Penwythnos mewn Caeredin

My work schedule took me to Dundee on a Friday, which meant I had a perfect opportunity to spend a weekend with my sister's clan in Edinburgh.

Timing it with Halloween meant the kids were out 'guising', the Scottish version of Trick or Treat. Sarah, Dan and I stayed home and ordered a takeaway curry. 

The Saturday was very sporty, starting with my younger niece's football match in the morning. It was a crisp, cold, sunny winter morning and the girls all seemed to have fun playing, which is the main thing.

Later, we went to the rugby international at Murrayfield. 

Scotland were playing the USA. After about 10 minutes the USA were already three tries down but they won a penalty within kicking distance. I said they should go for the three points and at least get something on the board but instead they went for a line out near the try line. It didn't result in anything and that was probably their best chance of scoring points.

It finished 85-0 to Scotland, the new record win at Murrayfield and their third highest winning margin of all time. It was fun to be there and see a record set although I ended up feeling sorry for the Americans, who were completely outmatched.

On the Sunday there was more rugby as my nephew had a match. 

There was a marked difference from the game I watched him play in March. Proper rucking and much better passing when the kids remembered to pass. My nephew scored several tries and won several turnovers to set up team-mates to score. It was another cold sunny morning, perfect for uncles spectating on the sideline. 

The rest of the day was a bit quieter. Out for a late lunch and then a quiet evening in chatting. I had to be up early the following day for my flight home so a chilled evening was perfect. 

I've managed two weekends in Edinburgh this year due to my work schedule, and with any luck I'll be back soon.

Our scary cute Hallowe'en

Cathy has arranged some suitable toys on our mantelpiece for Hallowe'en.

I particularly like how Jack Skellington is next to Sally... Brown from Peanuts. Is he moving on to a new Sally squeeze? 

This chap is new to the mantel this year.

And the mummified Grogu is also a new addition.

We also have some spookified Cars characters - Luigi and Guido.

A Lego Hallowe'en scene

A vampire mad scientists lab with Frankenstein's monster in Playmobil. (The ghost also lights up!)

A Sylvanian Families little cat in a ghost costume (cuteness overload!)

And a bucket of bats who can zipper their wings together to keep warm!

It might not be very scary but I love our seasonal display of toys!

And if you want to see the mantel on TikTok, you can!

Disneyland Paris

For the first time in seven years, Cathy and I left the country on holiday. We went to visit the most magical of lands... Disneyland! We took over 1,400 photos. Here are a handful for your enjoyment.

Because it was nearly Hallowe'en, Disneyland was decorated in autumnal and Hallowe'en decorations. There were pumpkins everywhere!

We saw all the big stars including Mickey and Minnie...

...Donald...

...and Daisy (in the Hallowe'en Parade)

Minnie was also in the Hallowe'en Parade with a giant horn of plenty symbolising harvest.

We went with my sister, Sarah, brother-in-law, Dan, and their three kids, Iona, Jura and Finlay. We mixed and matched going on various rides together. Finlay joined me on the Mad Hatter's Teacups.

My favourite ride was the Thunder Mountain Railroad. I liked it so much I literally bought the t-shirt. In the evening I got what I think is a great photo of it, all lit up.

Other rides I enjoyed included Star Tours (well, naturally...), the Ratatouille ride and the Cars Road Trip. And, of course, It's a Small World!

There were some Welsh representatives in the visit to all the cultures around the globe, but I didn't get a good photo of the little Welsh people. However, it's not just humans depicted on the ride - there's animals too!

The main Parade attracted a big throng of people. Cathy got a kerbside view and took some great pictures.

There were also plenty of other places to take selfies and other funny photos.

We had a bit of rain one afternoon we were there, but our final morning was bright and sunny again. The last ride I went on was the classic carousel.

And then, sadly, it was time for us to go. We left the castle behind, looking stunning in the sunshine.

Hallowe'en Decor

Noson Calan Gaeaf Hapus / Happy Hallowe'en. 

I thought this year I would post a few pictures of the mantelpiece after Cathy arranged some themed items for our All Hallows Eve amusement. Brace yourself for some treats. (If you follow my Twitter you may already have seen these pictures.)

The little Sylvanian Families house with the cat in a ghost costume was a present from Cathy to me. I gave her the large pumpkin in the picture below for National Pumpkin Day last year. It's made by Jellycat

All hail the Pumpkin King!

With the lights out and pumpkin nightlights on, it looks very atmospheric.

The Playmobil ghost also lights up in a colour change mode. Meanwhile Sally Brown was bought on one of our American road trips. We have several other Peanuts characters dressed for Hallowe'en, but Sally is the only one to appear on the mantel this year. 

Have a splendid Hallowe'en everyone. 

Asda staff humour makes Hallowe'en less horrible

Personally I don't know why you would want to fill your house with creepy-looking fake crows for any reason, let alone Hallowe'en, but I do admire the Asda employee who labelled these guys.

(I think they meant Sheryl Crow not Cheryl Crow, but stil 10/10 for effort!)

Another apple-related comment from Elaine, although this time real apples

It's Hallowe'en and Elaine invited us to a Hallowe'en party, where we would do traditional Hallowe'en things like apple bobbing and turnip carving (okay, maybe not that last one).

"Have you got a bowl big enough for apple bobbing?" I asked.

"Hmm, good point," said Elaine. There was a pause. "I suppose we could use the bath."

There was another pause. "When did you last clean it?"

"Er... recently."

"Yeah, I don't know if I really want to go bobbing for apples in someone else's bath..."

My worst Hallowe'en ever

As it's that spooky time of year (when did Hollowe'en become such a commercial affair? Do pagans complain that it's obscuring the real meaning of Hallowe'en?) I thought I'd tell you my personal worst Hallowe'en story.

T'was a few years ago. I'm not sure how many now. I think it may even have been before me and Cath got married. Anyway, t'was Hallowe'en. I was very tired and so decided to go to bed. Shortly after I'd gone to bed, but before I'd gone to sleep, I was called back downstairs by Cathy, who was using her 'er, I think this might be serious' voice.

She had somehow fallen into a door and bashed her hand which was now incredibly painful. A trip to Casualty was called for. This was back in the day when the old Cardiff Royal Infirmary operated a casualty department, so we headed off there.

The CRI is a Victorian Gothic pile in an insalubrious part of town. It has seen better days... one would assume. To give you an idea of how sinister it is, in the past few years there have been a few episodes of Dr Who filmed there - using both the outside facade, and the interior institutional green hallways and waiting rooms. However the good folks in the BBC location department barely needed to do anything to grim it up ready for an invasion of gasmask-wearing child zombies or the like.

Anyway, so we were there in the institutional-green waiting room, waiting to be seen to. It was a Friday night as well as being Hallowe'en, so the main clientele were violent drunks or the victims of violent drunks with various bloody assault wounds. There was shouting and yelling from the drunks who had been brought in by police officers, and miserable sobs and moans from the bleeding and bruised. And it being the kind of building it was, every shout was magnified and echoed down the long hallways.

To compound the atmosphere, in the middle of the waiting room was one TV; an ancient machine mounted on one of those anti-theft brackets which look like they could double up as a torture device. As it was Hallowe'en the selected channel was showing a horror film, which was set for the most part, it seemed, in a creepy gothic hospital/asylum. All I really remember of it was that it starred Mark Hamill, and it ended rather abruptly after he chose to stab himself in the eye for some reason.

So we sat there, watching the blood ooze from Mark Hamill's eye socket, waiting for the X-Ray results to come back, and hoping we could get out of this creepy hospital, before anything worse happened to us...

Another night, another Sean

I've been laughing a lot recently! We saw two comedians in two nights and they were both called Sean. First off on Thursday we saw Sean Hughes at the Sherman Theatre (or the 'Man' as Sean pointed out because half the lights were out on the sign), then last night we saw Sean Lock at St David's Hall.

It was the first time I'd been to the Sherman and it was a good venue - not too big, but not a club either. The bloke next to me fell asleep before the interval, which shows the seats were comfortable I suppose.

As you'd expect, given the time lapse, Sean's routine was very different from when we saw him about 11 years ago. He began with a bit based on his role in Coronation Street, and ended up talking about how he'd narrowly cheated death in the Tsunami. 

There were some good jokes along the way like working in a factory producing subliminal advertising ("We only got paid £2.00 an hour, but everyone thought it was very reasonable"), and a large number of sex jokes. His method of dissuading trick-or-treaters from knocking on his door could backfire: "I just paint the word 'paedophile' on my door in big angry red letters..."

Sean Lock was a bit different. He seemed a bit lost in a big venue, and the first half of the show was quite flat. But he livened up in the second half, talking about his cure for baldness he was taking on Dragon's Den (basically pretending his hand was hair instead) and loads of other random bits and bobs. Plus, this one has to go down in the annals as the comedy show with the most unexpected ending - as he stripped off to reveal his secret identitiy as...

...nah, I'm not going to spoil it for you. You'll just have to guess.