Okay, so a quick update on the month of March. The Big Thugby game was looming and so it was decided that we would head into Central Cardiff & meet up with our mate Rhid. The weather was good and all looked promising. The only downside of course was that the Wales Vs. England Rugby match was being held on a Sunday. We took the train and headed into town. A lot of other people had the same idea. The game was being played in Twickenham but everyone was heading into town to watch it in the pubs. The weather was very good and our chosen venue for the event was The City Arms just opposite the Millennium Stadium. The City Arms is an excellent boozer, it's retained it's character over the years and now caters to fans of Real Ales, Ciders and Specialist Lagers. In short, it's our kind of pub. We get a seat easy enough and then sample the Real Ales whilst watching the game. Wales got hammered, so did we.

After the game, the next port of call was The Old Arcade, again an old favourite, it's pretty much the same as it was except it's been cleaned up and the old tramps that used to frequent the lounge are no longer in evidence. Which funnily enough detracts from the place. Many moons ago all sorts used to go in there and it was one of those bars where you'd get the well off and the booze dossers rubbing shoulders together with minimal fuss. I miss that. There were quite a few in there getting into the spirit of things, the same as us and we got talking and had a good time. Too much of a good time & we simply forgot it was Sunday night......to cut a long story short, we did eventually manage to get home thanks to Lord Gibbs picking us up..literally..from a local boozer. Rhid got home okay as well, which was good to know as we lost him in the train station. My philosophical thoughts on this outing? We wont be doing that again in a hurry.

Later in the month, Grant and myself once again headed into town, not to go on another booze frenzy but this time we were after culture & this presented itself in the form of The Stranglers' Ruby Anniversary Tour. Yes, The Stranglers were celebrating their 40th year since inception! The venue was the Students Union Hall in Cardiff. We parked up outside the museum and walked to the hall, it's a good venue as it's quite small so you can actually see people on the stage. The support band was Nine Below Zero, they've been around for a while as well but put on a good blistering R&B set...then we had the wait until The Stranglers came on......It was a great show, they played the old singles, new stuff and tracks from their previous albums. Drummer Jet Black couldnt make the show due to ill health, he's 75 now so you cant blame him. One of his progeny played and did a great job of it. A good time was had by all........J.J. Burnel still does Karate kicks on stage...He's a 6th Dan at Kidokan Karate, so he can do what he wants.

It was Ma's Birthday on Sunday the 23rd, so we nipped over to wish her all the best, the clan were off to Brother Dyl's for lunch but Grant & myself couldnt make it as we were heading to Luton Airport. Grant had an assessment interview at Monarch Airlines so were heading up to stay overnight as to avoid the stress of a 4 hour ride on Monday Morning. It was quite sunny when we left but we soon encountered flurries of snow along the way. It's Spring here in Merry Olde Blighty and so this weather is to be expected. We stopped off in Membury Service Station and unwittlingly wandered into the dreaded Starbucks for a coffee.......and, as you get in any modern coffee retail outlet, we were confronted with Coffee Confusion......the board showed hundreds of different types of coffee......so I ordered 2 small filtered coffees......I was then asked if I wanted short or tall? Small....I was informed was short....the £1.85 ones, I said....the guy then told me that would take 5 minutes and did I want the Americana instead?? Yes.....and then we were asked to hand over £5.20...........good scam. The coffee was...as Austin Powers would say "A bit nutty.." yes that's right....it tasted like ****. So that being my first ever visit to Starbucks will also be my last. There was a big delay on the motorway due to a crash....and in Britain that means the Police will do their best to stop the traffic for an hour at least while they "Investigate". Eventually we went past 4 cars that had ploughed into each other, probably because they were driving too close to one another. No one was hurt and I forgot to take pictures as I was too busy rubber necking. So 4 hours later we got to Luton Airport and checked into the Ramada Encore. We then drove to the Monarch Airlines Training Academy so we knew where it was and it turned out to be just around the corner, which is what Mrs. Gibbs had told us as she had booked the Ramada to make sure we were nearby. We had a quick drive to the town centre but it was too far away for us to have a wander about and so we took a stroll to Luton Airport terminal. Terminal Boredom...just like any other airport, bland and so walked back to the hotel via Holiday Inn and Ibis for a couple of cleansers. Then hit the hay.

Up for Breakfast, which was at least recognisable and then Grant drove us to the Assessment Centre. He would be in there for 3 hours and so I took off to see the joys of Luton town centre, of which there were a few. The weather was sunny at least and so I wandered about taking a few snaps of the more architecturally interesting buildings. The rest of it was Identikit Retail Britain. There was a big shopping mall there, good if you like shopping, I dont. Eventually I headed back to get Grant. The assessment went okay and puts him in good stead for some more assessment interviews that he's got coming up. The drive back was tedious as to be expected. So that's pretty much been March. April is looming and so with it comes the start of the weekend Car Boot Sales. It doesnt get much more thrilling.