Pigeons and politics - September 2025 review of the month

I haven't blogged much this month because I've been too busy to blog! But I did post about Cathy and I celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary with some on-ice punch ups watching Cardiff Devils, as well as our visit to the new Lego Shop. Plus, you can catch up on my Book of the Month (about riotous protests in the 19th Century) and my Blood Bowl match report from my 10th game of the year with Bryan. 

I also had a trip to Glasgow with work. One thing I noticed on my fleeting overnight visit is Glasgow has some of the biggest pigeons ever! They're also honoured with street art. 

Also, it appears the Doctor has got lost.

Before my all day meeting started I made it to the local Celtic Shop to pick up a couple of pin badges for my growing sports badge collection.

My main focus this month has been canvassing. There is a by-election in Caerphilly and I've been up a couple of times to support the campaign efforts.

Sara was also canvassing so we got to work together, which was really lovely.

More locally, we have started canvassing at stations during the morning commuter rush. This has mainly been me and Anna, one of the candidates in our area for the Senedd elections next year. 

I find canvassing fun. I've had lots of friendly conversations with people and it's really good exercise! (I think it's really helped me lose weight as that was my goal since getting some negative health news in April - at my end of September weigh in I had lost 10kg, which is over a stone).

In other political news I went to the Yes Caerdydd AGM where I had agreed to run a quiz. Cathy helped me put together the questions, including a brilliant picture round of famous dragons! (Well it is for Yes Cymru!) 

Jack and Elin were the winning team and had prizes of Yes Cymru tea towels along with the trophy.

In other social news, I had a very late opportunity to see the lad Connor as he made a rapid-fire visit to the Diff. We went out for French toast brunch and caught up on life. It was lovely to see him. 

The football season continues. I went to four senior level games in the month. Cardiff Dracs beat Aberystwyth in their first home win in the Cymru South for the Dracs.

It was also my 25th match at the Dracs ground.

My friend Rhys was there and made a video all about his personal connection with Gabalfa and the Dracs. If you skip forward to about 9 minutes in you'll see my cameo. 

The win over Aberystwyth was part of an unbeaten September for the Dracs. I couldn't get to all their games but I did see them beat Cwmbran Celtic in the Welsh Cup and win away at Llantwit Major.

Here's the windmill that is the reason Llantwit Major play at a ground called Windmill Lane. 

My other game this month was a disappointing defeat for Shrewsbury against Salford City. However, my youngest niece came with us and was very excited to meet the mascots!

I also caught up with my friend Jim and his lad, Nic.

A new independence movement has started! 

My footballing highlight of the month was the day after the Shrewsbury game when I watched my eldest nephew Zac play for his juniors team. He scored 4 goals in a 6-2 rout and was Man of the Match.

We have some more travels planned for this month and I'm hoping that might include another opportunity to watch Zac play. Find out next month whether I make it!

Monthly round-up - September 2024

We are clearly heading into Autumn now. It's getting colder. At the end of the month, the Friends of Grange Gardens had a work-day and we ended up shovelling a lot of leaves!

Speaking of leaves... I had a week's annual leave and we spent it in Shropshire. Our week started with a lengthy wait in an A&E because Cathy had a poorly leg. But it got better after that. We had a night in Wolverhampton on our wedding anniversary and went to a Terrorvision gig - read my blog post here. And we had some nice times with family and pootling around Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock.

I also did quite a bit of travelling for work, including going up to North Wales to attend a charity fashion show, and a midweek two-day trip to London. The train journey to London was chaotic due to a fatality on the line at Didcot, so I ended up diverted to Bristol Temple Meads. It meant I saw some different bits of the railway network than I normally do.

Football-wise I went to four games this month. I've blogged about my double dose of "Corinthian" football in the middle of the month. I also saw Cardiff Draconians play a cup match and made my first visit of the season to the Meadow to watch a Shrewsbury home game. I was in the safe standing section with my friend Jim and his son Nikolai.

When we were teenagers, Jim and I used to stand on the Wakeman End at Shrewsbury's old ground, Gay Meadow. So it was a bit of a throwback to thirty years ago when we both had more hair and possibly more optimism about Shrewsbury's chances of winning. With a bit of luck we might well still be watching football together in another thirty years time. 

My Futbology totals at the end of September:

Hectic itineraries and home improvements - April 2024

Some highlights from April 2024...

Train of the month:
Docklands Light Railway

The month began with my brother, sister-in-law and their four kids visiting us in Cardiff for 48 hours over my birthday. They stayed near us in Cardiff Bay. We had a lot of fun with them including riding the big wheel in the Bay and a trip to the amusement arcades on Ynys y Barri.

A highlight, as ever, was the play park round the corner.

Besides my birthday there were a couple of other celebrations. I saw my godson at his birthday party as he celebrated being 2. And I went to the studio-warming held by my friend Sian in her new business premises on Barry High Street. 

Sian is the exceptional photographer who came and took photos at our Silver Wedding Anniversary in September last year. It was great to see her new studio and she was already taking bookings for shoots.

Then I spent the best part of a week in London at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference. I was part of a team running an exhibition stand for the youth programme that I work on. The team included volunteers from each of the four regions in England and the other nations of the UK - so seven young people in total. They were an absolutely brilliant crew who worked incredibly hard to represent the programme and talk to healthcare professionals about the impact of the work. 

When the stand was set up and still looked neat!

And Sara dropped by to say 'Hi'

I stayed on after the conference and had a crazy weekend that started on the Friday night in the Moomin Shop in Covent Garden and ended on a sunny Sunday in Colwyn Bay queuing for ice creams inside a football ground. More details will appear on my posts about the football matches I've been to this month. But I did get to see Mum and the Fredster as well. (Here's the hound posing with Zac!)

I treated myself to a first class ticket home on the Monday morning. It was worth the extra £3!

Got a cracking cup of tea as well.

The final weekend of the month was spent getting ready to move out of our house ahead of the next tranche of building work. Our hall, stairwell and landing are getting replastered and it's just easier to be out of the way of the workmen. So we decamped to a teeny tiny flat in Cardiff Bay for a week. It was very small, but had a great view of the Pierhead Building from the window. 

And we were sort of, but not really, on holiday, so we had an ice cream (super low fat blackcurrant sorbet for Cathy) despite the rain...

Disneyland train delays

I was just about to get on the Disneyland train, for a leisurely trip around the park, when the attendant stopped me. "We have a problem with the train," he said.

Cue a group of engineers and maintenance guys gathering on the platform trying to work out what was wrong. 

However, the worst thing about the delay was that I was there without any of the other members of my party. And there were no other people from the UK near me in the queue. I was just about to make a joke about 'leaves on the line' when I realised the French, German and Spanish families near me probably wouldn't get the reference!

Eventually we got moving and I got to see Disneyland from the train. It gives an odd view of the park. My dad once said that travelling by train meant you saw "the backside of cities" and, it seems, the same was true on this train ride.

I liked the view of Thunder Mesa, home of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, though. It seemed to lean and loom more from this angle. 

There are a couple of 'vignettes' that are only visible from the train. There was a trope of abandoned vehicles...

Frontierland station was the only other station open besides Main Street. 

Discoveryland station looked eerily deserted as we choo-chooed through. 

And then I was back at Main Street again. My train photography skills were as bad and uninspiring as on the regular railways.