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!

Giant July - a review of the month

Everyone, meet Darwin. He's a giant tortoise.

I met Darwin on one of my best work days ever, filming behind the scenes at Cotswold Wildlife Park. 

In the same week I visited Warrington to help support team members doing some filming there. The office is very near the Warrington Wolves rugby league stadium. (I took a pic but it's mainly of the car park so I'll spare you.)

Warrington wasn't my only northerly trip this month. Cathy and I went to see comedian Taylor Tomlinson in Manchester. We also had a look round the National Football Museum and met up with Connor. 

No photos allowed during the show

Another "giant" step, at least it feels like it for me, was joining a political party for the first time. I've blogged about becoming a member of Plaid Cymru and am enjoying getting stuck in. I also attended a Yes Cymru protest at the Senedd that was asking for the Crown Estate land in Wales to be devolved to the Welsh Government, to match the situation in Scotland where the Scottish Government has responsibility for it.

In between protests and political canvassing, I also got out on the Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick (where a couple of lost footballs made it into my latest post about Lost Footballs) and went to the Penarth Model Railway show.

Speaking of footballs... I enjoyed watching the Women's Euros and England's gutsy underdog win. The new football season is starting up and I went to four games, including two trips across the border to see Barry play friendlies in England, Penybont's UEFA Conference League qualifier against Kauno Zalgiris, and Cardiff Draconians' first game in the Cymru South (the Welsh second tier).

Futbology badge!

The Dracs have had to make some improvements to their ground and now have a new "supporter's entrance".

I've also invested in a Dracs season ticket, so you can expect to hear them mentioned quite a few times as the season goes on.

May 2022 - a month of bumpy beginnings

I had a week off after leaving my previous job before starting my new job. We did plenty of stuff, including a trip to Oxford to see a friend. We had some time to wander around Oxford includng a very brief look into the Ashmolean Museum.

We also saw the Bridge of Sighs. Here's Cathy stood under it to give an indication of its size.

We really liked the gargoyles on Brasenose College. This owl really caught my eye. He looks like he's pumped!

And there was some modern cultural artwork in the shopping centre.

Unfortunately, I came back from Oxford with a respiratory memento.

Yes, over three years into the pandemic I finally caught the 'rona. I felt pretty rough with it for a few days, with a raspy cough and feeling like I could not fully inhale air into my lungs. 

Unfortunately, the timing meant that I couldn't go into the office on my first day. I spent my first week and a bit logging into meetings virtually. It wasn't the way I wanted to meet my new team but everyone was kind about it. I am slowly getting a handle on the new ecosystem I am working in now. It's a slightly odd feeling, leaving behind a work context I really understood and having to learn a new one.

In football terms, I missed a few games while isolating. I still made it to four games either side of having covid. The month started with the Welsh Cup final, which had quite an exciting end as Penybont scored twice from 3-0 down and were pushing for an equaliser at the very end of the game. But TNS held on and were crowned 'pencampwyr'.

As a bonus, when I logged into Futbology, I got a badge for being at a cup final!

There was another cup final at the end of the month. I've been to see Cardiff Draconians a few times this year. After the league campaign ended, there were some league cup fixtures. The Dracs progressed through to the final, which was held up at the Bont in Penydarren. That was a new ground for me so I drove up after work.

The Dracs were posing in the goalmouth before the game.

But it was Trethomas Bluebirds who lifted the trophy.

Sadly, I was having a problem downloading the update for Futbology so no 'badge' for me at this cup final. I did, however, have the most marvellous chips from the New Dolphin fish bar in Caeharris, which is up the hill and then up again from the ground. 

And despite the enforced break from going outside for both me and Cathy (who tested positive a few days after I did), we still managed to see the Snoopy statues on the Dog's Trail. I'm going to post a load of selfies at some point, but for now, here we are outside a toy shop in the Queen's Arcade.

August 2019 football round up

A record-breaking 7 games for me in August. I've already blogged about the opening weekend, but here are some more bad photos and comments where I try to be amusing.

The newly rebranded JD Cymru Premier league kicked off on a wet Friday night with Barry away at neighbours Penybont. It was a ground I hadn't been to before and fortunately there was space in one of the stands so I could stay out of the Biblical rain.

It was relatively restrained rain at kick off.

Barry won 2-1, after going behind to a penalty. The winning goal was an absolute belter from Jonathan Hood, who later got sent off for messing around on the substitutes bench. Afterwards the players came over to salute the fans who had been raising the roof all night.

And then had a post-match huddle in front of us.

A week later and it was another Friday night game for Barry, this time at Jenner Park, against Aberystwyth Town.

My Mum was down for the bank holiday weekend so I took her along. She really enjoyed it.

Barry won 3-1, although they didn't look as comfortable as the scoreline suggests, particularly after the sun went down.

On the bank holiday Monday, Barry were at home again, this time playing Bala Town.

It was a much tougher game, ending 2-2. The weather was glorious, with barely a cloud in the sky. The clouds we did have were rather lovely.

Next up was a midweek game in the South Wales Alliance, Premier Division where my most local team, Grange Albion, were playing Cardiff Draconians. The Dracs are the Manchester City of the division apparently, and even pay some of their players. They have the fancy warm-up routines you would expect.

It was a game played with unofficial linesmen and plenty of banter between the ref, the players, the crowd and the managers. This is a level where referees can answer back.

The Dracs were 4-0 up before Albion got on the scoresheet to make it 4-1  at half time. Given their ground is right next to the bus depot (do you remember when I went to the bus depot?), it's a shame Cardiff Bus just repeatedly drove their buses past the back of the Albion goal instead of parking one in front of it.

The game finished 4-2 to the Dracs with missed chances aplenty in the second half.

And so to my final game in August, and my fourth in eight days, when I went with my friend Sara and her extended family to watch Cardiff play Fulham, in the other stadium on Sloper Road in Grangetown.

Cardiff's warm up was a bit different to the Dracs'. But I'm not sure what ring a ring a rosie will achieve.

The game was still 0-0 on 42 minutes and then was 1-1 at half time, which was also the full time score. It wasn't the most memorable game, although I did see a player, Harry Arter, sent off after getting booked for diving. It was his second yellow card and he had a long trudge off the field with a chorus of 'Cheerio! Cheerio! Cheerio!' for the duration of the trudge. I think that's the first time I've ever seen a player dismissed for diving. There's always something new to see at a football match.