Gogledd Cymru - Mehefin 2024

A short round up of our recently concluded holiday in North Wales. We did the touristy stuff because we had good weather and the area was gearing up for the touristy season.

We explored castles.

We explored beaches.

We built our own castles on the beaches (because Cymru doesn't have enough castles).

We saw little steam trains.

We rode on a steam train to Blenau Ffestiniog and for the first time ever in my life it wasn't raining when I went to Blenau Ffestiniog.

When we ran out of trains, we rode on trams.

And sometimes we just had to do the scenic driving ourselves.

Could this look more Welsh?

We were staying on a farm and got to meet the ducklings and the pigs.

And on a more wilder note, we went to the osprey centre and saw nesting ospreys (and chicks).

We were blessed with great weather every day and in the evenings we enjoyed pretty sunsets.

And that was our gorgeous holiday in North Wales.

Recap of the month - June 2023

We are halfway through the year now and I had my first football-free month. Well, not entirely. I started collecting some football stickers to make up for not going to games. 

Speaking of collecting, I had my annual trip to Swindon to the 'Swinpex' stamp show. The organisation I belong to has it's AGM there each year. This year the guest presenter was Les Ashton-Smith, who presented on 'philatelic firsts' - stamps that were pioneering in some way, usually through the use of odd materials.

One of the weird materials used to make a stamp was fish skin, used by the Faroe Islands. Naturally, the country of origin grabbed my attention as that's where my Grandma came from and I've always felt an ancestral affinity with it. 

I reached the midway point of my notice period in June. I also took an opportunity to attend the NHS Wales Diabetes Showcase, to reacquaint myself with former colleagues in the work of Diabetes before starting my new job with Diabetes UK. I was very humbled by the warmth of the welcome I received - including some unexpected hugs. It was great to connect with some longstanding partners in disruption!

I also had some accrued leave to take before I finally exit my current employer. We spent a week up in North Cymru, staying in Felinheli, halfway between Caernarfon and Bangor. A proper blog post will follow, but for now, here are a couple of pics of castles. 

These castles have stood for centuries....

However, we stayed on the beach late and watched the ones we built get consumed by the tide!