Mutterings for the Minority

Championship - you’re having a laugh

I was unfortunate enough today to witness a dire Swansea performance against the Millers of Rotherham in the 2 nil defeat at the Liberty stadium. What made matters worse was the manner in which they lost - they simply looked as if they’d been on the beer all Easter weekend and couldn’t give a sh*t.

I honestly don’t mind seeing the Swans lose (well sometimes), as long as they show some commitment and desire to win, today they displayed neither. To cap it all, we’re now even dropped out of the play-off places in League One. With only 3 games to go, even the play-offs are now looking decidedly dodgy. I suppose when the dust has settled, I’ll look back and think that the season on the whole has been a success and exceeded expectations. It’s still bloody disappointing though to think that they were top of the league at Christmas.

One small consolation was a picture of DDWT Junior in the match day programme today. He’d been photographed with the Cyril the Swan he’d won at the Brentford game back in March

Answers on a postcard

Went on a photo taking frenzy down Swansea Bay today, which is one of my favourite local destinations. I didn’t think the weather was going to play ball before we left as further up the Swansea Valley the rain clouds were providing blanket coverage. Thankfully upon arriving at Swansea Marina the sun was shining brightly and it made for a very pleasant afternoon indeed.

Now not being very familiar with photographic art, I’ve often wondered how you would best describe the type of pictures I take (and before someone says it, no they’re not crap!) are they - landscape, abstract, conventional… etc. So answers on a postcard please.

My usual weekly trip to the bathroom weighing scales provided a very pleasant surprise today with the display showing 17st 2lbs - a loss of 1lb from last week. This was most pleasing as I had been having a far from active week on both the training and healthy eating fronts.

However, given that today was Easter Sunday - the house of DDWT found itself inundated with some 12 Easter eggs! This amounted to no less than 2KG of melted down chocolate - I’m now in chocolate heaven. NOT good news for my diet though.

Sand in my socks

In keeping with our agenda to ‘get out and about’ over the Easter bank holiday, we paid a visit to Pembrey Country Park today. For anyone who hasn’t been there I can recommend a visit, as it’s the perfect place (i.e. a sandy beach and acres of secluded woodland) to relax and switch off. A visit in the height of summer is on the cards, if only to see the glorious Cefn Sidan beach drenched in sunshine. DDWT Junior was most impressed by (a) his sand castles and (b) the pony trekking centre that is also in the park. You can also try the toboggan run, adventure playground, miniature railway, crazy golf and dry ski slope! I’ll leave the rest of the touristy stuff to other web sites *smile*

Here are my usual selection of (weird) snaps from our visit.

Watched a film called ‘Along Came Polly‘ last night - after drinking far too much Jacob’s Creek (my favourite wine) I hasten to add. It was an amusing romantic comedy starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. It’s worth watching if only to get to grips with some shocking statistics from a risk analyst (Stiller) *big grin*. What perhaps was more interesting however was the debate Mrs. DDWT and I had afterwards regarding Jennifer’s girl-next-door look/role in the film. We both came to the conclusion that she was indeed far more attractive in this guise than the more glammed up ‘Rachel’ in Friends. Disclaimer - please note that this was AFTER 2 bottles of wine!

Chocolate and chips

We kicked off the Easter Bank Holiday weekend today by venturing to the McArthurglen Outlet village in Bridgend for some much needed retail therapy. True to form however, we didn’t get much therapy - other than some chocolate from the Cadbury shop and a bargain bucket from KFC for lunch. Diet, what diet?

The highlight of the day - for DDWT Junior at least - was our participation in the outlet’s Easter Bunny Hunt. This simply involved the kids spotting 10 pink or blue Easter bunnies (which were strategically positioned in various shop windows) and filling in the appropriate shop name on their entry form. All completed entries would get a prize - super smashing great we thought.

We found all 10 bunnies whilst meandering our way around the shops and then proceeded to get DDWT Junior’s prize from the information desk. The missus and I were a little perplexed though to find that the prize was a McArthurglen bunny hat and some champagne truffles from Thorntons - yes I did say champagne truffles. Now don’t get me wrong, it was a nice idea - but me thinks a nice little Easter egg for the little ‘uns would have been a better bet than champagne truffles! We did have a good old laugh about it on the way home though - after eating the truffles of course.

Shown below is a picture of the McArthurglen bunny hat being worn proudly by our living room table lamp.

It’s not been a good week to date on the training front. It seems that sleep deprivation and work have conspired to prevent me from doing anything *big sigh*. I’ve not helped matters either by eating junk food (chocolate and chips in particular) like it’s going out of circulation. So to say that I’m not looking forward to Sunday’s weigh-in is a bloody understatement.

Road to nowhere

Do you ever feel that you not getting anywhere? Well at the moment I seem to be stuck in a perpetual loop with regards to work being pushed my way (from higher up the chain of command). Bloody frustrating and more than a little annoying. If only (a) we had a 10 day working week and (b) I had another 3 of me at my disposal then I’d be laughing. Sometimes I’d love to turn around, say fugg it and just walk away, but I know I won’t. I’m not a quitter and if I’m honest in a perverse kind of way I thrive on the hectic pressurised nature of it all. Besides, I like the money too much *snigger*

At least my lunchtime run today gave me some sort of sense of achievement and direction. I managed to do my usual 4.8 mile route in just over 39 minutes, which is almost 3 minutes quicker than normal. Maybe it’s not such a road to nowhere after all.

Sunset stroll

Not a good day on the scales for me I’m afraid with a 2lb gain this week. It didn’t really come as much of a surprise though, what with a visit to Pizza Hut and vast amounts of strongbow being consumed during the latter part of the week. I was disappointed though and it made me rather grumpy to say the least! Still you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. So it’s back to business this week for me now, after the lapses (although enjoyable) of last week.

We ventured down to Bracelet Bay this evening for a spin in the car and stopped off at the beach opposite St. Helen’s rugby ground (home of Swansea RFC) along the way for a lovely stroll. The sunny weather made for a cracking sunset tonight, so I took the opportunity to take a few snaps.

Strongbow - gets to your head fast

Woke up today feeling very fragile after a night out in Swansea with my work colleagues. There were numerous reasons for us venturing out - not that we needed an excuse of course - but we were celebrating a hen party, a joining party, a leaving party and several birthday parties!

We all met up in ‘Revolution‘ a vodka bar and whilst drinking my first of many (too many in fact) pints of strongbow I came across an intriguing book all about vodka. The book listed the very many countries (especially Eastern Block) that specialised in making vodka and gave a great detailed insight into the varieties available - including the proof (one which was around 97%). The name - thankfully - escapes me, otherwise I might have been tempted to try it. I’ve also forgotten the name of the book/author - which I suppose isn’t surprising either!

We eventually trotted off to the ‘Lava Lounge‘ and strutted our stuff on the dancefloor to the retro hits of the 70s and 80s - which given the age range of those present was spot on. I seem to recall me living up to my nickname of ‘Snakehips’ and was constantly reminded of my 2005 ‘Pole Dancer’ of the year award - how embaressing is that!! I don’t recall us drinking very much here and given the erm dancing (if you can call it that) I don’t think we needed anymore alcohol.

Our last port of call was a club come cafe called ‘Monkey‘ - which for me the least said about the better. It was a strange place and I personally found the combination of live band downstairs and club dj mixing upstairs somewhat bizarre - especially as they were both competing or so it appeared for the same sound waves! Mind you by now perhaps the cider was also taking its toll on my musical tolerance levels. Taxi time was soon upon me and I was fast asleep in bed at home before you could say “first class ticket to Nottingham please” (does anyone else remember that Tunes advert?).

Most of the night is now a distant memory, well a blurry one at least, but at least the 12 or so of us who ventured out had a great laugh.

Taking the pizza

Decided to go for a lunchtime bike ride today with the usual bunch of bikers from work. We rode for about 14 miles taking in Swansea Marina, SA1, Liberty Stadium and Fendrod lake - basically following National Cycle Route 43. Along the way we crossed the Trafalgar bridge, Sail bridge and Beaufort Reach bridge. I just can’t seem to get away from mentioning bridges on my blog at the moment! I think I’m in denial now. The ride was a good one, although a lot easier than the usual lunchtime jaunt which usually includes a rather tough hill climb somewhere along the way. Having said that, my good old friend Johnny Wind (no not that wind) made it hard work in some of the more open spaces. Still an enjoyable hour or so away from the office, so I’m not complaining.

The DDWT family dined out at pizza hut tonight (in the Morfa retail park), which wouldn’t normally warrant a mention, but I couldn’t help but laugh when Mrs. DDWT had an argument with another punter over the ownership of a pizza ‘doggy bag’ whilst we were leaving. It was like a scene from a panto at the Grand Theatre in Swansea - “That’s my pizza box”, “Oh no it isn’t its mine”, etc, etc. To cut a long but funny story short, it transpires that punter no. 1 (i.e. my wife) has 7 pizza slices in the box and punter no.2 (greedy bugger) only had 3 pizza slices in her box. Phew, the lengths people go to these days for some extra pizza LOL. To mark such a momentous (and bizarre) occasion, below is a picture of said pizza!

Competition is healthy

Went running again today, this time along the promenade to Blackpill accompanied by one of the lads from the office. It really does make a huge difference when someone else tags along as it pushes you to do better and if you’re competitive like me, makes you even more determined to do the business over your running companion.

The 42 minute run was hard work and the rather warm spring sunshine simply added to it - although the views over Swansea Bay are stunning in such conditions. Now being someone who always senses an opportunity to plug one of his pictures and given that we crossed this very bridge today, I thought I’d share a snap I took of the - rather controversially moved - slip bridge.

Those of you who are regular readers, need not worry that I have a worrying obsession with bridges (given my recent blog entries) - it’s just happened to pan out that way, honest guv.

Seashells on the seashore

No this isn’t a test of your speech capabilities after several pints of alcohol, it’s about my running adventures. As you can imagine from the title, my lunchtime run today was along the Swansea Bay seashore from County Hall to Blackpill - which was basking in glorious sunshine I hasten to add. Here are two pictures I took some time ago of part of the seashore in question.

I thoroughly enjoyed my 40 minute outing in the spring sunshine, crunching my way through the seashells near Blackpill whilst watching the sea slowly encroach upon the remaining sandy beach. Now this is what running is all about! Lush.

I received details through the post today for the 2006 British Heart Foundation Gower Bike Ride on Sunday, July 2nd. If you’re into your bike riding and raising money for charity then this is one bike ride you don’t want to miss. There are two routes in operation on the day - one 16 miles and the other 29 miles. Whichever you choose, you’ll be treated to some wonderful views of the Gower. Anyway, I’ve now registered online and will be setting up a sponsorship page in due course, so watch this space!