Well, it’s been holiday time again.
We have been visiting the same seaside resort of Saundersfoot in Wales for over 20 years now, so I guess we like it!
The packing of the car has always been an interesting one, with family priorities changing over the years as daughter Charlotte grows. Now a 12 and a half year old, clothes and make up etc have well and truly taken over. Along with collapsible chairs for the beach, surf board and surf suits, we just about fill a family car.
We were fairly lucky with the weather, and most days allowed Charlotte and my wife Aly to get into the sea, which was just a few yards from the apartment. Its really excellent position meant you could dash out when the tide was in, have your swim, and be back in quickly if the weather changed.
This brings us to the subject of surf suites. You see, they both have them, and I don’t. So as the sea is still pretty chilly in June, I decided it was high time I got myself one.
The managements both smirked when I announced I was to brave the shops for one, with comments ranging from “we’ll inform the coastguards” to “surely they won’t have one your size!”
So off I went, and having found the right shop, popped in to see if I was in luck. The racks were based on sizes, so I went right to the very end to peruse the goods. They had black or black in the ultra large section, and so grabbing the largest size they had, I made for the changing room.
After much wriggling (they are not easy to get on are they?) I emerged to look in the full length mirror. It was fine!
Ok, I looked like a particularly weird species of seal who had just had a huge fish meal, but the main thing was that it would keep me warm.
Back to the apartment, on with the suit, a dash onto the beach and a sprint into the sea to join the girls. After they had stopped laughing, I began to enjoy the warmth and buoyancy the suit give, and it meant you could stay in quite a long time without going blue.
Most evenings we ate out, and enjoyed a good variety of restaurants. One particular favourite is an Australian place called the Kookabar which specialises in steaks.
By this I mean pretty much any type of animal you care to mention, from Kangaroo to Ostrich or Crocodile!
But the king of the steaks here is the Wagga Wagga. It’s a double portion of rump steak, done with any sauce you fancy including their own BBQ sauce, and a side dish of king prawns. Oh yes, and salad and chips.
Oh boy!
I also made the effort to visit St David’s Cathedral in the very bottom south west corner of Wales. What a lovely place. The sun shone, which helps, and I had checked out The Farmers Inn beforehand for lunch. Great beer and tasty food at a reasonable price.
The history really speaks to you here, and the scenery is very pretty, with the sea a dramatic background to many buildings. Unfortunately there was a funeral on and so I couldn’t get into the Cathedral itself, but I will be back.
Before we knew it the week was gone, and the car repacked, and it was bye bye Saundersfoot until next year.
We broke the journey down on tha way back by staying at the Premier Inn(we know how to live) in Wrexham. This meant that the first England World Cup game against the USA was on the Saturday of our return.
So, I ordered a taxi and found a Weatherspoon’s pub with a huge screen. Excellent. They had Abbot Ale on at £1.80 a pint. Fantastic. However, it soon became obvious that not everyone was supporting England. My first clue was when We scored, and boos echoed around the huge pub!
Of course we played badly, and the USA played well, and When our goalie let an easy shot in, you should have heard the noise of rejoicing! To be honest, I’ve had better evenings.
On my return home, some of you might remember I had bought a plasma TV to watch the world cup on in HD. The difference in picture quality is very clear, but what was also clear was that England were still playing rubbish!
I am finishing this newsletter soon after we played quite well and beat Slovenia, meaning we are through to the quarter finals! Then I heard who we were playing – THE GERMANS!
