Porthcawl

  

The 'beach' at Porthcawl front.  Always looks as though the sand has recently been washed away.

 

 Across the Bristol Channel,  Exmoor National Park.

 And, yes, it was wild and windy.

Turner and Ewenny, Ogmore.

Turner's1795 painting of the then derelict Priory church in Ewenny.

The same windows today.

And the same screen as in the painting.  Turner is featuring a lot on this trip.  Apart from Margate and Ewenny, we also visited a turner exhibition in the Cardiff Art gallery and watched a BBC documentary in the TV. 

English Food

Gek has become convinced that all English food comes with chips and peas.  The evidence from the last 20 days that we have been back in the UK seems to support this impression.  The search for a nice rice dish continues!!!!

Shostakovich and the cello.

 

 The Millennium Centre is an extraordinary building.

 Outside and in.  We will settle within easy reach of Cardiff, of that there is no doubt.

This day we were here to hear Shostakovich's second cello concerto.  Fav' instrument, fav' composer.  The performance was broadcast live on Radio 3, hence the venue, a huge sound studio.  Schumann and  Liszt were also played but Shostakovich does it for me.

St. Donat.

Thick stone walls and small wind.......ows.  There are ways to combat the biting winds. A typical period house in the Vale of Glamorgan.   I think we may settle up in the valleys. Winds straight off the Atlantic take no prisoners.

Pebble Beach, Cold Knap

 A beach just to the west of Barry.  Cold Knap is very appropriate.  There is a sea mist heading our way.  Very chilling they are.

It is now towards the end of April.......and still no spring.  Wind proofs for the fishermen are still the order of the day.

The wind sculpted tree on the right of the picture gives a pretty good idea of the how bracing it is down here. 

Caerphilly

Not the main attraction in the town, but the birth place of the annoyingly funny Tommy Cooper. I didn't know that.

The Castle with a comic character trying to upright a falling over tower.  Good luck with that my friend.

I couldn't decide which of these two images to delete.

 

So I haven't. Funny thing is, I don't remember the castle having a moat.

Cardiff Bay

The Bay at dusk.

Sons and daughters of Wales.

More conventional sculptings.  Here Lloyd George in Gorsedd Gardens, best known as the highly energetic Prime Minister (1916–22) who guided the Empire through the First World War.  Seems to be shaking his fist at City Hall. He was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state

Not famous yet.

Ivor Novello in the Bay.  Born David Ivor Davies was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century, notably in Hitchcock's early UK based films.

Cardiff

Cardiff City Hall.

 

 Gorsedd Gardens six weeks late in blooming.  Trees still very bare.

Windy, quiet streets.  No cars just leg power.  A much calmer place.

Cardiff new library complete with modern sculpture for I don't know what.

Hair

 It's been windy, OK.  Very Windy

Completely ruined my Jeremy Irons look.

Looking down and up.

Coming back to the UK after a long overseas stay,  some things strike you as very 'odd'.  There are loads and loads of these redundant chimneys complete with their pots all over the place in London.  Why?  Are Londoners anticipating going back to the good old days of the coal fire?  

And the skies over London are crowded.  Apart from aircraft from the 5 London airports, I counted 8 vapour trails from aircraft over flying London 7 miles up.  Two new trails were being created as I watched.  Seemed as if the planes were in a race to America  

London Sky Lines.

Our young friend Toby has recently acquired himself a flat in Greenwich. This series of images was captured from his balcony........with a long lens.

 London's sky line is 'rojak'. All over the place,up and down, round and square.

Like some alien ship has landed.  Or a giant's pin cushion, perhaps.

Words fail me.  A case of the emperor's cloths?  Perhaps it was meant for Blackpool?

Whitstable

 I love this pub.  It is just so right. 

Neptune's location isn't bad either.  We visited the second hand bookshop in the town to collect a couple of books for this trip's dwell moments, not that there are going to be many of those me thinks.  7 pounds for 4 books, ain't bad.

Margate

Love Lane.  A reminder of Georgetown.  But much more importantly, Turner first came to the seaside town aged 11, having been sent by his parents to school in Love Lane.  Walking a street Turner walked.  Magic.

But we were here to visit the Turner Contemporary Museum. It is built on the spot where a house frequented by Turner used to stand.

This window sees the view Turner saw from his studio window in the early 19th century.

Richard and I lowering the tone of the place

Wheels

The start of our 4+ month trip to the UK. Almost the first thing to do was to pick up a hire car.  And Gek done good .........again.  This little 107 has 740 miles on the clock and is costing us 11 pounds/day to hire and 9 pounds/day to have zero insurance excess.  Cheap as chips.

 An arty-farty image for a change.  By Gek of course.

Things they are a'changing.

 

Relau used to be a very sleepy place but now it is as though a completely new town is being built around us.  We are off to the UK for 4+ months come Monday.  Lord knows what the Relau will have become on our return.  This is the new wet market and food court 5 mins walk from our place.  Guess this will be open when we get back.

And then there is the second Penang island road bridge, scheduled to be open to the public in October or may be September, they are ahead of schedule.  Around 26 KM.  That is one long bridge which snakes across the Penang straits, not straight at all.  Very appropriate in the year of the snake to have a snaking bridge.  Wonder if the planners arrange for this to be so?

 

What was PISA is now SPICE and is coming on nice.  When we return there is likely to be a very big hole in the ground in the centre of this picture.  All the conference facilities are to be underground, a reversal of normal construction practice; garden on top accommodation underneath.

 

And this strange building on the road junction opposite the Public Bank.  There is no picture board to show the architects vision so we have been left guessing as to what the heck is going on the top of this concrete monster.  Very strange it is.

 

Finally but by no means the last, The Golden Triangle.  We are learning a lot about construction practice by eying the guys working here through our binoculars each day.  With the low cost housing being built at the same time behind the  G T, there are 8 cranes working , sometimes to past 11 at night, and come rain or shine.  Don't know how the guys stand it.  I would be a goner after one day up there.