Malaga street art

Another post about my Malaga trip - I thought it would be fun to have a post about some of the brilliant street art I saw there last weekend.

This was my absolute favourite:

I walked past this purple shark in daylight but didn't take a pic. He looks alright at night though.

Good slogan:

Down by the river:

Lots to see on this wall:

This guy looks like he's spotted something disconcerting: 

There is plenty of official street art too. Like this sculpture:

And we found a glorious independent bar called El Mura that had some great art inside.

And even on the menu board!

Wolverhampton graffiti Jedi wisdom

Star Wars graffiti spotted in Wolverhampton. Poor old Artoo getting clamped!

Yoda's advice was very timely as we were on our way to a gig!

Miles and memories - happenings in March

A dragon for St David's Day! 

Cathy and I covered lots of miles in March. I had a couple of days off work because we had an appointment at the specialist clinic in Cambridge (we have been heading over there annually for about six years now, pandemics notwithstanding). This year we decided to go via Shrewsbury and see Mum on Mother's Day weekend. I went to church with her (and most of the rest of the family) on Mother's Day and got to say hello to lots of old friends. 

Our Mother's Day dinner plans were thrown awry by the restaurant phoning up to tell us they were having a software problem so they couldn't process any food orders or payments. So we ended up with a stack of takeaway pizzas instead. In a weird way, it was a nice reflection of how resilient we are as a family that we can adapt to a situation and still have fun.

Mentioning resilience makes me think of how we have adjusted as a family following the loss of my dad. This March marked the fifth anniversary of his sudden death. I found myself thinking of him quite a bit. I went to a Wales 'C' International football match on the day itself - I think he would have liked that. 

On the Monday after Mother's Day we set out to Cambridge. We had a trouble-free journey and after checking in at our hotel we went for a little trip to Newmarket. It's a horsey place with lots of horsey businesses and also a cracking toy shop!

After our hospital appointment on the Tuesday we headed home to Cardiff. We stopped in Oxford and saw our friend Ella on the way. 

We got home about midnight. The next morning I was on the 7.23am train to London for an all day meeting. I was also incubating a cold. Gotta admit, I wasn't at my best in that meeting. 

Before I came home I met up with my baseball buddy Gawain in an American sports-themed restaurant under Waterloo Station, in a warren of railway arches covered in graffiti. 

Selfie on the way to Waterloo

Meeting up had seemed like a great idea when we made the plan. By the time I got there though I was beyond exhausted. However, Gawain is very good company and we had a great two hours chatting before I had to get the train home.

All that excitement was just in five days. The rest of the month has been a bit of a blur. I made it to my first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick of the year. Fiona who organises it took a picture as proof.

I also made my first foray to the cinema in 2024, watching Dune Part 2 (which I blogged about here). And we went to our first gig of the year - to see Tony Wright at the Metropole Theatre in Abertillery. It was on Easter Sunday, so we took him some Easter eggs, which Cathy presented to him afterwards.

We even had time this month for some ice creams in Victoria Park with the Wootten family. Spring is here. Summer is coming!

Fun with street art

I'm having a week off between leaving my last job and starting my new one. On Tuesday, Cathy and I were in the city centre and we saw some cool street art. We tried to pose some photos with it, but couldn't get it to click.

So we went back on Wednesday and had a mess around. The patrons of the nearby nail bar watched on amused as I struck various poses.

I really like these photos and decided to use them to give my socials an overhaul. These are now on Facebook, Twitter and I've put one in the sidebar of this blog. 

A while back I wrote a poem called Angel Voice (you can read it here). The more I think about it, angels are no use if they stay in Heaven. Maybe they wear Ellesse sports jackets and dirty Converse. (Or maybe they don't.)

I want to give a massive thank you to Cathy for humoring me, and also for ordering me into position to get the shots just right. 

If you want to copy this, then go and find the Big Moose Coffee Co. The wings and halo are on the wall opposite. Big Moose serve an excellent cup of coffee as well and is an independent non-profit venture well worth supporting. I don't know who drew the wings. I offer my thanks to the unsung genius. 

First time in Spain - exploring Valencia

I was fortunate enough to travel to a conference being held in Valencia this week. It sounds glamorous but I spent most of the days I was there either in the conference rooms (no windows) or in my hotel checking work emails (at least I had windows).

Nice hotel though, right next to the conference centre

When I was working in my room the view wasn't bad

We mainly got to see Valencia by night, so I don't have any good photos of the architecture. This is the city hall.

And this is the North train station. Not bad for a train station.

After floods in the 70s they diverted the river around the city and turned the river bed into a huge sunken park. Whoever thought of that was a visionary. The old bridges still cross the park.

In the park you can walk under the bridges.

There's lots to see in the park and at the South end are some amazing buildings.

They don't miss an opportunity for some art - this big purple sculpture was on a roundabout.

The front of this building was covered in traffic cones.

This is one of the metro stations., I thought it was rather lovely.

There's lots of graffiti on the streets as well. Someone likes drawing these cute ninja dudes. They pop up everywhere.

Valencia is famous for its paella. They sell paella pans on the street alongside other souvenirs.

Paella goes nicely with cerveza. This is Valencia IPA (VIPA). It has a peachy aroma and tastes lovely.

It was a brief visit, made all the more brief by having to work at the conference. But I really like Valencia and I definitely want to go back.

Theologically insecure Christians

There's a little part of me that is concerned for the person who felt the need to doctor this piece of graffiti with gaffer tape, just to make it theologically correct.