A capital weekend in Edinburgh

I spent the last week of February working at a conference in Glasgow. When the conference ended and we had packed the stand away I said goodbye to my colleagues and hopped on a train to Edinburgh to see my sister, Sarah, and her husband, Dan, and their three kids Iona, Jura and Finlay. 

Sarah and Dan moved to Edinburgh about 15 years ago and this was the first time I had visited them, which I know is slack of me. However, I was able to get there earlier than planned on the Friday to maximise the amount of time I spent with them.

On the Saturday I came down for breakfast to find the house had been decorated for St David's Day - so that I wouldn't feel homesick! Our main thing for the morning was driving out to the Falkirk Helix to see the giant 'Kelpies' statues. I love large-scale artwork and the Kelpies were magnificent.

We also had ice creams. Dan was the biggest kid, going for blue sherbert on his ice cream. 

After lunch I went with Dan and Finlay to watch a football match. The game was Spartans FC against Bonnyrigg Rose in the Scottish League 2. The ground is about a 15 minute walk from Sarah and Dan's house, so really convenient for us. A friendly steward took a photo of us on the way in. 

Once we had gone in and found some seats, Finlay told me it was his first ever football match. Privately I hoped it wouldn't be a dire nil-nil. In fact, it was a good game with both sides playing attractive passing football. There were four goals, with the Spartans winning 3-1. All 4 goals were crackers. The attendance was given as 701, so I told Finlay he was the 1. He was pleased about that. 

We also had some unexpected sunshine, meaning that weather-wise, the game really was a game of two halves!

In the evening we watched Gladiators together, then played a game after tea called Don't be a Dik Dik. It's an amusing game featuring animals that have rude-sounding names. I think the grown ups spent more time sniggering during it than the kids did.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny again. I went with Sarah to watch Finlay play for his junior rugby team. I met two other Welshies there and I had a little chat in Cymraeg to an expat from Carmarthen.

In the afternoon we went into the city centre and visited the National Museum of Scotland, a hugely impressive building with some great exhibits. I was thrilled to see a selection of the famous Lewis chessmen, and bought a replica knight in the gift shop afterwards. 

From the roof of the national museum there are fab views across the city, including the castle and Arthur's Seat. The views are well worth the wait for the lift. 

Other exhibits included Scottish-built trains and cars, and a huge array of stuffed animals and fossil skeletons. Along with the Tyrannosaurus Rex there was a glyptodont, the fossil ancestor of pangolins.

Later in the evening we had a home visit from a T Rex, which turned out to be Iona in a dino-suit. 

Our evening meal on the Sunday was at an Indian restaurant called Dishoom where I discovered one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten - okra fries. I demolished the bowl before realising I should have taken a picture of it. Never mind, that just means I'll have to go back some time. The hardship!

All too quickly it was Monday morning. I said goodbye to the kids before they went to school. Dan kindly drove me to the airport and I had a hassle-free flight back to Bristol and an easy drive home across the bridge to a more familiar capital. 

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!

St Davids Day 2021

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus i chi! Happy St David's Day to you. Here are some cheery daffs that I found in Bute Park at the weekend. I liked how they were backlit by sunshine.

I have been thinking recently about some of the things that would be possible in an independent Wales, and one of them would be to have a national holiday on St David's Day. (I recently found out this was agreed on in the first sitting of the Welsh Assembly after it was convened, and was subsequently rejected by the UK Government.)

However, just having a day off work is fairly meaningless. There are no doubt lots of old traditions that could be revived. But what if we took this opportunity to start new traditions?

I've always liked the story of St David's final words to his followers. As he lay dying he apparently told them to "Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about." This is sometimes summarised as a call to "Be faithful in the little things." 

Because little things matter, whether for good or ill. A smile can lift a person's spirits. A random act of kindness can save a life. A little lie can poison a relationship. A broken promise can break a person.

I would really love to see a day given over to the 'little things'. That could be joining in a community event like a litter-pick, or it could be doing something little that you've been meaning to do for a while. Visiting an elderly relative. Helping your neighbour tidy their garden. Sorting through the wardrobe and taking clothes to a charity shop. Making time for family, friends, and people in your community who often go unthanked for the work they do.

I feel it would be a wonderful statement about the kind of society we want in Wales, if we chose to make the national holiday an opportunity to live out the instruction of our patron saint.