My June selfie photo dump

The monthly round up post was a bit too long to include all the selfies I took. So here is a special edition photo dump.

Very early on in the month I went to Shrewsbury as an overnight stop on a work trip. I stayed at Hotel Mum and went out for tea with the proprietor.

I also saw Dave on the same trip.

Here's my football four person selfie with Sara, Steve and Scott, when we went to watch Wales women versus Czechia.

Sara and Scott are former work colleagues and it was a bumper month for selfies with people I used to work with.

I met Matt and Jo at a big charity expo - which was also at Cardiff City Stadium, funnily enough.

Kate was at the same event.

I took a selfie with Justin at a Plaid Cymru gathering.

And I met Heather for lunch as we continued our tradition of marking the solstices. 

And a few solo selfies. Firstly, my double-sided sherbet ice cream at Tafwyl.

Here's a selfie from on my way in to my Cymraeg exam in Treforest. My confidence was unfounded and I suspect I have done terribly.

And a selfie from my canvassing session in Treorchy to finish off.

My February 2026 round-up

February is always a short month and this year it felt really short. The big highlights were a weekend in Malaga with my friend Jim and a bucket list gig in Bristol. But lots more happened too, like going on a pancake day date with Cathy and fielding a new team in my monthly Blood Bowl battle with Bryan. 

On the blog, my second Book of the Month in 2026 was also a second science fiction book of the year. My album of the month was a heavy metal band from Mongolia.

In other news I made it to February's community litter pick organised by Keep Grangetown Tidy. 

Fiona, the organiser of KGT, took a sneaky pic of me and my friend Neil extricating rubbish from one of the big hedges! So here we are in action:

It was a big month in politics generally. I was pleased to see the Green Party win a by-election in England. I'd talked about it with Jim quite a lot in Malaga - he had been part of the campaign. More close to home, the Plaid Cymru conference at the end of the month went really well. I missed out on going as I had other commitments but it seemed like everyone else I know went and had a great time. 

The campaigning has continued in Grangetown.

I enjoy my early morning sessions leafleting at railway stations, and sometimes I indulge myself taking pictures of trains. I liked this juxtaposition of old and new rolling stock at Eastbrook.

And at Dinas Powys I spotted this train named after Gavin and Stacey!

I made it to three football matches in February. I've already posted a full write up of the game I watched in Malaga. My two other games were a disappointing home defeat for Barry and a great home win for Cardiff Dracs. I watched the latter with Scott and Nick and made them smile for a selfie!

 Time marches on... into March.

Football's back already!

Last weekend marked the start of the new domestic football season here in Cymru with some cup games. And last night the first Ardal League games of the season were played. 

The Ardal Leagues are the third level of football in Cymru, with 64 clubs split over 4 divisions. I decided to go and watch Cardiff Draconians play AFC Llwydcoed on the opening night. 

Ready to kick off!

I had a nice surprise in the morning when my friend Tom texted me and said he was in town and could he come along, and my regular partner-in-random-matchgoing, Paul, was free as well. 

So, how entertaining was the season's first game in the Ardal League South West Division? Hugely! 

Dracs took 4 minutes to score their first goal. The scorer was Sam, whose dad, Scott, is one of my former work colleagues. Scott and I had a good chat at half time over a cup of tea and barely talked about the game.

The Dracs went two up after 9 minutes. In the second half Dracs went further ahead with a 35 yard worldie. Then things went south.

Overall I think the female ref had a good game and the three red cards she ended up flourishing don't change my opinion. She had no choice to send off a Dracs defender for a second yellow. 

But in the 12 minutes of added time she had to sort out some silly buggers who were pushing each other. That meant a couple of yellows and another red card for the Dracs. Unfortunately, it was also obvious to everyone that the smirking Llwydcoed player who was the chief miscreant had got away with causing mayhem. 

The ref then sent off a Dracs coach for being a bit vocal in his disagreement with her decisions (I think). And, because he had had been a bit vocal, she took the Dracs free kick away from them and awarded it to the opposition. A gutsy move. I admired that. 

In between the first yellow card and the injury time shenanigans, the Dracs were awarded a penalty. I told Tom and Paul that it was going over the bar. Sometimes you just know these things. And boom! It went over like a comet.  It might even have cleared the house across the street from the ground. 

A last minute acrobatic save by Dracs keeper Harry Johnson kept the Dracs's opening day (night?) sheet clean. And we couldn't complain at the lack of drama. Three goals, two red cards for players and a skyed penalty.

And a lovely sunset too!