committee. I was able to grab 10 seconds with her for a selfie!

There were some great speakers, including actress Nina Wadia and her son, Aidan, who lives with type 1 diabetes.

My favourite presenter was Samantha Alleyne, a model and actress who answered a casting call for "tall women" and ended up being cast as the first female stormtrooper in the Star Wars universe!

It was the first time Samantha had spoken about her experience of type 1 diabetes and it was very interesting to hear how she managed her blood glucose levels while wearing stormtrooper armour! It was also inspiring to hear how she has engaged with members of the fan community who live with type 1 as well.

Another warm day for the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick. They were giving out some nice new t-shirts for committed litter-pickers! 

New t-shirt pose!

We got some respite from the heat in a very air conditioned cinema when Cathy and I went to watch Toy Story 5. I wore a suitable t-shirt - something I have been doing this year if I can.

We also went to watch Minions & Monsters, but I didn't have a Minions t-shirt to wear so no selfie! 

Connor was in town! We had a meal at The Grange and caught up on life and whatnot.

Even though this month has mainly been a heatwave, my one session out doing some political canvassing was on a very damp evening of misty rain. I was in Llantrisant for the community council by-election.

A couple of days later, Ioan, the Plaid Cymru candidate, won.

Also this month, I celebrated my "Plaidaversery" with a piece of art starring a hopeful dragon. 

I continued boycotting the World Cup, but real football was back on the agenda! Paul and I kicked off the season watching a Europa League Qualifying round match at Cardiff City Stadium. Penybont played Santa Columa from Andorra and lost 1-0.

And the domestic season started with some Welsh Cup games. Steve and I went to watch Caldicot Town play Longford FC in the first qualifying round.

Very clear pricing 

And on the very last night of the month, I saw Barry Town win their opening game of the Cymru Premier season. It was live on Sgorio on S4C but I watched it live in the stands!

Post-match Sgorio interview

And in case you missed it:

• Cathy and I went back to Cardiff Castle to see Bowling for Soup and Frank Turner in our third big gig of the summer

• My book of the month was a politics book by Will Hayward

• Bryan debuted a new team in our monthly Blood Bowl match up

• I did a stocktake of my copies of Nineteen Eighty-four

• I was horrified that it's 25 years since The Fast and the Furious was released!

Welsh railwayana on the Severn Valley Railway

In my previous post about our visit to the Severn Valley Railway, I mentioned the Barry Railway Company coach that needed a good refurb.

However, in the little museum in Kidderminster there was a room chock-full of other Welsh 'railwayana' - name plates and notices and devices and other odds and ends. I went round taking photos of some items that had been gathered from Wales, mainly from across the South. 

First up, some signs. I don't think there was a railway station on the top of the Sugar Loaf - more likely this was to tell engine drivers they had reached the top of a long climb up the hill. Meanwhile, Pontarddulais is missing a d in the signal box sign underneath, a relic from when Welsh names were anglicised on official signs. 

There was another signal box sign from a long-vanished location below the impressive array of finials that would have been on top of signal posts.

And I was naturally massively excited to see this sign for Grangetown station!

Some signs were more than just names. There is a huge amount of detail in these safety notices from the Barry Railway and the Rhymney Railway.

This no trespassing notice was cast in metal for the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway Company. 

I'm not sure what this key was used for. I'd guess it's something to do with signalling. If you know, feel free to add a comment.

This poster for excursions to Barry Island captures a moment when a seaside trip was a proper outing and people would travel all the way from Cardiff and Newport.

There were also several mementoes taken off steam engines that were sent for scrap long ago. I imagine Nora worked around the mines in Blaenavon.

All the little railway companies in South Wales were absorbed into the Great Western Railway, which in turn became part of British Railways after nationalisation in 1948. This box on the way into the museum probably dates from the 1950s.

You can see evidence for long-gone railways across South Wales, with bridge-walls and even some extant viaducts visible on almost any car journey. But many railway sites have disappeared without leaving much of a trace, just occasional relics like these that were salvaged and put on display.

All aboard the Satan Bus

Think twice before going for a ride in this...

A parable of SoMe seasonal goodwill ~ or ~ How Twitter brings people together

A few months ago I had a chat with a chap selling second hand toys about Action Force – my favourite toy from the 80s. As is my wont, I tweeted about it.

I was subsequently contacted by two fellow AF fans on Twitter, and a fun conversation developed. It was nice to know other people knew or cared about the forgotten heroes of the 80s and their battles with the villainous Baron Ironblood.

One of the AF fans is called Annie (@AnniePalitoy) and she tweets entertaining glimpses into her life in between references to AF, GI Joe and other fab toys.

Recently Annie tweeted that she was going to donate a chunk of her Christmas bonus to charity, and wanted to know if anyone was doing anything ‘mad’. Now, I happen to know someone who is doing something mad – my friend Liz (@Lizmrawlins) who is braving the bracing brine off Barry Island on Boxing Day. (Brrrr!)

I mentioned this in a tweet to Annie. She then chatted to Liz via Twitter and ended up sponsoring her via Just Giving.

So, two people who never met except via Twitter – one with the cash, the other with just enough crazy to walk into the sea in December – will be contributing to a worthy cause. Social Media genuinely can bring people together. (As does Action Force!)