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!

On the trail of the greatest secret agent in the world

A work trip to London meant a short stay near Baker Street and a chance to visit the secret entrance to the spy headquarters of none other than Danger Mouse himself!

Massive shout out to Gawain who humoured me and acted as my official photographer!

Book of the Month: Kraken

Kraken was sort of a Christmas gift. At Christmas I was given a book I already had so I went to a bookshop and exchanged it. I had seen China Mieville's books recommended on Reddit so thought I would give one of his books a go. And the dedication page made me laugh.

Who wouldn't want a comrade-in-tentacles?

This was written in 2010 so I'm a bit late to review it but I will try to limit plot spoilers to anything you would read in the blurb anyway.

The story centres on the disappearance of a preserved giant squid, from a display in the Natural History Museum in London. A curator in the museum gets drawn into a shadowy magical underworld of sects and prophecies where everyone is predicting an apocalypse, somehow linked to the vanished kraken. But everyone is looking for it, either to stop the end of the world or to control the destruction for their own ends.

It's clear that China had fun making up different cults and churches and then pitting them against each other. He also develops London itself as a character, a gestalt entity that is both a location and a source of information, if a person knows where to look and how to scry the future from it. 

China wears his influences boldly. This book strongly reminds me of the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaboration Good Omens, and also the alternative London Below in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I suspect if I saw China Mieville's bookshelves, I would see Douglas Adams alongside Pratchett and Gaiman (although he might, like me, have taken Gaiman off the shelves since the accusations against him were made).

There are throwaway puns aplenty and almost too much wordplay. Beyond that, though, China writes in an arresting style with a barrage of metaphors, neologisms and portmanteaus. This section describing a bit of the city is typical of his style:

"A space between two concrete flyovers. Where the world might end was turpe-industrial. Scree of rejectimenta. Workshops writing car epitaphs in rust; warehouses staffed in the day by tired teenagers; superstores and self-storage depots of bright colours and cartoon fonts amid bleaching trash. London is an endless skirmish between angles and emptiness. Here was an arena of scrubland, overlooked by suspended roads." (p.357)

China is happy to reference TV and other cultural elements throughout the book. I was delighted to see Farscape included in a list of science-fiction shows. (I blogged about rewatching Farscape a couple of years back.) At one point one of the characters has a dream where he is TinTin being attacked by Captain Haddock. 

But it's not all pop culture. There are descriptions of magical practices that show some research. A reference to 'tekel upharsin' as a prediction of doom shows some niche knowledge of the Old Testament. The real-life grounding of the fantastical story elements in established media and myths makes them more believable.

There are also a lot of swearwords. Characters swear casually in their conversations, which felt realistic, and there is plenty of 'creative swearing', which is a very British thing, and was often very funny. For example, one character coins "munching wanktoasters" to describe members of an occult fascist sect.

If the warning about language doesn't put you off, I would add a warning that there are a couple of gruesome murders and almost murders. They are quite vivid so I felt it worth flagging up because overall I'd recommend people read the book. 

However, London as the best city evvah, gets a bit annoying. There are too many claims made about its uniqueness and special nature, as a locus for magic and the historic depth to its streets. That started to grate after a while. 

And in an ironic twist, I ended up reading a large chunk of the book on train journeys to and from London as I was working down there. On the return journey a man sitting opposite me asked if he could take a photo of the book cover because he thought it looked interesting. I'd never been asked that before. It was a slightly weird encounter befitting a slightly weird book.

My March 2026 round up

March kicked off on St David's Day and I went to the celebratory parade in the city centre. The parade finished in Cardiff Castle, where I got a pic of this handsome Draig Goch.

I've been busy on the blog again this month. My book of the Month was A History of Wales, my album of the month was by Garbage, and I even posted a throwback snack of the month too. Meanwhile my monthly Blood Bowl game was a Battle of the Undead (!) and we battled away while munching on Easter Crisps.

It was another month with lots of traveling. I had a work trip to London where I got to see the new workwear: fleece tops (just in time for summer!)

It had been a while since my last trip to London and the Paddington Bear Shop in Paddington Station has a big Lego model in the window now. It's really nicely done.

I went to Shrewsbury and spent (most of) Mother's Day with my mother. We got her a 6-player version of her favorite game, Rummikub.

Me and mum also went out on the Saturday night as it was Mother's Day Eve. It was also Pi Day (3/14) and I had a pie. (But I ate the pie without taking a pic. Social media fail!)

At the end of the month, we were back in Shropshire for a few days. We took a ride on the Bridgnorth cliff railway for notalgia's sake. We also went to a birds of prey centre and a couple of football matches.

It's been a mixed month on the political campaigning front. One of the Plaid Cymru candidates in our area stepped down from the election race. On a more positive note, I completed all the stations in our constituency when we went to Cathays on the last Thursday of March.

We also had canvassing sessions in various bits of Cardiff, including Butetown where we were joined by Plaid Cymru's leader, Rhun ap Iorweth. I got a selfie with him.

Butetown

Plasdwr

Cathays station

While out canvassing I also saw this defiance against the fun police!

Cathy and I had a couple of cinema outings. We went to Cardiff Bay to see the new Disney Pixar film, Hoppers. We enjoyed it.

And on our trip to Shropshire, we went to a vintage OG cinema in Bridgnorth and watched The Magic Faraway Tree. We both liked it, and the cinema. I particularly liked this big M&M in the lobby:

I had a decent month of football, getting to 6 games. That included watching Shrewsbury Town play Cheltenham in the company of my brother and our friend Kate.  On the way in, Kate and I worked out we have been friends for over 30 years. 

Later in the month I hit some Futbology milestones at 3 games in a row, including game number 650 at Cardiff Dracs and stadium number 150 in the very next game when I saw Ludlow Town. 

I was the only Futbology user to check in at Ludlow - but I wasn't there on my tod. I had the real pleasure of Cathy's company at the game.

And then on the 31st March, I made it three games in a row with a Futbology milestone badge, when I collected two at AFC Bridgnorth!

The ground in Bridgnorth hasn't changed in the 30+ years since I used to go there with my Dad. It still has the slope and the tea bar. It was a very nostalgic evening for me, and Bridgnorth won!

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...!