Well, that was 2024

Time for a round up of a very busy 12 months. I squeezed in a lot! 

January 

I had two trips to Shrewsbury - for football and for family birthdays. I also went to London for work and visited the newish shopping centre in Battersea Power Station, mainly to visit the Lego Shop.

February 

Our building work on the house started - with a new roof in the wettest February on record. (At least we knew immediately that it didn't leak!)  I was mugged on my way home from the city centre and had a swollen blacked eye for a couple of weeks. But I also got to see my first ever international ice hockey games. 

March

A month of travelling! Mother's Day in Shrewsbury, journeys to Cambridge (and home via Oxford), work in London and a Wales C International in Llanelli (on the anniversary of my dad's death - a fitting tribute to him, I felt!) On Easter Sunday at the end of the month, Cathy and I went to our first gig of the year to see Tony Wright, in Abertillery.

April 

My brother, sister-in-law and their four kids visited Cardiff for the Easter bank holiday Monday (and my birthday the next day!) Work began replastering the hall and landing, which involved chipping off the hideous Artex that I have wanted to be rid of for 30 years! I spent a week manning a stall at a conference in London - and afterwards got to visit the Moomin Shop. 

May

The plastering was completed and we thought we were close to finishing the work in the house (little did we know....). We had a bank holiday trip down to Torquay. The men who attacked me in February pled guilty and were given prison sentences. And the Prime Minister at the time, Rishi Sunak, called a General Election. 

June

I went to the Major League Baseball game in London. We spent a week in North Wales with my Mum and our friend, Ella. I watched a lot of the European Championships on TV!

July 

A super- busy month! We had a visit from my sister and her three kids and took them to Techniquest. England reached the European Championship final. The UK got a new government in the General Election. We saw Frank Turner play at the Tramshed in Cardiff. The new football season started with a thrashing for Barry Town in a friendly at Oxford City. I went to a model railway exhibition. After being messed around by an electrician, we finally got the electrics sorted and could book a decorator to come and paint the house... in September. 

August

The big event for us in August was seeing Billy Joel play live at the Principality Stadium. It was a spectacular gig. I also had a big football awayday, watching Shrewsbury play at Huddersfield Town. We also acted as witnesses at a wedding for a couple who had put out an appeal for witnesses on Reddit. 

September

We spent the week of our wedding anniversary in Shropshire, and went to see Terrorvision play KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton on our actual anniversary. The hall, landing and upstairs WC all got painted! 

October

More work in the house - this time carpentry with a new little cupboard in our hall to hide the fuse box. I spent two days filming for work in Barry - and we were blessed with some great weather that made Barry look spectacular. 

November

It was World Diabetes Day, and I spent a weekend in Northern Ireland with the local team over there (and got a selfie with Mr Tayto!). A few days later it was Cathy's birthday. We had a chilled day out and went to watch a movie, in a cinema with a lack-of-heating issue so, literally, chilled! Shrewsbury Town appointed a new manager and I was there for his first game in charge - an unexpected win against Birmingham City. The final bits of work in the house started and we had new flooring!

December

In the first week of December, we finally finished the home improvements we started in February! I felt incredibly relieved that the mammoth undertaking was over after ten months. I had work events in London, Bristol and Port Talbot. Then it was Christmas - starting with seeing Mary and Steve and visiting The Longest Yarn in Tewkesbury, followed by nearly a week in Shrewsbury. I concluded the month with a football match on New Years Eve.

And that was a wrap for 2024!

Summer speeds by - July 2024

July is called Gorffennaf in Cymraeg. Literally "finish (gorffen) summer (haf)". But as we ended July in a mini heatwave it feels like summer has actually kicked in, at last.

Something that did finish rather spectacularly was the Tory government - unceremoniously subjected to an epic battering in the General Election at the start of the month. I've already blogged about it, but I forgot to include the customary polling day selfie!

We had some visitors all the way from Scotland, with my sister and her three kids in Cardiff for the day. After living in Cardiff for almost 30 years I have now finally been to Techniquest!

I enjoyed a visit to the annual model railway exhibition in Penarth. As is often the case, the most interesting lay-outs are the small ones, like this one that was built in a pizza box and themed on the book 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. 

The same modeller had built a lay out in a suitcase as well.

The level of detail on some of the exhibits was truly outstanding. 

I went to my second gig of the year - Frank Turner live in concert at The Tramshed. It was our first gig there since before the pandemic. 

Cathy and I have both enjoyed listening to Frank a lot over the past year or so and we were both excited to see him live. I intended to write a post about the gig, but didn't get to it, so here is a mini-review. 

I have had some poor experiences at gigs - usually because of the behaviour of other gig-goers - and I often feel apprehensive in the run-up to going. But I'm pleased to say we didn't fall foul of any idiots this time. Frank tells the audience the first rule of being at his concert is 'Don't be a dick' and considering the defiant nature of many of his songs, people went along with the rule. 

(The Tramshed was still the same old sweatpit but they had enough staff on the bar for once and the floor wasn't already sticky when we walked in for a change.)

Frank was just great. He played most of the songs off his new album. We got an explanation for the new song 'Letters' and how it was about a penpal he had in Llanelli when he was a teenager. He had lost touch with her over the years, until she heard the song on the radio and contacted him to ask 'Was that about me?' 

He also played the songs we all wanted to hear. Everyone in the crowd - and I mean everyone - seemed to sing along as loudly as possible with the songs that need to be sung along to. I suspect a correlation between everyone being there because they appreciate the music and a lack of annoying people ruining it.

It's worth mentioning punk duo The Meffs, who were a decent support band, as well. They did their job of warming up the audience far more capably than most other support acts I've seen.

And finally, football is back. I watched the European Championships final and felt a bit gutted that England came so close to winning, only to lose late on. They did set an unfortunate record, becoming the first nation to lose back-to-back European Championship finals. 

But the new football season had already begun before England's defeat. I went to one pre-season friendly game this year - Barry Town away at Oxford City. Sadly Barry got hammered 9-0. But I did get to see our friend Ella and she even came to the game. 

The lower league teams in Cymru started their campaigns at the end of the month so I made it to another three games before August rolled around.

I'm not going to do a monthly round up of all the games this season, instead here is my current season stats on Futbology at the end of July. I'm pleased with the percentage of new grounds visited. 

And some selfies!

With Ella and an ox in Oxford.

With Tom and Paul at the Dracs.

With Scott when we went up to Ynyshir Albions to watch them play the Dracs.

And with Steve at Chepstow Town v Caldicot on a very warm Tuesday evening. Dig the hat!

2024 General Election Review

The result: Wales stops feeling blue

I stayed up until almost 5am watching the election results come in. Admittedly, I didn't watch it all - after the exit poll announcements at 10pm I watched the Star Wars film, Solo, to kill a bit of time before the actual results were declared.

By now, everyone with a passing interest in politics will know the headlines. Labour won with a big majority - something that felt unthinkable after Boris Johnson's huge win for the Tories in 2019. 

The Liberal Democrats went big as well, their 72 seats being the party's highest total for a century - going back to when they were just Liberal, no Democrat. 

Plaid Cymru won 4 seats, doubling their representation in the House of Commons. The number of constituencies in Cymru had dropped from 40 to 32, so some MPs had been squeezed out already. Every remaining Tory incumbent lost - including a record 4 former Welsh Secretaries. Most of the seats were won by Labour and the Liberal Democrats got one. 

The exit polls predicted a depressing total of Reform winning 13 seats. In the end they got 5, including panto politico Nigel Farage finally becoming an MP. Subsequently there have been questions over whether several Reform candidates were real people. The picture of their candidate in Clapham appears to be AI generated. Several candidates in Scotland have a nonexistent digital footprint. They still got thousands of votes though. 

I was happier to see the Green Party win a new record total for them of four seats. Jeremy Corbyn held on to his seat in Islington as an independent candidate having been ejected from the Labour Party. Amazing to think he was leading Labour in the previous two elections. Other independents won in areas with large Muslim populations, which is being taken as a protest vote against the Labour Party's stance on Gaza. The success of the independent candidates took some of the gloss off Labour's victory. 

I was flicking between channels on election night. I stayed mainly on BBC 1 Wales which focused on results from Cymru. BBC2 was the general BBC UK coverage chaired by Laura Kuenssberg, who I feel has been very partisan towards the Tories for several years. She was matey with Boris Johnson and seemed like his personal PR machine at times. Watching Laura slowly assimilating what was happening was quite amusing. Her expression turned increasingly sour as the night wore on. 

Meanwhile, on ITV there were some decent guest pundits including Ed Balls and Nicola Sturgeon. Sky's coverage was also quite good. It seemed that Sky announced results a fraction before the BBC. Sometimes they announced a bit too quickly, at one point they erroneously credited the Greens with a win in a seat Labour won off the Tories.

Early on in the night Andrew RT Davies, leader of the "Welsh" Conservatives, lost his cool on BBC1 Wales and lumped the blame for the Tory defeat squarely on (now ex) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In fairness, he wasn't wrong in his criticism of the decision to call an election without a coherent campaign strategy. Rishi may have felt a July election would wrongfoot his opponents but it also seemed to wrongfoot his own party. 

I knew two people personally who were standing as candidates. My fellow Barry Town fan, Ian, was the Plaid Cymru candidate in the Vale of Glamorgan. A former work colleague, Charlie, stood as the Tory candidate in Llanelli. Neither won, but props to them both for standing. 

Now the dust has settled and we get to see whether Labour have been all mouth and no trousers in their promises of change. It's been barely a week and so far they seem to have made the right noises. I'm a bit concerned that the new health minister has links with private healthcare companies. But overall it feels that things may be different now. 

2024 General Election Preview

I've been putting off a review of election leaflets because... we simply haven't had any to review. Labour are the only party to get in touch. We have had three leaflets from them. So my traditional review of pre-election literature feels like a waste of time this time.

All we got...

Technically we are in a newish constituency because the boundaries have been redrawn. The net result of this is that the number of parliamentary seats in Wales has reduced from 40 to 32. That means we get 20% fewer politicians.

The irony is that Labour's central message is "Change", except, as Cathy pointed out, all we've ever had here in Grangetown is Labour. Real change here would mean voting in an MP from any other party!

Unfortunately we don't get the option of voting for an official Plaid Cymru candidate this time. Plaid announced they were withdrawing support for their candidate because of anti-semitic tweets just after the cut off date to get a replacement in (more details in this report, which includes details of the tweets). This isn't the first time Plaid have had a candidate with a dodgy track record on social media in our constituency. It's a real shame this has happened again because I wanted to vote for them.

Other people I've talked to have had lots of leaflets. I have noticed a major difference between a Labour leaflet posted through my mum's door and the ones we have received. The leaflet delivered in Shrewsbury was this:

Yes, actually a Labour leaflet!

In contrast, the Labour leaflets we have received have not featured this 'Stop the Boats' messaging. I strongly suspect that is because Shrewsbury's population is 97% white and skews towards older people, and the profiling experts would assume that means they will respond positively to anti-immigrant rhetoric. (My mum didn't!)

Meanwhile where we live is the most multicultural community in Wales. This is reflected in the (possibly photoshopped) picture of Labour supporters with our incumbent MP on his leaflet. 

I find that the most cynical aspect of this - the blatant racist 'Stop the Boats' rhetoric is bad enough, but Labour don't even have the guts to stand by their racism in communities that are more likely to be offended by it.

I am completely repelled by the leaflet that was delivered to my mum's. I've written before how my grandmother moved to Britain when she was 19 and how both she, and my mum, experienced racism. One day I will blog about my experience as a five year-old refugee - and how my family were given a 30 minute warning to pack everything and head to the nearest border. It happened while we lived in Africa and it has taken me years to properly grasp what was going on and come to terms with how much danger we were in. 

I wouldn't wish the experience of racist abuse or being a refugee on anyone. But you shouldn't have had to have experienced those things to have empathy and compassion for people in that situation. The way the people crossing the channel in small boats are monsterised and treated as less than human by the media and the right wing parties is sickening. And now Labour are doing it too. 

This is a deal-breaker for me. Labour are pandering to racists - and doing it dishonestly at that, by saying racist things to get racists to vote for them and then being careful not to mention it in other communities. The duplicity in that makes them completely unpalatable. 

Speeding towards summer - May 2024

Me in most of May

In my previous monthly round-up I mentioned how we had moved out of our house due to home improvements. We spent the first few days in May in a flat in Cardiff Bay and then had a few days as guests with our friends Bryan and Elaine. That gave me and Bryan an opportunity to try out a new game called RumbleSlam - blogged about here.

But soon the plastering was complete and we were able to move back home. Besides being unsettled by being out of the house, there have been several other things to deal with. 

In the middle of the month, a friend and colleague was made redundant, the second member of our small team to leave under redundancy in the last few weeks. In addition to the sadness of the circumstances, it's left a hole in several plans we had in work. 

I also had the unsettling feeling of knowing that the two men who attacked me back in February were due to be sentenced. I wrote a victim impact statement for the sentencing, although opted not to attend the sentencing hearing. The man who actually hit me received a ten year imprisonment sentence and his accomplice who stood by and watched was given three years in prison. 

Overall, I feel physically and emotionally fine about the whole event. I don't feel particularly nervous or panicky about walking around outside. I've walked past the place where it happened a few times. It just all feels very surreal, and I feel slightly detached from it - like it happened to someone else. The police and the witness support unit have been excellent throughout, answering questions and keeping me updated. I know they are also pleased with the quick resolution and successful conviction. 

The day of the sentencing, I saw posts on LinkedIn saying that someone I used to work for had passed away. Professor Sir Mansel Aylward CB was chair of Public Health Wales, where I worked, and requested my services supporting his think tank the Bevan Commission. I worked closely with him to write various reports and we ended up chatting about all kinds of things. I remember him telling me about hearing Aneurin Bevan speaking, and about the aftermath of the Aberfan disaster. 

Once when I was on the team running an exhibition stall for NHS Wales at a big international conference in London, I ended up having a meal with him and my fellow stall-manager, Kelly, where he regaled us with stories from when he worked in the area when it was under the thrall of the Krays. But beyond the stories, Sir Mansel always seemed interested in hearing what everyone around the table had to say. I noticed other tributes on LinkedIn from people who worked at a similar junior level to me, saying the same thing, and expressing genuine sorrow that he had passed away.

Lots happening, but also, goslings!!

On the last bank holiday weekend of the month, Cathy and I had a day trip to Torquay. This was mainly to visit the memorial stone for Cathy's parents at the crematorium. But we also had a drive along the sea front, visited the big toy shop in Paington, and had a picnic tea at Hay Tor on Dartmoor before driving home. We couldn't see much of Hay Tor because of the mist, but we did get to see some of the wild ponies that live on the moor!

Ponies!

In the wider world, we also had news that a general election has been called for 4th July with the Prime Minister standing in pouring rain during the announcement. That in itself prompted lots of comments.  

So far, I haven't received any political bumf through the letterbox, but I will be doing an election leaflet round up like I've done previously (most recently for the Senedd elections in 2021). 

The election announcement torpedoed a news story for us in work because two of the young people who volunteer in our programme had met the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care just the day before the election was announced!

Then right at the end of the month, another big politics news story broke, with Donald Trump becoming the first former US President to be convicted of criminal charges. This made me think back to when I was complaining about how boring politics was when I studied it at A-Level. I can't imagine anyone studying it now would find it dull.

I also managed to fit in five football matches in May. I will be writing them up soon and there will also be an end of season review because that's it - the season is over for me! (But I will be watching the European Championships next month...)

First through the door!

The first people to deliver a leaflet after the General Election was called yesterday were... the witnesses to almighty Jehovah!

To be fair, those questions are very apt for the election period. I'm unconvinced by their answers to the question, though.

I will blog about actual election bumf when we get it. If we get any. This election seems like more of a foregone conclusion than any I've known.