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 We are in Cardiff ths weekend, visiting the sister in-law, and today, Satruday, we have a boat trip to Flat Holm to look forward to. We had to get up early to be down at the quay side at Pennarth at 0900. There were quite a few people waiting when we got there, and it was not long before we were giving the organisers our names, presumably incase the boat sank! Word on the boat was that it would be pretty rough out there and that they had almost had to cancel, too me the sea looked pretty flat, it is an estuary after all. The weather was grey and overcast but the forecast was for a sunny day, we had our fingers crossed.
There is a barrage around Cardiff bay and you have to go through one of 3 locks to get out onto the sea. The sea did not appear to be that rough, we bobbed up and down a bit but it was only a 30 minute crossing. We had the talk about what to do in case the boat sinks, and how to put on the life jackets, then he explained that it would be rough and what to do with the sick bags should the need arise.
Some way out it started to get quite rough, we were apparently going over a sand bank, which causes the waves to be bigger. At about 25 minutes into the journey a little boy decided he had to be sick, soon follwed by a woman who puked with her hand over her mouth and got a couple of other people sitting near by. In all we counted possible 5 people who were sick. As we got towards the island we were warned again that it would be rough, and that when we got there the standard practice was to run the boat up the beach, so we
 Should not be standing up. To get to the beach the skipper had to get the boat perpendicular to the beach, we were about 500 yards out, and needed to get across an area of sea that had the biggest waves we had yet seen. He had to go down wind a bit to get to the of the high waves, cosing his moment he turned across the waves, and we headed in to the beach with the boat really pitching about, but we did fianlly reach the beach. Later we were told that it was the roughest public trip they had had for 13 years. I was happy to get off the boat, I had not been sick but the old trick of keeping your eay on the horzon had been a great help.
As we diembarked it became obvious that the people in the open part at the back of the boat had got soaked. We were met by one of the island volunteers, who took us to the museum/visitor center. The wet people just wanted a cup of tea but we had to sit through the health and safety briefing. They introduced a guy called Stephane (a Belge it turns out) who was a volunteer and regular visitor to the island and did free tours for those interested.
We waited for the tour to start and took in the view over the island, there were lots of Lesser Black Backed Gulls, many tending to young who could not yet fly. We were warned that some of us would get pooped on before the day was out, and that the gulls will defend thier young/territory by dive bombing us. First Stephane took us to have a look at some slow worms that gather under some iron sheet that are left in the sun. The we walked out
 Towards the lighthouse to have a look at the seven inch gun enplacement one of about 5 or 6 we saw. We found out a lot of intersting facts about the isalnd on our way to the farm house, did you know that the fist morse radio transmission was received on Flat Holm? There is a monumnet celebrating the event strange thing is that they never removed the iron frame it was delivered in after the helicopter dropped it off. There are not many mammals on island apart from rabbits that have to be culled every so often. We also noticed lots of bones, bits and plastic and glass fragments, apparently all a result of the Gulls diet, the bones were apparently from the chicken bones found in our refuse.
At the farm house we had a coffee and biscuits before leaving Stephan and heading over to the visitors center for the women to do a bit of retail therapy. I must say that Stephan was a star and a real expert on all aspects of the nature and history of the island. Back at the center I took the opportunity to take some more photo’s with the new fisheye lens I have invested in, a Samyang 8mm f3.5 for £200 it is manual focus and aperture but the
 Lens is great and at that price you can’t expect all the thrills of a £400 lens. The weather had brightened up by now and because the wind had dropped a bit we hoped the journey back would be a bit more comfortable.
Everyone was back to the boat by the 13:30 deadline and we headed back to Cardiff. At first the boat pitched about a lot, but it was not long before we were into a smoother sea. I took the opportunity to go up to the bridge to have a chat with the skipper, who was very welcoming and keen to tell me all about the wisdom of the bay barrage authority and other sea tales. About a few hundered yards from the locks we noticed the red arrows flying past then we had a spectacular views of a spitfre and lancaster bomber. Everyone one on board got very excited and some started humming the dam busters music!
 We were soon back at the quay. We dumped some of our luggage into the car and headed over to the city center to have a look at the food festival that was going on. It was really packed why is typical for the weather we had, they say that the food festival is either a wash out or a roaring success depending on whether it is raining. We stropped for a glass of champagne to settle Helen’s nerves after the scary boat trip, but Cas managed to knock Helen’s glass over. We had not had any lunch so went on the look for a short queue on one of the stalls, luckily for us the Welsh aren’t that keen on veggie food, so we found a small queue for veggie burgers. I had a great curried check pea, with coriander and coconut one, Cas had a Laver Bread one. We were not in the mood for being with the crowds after our visit to a sparsely populated island so we headed back to the hut.
We went out for an Italian meal at a place called Lorenza’s, I had spaghetti a la vongole.
 Wild raspberries Nice sunny day with fluffy clouds about 21 degree, perfect for a walk. We got the number 500 bus to tring at about 11:00 and Helen allowed me to sit on the top deck, as a treat. At the bus stop I tried out the bus service computer which shows how long to the next bus and where it is going, as well as other interesting information.
We got oFf the bus at the Rose and Crown hotel then headed up Akeman Street past the Natural history museum, and out into the country side. As we went under the bridge over the A41 we noticed lots of small snails on the painted/varnished walls. They all without exception had shells with the most recent growth was clean and light in colour. I guess that the shell colour must reflect their diet, and I have a theory that as the graze on the greenish algal film growing on the wall, or the wall itself, presumably the amount of the shell growth would reflect the time that the snails had been living on the wall.
Next came a hard slog up the hill and onto the Ridgeway, it made a change to be in Beech woods after the last two weeks walking on cliff paths. We also noticed that the lack of a strong wind meant that holding a conversation at more that a few yards distance was possible.
 The house at The Crong The views over Dancersend were lovely and we passed by the fantastic house at The Crong, before heading towards the Cafe in the woods, in Wendover woods. We had some lunch brie panini for me and marmite on toast for Helen, the we headed down for a coffee at Hillside.
On the path just above the forestry offices we came across some wild raspberries, we ate a few. We could have picked some but we did not have a container to put them in and to pick enough for a Pavalova would have taken some time as the berries were quite small. Hillside was a welcome stop off for coffee, walnut cake, and the women’s Wimbledon final!
Suitably refreshed we headed home, then we were off out to celebrate Lizzies birthday at Malebon.
Here is some interesting information about the Vodafone mobile phone network during the Royal Wedding.
Network Wide Statistics
• Voice:
- entire Day attempts: 63,350,126 – down 2.17%
- calls between 09:00 and 12.30 – 12.4 million – down 17.4%
- calls between 11:00 and 11.30 – 1.65 million – down 31.6%
This is to be expected due to the metric focusing on the network as a whole and being a bank holiday where we have lower traffic than a normal working day. This fact makes the next set of statistics so impressive
• SMS:
- entire Day attempts: 138,446,608 – up 12.3%
- between 08:00 and 14:30 – 20.3 million – up 16%
- between 11:30 and 12:00 – 2.14 million – up 33.4%
• MMS
- 8am to 1pm – 185,108 – up 28.8% compare to last week
- peak between 11:35 and 11:40 – 4580 MMS submitted – up 53.59%
• Data
- 10:00 to 15:00 – 12.85 Terabytes sent/received – up 20.5%
Looking now at two of the primary online news sources we see significant uplifts in traffic driven by our data subscribers:
Mobile Website Traffic – Network Wide
• BBC News
- 161,350 Megabytes of traffic (entire day)
- 36.69% increase from the previous week
- peak between 11am and 1pm where traffic increased 219.47%
• SKY News
- 29,041 Megabytes of traffic (entire day)
- 45.27% increase from the previous week
- peak between 11am and 1pm where traffic increased 462.52%
Focussing in on the Royal wedding route we see some impressive results
Royal Wedding Location Statistics 08:00 – 15:00
• Voice Traffic
- total Attempts: 1,102,834 – 26.96% Increase from the previous week
• SMS Traffic
- total: 1,487,014 – 67.22% increase from the previous week
Royal Wedding Statistics – Bucklebury 08:00 – 15:00 (Katherine’s home village)
• Voice Traffic
- total Attempts: 14,027 – 6.27% Increase from the previous week
• SMS Traffic
- total: 29,953 – 12.12% increase from the previous week
Looking in general across our top sites that covered the Royal wedding route we can see that we carried a staggering amount of additional traffic with a very impressive call performance.
Top Site Traffic 08:00 – 15:00
• Temporary site at St James Park
- voice Attempts: 36,561 – Previous week site was not live.
- dropped Call Rate: 0.55%
• St James Park
- voice Attempts: 25,424 – 456.81% increase
- dropped Call Rate: 1.63%
• Hyde Park
- voice Attempts: 25,383 – 377.66% increase
- dropped Call Rate: 0.83%
• Knightsbridge
- voice Attempts: 37,197 – 152.34% increase
- dropped Call Rate: 0.8%
• Buckingham Palace
- voice Attempts: 22,138 – 503.87% increase
- dropped Call Rate: 0.75%
• Hyde Park
- voice Attempts: 23,086- 157.43% increase
- dropped Call Rate: 0.5%
 Tents outside the abbey I’m not really one to go crazy over royal weddings, I was probably Elite on my BBC computer when the last one was on, but I do enjoy big events. I floated the idea of going up to London on the night before with Helen but she does not like big crowds. On Thursday morning I thought sod it I’ll leave work at 1600 (I had been there since 0730) and head up to the big smoke and have a look round. I might even link up with A&C who had decided to spend the night outside the Palace to ensure a view of “the kiss”.
I needed to get the car so I went home at lunch time and would you believe the Golden Plover I had see earlier on the way to work was still there so were 2 Curlew. Any way I got the car and grabbed my camera and went back to work. I managed to get to a mile stone in a project I am working on at work so did not feel guilty about skipping off.
I got to Berkhamsted, found a place to park and was on the 16:30 train to Euston. I went for a 30p pee, grabbed a sandwich and headed for the Northern line and headed south to Charring Cross. My plan was to head straight to Westmister Abbey then kind of follow the route back to Buckingham Palace where A&C were under canvas with the Canadians. There were plenty of people about but it did not seem more busy than usual.
At the abbey things were a bit tighter there were people camped out on the pavement with chairs and tents, it was hard to get by we had to go single file. I got a few pictures of the tent city, and then headed back to Parliament Square to get a picture of Big Ben surrounded by flags. From there I headed the park that is next to The Mall, there was not much space left at that point, you could have fitted the odd tent in but it was clear that if you wanted a space earlier Friday morning would be too late.
 Parliament Square I wandered down The Mall taking in the party atmosphere. At the end opposite the palace were the usual media village that gets erected for these occasions. It was a very busy place lots of traffic, and people out to see what it was all about just like myself.
It did not take me long to track down A&C the Canadian Maples were easy to find. They seemed pleased to see me and it was good to catch up with the Canadians again. I was offered a seat and settled in for an hour or so chatting and watching the world go by. From time to time some darkened windowed cars went past often followed by Range Rovers. We had lots of enquiries by Canadians asking us from which province we came, they had never heard of Buckinghamshire province!
I made my excuses and headed back down The Mall, when I got to the entrance to Clarence House there were lots of police telling people to keep out of the road, it soon became clear that someone was going to leave or arrive. I hung about and to see what was going on. First a very large Mercedes pulled up with Canadian flags on the dash board, a police man stopped the car and spoke to the man in the from who wound down the double glazed window. The policeman then called back to base to report that the Canadian Governor was coming through, and should he be allowed. After a mexican stand off as the car edged towards the policeman waiting for instructions, he eventually go the OK and the policeman stood aside.
 The media village A few minutes later the police got a bit stricter and some more turned up then all of a sudden a car left, then a few minutes later another and then another, I tried to get videos of the cars going past but the results were not very impressive. I had enough of seeing large cars with darkened windows at that point so headed back to the tube station, but not before using a portaloo, I was not about to pay another 30p to pee. I was soon back on the tube and heading towards Euston.
I had just missed the 2024, but the next train was at 2034 so just had time to grab a snack before heading to platform 8. When I got there confusion reigned there were two trains on the same platform, one was the 2024, which had the 2034 queued up behind. It turned out I could get on either so I chose the front train, and was soon back in Berkhamsted, where I found the car a drove home. All in all a great adventure.
 Wild flower We noticed in the new hide at College lake a Bucks Bird Club outing to Wendover woods, the start time was 08:30 a bit early for a Sunday but it is only 10 minutes drive so we got up, and got ready. Helen did really well 40 minutes up and out of the door a new record.
We meet the birds at the free car park end. It turns out the guy leading the group had lead another party at 05:30 the same morning that is what I call dedication. We set out down the road toward the cafe but went straight on at the 90 degree bend and made out way down to the scrubby area at the bottom of the bowl on the hale side of the woods. On the way down people were hearing Gold Crest and Marsh Warbler, and even Crossbill.
The group was about 8 people in the group and all the eyes and ears available to us we had a lot of success. In the scrub we got Garden/Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Wren, Marsh Tit, and Sparrow Hawk.
 Wild Flower We then headed up the hill again then took a detour via Go Ape where a Firecrest had been seen earlier. On the way we saw what might of bee a Green Finch but somone said it sounded like a Siskin, and there it was at the top of a tall pine looking very greeny yellow, a Siskin alright. When we got to the Go Ape area and Rob heard a Firecrest we all got our binoculars out and searched, then eventually it was spotted by Helen it was trying to pull a bit of string or plastic from a branch, presumably for nesting material. It was surprising to see the bird so close to humans it was literally just above one of the Go Ape platforms attached to the tree.
We then headed back towards the car we saw some wild strawberries in the grassy area that overlooks the bowl. We were soon back to the car. We really enjoyed ourselves and would return again.
 Frittilary The weather has been great all week, at work I have been doing timelapse videos of a new sewage treatment plant all week, but more of that later. I suggested that we go to Kew to see the place in all its spring glory. We decided to go and take the mother in law.
Woke up this morning early the day looked like it would be blue skies and sun all day. We headed off just before 10am, picked up our guest and headed off towards the M25. The traffic was OK and we were soon round the M25 and onto the M4 heading towards London. We exited at J2 and picked up the road that crosses the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge. Just after the bridge if you take the first right and then follow the signs to the Kew car park, (tight and narrow left between two houses), we arrived just short of 11am and easily found a place to park. Parking ticket is £6 and if you like you can park for free on Kew road but it can be a bit tricky.
Entrance to the Gardens was quite steep at 10p short of £14. The car park is on the Thames side of the park and there were no queues. Any way £40 worse off and we were into the gardens. The river side of the gardens is not really on the main drag so we headed east towards the pagoda end and took in all the plants and trees. there were some fritillaries, which are a lovely flower they come in purple and white and look like bells hanging from a bent over stem. fritillaries are quite rare and declining, but are native to the Thames valley and Suffolk. Another highlight was two types of wild garlic, Ransomes and Few-flowered Garlic. I have come across Ransomes in our local woods but I have never see the Few-flowered ones, which were not as pungent as the Ransomes.
 Tulips There were lots of trees in bloom including Rhododendrons, Magnolias, and plenty of cherry like blossoms. After a trip up the treetop walkway, (Helen and her mum chickened out) we headed over to the most easterly green house. After looking round the green house the plan was to meander our way back towards the west end where we entered. We stopped off at the botanical art exhibition and I managed to miss the bit that connected the old building to the new building, so that pleasure will have to wait until next time.
After looking round the middle greenhouse I struck up a conversation with a lady who was taking a panorama shot using a panoramic attachement on a tripod. We exchanged tips and I passed on the name of the software I use Hugin (here is the link http://hugin.sourceforge.net/). I took a good look at the camera bracket she was using because my one made from B&Q angle irons is not up to the job. If you are reading this can you send me a picture of your bracket. She she was a member of the Muswell Hill Photographic Society, and had got a couple of pictures commended in the Kew gardens photo competition.
 Pond panorama We had lunch at the Pavilion, where there was lots of nice food on offer including plenty of veggie options. As it was only 12 we opted for a lighter lunch of sandwiches, followed buy the obligatory day out cake. Once refreshed we headed over to the last of the greenhouses the Princess of Wales conservatory, where all the tropical stuff is housed. Helen did not like the humid atmosphere she claims it makes her hair curl so she looks like Bonnie Langford!
Turns out there was another green house to look round, the one with the giant lilly pads. Today however they were not giant, they had obviously had a clear out and started again as the pad were only up to a foot across. I tried taking a panorama shot here as I thought it would be a bit like the St Pancras one with roof offering an interesting pattern. If it works you may see the results here, but at time of writing it needed a bit of tweaking to get the handrails to line up correctly. Sometimes you wish you had the tripod and pano head with you, but when you set out you just can’t be bothered to lug all the gear around.
 Boule do neige We stopped for Tea/Coffee before a look round the obligatory shop, then headed back to the car with a brief stop to look at the river and eat and ice cream. The drive back was a breeze and we stopped of in Tring to get some tea (salad and stuff) and to place a bet on the Grand National, I choose the favourite and a rank outsider. The favourite came in 3rd so I might get some money back but not as much as I bet, there is probably a life lesson there, a £10 in the hand is better than one passed over the betting shop counter.
All in all a great day out with great weather, Oh and I forgot to mention we added a bird to the life list, Ringed-necked Parakeet, Helen’s mum spotted it at first I thought it was a sparrow hawk, it was travelling fast and had hawk like wing silhouette, but the give away was the slim pointed tail. When it circled round you could clearly see it was a bright green bird so there was no doubt, about the identification.
I was tracing my route to work on street view, doesn’t everyone? I came across someone I know, and to boot their face had not been blurred out.
I have yet to speak to them and ask them whether they can remember the encounter with the strange car.
 Google street view There has been a lot of fuss over street view in Germany where there are all sort of worries over privacy. For example Google agreed that they would also blur buildings if the people living there requested it. Trouble is with some apartments there were people who asked for the building to be blurred but them other people who lived there then complained that they did not want it blurred.
Google has also had to, in some countries, publish the time and places that the car will be going to an area. If only they did that here in the UK, we could all go out there and stage funny/peculiar things for the car to photo!
“On the evening of Saturday, 6th December 1884, the Anthony Hall, built by the Dowager Lady de Rothschild, was formally opened by her daughter, Mrs Cyril Flower, in the presence of a very large audience composed of friends and parishioners. Mr Cyril Flower, M.P., was in the chair and there were also present the Dowager Lady de Rothschild, Baron Frederick de Rothschild and the Hon. Mrs Eliot Yorke. After an excellent opening address from the Chairman, the Aston Clinton Temperance Choir, under Miss Molique’s conductorship, rendered a part of Mendelssohn’s “Hymn of Praise” most creditably, after which Mrs Cyril Flower formally declared the Hall open.”
Thus was the opening described in the Parish magazine in January 1885 by the Rector. Lady de Rothschild had had the Hall built in memory of her late husband Sir Anthony. Her daughters, Mrs Cyril Flower and the Hon. Mrs Eliot Yorke (later to become Lady Battersea) were there with Lord Rothschild.
Although the Hall had been given to the village it was run by the Rothschilds as part of their Aston Clinton Estate up to 1932 when the Rectors of both Aston Clinton and Buckland were appointed Trustees to serve with Mr Anthony Gustav de Rothschild and Mr Redhead, a partner in the Aylesbury firm of Horwood & James, Solicitors who acted for the Rothschild Estates in the area. Mr Lowe (the boys’ school headmaster) Mr Burnham (the village baker) and Mr Sharp from the Post Office) were all appointed Foundation Members of the committee.
The minute book dating from that time, it can be seen that the Secretary was paid a handsome honorarium of eight guineas per annum. The Treasurer was only paid two guineas!
Although the hall was endowed by the Rothschilds, to help keep the charges for hiring it to a minimum the value of the income soon diminished and it is clear from the minute book that balancing the payment of the overheads with a policy of keeping hiring costs down for the benefit of the village was a constant struggle.
In the late 1930’s and into the years of the Second World War there were arguments in the Committee as to how much the Caretaker (Mr Baker) should be paid. In November 1939 it was decided to pay him 12/6 per week (62½p). He was not happy and it was quickly increased to £1 in February 1940 by which time the school was using the hall all day. The increase in fuel consumption (coal) was such that Mr Baker demanded more for shifting the coal from the farmer’s premises nearby. More arguments developed as to how much was reasonable and half a crown (12½p) was agreed. However, it would appear that he was still not happy as he abruptly resigned in May 1942 and Mr Gomm took on the job at £1 per week and an annual bonus of £20.
It was only in 1941 that the Hall was connected to the main sewers at a cost of £135- 8s- 6d!
In 1954, a bold and decisive step was taken when the Trustees bought the adjoining land (now the Car Park) from Mrs Rae-Smith. Mr. Anthony de Rothschild generously donated £250 towards the cost.
Electric strip lights and electric heating were installed in the 1950’s. Although the hall was used more and more in the 1960’s, it remained in a rather care worn and slightly run down condition. Money was tight but the Trustees managed to replace the kitchen and build new toilets. But increased use brought in more money and a large grant from the Parish Council (following the sale of the old recreation ground to the County Council for the site of the new school) meant that the leaking roof could be completely replaced and a much needed face lift to the outside and the decoration of the inside of the hall was undertaken in the 1970’s.
Over the last 40 years great changes in the appointment of Trustees and the structure of the Management Committee have meant that all the Trustees have had a genuine interest in the welfare of the Hall and are prepared to pitch in and help when things need doing. The Management Committee has likewise only been made up of village residents, who believe that the Hall has been and should remain the centre of the village’s social life. The Secretary’s Bookings diary has never been as full. A phased programme of refurbishment is continuing and the Committee is looking forward to a bright future.
 Humberette The london to Brighton is tomorrow so it is round to Rory’s to polish the car, which is a 1903 Humberette. As usual Rob and Rory were bickering over doing it earlier next year. Rob impressed us all by making a brass bolt to replace a missing one. We also discussed helping me make a panorama bracket for my camera.
It was soon polished and shiny.
The Humber is a British automobile that dates its beginning with Thomas Humber’s bicycle company founded in 1868. The first car was produced in 1898 and was a three-wheeled tricar with the first conventional four-wheeled car appearing in 1901. The Humber, like many other Marques, evolved from a company which had originally made pedal cycles.
The first cars had two- or four-cylinder engines, but the tiny single-cylinder-engined Humberette succeeded them. The name Humberette literally means ‘small Humber’. The Humber was a sturdy and well-made machine that carries a useful payload under very little power. A Humber would have been displayed as one of the many European cars presented at the Louisiana Exposition
held in St. Louis in 1904.
Under the Humberette’s hood is a 611 cc, 5 HP, automatic inlet, side exhaust valve 1-cylinder engine with a 92.1 x 92.1 mm bore and stroke. At a weight of 650 pounds, the Humberette can travel at a maximum speed of 25 mph. The rear driven vehicle uses a Longuemare float-type carburetor. The Humberette features a De Dion style of front-mounted water-cooled engine, with a leather-covered cone clutch, a two-speed gearbox controlled by levers under the steering wheel, as well as drive shaft to the rear wheels – the last being a real novelty in the early 1900s.
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Where am I?
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We are in Cardiff ths weekend, visiting the sister in-law, and today, Satruday, we have a boat trip to Flat Holm to look forward to. We had to get up early to be down at the quay side at Pennarth at 0900. There were quite a few people waiting when we got there, and it was not long before we were giving the organisers our names, presumably incase the boat sank! Word on the boat was that it would be pretty rough out there and that they had almost had to cancel, too me the sea looked pretty flat, it is an estuary after all. The weather was grey and overcast but the forecast was for a sunny day, we had our fingers crossed.
Should not be standing up. To get to the beach the skipper had to get the boat perpendicular to the beach, we were about 500 yards out, and needed to get across an area of sea that had the biggest waves we had yet seen. He had to go down wind a bit to get to the of the high waves, cosing his moment he turned across the waves, and we headed in to the beach with the boat really pitching about, but we did fianlly reach the beach. Later we were told that it was the roughest public trip they had had for 13 years. I was happy to get off the boat, I had not been sick but the old trick of keeping your eay on the horzon had been a great help.
Towards the lighthouse to have a look at the seven inch gun enplacement one of about 5 or 6 we saw. We found out a lot of intersting facts about the isalnd on our way to the farm house, did you know that the fist morse radio transmission was received on Flat Holm? There is a monumnet celebrating the event strange thing is that they never removed the iron frame it was delivered in after the helicopter dropped it off. There are not many mammals on island apart from rabbits that have to be culled every so often. We also noticed lots of bones, bits and plastic and glass fragments, apparently all a result of the Gulls diet, the bones were apparently from the chicken bones found in our refuse.
Lens is great and at that price you can’t expect all the thrills of a £400 lens. The weather had brightened up by now and because the wind had dropped a bit we hoped the journey back would be a bit more comfortable.
We were soon back at the quay. We dumped some of our luggage into the car and headed over to the city center to have a look at the food festival that was going on. It was really packed why is typical for the weather we had, they say that the food festival is either a wash out or a roaring success depending on whether it is raining. We stropped for a glass of champagne to settle Helen’s nerves after the scary boat trip, but Cas managed to knock Helen’s glass over. We had not had any lunch so went on the look for a short queue on one of the stalls, luckily for us the Welsh aren’t that keen on veggie food, so we found a small queue for veggie burgers. I had a great curried check pea, with coriander and coconut one, Cas had a Laver Bread one. We were not in the mood for being with the crowds after our visit to a sparsely populated island so we headed back to the hut.
