I Love the Pussy / Dont Lose

A short post before the weekend, a mixture of good and bad I'm afraid.

Good

Neal has very kindly taken a picture of the most used phrase amongst friends of mine - "Don't lose Bledd" - at the South Pole. Regular readers will know that my good friend Bledd has been pretty sick recently with his intestine being taken out and all that, so this is for him! Cheers Neal!


Dont Lose

Bad

When I stayed in Victoria, Canada for a while in 2004 I spent quite a good amount of time in the company of a Venezuelan lad named Carlos. Carlos was hilarious and he had a very healthy appetite for girls. One time in a bar in Victoria he almost paralysed us with laughter when he beckoned Sud and myself over as though he had something really important to tell us - we leaned in closer and he said in his thick Venezualan accent...

"I LOVE the pussy"

Whenever Sud or myself and myself have been out since, only the slightest mention of Carlos made us think of that and burst out laughing! Unfortunately, Carlos was killed in a car accident back in Venezuela recently - so here's to you buddy, it's a phrase everyone should use more often.

Hobbits in the Hills

After the previous weekends festivities, this weekend was going to be a welcome break from the international rugby - which is set to continue this coming Saturday.

Andy had suggested that we head down to watch the Ospreys play on Friday evening but I knew full well that that would lead to another night out and another headache in the morning, so declined and suggested an all together healthier alternative - a trip up to my parents house and a hike in the hills. After watching the Ospreys rugby on TV before hand of course!

So, off we went to the hills...

The village at home consists of 100 people, and it's extremely quiet. The perfect anti-Cardiff remedy. But I noticed there were more cars than usual on the road leading up to the village (More than one car that is) and as we pulled into the village we were greeted by the sight of tens of people wandering around looking lost... it turns out there was a party of GIANT proportions gathering momentum up on the hillside! So much for a quiet retreat.

We paid a visit to the party after closing time in the pub and found a barn full of people jumping around to some sick Drum'N'Bass - we bounced all the way across the barn and found the entrance to another one, this one had a stage which was filled with a pretty angry angst-filled group dressed in black, thrashing away on their guitars and screaming things about fairies and kittens in to the mic (probably, we couldn't understand a word). There was a great set up anyway and there was a good sized crowd of about 350-400 people, but as we weren't as drunk/stoned/high as anyone else there we slipped away after about an hour back to the safety of my house.

Saturday we visited the nearby Garn Goch, probably the largest Iron Age hill fort in Wales. It's about 3000 years old and the stones from which it was constructed still remain in the same place - You can almost imagine being back there living with the native Celts, watching the Roman armies marching up the valley towards you! Plus, the weather was just great!


Not just a pile of rocks

Sunday, Andy and myself set of to find the hiding place of the Welsh highwayman, Twm Siôn Cati (or Thomas Jones if you can't pronounce that, but it's not half as good as a name for a highwayman). Twm was a gentleman highwayman, always polite when robbing people and he went to lengths to ensure that his victims were not physically harmed as he removed their possessions from them. There's more on Twm in wikipedia if you're interested.

After a brief hike around the Roman gold mines at Dolaucothi,


The view down across the Cothi valley where there's Gold to be found

we drove up to near the source of the River Tywi (Towy, in English) right up in the Cambrian mountains. This part of Wales is PERFECT bandit territory, steep-sided gorges, tall mountains covered in rocky outcrops and the river Tywi rips along the bottom of the valley at no slow pace. We parked close to the hill on which Twm used to hide and like a couple of eight year old boys set about climbing to the summit, visiting Twms' cave on the way up. The weather was closing in a little and everything was pretty muddy from the rain but this made climbing the hill even more fun!


Twm Sion Catis' stomping ground

Check out the amazingly amateur pics here

**Update**

As a special treat (?) for you all today, here are some rubbish 20sec clips from us gooning around in the mountains:-

On the way up, down by the river - I'd just discovered how to take movie clips
At the top - Nuff Said.
Jump - We'd tried to get a still of me jumping but it didn't work, so we filmed it.
In the Car - It was too dark to actually see the nice scenery unfortunately.

Wales v Scotland

One of my favourite days of the year has recently passed us by again.

The Six Nations involves 6 Rugby teams (France, Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland & Italy) competing for a rather shiny trophy. It’s played every year on a Home and Away basis… Last year we played host to the Irish and the English, this year we have the Italians, the French and my personal favourites, the Scots to look after.

The match against the Scots this year was played on Sunday 12th Feb. A nasty day on which to hold such an event, seeing as everybody had to be back in work on the Monday.


Little Dragon Supporter

Oz and myself kicked off the day at 12pm with a fantastic fried breakfast, it took a while to cook but Oz had prepared it beautifully. Even the eggs seemed to be smiling at us! We then devoured the lot like a pair of ravenous wolves and headed into the centre of Cardiff to see if we could find some fun.

We arrived in the Model Inn at 1pm and quickly got into the spirit of the day. There were still two hours to go until kick off but the Scots and the Welsh were both in fine form and everybody was enjoying themselves. I’m not sure why I enjoy the Scottish game so much, it’s mainly down to the fact that Scottish rugby fans are some of the most amicable in the world. I think the best way to put it is that after the rugby match, unlike matches against Italy, France or England, neither nationality is fussed about who actually won the game – it’s all about the banter and the drinking afterwards.

The Scottish men ran around in their kilts while the Welsh girls ran after them trying to catch a glimpse of a bare Scottish backside – a sight which we saw regularly throughout the day. The Welsh sang their hearts out and the Scots tried to counter but were vastly out-numbered and consequently out-sung.

By the end of the match, we were pretty drunk so headed off to other establishments to find more people to talk to. Oz and I suffered sychronised memory lapses (a bit like women synchronising periods I’d imagine…) throughout the evening and the final bit of Sunday night recorded was in Varsity bar on Greyfriars Road at about midnight.


Lewis, Caz, Mad Scot, Oz

I arose from the dead at around 12pm Monday, not really knowing what had happened. I felt comfort in the fact that my pounding head, the bruises on my elbows and that I had woken up fully clothed meant that it was another classic rugby international the day before. The grin glued on my face indicated that we’d won!

More Pics

Cor blimey guv'nor!

I don't get to go to London much. I've rarely been more than twice in a year and that's quite enough for this country boy. Deeanne and Huw had arranged for a few bloggers to hook up for a drink and once the open-invitation was posted on D's site, a plan started to form in my head... nothing devious, just a travel plan. I arrived in London without hurting any of the annoying children on the three hour train ride (Oh, how I hoped they'd get bored of a game which involved repeatedly throwing coins on the table). The Tube was the next adventure:- Tunnels deep underground full of seemingly miserable people (I can't quite put my finger on the the source of the misery, maybe people are tired, maybe they're angry that they live in London, maybe they've just been down there for days and can't find a way out). I take great joy from smiling at people on the tube, it freaks them out a little!

Anwyay, after a little wander around Soho and Chinatown I met up with Huw and as he's already mentioned, we went out for a couple of pints and a romantic meal together. Clumsy Huw almost spoilt the occasion by knocking the glasses off the table but avoided embarrassment when the waiter did it for him. Poor Huw did have to put up with my London/Swansea comparisons (It's like visiting a foreign country for me), but he did so remarkably well! When you read other peoples blogs, you create images of how people look and sound - it's rather enlightening when you meet them in the flesh "Ah! So that's what they look like"

We moved on to the meeting place where we joined other bloggers in the form of Deeanne, Monica and Matt. Deeanne also brought her mate along who gave me that "I'm sure I know her" feeling.. perhaps she's just a typical Kiwi girl? I don't know.

The night was tremendously fun. Everybody was ultra-nice (even Monica, I had heard some nasty rumours...) and I really enjoyed yakking away to everyone, finding out what they did, where they came from etc. So Thanks very much for that you lot, well worth the £33 train fare and the over-priced pints...

The next day Huw and myself had a great breakfast, I was a little full from an early morning kebab but decided to tackle a full fry-up anyhow (Which was outstanding I have to add). I met the Nicest Guy in the World who served us our food, but this brought up more comparisons with the Cardiff equivalent - the little Spanish Lady - who we visit for fried brekkie. Huw had to get into work so we parted company (I'm sure I saw a tear in his eye) and I headed off to meet up with my ex-housemate Helen who lived nearby. I then trundled home after lunch with Helen, feeling fat and absolutely shattered

But, it wasn't time for me to rest - there was in the small matter of the impending Scottish invasion to repel back in Cardiff...

Butterfly

I think I've mentioned this before but I'm so busy doing interesting things that I just don't have the time to write about them.

Also the weather has perked up a bit here in sunny Swansea - no more of that biting wind. It rained too, that was nice....

Word.


Hometown has made it into the news recently... found via Chess' place.

Crying, almost

That hurts

I feel a bit sick

So you might have to excuse any non-sensical-ness in this post. Plus, it's been a hectic week or so.

We've had Australia Day, on which a couple of us had to endure a 12 hour stake-out with work. We only managed to survive by guzzling grapes, apples and bananas. Delirious from lack of sleep I took to the town with Oz. We got into a little bit of trouble from being on the roof of a bank at 3am.


Stakeout


Stakeout Supplies


Eirian, Oz and Moi on the day after Australia Day

The Friday was another night out I think. The rest of the weekend included a girls 22nd birthday party, I went with Eirian and his girlfriend, Bethan. The girls were all rather quiet so we took to the dancefloor to cheer ourselves up, it did the job! We also bumped into Lewis and Caz, Pembrokeshire boys always up for a giggle.


The biggest Beer pumps in the world - surely?

The recovery on the Sunday was a roast lunch in Cardiffs' Pen and Wig pub - damn nice it was too - with an old mate that I hadn't seen for a couple of years, Justin. The afternoon was spent giggling and sniggering - you can't beat it!

In other news, I got to have a look at the control room for Cardiffs CCTV network - that was great fun!


CCTV control room

So - after a very tiring weekend and a tough day in work on the Monday, I almost fell into my house with exhaustion and started crawling up the stairs to my bed. I had trekked halfway up the stairs when my landlord shouted for me from the living room. After mumbling about something about being too tired to come back down I eventually made it. I'd fully expected a detailed run-down of a World War II painting but to my relief I found that he was holding a sparkling envelope with my name on it! I took the card to my room and opened it, it was my prize for winning Astrids quiz WAY back in December - A card from the Amazing Astrid herself!


A fantastic prize!

I immediately cheered up, the card was so nicely written ! I've not ever come across such a positive person in my life and the card put a giant grin on my face - it's still making me smile even now, four days later! SO a big thank-you goes to Astrid for such a great prize!

Just incase you're not smiling as much as me, I've been listening to a great little tune by a band called the Envelopes (A bunch of Swedish blokes fronted by a French girl named Audrey Pic)- I've not heard such a fun song for years. I challenge you to listen to it three times in a row without smiling! VIDEO HERE.

The reason for me feeling a little sick - Wales play England on tomorrow in the Six Nations, I'm worried about losing so much that I've not slept properly for two or three nights now. I can't wait for 3:30pm Saturday to come around!