Benwythnos i mewn Caerdydd

I spent the weekend just gone with my longstanding university friend Kathryn in Cardiff, which was absolutely excellent. I’ve not been to Cardiff properly for about ten years, since the night that Princess Diana died in fact, despite my frequent visits to Wales and indeed periods of actually living in Wales since.

We spent Friday night at Katy and Pam’s (Katy being another friend from university) playing ridiculous board games and drinking more wine than was strictly necessary. Saturday was then spent mooching around Cardiff including lunch in a delightful pasta place in one of the “arcades”. A nap in the early evening preceded a night out on the tiles in Charles Street, which is broadly equivalent to Manchester’s Canal Street. We danced the night away, mostly in Exit and Icon bars, before crashing out just before the sun came up.

Sunday was spent catching up with more old university friends in the area and having lunch with Kathryn’s parents (which is always a jolly good nosh-up) before spending the afternoon in the Cardiff Bay area, which I’d not visited since I studied its formative stages during my A-Level geography course. We were treated to a VIP tour of the Welsh Assembly building, which is an amazing work of architecture; I’d not seen it before. All the wood used in the construction of the senate building is from British Columbia, which I found quite interesting since both Wales and British Columbia are places close to my heart and yet not obviously related.

I’ll be going back to Cardiff later in the summer for Kathryn’s 30th birthday party where I expect to see a great many old friends from my days in Aberystwyth, including Craig and Edward and their respective partners. I always feel comfortable and looked after in Wales. It’s like a comfort blanket. I really don’t know why I don’t go there more often; it’s been over four years since I’ve even been back to Aber. I definitely think that I have a dominant Welsh gene since I’m as Scottish as I am Welsh but I don’t feel any attachment to Scotland at all.

One day I’ll buy my old house on the seafront in Aberystwyth and use it as a bolt hole. I’ll go there and fall asleep to the sound of the sea and feel totally safe. I totally miss that and I never appreciated it as much as I should have when I lived there.

I have more photos from the weekend.