National Poetry Day - "Blessed by the Bear"

On a recent work trip to London, I ended up waiting over an hour at Paddington Station for my designated train. As I waited I watched a stream of people visit the statue of Paddington Bear. I wrote the first draft of this poem while on the train home. As it's National Poetry Day today, I thought I'd share it.

Blessed by the Bear

Make haste to pause on platform one

His prints of paws guide pilgrims on

To selfies take with his saintly stare

Not hard, but warm; a gentle bear

See them come and seek to share

A sacred moment with the beloved bear

Take blessing from his worn-bright nose

And commemorate with smiling pose

Count them! Young, old, sullen, smiling

Teens too cool, then shyly styling

Greying couples grin for each other

And children clamber to shine for mother

And the bronze bear sees, and blesses, all

Safe travels, travellers, great and small

Bid adieu and quicken, journey on

Granted grace by Paddington

Previous poems:

We Are the Generation: X (published for National Poetry Day 2025)

Pethau Hen (published January 2024)

Older poems and stories

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!

Dydd Dewi Sant in photos

I went to the St David's Day parade on Sunday, joining the Yes Caerdydd group. There were lots of different people taking part and celebrating all things Cymru.

We started by City Hall, walked down to Caroline Street and back up to the castle, where there was a stage, some short speeches and a performance by Nia Tyler, who was recently on Y Llais on S4C.

I took loads of photos, including with a celebrity supporter of Welsh independence. 

Europhilex

My first stamp show of 2025 and it was a big one. Europhilex at the NEC. I visited yesterday (Friday 9th May).

Given this was a large international exhibition, I was expecting a bit more from it. There was a large number of competitive presentations, including some great thematic exhibits. But overall, the hall wasn't full and there were fewer dealers than I was expecting. Unlike previous international exhibitions there didn't seem to be much presence from postal agencies from other countries either. 

My favourite display was an excellent analysis of diabetes, with a huge amount of material related to the history and science around it. 

The main reason I went to Europhilex was because the British Thematic Association were holding a meeting. This included a presentation about postcards from North Borneo followed by an opportunity for members to show some of their stamps. 

I took some bits from my collection of the Statue of Liberty on stamps. There was a real mix of other topics ranging from puffins to mistakes on stamps (like depicting Christopher Columbus holding a telescope, which hadn't been invented when he set sail).

I didn't buy much, but I did find a stamp featuring my favourite baseball player, Tony Gwynn. As it was Tony's birthday, I had to buy it!

I also got something for Cathy...

Monthly round up - December 2024

Happy New Year! What better way to welcome 2025 than a long post about the last month of 2024?

Our Christmas decorating was delayed because we were getting a new floor and carpentry work done in our hall for the first week or so. However, we were able to welcome 'the Boys' who were dressed up ready for Christmas! 

Rather than add to the semi-permenent upheaval of stuff everywhere due to the building work, we decided not to bring the tree and decorations down. Instead, we bought a small rainbow tree to brighten up the front room.

The branches soon filled up with decorations.

Work was busy in the run up to the Christmas break, including travelling to London, Bristol and Port Talbot. In London I posed with a film star at the station.

I also saw this Lego model of the new station that is effectively going to replace Paddington station when the HS2 project is completed. (The model had 14,000 pieces.)

Meanwhile, in Bristol, two famous people associated with the city had left their marks on the pavement.

The best part of Christmas is meeting up with people. We had a great afternoon in Tewkesbury with Mary and Steve. (Selfie outside the Abbey where we saw 'The Longest Yarn'.)

Between Christmas and New Year I met up with Connor briefly in Birmingham. We got to pose with Ozzy the Bull.

We also had a great time spending nearly a week with family. Cathy's sister was in town just before Christmas and my sister drove down from Edinburgh for the day on the day after Boxing Day!

The December weather (including Storm Darragh) interrupted the football. However, I set a new record for going to games in December - managing six. There were three before Christmas and three afterwards.

I saw Barry play twice before Christmas - a cup semi-final defeat to TNS and a come-from-behind league victory over Cardiff Met. My other pre-Christmas game was watching Caldicot Town just round the corner from my house when they played Canton.  My friend Ben, who plays for Caldicot, had just become a dad for the first time so it was nice to see him and say congrats. 

I also got a Futbology badge when I checked in at the Caldicot game as it was the 10th time I'd seen them.

The games after Christmas were two Shrewsbury home games, on Boxing Day and the 29th December, and Barry's game away at Briton Ferry on New Year's Eve. On Boxing Day, Shrewsbury battled to a win against Lincoln in murky midwinter mist. On the 29th, they drew against Northampton (in much milder weather). I've now seen four Shrewsbury home games this season and they haven't lost any. 

And so to my final game of 2024, which ended 0-0. This was my first scoreless game of the season and ended a run of 49 games since my last goalless game back in March. 

Here's how my season stats look at the end of December:

And that, as they say is that. We had a quiet New Year's Eve, building Lego, watching comedy on Netflix, and then it was midnight and 2024 was done!