Miles and memories - happenings in March

A dragon for St David's Day! 

Cathy and I covered lots of miles in March. I had a couple of days off work because we had an appointment at the specialist clinic in Cambridge (we have been heading over there annually for about six years now, pandemics notwithstanding). This year we decided to go via Shrewsbury and see Mum on Mother's Day weekend. I went to church with her (and most of the rest of the family) on Mother's Day and got to say hello to lots of old friends. 

Our Mother's Day dinner plans were thrown awry by the restaurant phoning up to tell us they were having a software problem so they couldn't process any food orders or payments. So we ended up with a stack of takeaway pizzas instead. In a weird way, it was a nice reflection of how resilient we are as a family that we can adapt to a situation and still have fun.

Mentioning resilience makes me think of how we have adjusted as a family following the loss of my dad. This March marked the fifth anniversary of his sudden death. I found myself thinking of him quite a bit. I went to a Wales 'C' International football match on the day itself - I think he would have liked that. 

On the Monday after Mother's Day we set out to Cambridge. We had a trouble-free journey and after checking in at our hotel we went for a little trip to Newmarket. It's a horsey place with lots of horsey businesses and also a cracking toy shop!

After our hospital appointment on the Tuesday we headed home to Cardiff. We stopped in Oxford and saw our friend Ella on the way. 

We got home about midnight. The next morning I was on the 7.23am train to London for an all day meeting. I was also incubating a cold. Gotta admit, I wasn't at my best in that meeting. 

Before I came home I met up with my baseball buddy Gawain in an American sports-themed restaurant under Waterloo Station, in a warren of railway arches covered in graffiti. 

Selfie on the way to Waterloo

Meeting up had seemed like a great idea when we made the plan. By the time I got there though I was beyond exhausted. However, Gawain is very good company and we had a great two hours chatting before I had to get the train home.

All that excitement was just in five days. The rest of the month has been a bit of a blur. I made it to my first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick of the year. Fiona who organises it took a picture as proof.

I also made my first foray to the cinema in 2024, watching Dune Part 2 (which I blogged about here). And we went to our first gig of the year - to see Tony Wright at the Metropole Theatre in Abertillery. It was on Easter Sunday, so we took him some Easter eggs, which Cathy presented to him afterwards.

We even had time this month for some ice creams in Victoria Park with the Wootten family. Spring is here. Summer is coming!

Footballing with company - 2022 edition

Following on from my end of season round up, here's a gallery of selfies with the many people who have made matchgoing fun in my record-breaking season.

First up, my friend Paul said he noticed that I didn't mention him in my review of May even though he came with me to both the Welsh Cup final and the Ardal Cup final. So here's a pic of us at Penrhiwceiber Rangers.

At the start of the season I persuaded my friend Matt to come with me to Aberystwyth.

While my friend Tom persuaded me to go to Aberdare.

I've been going to games with Steve for several years now. In addition to three Poole Town games, he also joined me on my first visit to Cardiff Draconians this year. This photo, however, was taken at the University of South Wales sports park, home to Pontypridd Town, and one of the 22 new grounds I visited this past season.

Speaking of universities, Callum joined me on a grim night in Cyncoed to watch Cardiff Metropolitan play Barry Town. 

I invited a lot of people along to watch Barry games this year, including James who I met on an internet forum and who joined me for a day out in Flint.

And my Mum came along to Jenner Park as well. She knitted us hats!

Here's a pic of Mum in more familiar surroundings as we watched Shrewsbury beat Lincoln on Mother's Day weekend. My nephew Zac was there too.

Earlier in the season, Zac was part of a boy's trip to Sheffield with me and his dad (my brother Dave). 

I also watched Shrewsbury battle to a 0-0 draw against Accrington alongside Dave, but I didn't take any photos of that.

I did, however, take a photo of me and Zac at Barry's last game of the season. It was a proper uncle-nephew day out with a stop in McDonald's on the way there and the way back.

He's smiling there, even though he was later very frank about just how rubbish the game was. 

In one of the last games of the season I sat next to my former work colleague Scott as we watched Treharris Athletic somehow lose the most one-sided game I have seen in a long time. Their opponents were Caerau Ely who had one shot on target - a penalty - and the rest of the game was conducted mainly in the Caerau Ely penalty area. 

There are some other people I saw at football matches and neglected to take photos with. I sat with the other Steve H and his son Adam (Cathy's uncle and cousin, respectively) at a game in Longlevens in Gloucester. And I sat next to my friend Ben at Caldicot Town. He was injured otherwise he would have been playing for Caldicot. 

But in the absence of photos of them, here's another photo of Paul. When Barry played Connah's Quay, they had bouncy castles and and ice cream van in Jenner Park. So we made the most of it.

(And, yes, I know the photobombing child looks like he's in my ice cream!)

March 2022 - end of month review

March was a very busy month. The holiday we went on at the start of the month (blogged about here!) felt like a long time ago by time March ended!

Currently, in our little part of Grangetown, the state of the world is measured by crocheted post box covers. St David's Day was celebrated, as it should be.

Shortly after St David's Day, the dragon was replaced by an expression of solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

In the middle of the month, I went to a football match on the third anniversary of my Dad's death. He would have approved at the randomness - I went with my friend Paul to watch Treharris Athletic Western in the third tier of the Welsh football pyramid. It was a baking hot day. 

I wore my Dad's cap, which was just as well or I would have got sunstroke. In addition to being hot enough to melt football fans, it was the day when Wales lost to Italy in the Six Nations. The result was met with slight disbelief in the small stand we were sitting in. I only found out later that a work colleague, Scott, was also at the game, watching his son who plays for Treharris. We can't work out how we didn't see each other!

The big news of the month is that I told the people I work with that I have been offered a new job. I will be moving to another NHS organisation based just outside Cardiff. I have been up to the offices to meet some of the team I will be working with. 

That also meant that the first post-pandemic "hybrid" meeting arranged for the clinical network I currently manage was my last network meeting. It worked out nicely because I talked to several people from teams around Wales and said a few goodbyes. I am staying in my current role until the end of April and have got a lot of things to sort out!

The final Sunday of March was Mother's Day. I went up to Shrewsbury for the weekend and went to see Shrewsbury play Lincoln City with my mum, my brother, and his two eldest kids. My mum and the two kids are on the Shrewsbury "Wall of Thanks" for all the season ticket holders who let the club keep the credit on their season tickets in the abandoned 2020 season. We had to get a photo with their names.

We were sitting in the Family Stand, and one of the perks of sitting there is that the players will come over and sign autographs and pose for photos before the game. My nephew Zac was thrilled to get a photo with one of his favourite players, striker Daniel Udoh, before the game. 

Daniel went on and scored the winning goal as Shrewsbury notched up a 1-0 victory. It has consolidated their position in the lower mid-table and it looks very likely that they will be staying up this year after being close to the relegation zone earlier in the season. 

It was my third Shrewsbury game of the season, and I don't think I will be getting to another one. My record is pretty good as those three games have been a win and two draws. I can't remember the last season Shrewsbury were unbeaten in the games I attended. On that happy note, roll on April!