Yes sadly the smiling octopus is on its way to landfill. These big soft toys are a staple of the Cardiff Bay Beach or city centre Winter Wonderland fairs and I've often seen parents carrying them away from such events; usually the parents look a lot grumpier than the octopuses do.
My collecting partner for the day was Claire.
And we had another decent turn out, with lots of new people.
I don't know who found the octopus. I found a toy on the other end of the size scale - one of the pups from Paw Patrol.
He had been well played with before being thrown or lost in a hedge and now he's also on his way to landfill. Such is the fate of lost toys.
After cleaning up the streets, I picked up Steve and we headed to Merthyr Tydfil to watch Merthyr Town play Poole Town. Steve has been a fan of Poole since he was a lad and I've been to see them a few times with him. The last game we went to, Poole won 7-2. However we were expecting a possible heavy defeat this time, with Merthyr sitting top of the table.
When I checked in on Futbology I got a badge for my 600th football match.
There is a caveat to this milestone. I don't have any of the matches that I went to before 1992 listed. (1992-93 was the season I started logging the matches I went to.) So it's the 600th game logged on the app.
Contrary to our prior expectations, Poole won 2-1. Merthyr were very good in the first half but only scored one and Poole got a flukey equaliser direct from a corner. The Merthyr team were sent out early for the second half but something had sapped all their confidence and Poole scored an excellent team goal that proved to be the winner. Cue 'absolute limbs' among the Poole Ultras behind the goal.
But the sporting excitement wasn't over for the day as I had a Blood Bowl battle booked with Bryan.
On my week's holiday I had done some painting, and since coming home I had managed to paint my team of wood elves. I decided to give them purple hair and was quite happy with the result. I already a mostly painted treeman figure and he joined the elves for this match.
I've called the treeman Mosstyn, and it wasn't long before he was in the thick of the brawling.
The elves are very agile, meaning players can break through the other team lines. This led to a high scoring game with the elves winning 4-1.
However, they aren't so good defensively. They ended the game with four serious injuries and a casualty box full of maimed elves. In return they barely won any blocks and didn't inflict a single meaningful injury.
Bryan seemed happy with maiming so many players despite the loss. And I enjoyed playing with a new team that had been sitting unused for so long.
And that was my mega Saturday. Looking forward to a quieter Sunday now!
