Wow....has it been nearly 2 months since the last update, i'm slipping and i'm so sorry. I can see by the clicks my blog has got that many have been looking for the latest update of our rip roaring lives with fun, japes and SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS. So lets start shall we.
We will start with a little girls birthday, everybody's favourite lovely bundle of fluffy fun, SQUIDLY! It was her 3rd birthday on the 7th October so i thought we'd share her first 3 years of growing up before now becoming a little madam but still better than having a child, why would you 😉
Awwwww only a couple of weeks old and this was her advert pic.
Now, as she started to grow her head grew faster than her ears and we found out that this is Squidly's grumpy face.
And then her ears grew when her head stopped growing.
She also likes to sleep guarding her food bowl
So at this point Squidly has told me the update so far makes her look lazy, so to prove she does more than sleep she also eats.
She also eats the food off our plates if we don't keep an eye on her.
And finally to show her active athletic side she can now jump 2 1/2 feet up onto our bed and makes herself at home.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SQUIDLY! Go on open it!
She got it open in the end, no surprise there as there was lots of little treats inside for her to eat.
No then on to our holiday week. We were supposed to be in Athens and Hydra but the apartment in Hydra got cancelled and then the ones left were really expensive, i mean stupidly priced, so we changed to it just being Athens and go to see Imagine Dragons in concert. We had apartment booked but then the flights sky rocketed to almost double the price of our apartment, Sian isn't as much of a tight arse as me but i refuse to pay stupid prices just for flights, it was out of season and its to a city not a island or resort airport so we decided a week of just doing local stuff would do. Our holidays are always full on whenever we go away so just a relaxing home stay may do us good but we didn't just sit around, we went to local tourist attractions and to be honest it wasn't to bad as we hadn't been to two of them in years.
Firstly you people who have watched the award winning Gavin and Stacey will know this place, Barry Island. I've only seen a few episodes and when it first ever come out a customer came in to Oceanic and said "Kevlllaarrrrr" as that's what my nickname was on Zakynthos but i didn't know it was said in a certain way on the programme "Gavlllaarrrrr", i replied "What?" the customer said "Gavin and Stacey?" and i answered "Do i know them? Are they customers of mine?" and then the customer went on to explain and i was still non the wiser.
We went on the train to make it a proper day trip, only 30 mins from Cardiff and the weather wasn't to bad. As we arrived it took me back to when i was 16 when i think that was the last time i had been there on the train, there was always huge excitement as i stepped of the train with my mates. Unfortunately Barry Island has seen better days, the fun fair is like the traveling fun fairs you see around the country and the arcades are all gambling or ticket prize machines hardly any arcade video games , BOOOOO!
We had a nice walk along the promenade and down on to the beach and up on to the point.
At a trip to Barry Island wouldn't be complete without curry and chips from Boofy's??????? I think this must have been the chip shop they visited in the series i'm guessing.
A nice day out, we spent 4 hours there but i think most of that was walking and we did go in to the amusement arcades but all the arcades were the same, once you've been on one tipping point machine you've been on them all, oh and don't kick the machine to drop 10p's worth of 2's an alarm goes off lol.
Our second visit of the holiday week was to Folly Farm, we've been here before but it's a nice day out and no kids as the schools were back in term, YAY! We had it pretty much to ourselves, it was very quiet and it was a lovely hot sunny day.
It was so hot the penguins needed an outdoor air cooler.
Sian is a secret Dr. Dolittle, she can talk to the animals
Folly farm is a great place to visit, the last time we visited covid restrictions were still in place and lots of the farm were still closed but this time everywhere was open even the indoor funfair with old penny arcade machines and vintage fun fair rides. As from our previous visit you will also know it's not just farm animals as they have giraffes, rhinos, lions, meerkats and not forgetting, Red Pandas that we will be personally feeding in November but that's at a different wildlife park. I think we spent about 5 hours in the farm this visit as so much more to see.
Now the last place we visited was voted the best free to enter attraction in the UK, St. Fagans Welsh history museum. Now it's not like your everyday indoor museum, they do have that but they take ancient old buildings from around Wales. dismantle them stone by stone, brick by brick, beam by beam, tile by tile, transport them to St. Fagans and rebuild them to their original glory, they do some amazing work here and it's a vast site you can walk around. First we went in to the indoor museum.
The first wall as you enter the museum is a huge white wall with just two words on it "Wales is......." then you fill in a post it note and stick it to the wall. Mine was "Not as good as Canada but better than England"
This impressive bit of kit is the coffee making machine from the very first Italian deli shop to open in Cardiff, you don't see them like that in Starbucks.
History of Welsh rugby, we were good once upon a time, honest.
The entrance to St. Fagans Manor House.
This is a farm house but this farm house was for the family and cattle all to live in together. There was just the one doorway as you can see to go in then no separating walls just a low wall where the cattle would stay with the living room opposite and sleeping area above the living room, can you imagine the stink you'd have to live with.
1940's house
They have rebuilt a village shopping street
And one more place, a pub that i used to drink in called The Vulcan.
Let me tell you about this pub. It used to be situated in Cardiff city centre opposite Cardiff prison. In it's last years it was only frequented by alcoholics and low life's and me lol. The bar was dark brown and green polished tiles half way up the wall then nicotine stained flower patterned anaglypta wallpaper the rest of the way and on the ceiling, it had a dart board but all the stuffing was coming out of the 20 segment so couldn't go for the 20's, the TV on a bracket shelf to the side of the bar was black & white and the landlord would use a bamboo stick to reach the channel buttons as no remote control and the lounge area (if you took a lady, no one did) had a jukebox with 3 white plastic chairs and a white plastic table (cheap balcony furniture) and the floor had multi coloured lino for easy wipe clean moments (i'm sure it may have been used for bare knuckle fights), that was The Vulcan and i'm proud to say "I was there!".
St. Fagans is vast, it covers over 100 acres with gardens, ponds and buildings from all different periods of Welsh history with the oldest building being St. Teilos church from the 12th century. If ever your in Cardiff for a few days it's well worth the visit and it's free, there is also a great coffee shop and you can have afternoon tea in the main manor house.
On another day we had a great day in Pizza Hut, they are just the best chain store pizza.
So as you can see our week off wasn't wasted, we went out and did something every single day, we're not ones for staying in if we can help it.
Last month i was 55, yes i know i look good for my age, What? i only look 35, oooooh your being too kind, How do i keep my youthful looks? i'm just lucky i guess, What about your bald patch? I think its more of a bald space than a patch but i'm fine with it, it gives Sian something to slap. Anyway i'm a very lucky boy when it comes to my birthday and Sian is so thoughtful and generous.
Firstly Sian took me to see the UK Foo Fighters who were just as awesome as the first time we ever saw them.
My best Kenneth Williams face before the gig in The Tramshed bar
Sian with the 2 pinter cups we have at gigs, we look like borrowers with them.
Then the day after my birthday Sian had a surprise in store for me.......Shuffleboard and ping pong at Boom Battle Bar, YAY!
We loved playing table tennis in Pong! in London and we had such a great time in Jamesons in Calgary playing shuffleboard that Sian booked us in for both for my birthday, now that's a well thought out present.
Table tennis was just a fun knock about for an hour, we weren't really keeping score but shuffleboard. that's a more serious matter, the gloves are off, no holds barred, may the best person win!
Don't be fooled by the video, that was Sians first puck. We play on the side of fairness, we don't go for the knock the opponent off the board game play. I have the swerve and spin of the puck, Sian has the skill and that skill trounced me 10-1 in games of first to 15 points, i mean, how fair is that? How bloody unfair is that? and it was my birthday, HMPH! Never mind, it was made up to me with Tatter Tots and spicy cheese dip mmmmmm!
It's an amazing place with loads to do and the brightest toilets i've ever been in.
So that was my birthday, i also had Depeche Modes latest CD and LP, Sian also made me a Victoria Sponge cake for my birthday as it's my favourite and it was so good, not a slice was wasted, we scoffed the lot between the 2 of us and it was a mighty fine large cake.
1/ The rugby world cup at our local with our usual table reserved. The names Pinnell NOT Punnet
2/ Halloween is just one day, it hasn't got days leading up to it like Christmas so why are there decorations in our local 4 weeks before the day? IDIOTS!
3/ I bought vegan bacon as it was reduced to 45p, i now know why i will stay a meat eater, it's horrendous, the most non bacon like thing ever, rubber like in texture in your mouth and tastes disgusting, get a grip vegans, stop naming things after meat products as they are nothing like meat products. RIDICULOUS FOOLS!
5/ My pet hate....bad signage. This shop is in Cardiff NOT Devonshire and a Ghostbusters sign with "Who you gonna call" underneath it. Firstly the Ghostbuster sign is in green and not red. What are they? Environmentally friendly Ghostbusters? And if someone says "Who you gonna call" the reply is always "Ghostbusters" NEVER "Sandwich and Baguette Makers". What is wrong with these people?
So that's almost it for this update just two more things before i go.
Here are the best hot dogs i've ever made for us, spicy chilli con carne and squeezy cheese, oh dear lord they were so good.
So being as i hadn't thought of anything yet for Sian for Christmas i said i would pay for the tattoo and Sian came up with design which i think looks amazing. Sian had the Foo Fighters double FF logo but made to look 3D as if carved in to the back of her neck and the line "I remember Aurora" from Taylor Hawkins favourite Foo Fighters song "Aurora", he loved it, which i only found out today was the place that he and Dave used to hang out at in the bars on Aurora Avenue in Seattle where the Foo Fighters and Nirvana were born and Taylor used to talk to Dave about Seattle as Taylor was a huge Nirvana fan.
Sian's amazing design, looks awesome.
Wow, this update took ages to write, i'm not kidding you now, honest to god, it's taken 5 hours, 5 BLOODY HOURS!. I have a crap connection here down by the beach and pics took 5 mins each to upload and the largest video which is only seconds took half an hour, that is a super slow connection BUT it's worth it to keep all my lovely, wonderful blog readers from all around the world, (32 different countries this month so far) happy and over 8000 hits this month already, that's not bad going for a short ass balding Welshman talking and ranting blabbering crap.
So until the next update which hopefully will be sooner coming than this one as we are in London in 2 weeks time so will have lots to post.........
Serve All, Love All, Peace All, Kevlar Out......!
