I reckon that Crowded House song '4 seasons in one day' wasn't about Melbourne or anything – they were thinking of the UK! One minute it's sunny and warm-ish, the next it's snowing. Go figure.
April saw us move in to our lovely little house in Pontcanna.
Tanglewood
It's a little 2 bedroom house (yes, a free standing house), with a bathroom and ensuite. It's fully furnished,
Our lounge
courtesy of Ikea, but we're not complaining. Couple of odd things, though – no cups, but plenty of glasses, and odd numbers of crockery and cutlery.
Kitchen
Not that we're complaining too hard, though.
Lounge (looking backward)
We did have to go and buy things like an iron and ironing board, and things like a caddy for the shower – there was no-where to put soap other than the floor – and pots and pans. It's a small price to pay, though. We're close to 'the village', where all the shops for the area are. There are 2 cafés, a coffee shop which roasts a wide variety of beans, a clothing shop, a laundrette, an off-license and post office, 2 real estate offices, a butcher (very good meat, properly aged and cared for), a pharmacy, a baker, a green grocer, 2 bottle shops, a take away place, a florist, a deli and the closest of our 6 local pubs. The Halfway is about 4 minutes away, the Conway is 5 minutes away, the Beverley is 8 minutes away, the Cayo Arms is 10 minutes away, the Robin Hood is about 7 minutes away, and last but by no means least y Mochin Du (in English – the Black Pig) is 11 minutes away. That's walking with intent and thirst speed. Poor Matt has to pass directly past 2 of these on his way home! Y Mochin Du is also right next to SWALEC Stadium, which is home to the Glamorgan Dragons cricket team
"I like Glamorganmorgan"
– and will be hosting the first match of the Ashes next year. Damn! What a shame!!
We're also 20 minutes walk from Millennium Stadium, so expect to be able to walk to see a lot of rugby next winter.
Kathy's really pleased she found the house. We'd been concentrating in Cardiff Bay, but to be honest the apartments there are very tiny (a swung cat would have you up before the RSPCA for animal cruelty) and a bit grotty. Matt was a bit cranky at her that she'd agreed to sign the lease on our little Pontcanna house, as she'd been dead keen on a place in the Bay. But this little house is so much better. [Yeah, it is, it's fantastic - Matt] We're so close to everything, and not having a car makes all the difference. If we'd lived down the Bay we'd have to have bought a car as nothing is close enough – and public transport is not as good. Yay for Kathy!!
Kathy spent a lot of April and May getting services and utilities set up correctly. One big problem is the address of our little house. We now think that our landlord hasn't set the place up correctly with the Council and the Royal Mail, which causes problems when service providers use our post code to select which address we're at. Tricky, when “Rear of ...” doesn't appear in any of the drop down lists. Our greatest drama, though was with Virgin Media. Because of the area we're in, our landlord refused to allow us to get satellite TV, but allowed us to get cable TV and broadband instead. You'd think that was simple. But no. The sales guy at Virgin Media said yes, no problem and signed us up. Everything was going swimmingly until the installation guys arrived. Because the landlord paved over the rear of the houses to provide parking for the tenants, Virgin won't do any laying of new cables, and the placement of a T join in the cable along the street is too far away to allow any new connections. We were also told that 'we don't do construction work for new customers, so we don't want you as a customer'. What the...?!?!?!? A solution was reached, but not without much to-ing and fro-ing, stress and bad language. Not impressed, Mr Branson. Not impressed at all. But, we do have more channels that we did in Australia, and much faster broadband – and it's cheaper, too. Here's hoping we don't have to move and go through this crap again.
Other dramas were experienced when we bought our new TV, DVD and tuner. We went to what we thought was a lovely little local shop. The guys were very nice, and even ordered us a taxi so we could take our stuff home as they don't deliver (first warning sign). The TV was in a box which had been opened (second warning sign), but we were assured that everything was in the box. They helped us get everything in to the taxi (including the very patient driver as they guys dicked around (third warning) getting everything together). We got home, and realised there was a box missing – the tuner. So, Matt walks back to the store after ringing them to pick it up. Their response was 'oh yeah, here it is'. Plonkers. With joy, we proceeded to carefully unpack the TV. It was then we realised several important things were missing, like the stand, a power cord, something to connect the TV to the rest of the entertainment system, an instruction booklet, and a remote. Back on the phone to the idiots at the TV shop. Eventually they promised to send it out by courier the next day. 2 days later, Kathy gave up and walked to the store and picked up the missing bits, after talking with the store manager. The next day (!!!!!) a courier turned up with the bits which should have been there 3 days ago.
Kathy also had “fun” setting up utilities. Canberrans – never complain again about ACTEWAGL or Telstra. Compared to the utility services here, dealing with them is a piece of cake.
What about fun stuff? We went to Cardiff Castle – very cool and the oldest part dates back to the Romans. We went to the Royal Horticultural Society's Spring show at Bute Park. There was a joint birthday party for Matt's aunt Gaynor and his cousin's wife Sarah – their combined ages are 90. We watched the FA Cup final so see how much Cardiff City FC would lose by (Kathy thinks they didn't completely disgrace themselves against a much better side). We watched [at the pub] the semi finals
Kathy in the crowd on H-Cup day
and then the final of the Heinekin Cup (“what's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? It's a monster” was the favourite song of the Munster fans. For some reason.), and the EDF Cup (go the Ospreys!). We've watched a lot of rugby, and once we finally got the cable TV on we were even able to watch the Super 14 final (yay, Crusaders!). We went to Llandaff Cathedral, which had a religious site dating back to the 6th century.
Matt at Llandaff Cathedral
Cool!!!! There were the ruins of a 13th century bell-tower. There is just nothing that old in Australia. It keeps blowing us away that we're somewhere where the are structures that old.
In May we got the distressing news that our goods were still in Australia. We'd been having problems with the removalists, firstly getting an account from them for this move (we didn't get it until it was overdue – not happy guys), and then getting information from them about when our stuff would arrive. We really weren't happy – the information we'd been receiving from our only contact with them was non-existent. Our stuff is still not due to arrive in the UK until the 23rd June – and to make matters even worse the shipping agent in London has said that once it clears customs it could take up to 21 days more for them to get around to shipping it to us here in Cardiff! Given we had been given the expectation that our shipment would have been with us by the end of May, that is an additional 8 weeks we are without our belongings. We obviously haven't brought enough clothing with us, so we're having to go shopping for more stuff. We hadn't brought any summer clothing with us, and only a couple of books each. So we've had to buy clothes, books and other bits and pieces. We're missing homely things, like our photos, and other bits we've shipped to make us feel at home. We just have to wait for July.
We enjoy going to Cardiff bay on a sunny afternoon – it's the best place we've found so far for sitting outside and drinking and eating.
The Bay
We also like going for walks in our local parks and gardens. We love walking in Bute Park, and Llandaff Field. At Llandaff there are also lots of things to look at, like families playing sport, picnicking or exercising their dog, and sports teams practising and playing.
Anyway, this blog is called Northern Menu for a reason. Here it is:
Pubs and Bars – April
The Halfway
The Conway
The Robin Hood
King & Castle (scary, scary pub)
Cayo Arms
The Beverley
Dempsey's (Irish bar – good for watching sport)
Revolution Bar
The Westgate (handily placed between the Cayo and town)
The Goat Major
The Rummer Tavern
Slug and Lettuce (could be a great bar, but not enough staff on – 3 staff during happy hour, including serving food)
The Cottage
The Yard
O'Neil's at St. Mary's
The Owain Gwythir
Edwards
Lloyds No. 1 (won't visit it again – bit like the Labor Club Belco)
Y Mochyn Du
Tair Pluen
The Steam Bar (at the Hilton Hotel)
The Butcher's Arms
The Black Lion
Kitty Flynn's
Pubs and Bars – May
Glo Bar
Bar 33
Pulse (where Matt's gaydar failed to go off – he didn't notice all the mail hairdressers until he went to the gents, and found unusual things in the dispensing machines)
Swell (very nice jazz bar)
Terra Nova
Prince of Wales
The Romilly
The Gatekeeper
The Calcutta Club
The Walkabout Bar
Salt
Notable foods or meals
Cheeses – Caerphilly, smoked caerphilly, Stinky Bishop and local goats cheeses
Faggots and peas
Gammon
Herrings
Mackerel
Tapas
Wines from France, Chile, Portugal and Spain (no bad ones yet. Yet). Kathy's missing her bubbles, though – you can't get it by the glass in bars, like you can in Australia.
Suet pastry around a savoury pudding
The great institution of Sunday Lunch (a meal bigger than your head – with peas, beans, carrots, swede, boiled and roasted spuds, and Yorkshire puddings if you have beef)
Real prosciutto
Real mozzarella
English asparagus (yummy)
Welsh spring lamb – of course
Jersey potatoes (creamy texture, sweet potato-y flavour)
Local beers (the Cayo is particularly good for this, as they have guest beers on every 4 weeeks or so)
Cider (yes, we know the reputation it's got in Aus, but it's better here – trust us. Fave commercial ones are Bulmers and Magners – not just because Magners sponsors a rugby comp!)
A delicious dinner at our local Portuguese restaurant
We're absolutely loving life. We're both healthier, and happier. We're eating better and drinking less. Despite the weather being so changeable (this is the UK after all), we don't mind it. Could do with it being a bit hotter, though. It's nice to see the rain – it's so green! Ask us again in February how we're loving it!
