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.

A return to the Christmas Carol Audit

For the first time in a while I went to several carol services this Christmas. I've previously blogged about which carols are most likely to be sung - my most recent post was in 2019. I went to four carol services this year, so felt that gave me a useful number of data sources. There was some significant variety as well.

The four singalong events were:

1. Carols in the Pub, at The Grange Pub in Cardiff, organised by Grace Church 
2. The Grange Gardens Carol Service, organised by the Cardiff Council Park Rangers in conjunction with Friends of Grange Gardens and other community groups. Music was provided by the brass band of the Grangetown Corps of the Salvation Army with input from Grace Church and Eglwys Anghor.
3. Christmas Eve midnight communion service at Christchurch, an Anglican Church in Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury (where I was spending Christmas)
4. Christmas Day service at Barnabas Community Church in Shrewsbury

Carols in the Pub at The Grange

Services at Christchurch and Barnabas have featured in previous audits, so there is some consistency there. The formats were a bit different. Carols in the Pub featured an online song sheet, played in request order, with a reprise of the most popular songs. 

Grange Gardens

There were some new songs featured in the combined set lists of the services. These were mainly popular Christmas songs, like We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells. However, the Anghor church led a carol in Welsh at the Grange Gardens service, called Hwiangwrdd Mair (Suia'r Gwynt), which translates as Mary's Lullaby (Gentle Breeze). There are now over 40 carols and songs on my database, with 21 only featuring in one service. 

Christmas Eve midnight service

Joy to the World was a popular choice this year, featuring in three of the services. On Christmas Day we sang an 'updated' version with an additional chorus that was completely unnecessary. There were also a few more added lines in a 'bridge' in the song which borrowed the melody from Ode to Joy. This may have been an homage to the climactic scene at the end of the well known Christmas movie, Die Hard, but it irritated me. It's bad enough when people take it upon themselves to 'improve' classics, but then to cheat and use someone else's tune seems insultingly lazy.

Christmas Day service

Yet again, the most popular carol, featuring in all four services, was O Come All Ye Faithful. This was already the leading song in my little audit and has now extended its lead. In fact, of the 13 services I have listed on my spreadsheet, there was only one service where O Come All Ye Faithful didn't feature. 

Here is the top ten table, with this year's carols included:

Good Christians All Rejoice is a mainstay of the Christchurch midnight communion services - I have three of these services listed in my audit now and it has featured three times. In the Bleak Midwinter is my least favourite carol in the list. With any luck, some other carol will get really popular and replace it in the top ten!

See previous Christmas Carol audits along with over a decade of Christmas Card Audits on my dedicated page!

Unexpected Orwellian influence

Lately Cathy and I have been dining out in Wetherspoons pubs. It may be surprising but the company is very good at providing nutritional information and there are three different things on the menu that Cathy can eat while sticking to her medically recommended low fat diet. 

And there are Wetherspoons everywhere, so when we travel we know we can eat in one, which is why we end up in so many. 

However, when we visited the 'Spoons in Wolverhampton there was a surprise waiting for us. The Wetherspoons there is called 'The Moon Under Water' and it's named after... George Orwell's dream pub!

I wasn't 'specting that in a 'Spoons!

A week in Worcestershire

After spending my birthday at the Severn Valley Railway (see previous blog post) we then spent the following week on holiday in Worcestershire in a little village called Cookley. Here's a run down of our week.

Monday mini-golf

We had a lovely sunny day and went to Wolverley to play mini pro golf. This was great fun, with little fairways, greens and sand traps!

Plus, of course, the fun obstacles that are found on minigolf courses, like windmills...

...and lighthouses...

...and bears, oh my!

It was a close run round, with Cathy edging the 18 holes by three shots. If only I hadn't hit so many mini bunkers!

Or gators!

Tuesday train travelling

We parked at Stourbridge Junction (winner of the World Cup of Stations in 2021) and got the train into the centre of Birmingham. We met up with Connor for lunch in a great independent cafe restaurant called Weyland's Yard. He was very polite as I did the old person thing of fumbling with my phone trying to take a selfie.

Wednesday wetness

We went to Kidderminster for a look around. It was raining. There isn't much positive to be said about Kidderminster town centre. It really seemed to be struggling. 

Thursday thrills 

Going a bit further south, we visited Worcester. I hadn't really been into the centre before. There were three toy shops - an impressive number for a fairly small place. I also found a bookshop with a suitable section considering I had just turned 47.

We also went to the cinema and watched the new Shazam! movie, which carried on the fun antics from the first movie. In the evening we went to a pub and decided not to join in the pub quiz... although we ended up helping the team next to us with several answers. (I find it hard not to respond to trivia questions!)

Friday football

On the final day of the holiday we went up to Shrewsbury. I went with my mum, brother and all four nieces and nephews to watch Shrewsbury Town v Peterborough. It was the first football match for my youngest niece and nephew and they got certificates to prove it.

And met Lenny!

They also got given chocolate Easter eggs. "Sharing" them was probably the highlight of the occasion for me as well, considering Shrewsbury slumped to a dismal 3-0 defeat.

Saturday sayonara

And on Saturday we drove home... 

Just makes you wanna wee

Wedding in Bournemouth. Looked for a pub to go afterwards. Found a place on Google that had a 5 star rating, called The Cricketer's Arms. Friendly landlord called Jake. We made his night when we told him his pub had 5 stars on Google. The pub was a proper Victorian boozer, and when I went in the gents it had the most magnificent urinal EVER.

It was so amazing I had to take a picture.

Play offs in the pub

I went to The Grange pub last night to watch the mighty Shrews take on MK Dons in the League Two play offs and Sky’s surprisingly unpatronising coverage of a fairly dull, if fast-paced, scoreless draw. The pitch, now free of ducks and even swans, was muddy, but held up reasonably well in what will be the last ever Town game on it.

I did feel nostalgic though, as the cameras panned around a ground I know so well, lingering on the crumbling terraces, the trees above the stands, and the parochial advertising hoardings, while the commentators dutifully reminded us that this was the last game at Gay Meadow after 97 years…

So farewell then, the family stand, where as a lucky mascot I watched Town decimate Grimsby in the old second division; goodbye Christmas Steel Stockholders, the blue ad sign on the Wakeman End where me and Jim used to stand during our sixth form years; arrivederci the Riverside, with its tiny snack bar and stinky bogs.

It’s the end of an era. And I watched it live on Sky in a run down pub where no one cared. Except me.