Autumn was a mixed bag

September 1 came, and the weather went off. Apparently August had broken recent records for bad weather, and the weather experts predict a white Christmas. OMG. Cool, but kinda scary. Let's just wait and see.

Start of September saw the final one day match between England and South Africa held in Cardiff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, right. It rained heavily in the lead-up to the match, and because the outfield drainage isn't the best, almost no play took place (they'd better fix it before the Ashes...). While we support the idea of international cricket in our little adopted home town, this summer has not been a good one for cricket in terms of the weather. Still, Glamorgan ended their season well, but failed in the end to win the promotion place to the next grade.

In September there were the first of the autumn storms, with significant flooding throughout Wales. The River Taff broke it's banks near us at Blackweir, and scoured out nearly all of the gravel pathways nearby. The floodwaters didn't reach us, as there are 2 sets of flood banks between us and the river. Very fortunately, Matt had also just switched over his bank account, and as part of the package purchased contents insurance the week before the worst of the storms hit. Thank goodness we didn't need it! But those storms were at the beginning of the month, and the rest of September had us enjoying mostly sunny days but with cooler evenings.

The Magners League rugby kicked off in September, and so we've been watching a fair bit of rugby on the TV. We have been to a Cardiff Blues match (v Leinster), as well, which we enjoyed a lot. The game was at Cardiff Arms Park, which is now a lot smaller than it used to be when it was still an international ground. The corporate boxes are so close to the ground that each time there's a kick for goal the ball bounces off the windows of the boxes. Must be startling if you're not paying attention to the game. For those who don't know what the Magners League is, it's the Celtic rugby competition – Ireland, Wales and Scotland – and is sponsored by Magners Cider. Hence the name.

The weekend the Magners League started there was also a football international on at the Millennium Stadium – Wales v Azerbaijan. We were tempted to go, but decided against it. We had been at the pub before the match, and were really put off by the football crowd. We started to feel really edgy, especially just before the match was on. We ended up watching the match at a rugby pub, and immediately started to relax. It was a rugby pub, so although the football was on the rugby crowd was watching it. They were polite and considerate. They moved to allow people to get to the bar. They were relaxed and joking. Sorry, football fans, we really did try to get in to your sport, but you guys have put us off. Because of the football, the South Wales police had their mounted unit out. Why aren't there more mounted police in Australia?

Our big expedition for the month was to Chepstow, to visit Chepstow Castle. What a brilliant castle!

Matt at the main gateway to Chepstow Castle

It's the oldest stone castle in the UK, and has wooden doors dating from 1190 – the oldest still surviving in the whole of Europe.

The oldest wooden door in Europe at Chepstow Castle

The castle was founded by the Normans, and went on to become the seat of the Marshalls, and was a key fort during the English Civil War. It was in continuous use, therefore, from the Normans to Cromwell.

Ruins of the original Norman tower (the Great Tower) at Chepstow Castle

Carved lintel over a doorway into the Great Tower

Big windows looking over the River Wye in the Great Tower

Matt in the ruins of the old dining hall at Chepstow Castle

Detail on the top of Marten's Tower, Chepstow Castle

It was constructed during 3 distinct phases, each providing it's own outer defences which were then incorporated in to the castle defences. It must have been a pretty amazing place to defend, as one whole side of the defences are a sheer cliff up from the River Wye (when we were there the river was brown and swollen from the rains). Clever place to put the castle, so that only 3 walls need defending. Because of the 3 phases, and the centuries of use the walls have both arrow and gun slits. We went there and back on the train, and enjoyed travelling along side the Severn River. Hey, do you think they'd see if we made rude gestures across to the English?

The weekend after we went to Chepstow we went out to Barry and had lunch with some more of Matt's relatives – this time his cousin Linda and her family.

Linda

Phil

It was a really great afternoon. Matt's aunt Marion and her husband Norman were there, and it was the first time Matt had seen them since he was in Wales as a youngster.

Matt with Norman and Marion

Linda's youngest son, Matt (confusing, isn't it?) is breaking in to the professional audio-visual industry. He'd been at the joust at Cardiff Castle we were at a couple of months before and had recorded the goings on. He'd then put in a sound track and took it to the media people at the Castle. They were so impressed that they have commissioned him to do a similar production for the Cheese Festival which is on there at the end of the month. He's pretty excited about it. They showed us some of his other works, and they are really quite good.

The second half of September had better weather. A lot better. We were able to get up early on weekend mornings and go for a walk, especially through Llandaff Field.

Llandaff field early morning on 13 September

Kathy and Matt 13 September

What was really good about that was seeing the chestnut trees almost moving they had so many squirrels in them. The were after the nuts, of course. The noise they made as they tore the outer husks off the nuts was just amazing, and you had to be careful about not standing under the trees or else something would land on your head as they dropped husks or partly eaten nuts. If the squirrels weren't in the trees they were on the ground burying nuts or running between trees.

Squirrel on the ground at Llandaff Field

We also discovered that the butcher is open by 7.30am on Saturdays. How convenient...

September is of course Voorburg Group Meeting time.

Matt at the first session at Voorburg Meeting

So Matt headed off to Mexico, and not without a few dramas. The afternoon of day before (!!!!) he was due to fly out (at 6am, mind you) he gets a call from KLM – the airline he was travelling with. 'Mr Berger, we've cancelled the flight you were booked on out of Cardiff, but it's OK because we've booked you on a flight which departs at the same time from Birmingham'. What the?!?!?!?!? They couldn't understand that it would be a problem for them to do that. Even when he explained that a 6am departure meant a 4am check in at the airport. So he would have had to have left Cardiff as soon as he got the call, assuming that he could get accommodation in Birmingham that night. Not a particularly helpful attitude, nor a particularly good use of public money. After much discussion he was able to get on the same flight to leave Cardiff, but 24 hours later. Good for us, but not good for Matt at the other end, as he had to present a session first thing on the Monday morning. Needless to say, Matt's not impressed with the KLM Customer Service people. So on our bonus day, we had a nice relaxing day in the sun. We went for a walk up Cowbridge Road, and went to a little park we'd seen when we'd done the Cowbridge Mile. Once he finally got there, the Voorburg meeting went well. Matt enjoyed the Host Day, and the food. More problems with KLM, this time being told he couldn't check in to his Mexico City-Amsterdam flight, even though other people could. So instead of going shopping in Mexico for our niece and nephews, he had to hang around the airport with his luggage until his flight opened. He was very glad to get home. But he did have a good time in Mexico.



While Matt was away, Kathy was all on her lonesome. She did do some shopping at the Markets, and on the weekend Matt came home she went to the British Cheese Festival with Linda and Phil, and had a very good time. She was very well behaved, and bought only 2 cheeses and a 50 ml bottle of each of Sloe Gin and Damson Gin. Kathy was impressed with the variety of cheeses on offer for tasting and purchase, and enjoyed a lot of goat and sheep milk cheeses, and especially the unpasteurised ones. They've got such a different flavour and texture to cheeses made from pasteurised cheese that in Australia they'd be worth the effort of seeking out. Also at the Festival was a marquee for CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale. Naturally, the products on offer had to be sampled as a palate cleanser (pity there was no red wine). There were, in addition to various ales, cider and perry available for purchase. Everything tried was very, very yummy, and after a foggy start the day was beautifully sunny and crisp.

So, apart from cheese, big tasty things were Discovery apples (in particular, but fresh season apples from the farmer's market were spectacular), plums and guinea fowl (the start of autumn being the start of the game season). We're still enjoying the various wines and beers, of course.