Blood Bowl night of horrors

As it was Friday the 13th, I decided to debut my Necromantic Horrors team (boosted by a werewolf star player that I built a few days ago). I also debuted my Blood Bowl themed t-shirt that Bryan and Elaine got me for Christmas.

The phrase "Nuffle giveth and Nuffle taketh away" was very apt as my team of zombies, ghouls, golem, werewolves and wraiths started strong, putting two opponents into the casualty box. But gradually the game turned towards the lizard-men, who had star player Anqi Panqi making a debut for them. And my dice rolls couldn't keep up. (And, truthfully, my tactical understanding of the necromantic team was very poor.)

The necromantic team benefits from most players having the "regeneration" skill. This gives a coach a 50/50 chance of a player avoiding becoming a casualty and missing the rest of the game. A number of players were saved this way but the body count was so high, regeneration couldn't save everyone!

On top of that I was soon a haunted bedsheet down when one of my wraiths got sent off for trying to foul an opponent. To make matters worse, I tried to "argue the call", rolled a 1, and got ejected from the ground.

The Lizard-men went ahead towards the end of the first half, a skink making an extra dashing yard to score. 

Anqi Panqi didn't do very much on his debut for the lizards, but Roxy the Kroxigor bossed the midfield, making two successful blitzes and also carrying the ball for several yards before a team-mate fumbled receiving the ball from her. 

That loose ball proved crucial, as one of my werewolves, who was back on after regenerating, got hold of the ball and charged downfield.  Despite being surrounded by three players at one point, the lycanthrope managed to score a very unlikely equaliser on the penultimate turn!

So the final score was 1-1, which I almost felt embarrassed about, it was so undeserved. 

2025 Review of the Year

As we head into the new year, I decided to post a quick month by month summary of the year gone by.

It was a busy blogging year - 99 posts, with a Book of the Month post every month of the year for the first time (see my list of Books of the Month on my index page). I've included lots of links to posts that I blogged along the way, so if you have a lot of free time, you can enjoy those too! 

January

Work was full throttle from the get go, and there were some changes in our team. We also have a trio of family birthdays in the same week so I spent a celebratory weekend in Shrewsbury. (More stuff in my round up of the month.)

February

I spent the best part of a week in Glasgow working a big national conference. It was tiring work and at the end of it I hopped a train to Edinburgh for my first ever visit to stay with my sister and her family. 

Glasgow sunrise

March

I spent St David's Day weekend in Edinburgh, taking in the sights and catching a football match - it was my Scottish nephew's first ever live game! The following weekend I was at the opposite end of the country with Cathy for a weekend in Exeter. 

My March travels weren't over and we ended the month at the Lipodystrophy UK support day in Cambridgeshire. Cathy appeared in the awareness video for World Lipodystrophy Day, which premiered at the conference. 

April

We went from Cambridgeshire to Buckinghamshire for a week's holiday over my birthday, including a trip to Legoland on the day itself, a nostalgic visit to Bekonscot model village, and an encounter with Nev the tapir at Beale Wildlife Park at the end of the week. 

A couple of weeks later we returned to Cambridge for a specialist appointment and then drove to Manchester to see comedian Nate Bargatze at the 02 Apollo. This was the first of three trips we made to that venue in 2025. 

In a year where I got increasingly political, I went on the Yes Cymru march for independence in Barry at the end of the month. 

Finally, I had some disappointing medical news. Almost ten years after successfully reversing my type 2 diabetes, I was symptomatic again. So I made the decision to lose weight and have been eating mindfully and trying to be more active since then. 

May

I was all over the place again in May. I went to the NEC for the big Europhilex stamp exhibition. My work involved another trip to Exeter and a couple of nights in London.  My commitment to be more active meant I did some London Wandrin'.

June

A big life change in June. After 11 years with Marco the Polo, we got a new car - Vincent, a Mazda 3. It has been quite an upgrade both in comfort and gadgets. 

Vincent's first big trip with us was to North Wales. We spent a fab week in Dinas Dinlle. 

July

In terms of life impact, the biggest event for me in July was joining Plaid Cymru. It's the first time I have ever been a member of a political party. I launched straight into canvassing for the Grangetown council by-election and things really haven't stopped since!

We also had another weekend in Manchester, mainly to see comedian Taylor Tomlinson. But while we were in town we also went to the National Football Museum, which I have wanted to do for ages. I was travelling again for work - this time to Warrington and to Cotswold Wildlife Park where I met Darwin, a giant tortoise!

August

I learned that delivering leaflets and canvassing can really help a person lose weight during the Grangetown by-election. I was disappointed we didn't win, but it was valulable campaigning experience. 

More travels - a weekend in Shrewsbury (where I succumbed to football nostalgia) and a football trip to Swindon combined with a visit to STEAM, the museum of the Great Western Railway. 

September

Cathy and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary with a trip to the ice hockey!

Politically, we were straight into another by-election, this time in Caerphilly for a Senedd seat. Campaigning started in September and would conclude the following month. More great exercise for me! I also ran the quiz at the Yes Cymru Caerdydd branch AGM. 

October 

My political involvement included attending my first ever party conference (in Swansea) and more canvassing in the Caerphilly by-election, which Plaid Cymru won!  

I had some encouraging medical news as my six months of mindful eating and increased activity had resulted in me reversing my diabetes for a second time. All that canvassing helped me no end. 

Cathy and I paid our third visit to Manchester, this time to see Counting Crows at the Apollo (again). The football fixtures favoured us and I was able to go and watch Shrewsbury Town play at Oldham the following day. I had my third trip to Scotland at the end of the month, heading to Dundee for work and stopping in Edinburgh into November...

November 

Just like in March, I started the month in Edinburgh. This time I got to go to Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby and watched Scotland overpower the USA in a record international victory. 

It was a big birthday month! Cathy turned 50. We went to a local wildlife park on her birthday and met Roly the armadillo. The following couple of weekends we had a family gathering in Shrewsbury and met up with friends in Cardiff Bay.

The local Plaid Cymru Senedd campaign kicked off. I spoke at the campaign launch about getting involved in canvassing and invited everyone there to get involved. 

December 

December has been the usual end-of-year whirlwind, with getting ready for Christmas and seeing lots of people. We spent the festive period in Shrewsbury before returning home in time for New Year. 

And now it's 2026...!

Post-Christmas December round up

As it's New Year's Eve, I thought I'd round up the month's activity before launching into the year-end posts. 

I covered the first three weeks of the month in a previous post. My final day in work was Monday 22nd. On "Christmas Eve Eve" (the 23rd) we headed up to Shrewsbury and we stayed until "Boxing Day Boxing Day" (the 27th).

Christmas Eve morning, we went with my brother and three niblings to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol in the cinema. I don't think I've seen it on a proper cinema screen since it was released in the early 90s. It's a film that seems to get better with age. It was only the second time my youngest niece had been to the cinema. The film was a bit long for her, but she did very well at not being too bored. 

Later on Christmas Eve I went with my brother to the midnight communion service in the village Anglican church. We have done this as 'brother-time' for a few years now, with a stop in the pub on the way, and it's something I look forward to as part of the Christmas experience.

My sister and family drove all the way from Edinburgh to spend Christmas Day with us. We managed to fit 8 people round my mum's dining table for Christmas dinner. 

Auntie Cathy and Scottish niblings 

Mum's Christmas Cake

There were some exciting presents.

I will be blogging about this!

And some family members were completely tuckered out by it all!

On Boxing Day we had another brotherly outing as the two of us went to a local derby football match - Shawbury United v Haughmond FC in the United Counties League. Haughmond play on the north edge of Shrewsbury and Shawbury is less than 10 miles north of Shrewsbury so the two clubs are in close proximity. 

I was impressed by the set up at Shawbury. They had a nice clubhouse and a lovely pitch. The Haughmond Ultras (4 pre-teen boys with a flag and a drum) had ensconced themselves in one of the small stands and kept up a noise throughout. They went home happy, having seen their team win 3-1. 

I've been fortunate enough to be off work during betwixtmas, so have had a relaxing few days since coming home, sorting some life admin and things. Today (New Year's Eve) I went to my final football match of 2025, watching Barry lose away at Briton Ferry. 

I went with my friend Paul and we arrived to find the pitch was still very frosty in places. Kick off was moved back an hour in the hope the pitch would thaw out enough to be playable. It passed the pitch inspection but Barry will wish it hadn't as they were second best all game and lost 2-1. They also had two penalties given against them, with goalkeeper George Ratcliffe saving both of them! 

Frosty pitch!

Moonrise over Briton Ferry

And that concludes a busy December!

Co-opting Santa into your regional culinary vendetta

This amused me. We got sent a Cornish cream tea through the post for Christmas. Scones, jam, clotted cream etc. in a nice presentation box.

What you might not know if there is a weird rivalry between Cornwall and Devon centred on cream teas. Like all religious and cultural wars it focuses on a tiny difference in the way things are done, in this case the dividing line being whether you put the jam or the clotted cream onto your scone first. 

And, just to make sure, the Cornish cream tea company have invoked Santa as the final arbiter on proper clotted cream etiquette. 

So there you go. Dare you go up against Santa and have your scone any other way?

Seasonal marketing never sleeps

Popped in quickly to B&M stores on the Friday before Christmas and saw this rollover holiday marketing.

I've got to admit I'm a bit tempted by a Biscoff version of a creme egg. It will be disgustingly sweet, I'm sure. But I'm still tempted...

Pre-Christmas December round up

I've packed a lot in to December so far and thought I'd get in early with my review of the month, ahead of the Christmas shenanigans.

Cathy being Christmassy in Abergavenny!

The Christmassy feeling started with the Carol Service in Grange Gardens. Cardiff Council decorated the bandstand, the Salvation Army band provided the music, Richard the new vicar at St Paul's led the service, people from other local churches did readings, and my friend Sioned's daughter read a poem. 

One lovely aspect was all the songsheets were bilingual and people sang in Welsh and English, which really worked. It sounded lovely. We had about 200 people come along with lots of families. 

Another community event was the final Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year. I didn't find anything particularly exciting but I did pick up 3 bags of rubbish and an abandoned pressure cooker. 

In early December I met up with Sara and we celebrated our ten year friendaversary. We first had a proper conversation at an event in Cardiff University organised by Diabetes UK. She asked me "What do you do?" Ten years later and we met up in one of our old haunts for a coffee and reminisce.

I also met up with my friend Heather for lunch at The Grange. Heather also worked with me in the Wales Diabetes Network and has since retired from the NHS. But she hasn't managed to escape lunch dates with me!

This month, Bryan and I foresook a game of Blood Bowl and instead unboxed his season 3 box set. In real world sport, I have made it to four football matches already in December, including...

...seeing my friend Ben play for Caldicot Town for the first time this season.

...watching Barry Town win the league cup semi-final up at Cambrian United.

...watching Cardiff Met with Steve, which was our first game together in months.

...and watching Cardiff Draconians away at Newport City. The Dracs imploded and finished the game with only 9 men.

I had a slightly quieter month, politically. But I was out every Thursday morning talking to commuters at different train stations. We have now been to all 12 stations in the constituency on the west side of the River Taff! This month we ticked off these:

I have a feeling campaigning activity will pick up in the New Year! 

After Christmas I'll be blogging my round ups of the year. 2025 has been a busy one so there is plenty to write about. That might take me most of January too!

Monthly round up - December 2024

Happy New Year! What better way to welcome 2025 than a long post about the last month of 2024?

Our Christmas decorating was delayed because we were getting a new floor and carpentry work done in our hall for the first week or so. However, we were able to welcome 'the Boys' who were dressed up ready for Christmas! 

Rather than add to the semi-permenent upheaval of stuff everywhere due to the building work, we decided not to bring the tree and decorations down. Instead, we bought a small rainbow tree to brighten up the front room.

The branches soon filled up with decorations.

Work was busy in the run up to the Christmas break, including travelling to London, Bristol and Port Talbot. In London I posed with a film star at the station.

I also saw this Lego model of the new station that is effectively going to replace Paddington station when the HS2 project is completed. (The model had 14,000 pieces.)

Meanwhile, in Bristol, two famous people associated with the city had left their marks on the pavement.

The best part of Christmas is meeting up with people. We had a great afternoon in Tewkesbury with Mary and Steve. (Selfie outside the Abbey where we saw 'The Longest Yarn'.)

Between Christmas and New Year I met up with Connor briefly in Birmingham. We got to pose with Ozzy the Bull.

We also had a great time spending nearly a week with family. Cathy's sister was in town just before Christmas and my sister drove down from Edinburgh for the day on the day after Boxing Day!

The December weather (including Storm Darragh) interrupted the football. However, I set a new record for going to games in December - managing six. There were three before Christmas and three afterwards.

I saw Barry play twice before Christmas - a cup semi-final defeat to TNS and a come-from-behind league victory over Cardiff Met. My other pre-Christmas game was watching Caldicot Town just round the corner from my house when they played Canton.  My friend Ben, who plays for Caldicot, had just become a dad for the first time so it was nice to see him and say congrats. 

I also got a Futbology badge when I checked in at the Caldicot game as it was the 10th time I'd seen them.

The games after Christmas were two Shrewsbury home games, on Boxing Day and the 29th December, and Barry's game away at Briton Ferry on New Year's Eve. On Boxing Day, Shrewsbury battled to a win against Lincoln in murky midwinter mist. On the 29th, they drew against Northampton (in much milder weather). I've now seen four Shrewsbury home games this season and they haven't lost any. 

And so to my final game of 2024, which ended 0-0. This was my first scoreless game of the season and ended a run of 49 games since my last goalless game back in March. 

Here's how my season stats look at the end of December:

And that, as they say is that. We had a quiet New Year's Eve, building Lego, watching comedy on Netflix, and then it was midnight and 2024 was done!