Recap of the Month - May 2023

Random selfie of the month - Salisbury Cathedral cloister

May was a very busy month and I barely managed to blog. I missed writing my traditional Star Wars Day post. I was able to post on my blog about Tony Gwynn's baseball cards on Tony's Birthday - it was the first post in months on that neglected project. But apart from a snack of the month, that was it. 

So, what have I been doing? Well, Cathy and I have mainly been trying to sort out the stamp collection my Dad left behind. The collection is in several boxes and lots of it was still unsorted, over four years after he passed away suddenly. We had a date at the end of the month to take them to be valued. Although that turned out to be a waste of time, it was good to have a date to work towards. Deadlines focus the mind and all that. Plus it gave me the opportunity to visit Salisbury. 

After my disappointing trip to Salisbury, I contacted another stamp dealer who said they could collect the stamps from my Mum's house in Shrewsbury. So, we reloaded all the stamps back into the car and I set off for an unexpected bank holiday Monday trip. Mum was pleased to see me and her doggo, Fred, was almost equally as pleased!

In work I have been serving my notice period. We had a great event up in Merthyr Tydfil, which was my main focus for the first half of the month. Now I am starting to work on planning a handover and identifying what I can wrap up before I leave so I don't leave too many half finished projects behind. 

I went on my first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year. Among the haul of rubbish on nearby streets I found a TV and an abandoned fish tank. 

Those were probably the most unusual items I picked up. We have started collecting discarded vapes for recycling as well, as the lithium batteries in them can prove a fire risk in rubbish lorries. So they went in a separate bag. Our litter picking crew found several, which adds to my theory that smokers are litterbugs, even when they are vaping instead.

Near the end of the month, Marco, our trusty and slightly battered VW Polo, successfully passed its MOT, so our little red car was clear to carry on motoring. Just as well, given I was ferrying stamps around the country!

Cathy and I had a cinema trip to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3. I've enjoyed the Guardians movies ever since the first one came out almost a decade ago, as well as the contribution the Guardians have made to other Marvel movies, especially Thor: Love and Thunder last year. This film focused on my favourite character, Rocket Raccoon, and gave all the characters a satisfying character arc as this particular part of the Marvel franchise came to an end. 

And in the lobby I got to see what it would be like to be a Ken doll!

And even though Barry Town's season ended at the end of April, the football season continued right to the end of May. I saw six matches, including my first 0-0 of the season in a game that went to a penalty shoot out after extra time. I had not seen a 0-0 for well over a year - a run of 75 matches. 

I also watched five Cardiff Draconians games as they battled to escape the relegation zone in their league. 

The Dracs survived by winning their final game, against the team who were one point ahead of them and who ended up getting relegated instead. I was really pleased the Dracs stayed up and look forward to visiting the Orange Llama Stadium again next season. 

Litter picking irony

Yesterday I braved the squally showers and joined some other intrepid litter pickers on the Keep Grangetown Tidy monthly litter pick. There wasn't much of interest to report in the bag I filled, but I was highly amused that one of my fellow litter pickers had retrieved a broken sign saying "cleaning in progress" from inside a bush.

Busy mid-January Saturday

I had a full day yesterday. I started out with a lateral flow test to make sure I was safe to meet people, then I was off to the first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick of the year. Over 40 people turned up and we collected a huge amount of litter.

I'm in this photo - can you spot me? (Credit KGT)

The bags pile up (Credit KGT)

I've blogged about litter-picking before and noted that it provides insights into the community we live in. On this pick there were lots of evidence of the pandemic. I picked up a couple of facemasks and a disposable glove. If I had found a discarded bottle of hand sanitzer I would have scored the pandemic litter trifecta.

One of the facemasks was designer.

Behind a junction box on Clive Street I found a little collection of detritus that in it's own way tells a sad story. An empty whisky bottle and a scratched off lottery scratchcard. The can was a store-brand can of energy drink. It just all adds up to a tale of disappointed dreams. 

There's someone who won't be paying their parking fixed penalty notice as I found it thrown in the gutter on Clive Street. I also found a hubcap. It was too big for my rubbish bag so I took it back to the main collecting point. Later, I found it had been joined by a companion. They were different designs, but I noticed they were both Vauxhall hubcaps. 

It felt like a very productive two hours. I walked some of the way home with some new friends chatting about Grangetown. After a quick lunch, I was back out again, and off to my first football match of 2022.

I was able to go to a game because the Welsh Government eased restrictions on Friday. I headed over to Gabalfa to watch Cardiff Draconians, who were third in the Ardal South West Division, play Pontardawe Town, who were second in the table.

I met my friend Steve at the ground and we had a good catch-up about everything that had happened since we last saw each other. Neither of us had been to the Draconians home ground, Lydstep Park, before, and it's got quite an aspect with the Gabalfa Towers looming over the little stand. 

From another angle you can see the spire of Llandaff Cathedral. I only realised that at the end when it wasn't possible to get a good photo. So I will probably have to go back to another game some time to get that 'shot'.

The game itself was very tight. Pontardawe bossed the first half and led at the break. They looked in control in the second half, although with 20 minutes to go, the "Dracs" came more into the game. They had a goal disallowed, then scored. One of Pontardawe's centre backs then kicked a celebrating Drac player and got a straight red card. In the 89th minute, the Dracs were awarded a penalty, which they converted to somehow run out 2-1 winners. 

I have seen three games in the Ardal South West this season, starting at Penrhiwceiber Rangers versus Caerau Ely. Last month I saw Caerau Ely against the Dracs. Then yesterday I saw the Dracs againt Pontardawe. Now I have an urge to go to Pontardawe next to keep the run of attending a home match of the team I saw playing away going. 

And the day was not yet done, as my friend Connor was back in Cardiff for a weekend. We went out for a meal together in the evening. Connor gave me a late Christmas present of a Blood Bowl comic book. I'd not seen it before so it was a real surprise. Once I've read it I will consider reviewing it on the blog!

Continuing adventures in community litter picking

It's been several months since I joined in on a Tidy Grangetown litter pick. This time, Fiona, who is one of the stalwarts of the group recognised me as the chap who wrote a blog about it. (Looking back, I've actually written two!)

This time round we were meeting by the Channel View Leisure Centre, which is right next to the River Taff. Dave from the Cardiff Rivers Group, who brings all the bags and holders and litter grabbers and gloves and high-vis vests, suggested I go explore down by the water-sports slipway where a lot of rubbish had washed up.

In doing so, I met a new friend.

He was a very friendly swan who seemed very interested in what I was up to as I fished various bottles out of the water. There were lots of ducks around who weren't as interactive and minded their own business a bit more.

After having a nice chat with the swan ("Hello, Mister Swan, don't worry, I'm just picking up all this plastic crap, no, don't try to eat the plastic crap...") I walked through The Marl to Ferry Road. At this point the sun had come out and it had turned into a lovely spring morning.

In The Marl I found the obligatory lost toy who had clearly lost his latest duel with Batman.

On Ferry Road I found a magnetic 'L plate' that probably dropped off a passing car and a smashed in, backless mobile phone.

During the pick, I found a ziplock bag full of dodgy looking self-rolled smokes, nitrous canisters aplenty, and my first syringe. It didn't have a needle in it, although one of the other volunteers did find a syringe with a needle intact. As I have blogged before, you learn a lot about a neighbourhood by picking up its trash. People seem to lose their socks around here, for example.

And another first! I fished a Tim Horton's cup out of the river next to Mister Swan. The latest coffee chain to hit Cardiff have only been open a couple of months, but already they are following the lead of Starbucks and Costa in selling their wares to litter-bugs. Tsk!

At the end of the litter-pick we were invited into the Leisure Centre for a cup of tea as a thank you. Channel View is the only leisure centre in Cardiff that is still run by the council; all the others have been privatised. The centre is having a refit which will triple the size of the gym and provide a picture window view over the river, which will make it a much nicer facility to use. Work is due to complete by the end of April. I'm looking forward to seeing it.