June ended on a sad note, news arrived that good friend Anthony McGarr had passed away in Italy. I attended Anthony's Memorial Service in Talygarn and everyone present was hit ************y was inspirational in getting me to travel the globe in the late 1980's and he will be sorely missed. Everyone attended Pontyclun Athletic Club later on and it was evident that Anthony had made a big impact on all those present.

Later on in the Afternoon Jayne & myself headed to West Wales, Cousin Alf Scragg was over from New Zealand, Clive & Gail had laid on a bash at their cottage in Llanarth. The grog was flowing, the fire pit was on the go and as usual a lot of singing was going on. It turned out to be yet another late one, with Brother Dylan & myself leaving the bash around 5.00 am. Oooer Missses.

The week of July 7th saw us sorting the house out after finally getting the Bathroom refurbishment completed....it took a while. We have had good weather this summer and so have made the most of sorting the garden and getting more plants on the go. On the following Friday I headed back west once more to have another catch up with Dr. Alf Scragg. Alf was down with his mate Al Dickie and cousin Clive. As to be expected it was a boozy affair but we did manage to do a few beach walks and as is the custom, a bit of Razor Clam hunting and we also got out on the boat to try and catch the ever elusive Mackerel. The Aberaeron Sea Food Festival was on and we attended this on the Sunday. There was some top notch grub on offer as well and I'd highly recommend a visit. The weekend ended with a Barbie at home with the folks. The Barbie has been used a lot this summer.

Friday July 18th saw good pal Rhidian Morgan & myself heading to Cowbridge for a few beers and a curry with old mate Kev Harris to celebrate his upcoming marriage. Other pals Gert, Emma & Charlie were in attendance. Cowbridge is a nice old market town and is blessed with some very old, fine drinking establishments and of course this was just the encouragement needed to once again say Yes to yet another excess! It was good to catch up and a good time was had by all. Grant & Jayne thankfully met us later on and poured us into the car. The fun didn't stop there as Rhid was keen to sample some of the latest brews back at our bar Wifey McBeaties. Yet another late night. The morning saw a fragile me drop Rhid off at the railway station and then once more I headed west, this time to catch up with old friend Dave Bolland who I haven't seen in about 10 years!!! That's how time flies folks....very quickly.
I was an hour late arriving and Dave was waiting patiently, he was wondering if he'd got the dates wrong. Thankfully Dave was forgiving.

The weather wasn't great but we figured we'd make the most of the day so loaded up the boat gear and headed to the harbour to get out to sea. We tried for Bass...and as usual failed...then caught some Pollock, but not big enough to eat so back they went. Then we got lucky and started catching Mackerel. Last year there weren't many about and so it's good news they're here, it'll keep us and the Dolphins happy. We got lucky with the fish and even luckier when a Dolphin popped up nearby, they're always good to see. We could have had a blood fest as the Mackerel were plentiful but managed to resist catching hundreds of them.....you'll never get rid of them all. We dropped off a few fish to Graham & Wendy Gibbs and then cooked our own using Virgin Olive Oil & Chopped Tomatoes, add vinegar, salt and bit of Tobasco Sauce... the fish were superb. We later headed back into Aberaeron for some liquid refreshments but not after Dave had demonstrated what can be done to improvethe performance of a Smart Car. Dave is a bit handy when it comes to things Mechanical & Computerish...so he'd spent some time decoding the Chipboard on his car.......it had taken a while he said...but the results were quite amazing....let's just say it went very fast. We had a pleasant evening and retired quite early...which made a change. Sunday saw us back out at sea and had a good haul of Mackerel again. We later said our farewells and I dropped some fish off to Sir James Dalton at The Black Lion. The rest of the fish we ate back at the ranch on the Barbie.

Mid August and Mrs. Gibbs wasnt well and we've been back and forth to hospital. Jayne was kept in for a few days but is now out and on the mend. I've been Nurse Gibbs for a few days and as Jayne would say "Quite right too.."

As I write, Grant is on holiday in West Wales with his cousin Owen and I believe they are having a good time. Grant took enough of his own brewed lager to sink a battleship. I spoke to them yesterday and they'd managed to make a healthy profit from the Bandit Machines on Aberwristslit Pier......the pair of them are mad for these gambling machines and actually have a knack for making a few quid on them, so that's kept them happy.

Old Friend Simon Wilcox and family are also visiting Sunny Wales and so I popped to Talbot Green to say hello the other day. Simon and family these days live in Sunny California and every time they come to Wales it pours down with rain, which I assume must be a pleasant change from all that awful sunshine they get in San Diego. Simon and his good wife Maria were in great form and it was also nice to catch up with Simon's mother Betty, who's also keen gardener, so we have a lot in common. Simon & myself will be having a night out next week, so that could be interesting.

A Nutty Night Out

On Tuesday 19th August, Grant gave me a lift to Llantrisant and we picked up old mate Simon Wilcox. This was the night out we'd arranged. First off was The Cross Keys Hotel...which is always a bit weird when visiting, as it was everyone's hangout during the mid 1980's. I even lived there for a year before taking off on my travels. It's an okay pub now but it will never ever be the same as it was all them years ago. Next up was The Wheatsheaf which has recently has a refurb and is dedicated to all things Real Ale-ish. They've even got a Gin Still in the basement which will be operational in a couple of weeks. We then headed up to The New Inn and had a chat with Glen & Nichola Evans who run the pub. Once again there's ghosts from the past here as well. I used to work here when I was 17. We had hoped to visit The Workies (Llantrisant Workingman's Hall) but it was closed. Sadly not enough people these days feel the need to visit their local boozer in the early part of the week, so for economic reasons, it's cheaper to keep it closed. We then headed back to The Wheatsheaf and got into quaffing mode. Simon hit the vodka and then began to eat peanuts. He ate a lot of them. Even in my cross eyed state I'd said to him that he seemed to be eating a lot of them. Grant once again performed Taxi duties and picked us up at 10.30pm. We dropped Simon off and headed home. Not that I can remember much about that. The next day I fired off an email to Simon to say what a spiffing night we'd had....but got no reply....or the day later. I then found out that Simon had spent the following few days in hospital. After we'd dropped him off, he'd decided to eat more nuts. This apparently had caused a stomach problem and Simon spent the last few days of his holiday in a hospital bed. He got lucky and was eventually released in time to catch his flight back to San Diego. Simon & Family are back safely in California and now need a holiday to recover.

"Relax, we'll have plenty of time"

If you read our travel blog from last year, you'll realise that for some unknown reason we always end up having minutes to spare before jumping from one form of transport to another...and so it was for Father too, who was heading to Florida, USA. He was getting on the Red Eye National Express Bus to Gatwick Airport. The Bus was to leave Cardiff Station at 03.15am and I was to drive him there. We'd agreed that we'd leave at 02.15am as it's normally a 25 minute drive from the homestead. Everyone hit the hay early and set alarms for 01.45am. No one awoke and at 02.30am I found my front door being rapped heavily. Ooops. No problem, straight out and then we went through the comedy routine of making sure the tickets and wallet were at hand. They werent. The headless chicken act went on for a few minutes as I rifled through Father's tote bag. "It's a great bag" he said "I got it in Korea". Fine, except with about 20 zippered pockets to go through, it didnt seem that great to me. Eventually I found the tickets and wallet. Right let's go. We left at 02.40am. We managed to make good time until we got into Cardiff. The powers that be have decided to host this year's NATO conference in Newport. Cardiff is also one of the cities where the bigwigs will be wining & dining, so therefore it has been deemed necessary to put a Ring of Steel around the city centre to prevent terrorists from disrupting their lunch plans. All well and good but it makes for an **** pain having to find alternative streets to get to the Central Station area. But despite everything we manage to make it with about 3 minutes to spare. We say our goodbyes, put the luggage on board and I then head off trying to find my way out of the city. Which takes me far longer than it was getting in. All fun stuff.