trying again

It is now my turn, AJ, to post comments. Mine will be more like Sgt. Joe Fiday for those of you who remember "Dragnet'. Just the facts "Mam", just the facts.

Apart from losing my wallet and just admitting that I lost less than would spend a day is the only way I got over it. Maybe this will be the complaining session. When we get back the cost of living will be appreciate much more than before. The numbers are the same but when you realize that the actual cost is double or more than back home it is hard to swallow. 2 Pounds for the hot dog we got screamed about at. Double the cost for Pounds and 1.5x's for Euros . Can you imagine an appetizer for 38 Pounds for lunch (did not purchase), how about 17.50 Pounds just to go the gym. Staying with relatives Richard & Roisin and John & Deb allowed us to reach our daily budget limit without being sent to the debters jail. Enough of the negativity and on to the enjoyment of the trip.

It has only been a week and the tension in moving my neck has almost disappeared. Wine and beer are inexpensive but you need to look at the alcohol content, as lower alcohol gets you lower prices but then you just drink more. Good French & Italian wines are cheap compared to back home if you get them on sale. Oh by the way did you feel the earth shift as I moved from the Eastern to Western Hemisphere. Talk about being in two places at one time.


A little tour around Cardiff over the past few days. John & Deb are are equal walking distance from downtown & the wharf area (kind of like a Granville Island atmosphere). Scott departed from Cardiff (pronounced Kardeeth) to the South Pole only to be trumped by Raul Amendson? (the guy who also discovered the North Pole). A fantastic Millenium hall covered in Welsh materials (slate and a steel that looked shiny bronze in one direction and completely tarnished in another direction). The picture does not do it justice.We took a water taxi from the dock area to the Cardiff Castle area and then strolled back through town to J &D's. Next day we took a hop on hop off bus tour around town and got a different perspective of the area, The tickets were good for two days so off we went the second day to the art gallery to see a few French Impressoinist painters and some insights into Afghanastan. There was a showing of the Arte Medi tavelling showing of 9 artists chosen by a panel of judges from 40 countries. The winning artist receives a substantial monetary prize as well as world wide.


When you were rich back a bit you were really rich. Imagine having over 16 different homes that you occupied throughout the year. Or bedspreads that had real gold tassels not just gold thread. Cardiff castle was donated to the city because the cost of upkeep got just a bit much and the Marquis of Bute moved back to the ancestoral lands in Scotland. The dinning room makes some restaurants look small. We were not allowed to take any photos inside so we took the from the outside.


The castle was build on the ruins of a Roman fort from 2000 years ago. Note the difference in the stones.
Along with the castle there was a huge parcel of surrounding lands that are now a city park, much like Stanley Park or the likes of except they have gates that close before dusk and huge walls that you need to scale if you forget about time. Talk about being on the inside looking out. John tolds us the few times he rode in at one end with his bicycle only to find the gate locked at teh other end and t6oo late to get out going back. Over the wall goes the bike and luckily no ripped pants or other injuries. They go by sunset to lock up not by the clock, must be a Welsh thing or something.


Liverpool is the city of culture (?), well maybe if your English or something, but to be fair we just lapped up the hospitality of reliles enjoying late nights of story telling & improptu singing wth copius amounts of libation consumed. Each planned day the night before was always modified in the morning to accommodate errors made the previous night/morning.


We toured Port Sunlight, Lever Bros. company town, Lord Lever had a winning combination; a product that has not gone out of favour, that being soap, and returning the respect to his employees necessary to receive the respect of his workers. He had 30 different architects design and build homes for his factory workers. The town looks like a regular town not a cookie cutter version Even the socialist's I spoke to admiited it had worked very well. Not like the company towns on our side of the big pond. The town is now self owned homes managed by a trust.




We had great evenings with Pave's rellies and on the Sunday night we had a sit down dnner around the table ending in continuous songs to all hours of the night. Paddy kept us entertained with Irish tunes some if which, in his words, would had you shot or at least jailed in years not long ago. Paddy is the one in the back in black.







Have you ever gotten directions in GB or Ireland (drove in Ireland but that will be later). Let me give you an small example starting with some ground rules; 1st no street signs except when the street begins somewhere or changed name ( oh yes if there is a name look for it on a building, fence or some other obscure location at any height); 2nd house numbers in most cases are very difficult to see and find; the highways and byways are marked A, M, N, R, B and then there are the L's. Ok ready to getr out of town now, go to the first round about(oh ya very few traffic lights) take the second Left (always left off the round about), then veer slightly to your right, not a sharp right now,
follow the N3242 until you reach the third roundabout and get off on the A4 whch is also the M1, stay in the entrnce lane that will be the exit lane for the for the N5468 or B1254, sharp left after the second round about and then get on the L9827. If you get lost at this point stopp at the next pub and ask for directions, Word of warning haave a oint or two before trying to remember what they are saying as their English is a bit weird and in some(?) cases hard to understand.

i am stopping now as ouir system is on its last legs of battery power and we have had our challenges with staying connected and being able to use our system. Hope this transfers over to the blog ok before we drop power again.