First blog - Introduction a Middle and an End

Hello everyone,

this is the first real blog I've ever done and it's the start of the "new me". The old me would have written one of these over a period of 6 months and never actually got around to posting it, so an end to that me and onwards. I feel I should introduce myself before we dive straight into "blogging" or is this blogging? Don't know....

Anyway for those in Cardiff you may have come across my beard or noticed me stood alongside Nick as we try to make people look at the his magazine "Culture Vulture". I've been apart of CV (Culture Vulture) since the first few weeks of its existence and as that website has had a face lift i thought it would be a nice time for me to start this up.

This blog is probably gonna be updated on a weekly bases and i'm aiming to blog about things happening over the next few weeks, what i've noticed and generally what ever catches my eye, so your guess is as good as mine as to whats gonna be coming up.

So what's happened this week...............

Last weekend a good friend of mine came over from Berlin. His name is Jereon and he's originally Dutch and some would say it's surprising he now lives in Berlin (Holland and Germany don't get on - a lot like most countries and Germany but there's a bit more of a local rivalry between those two, like wales v england or cardiff v swansea or everton v liverpool - you get it) But he's loving Berlin and i'll be going there later in the year so that's another blog pencilled in. He got here and we went out, we arrived back at my house at 12.30 am and he wanted to go straight into town but most places here close at 2am which isn't the lifestyle he undertakes. Berlin is like most European cities, it's 24/7, i'm kinda happy Cardiff isn't like that. Imagine the drunk people 24/7 yuk..... but Berlin doesn't have the drinking culture of the UK, as Jereon pointed out time and time again. I've never heard the line "you wouldn't see people that in Berlin" occur so much. This line only came out when a drunk girl wearing minimal clothing stumbled past, so in Cardiff that was a lot. Why is the drinking culture so different over here???? please comment

So Saturday and Sunday we pottered around South Wales showing Jereon some sights but I wanted him to remember Cardiff for something more than a city full of drunk people. My opportunity arose on the Monday or St David's Day! Now, when i was a younger person I remembered dressing up as a solider in those cool costume with the plastic sword which always bent and the girls had the traditional dresses on and the kid turned up with the MASSIVE leek pinned to his jumper which was so heavy is stretched the collar of his jumper down. Anyway my point is, We celebrated it which is something i haven't done for years and felt it necessary to make a point of celebrating it with Jereon.

The plan of attack was, breakfast at the new fancy John Lewis which started its new menu by the way. I had a breakfast crepe which i highly recommend, crepe with mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes and cheese wow. (Food may feature a lot on this page) and then hit up Cardiff Castle and hope something St David's dayee was happening.

Have you seen how much it is to enter Cardiff Castle is now???? £10.50 for the Essential Visit or £13.50 for the premium tour, wasn't it free to wonder the grounds once? Anyway it seems a bit pricey for my liking but thinking about it they do need money to pay for that massive crane which some how invaded the place. I didn't see it mount an attack. So no joy at Cardiff Castle BUT the kinda lady on reception did tell me about the St David's Day parade which was due to begin at midday from the town hall and go through town and stop outside the massive TV in the Hayes. And for this information the women gave me a tube of daffodil bulbs (MASSIVE BONUS) which paired up with the free energy light bulbs i'd got from a blue tent in the middle of Queens street, so as we're now bulbed up to the max we headed over to town hall with a curious pessimistic glint in our eyes. Was this parade ready to deliver especially with a street party expert on board (I'm referring to Jereon there, google "Holland Queens Day party" or even better click here, they know how to party)

We trotted over to the starting point and at first it looked very lame, lots of buses from the vallies which ferried children down to make the parade seem a lot bigger than it was. ut as kick off approached the atmosphere changed and random folk appeared from subways, big doors and from thin air, especially the druids. I didn't see them turn up just one minute there was a massive dude shouting orders and rallying the troops, no children. Subsequently it was go time and what seemed like a little trickle of fellow St David's Day patrons turned into an onslaught, people appeared at once and started marching, it was great. The parade went from the town hall, down St Mary's straight, down mill lane and stopped by the big telly where everyone had a sing song. My only ? about the whole thing was, Surely we should have the day off and have a massive party and why wasn't this massively promoted. It would have been brilliant seeing the streets of Cardiff FULL of people all out celebrating St David's day. I understand there's police costings etc etc but if everyone is out in Cardiff like on a rugby day then the costs will become irrelevant as people will spend money enjoying themselves. I'm would like Cardiff Council to promote these things a bit more effectively, have a designated bill board just for Cardiff Council, do something so people know what's going on. We don't all go to the library you know. (Incidently we joined our localy library yesterday, its very easy). Anyway i took photo's of the parade see............

Well i think i'll sign off now, i was going to write about lots but these seems to be a very long blog and i've already drunk 2 cups of coffee as you can see. Over and out for now.......

Gavin