I am now in a luxurious hotel at Ross-on-Wye, having just had a lovely meal of grilled salmon on a terrace overlooking the Wye Valley. It's an incredibly beautiful bit of the world that I've never seen before
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I've been flipping retroactively through your travel posts - I'm amused by the ones of the tributes for Ianto, but I'm very happy to hear about Cardiff Castle. I didn't go there, and now I'll correct that mistake next time I'm in town!
Cardiff Castle is really remarkable. Its three greatest joys:
1. The Norman keep 2. The William Burgess art and design 3. The Doctor Who merchandise in the shop
Plus, it's a place for kids - for people of all ages - to simply have fun with the archery lessons and demonstrations, and the storytelling, and the people in costume, and the general sense of glimpsing the past.
It was raining and January when I was last in Cardiff, so probably not so much with the archery. Still, I obviously missed out on a treat, so I'm going to make a point of going back, when next I get on that side of the Atlantic.
Probably a lot of those things just happen in the summer, or on clear days. Or maybe just on Sundays. There were archery lessons and demonstrations, and fighting with pikestaffs, and a lot of costumed shows, and a demonstration of hawking and falconry, and the storyteller - all pretty much at the same time.
I listened to the storyteller for a while. It was fun. He had kids take the various roles in his story - princesses being captured by a villain, and then they were going to be rescued by the brave knight. He had this routine of asking the kids their names, and where they were from, and how old they were. So if it was Princess Amy of Wells, for example, and she said she was either, he'd say "Twenty-eight!" and they'd say "No, eight," and that would go on for a bit. So one little girl who reminded me of Hermione Granger said she was nine, and he said, "Twenty-nine?" and she started swatting him repeatedly on the arm. "No, I said nine!"
I imagine you haven't had any time to look up my family's names in the local phone books, or that you've forgotten our conversation about that. Gilbert and Daniels, plus Bird and Flick and Maury (Mauer). The key ancestor left Wales in about 1820, one William Daniels with his brother John.
It's a brutally hot day here today, which always makes me feel unwell; we had our union picnic today, and I managed about five hours of sleep before getting myself up to go attend it. I made it in time for the food, barely. I still have to go to work tonight, in about an hour and a half, and don't have any actual time for a nap, more's the pity. Something of a crappy day. But you had a good day. I'll enjoy your castles and adventures vicariously!
Thanks for thinking of it. I could do a search online, I know, but where's the fun in that? My uncle Tom, in Albany, once got a call from a truck driver who made a habit of checking phone books every place he stopped, to find his own family name. Tom was the only Heiple in that book, and he and the fellow had a nice chat.
Yeah. Details like that are useful. I was making notes of the names of the restaurants on Mermaid Quay, and the lunchtime possibilities available to our Hub folk.
I'd been to Cardiff Castle during my January 2008 trip to Cardiff. This was back before series 2 aired. And of course I climbed up to the top of the castle keep because that's just the sort of thing I do. :-) So when I saw "Exit Wounds" all I could think was "omg, they got all that camera equipment etc. up all those narrow winding stairs!"
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1. The Norman keep
2. The William Burgess art and design
3. The Doctor Who merchandise in the shop
Plus, it's a place for kids - for people of all ages - to simply have fun with the archery lessons and demonstrations, and the storytelling, and the people in costume, and the general sense of glimpsing the past.
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LOL!
It was raining and January when I was last in Cardiff, so probably not so much with the archery. Still, I obviously missed out on a treat, so I'm going to make a point of going back, when next I get on that side of the Atlantic.
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I listened to the storyteller for a while. It was fun. He had kids take the various roles in his story - princesses being captured by a villain, and then they were going to be rescued by the brave knight. He had this routine of asking the kids their names, and where they were from, and how old they were. So if it was Princess Amy of Wells, for example, and she said she was either, he'd say "Twenty-eight!" and they'd say "No, eight," and that would go on for a bit. So one little girl who reminded me of Hermione Granger said she was nine, and he said, "Twenty-nine?" and she started swatting him repeatedly on the arm. "No, I said nine!"
"I pity your husband," he said.
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I imagine you haven't had any time to look up my family's names in the local phone books, or that you've forgotten our conversation about that. Gilbert and Daniels, plus Bird and Flick and Maury (Mauer). The key ancestor left Wales in about 1820, one William Daniels with his brother John.
It's a brutally hot day here today, which always makes me feel unwell; we had our union picnic today, and I managed about five hours of sleep before getting myself up to go attend it. I made it in time for the food, barely. I still have to go to work tonight, in about an hour and a half, and don't have any actual time for a nap, more's the pity. Something of a crappy day. But you had a good day. I'll enjoy your castles and adventures vicariously!
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It's been hot in Ottawa, too. Makes me want to go back to the England! (That, and the castles. And everything.)
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Having just seen my cousin in Durham, I resolved to get in touch with my cousins in Canada. I'm not sure in what way, though.
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*files away for future fic reference...* ;)
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I didn't, but I wanted to.
and sheep's milk ice-cream at Shepherds. :-D
Hadn't heard of that one. Sounds delicious!
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Scary, isn't it?
And of course that episode was great incentive to go all the way up!
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