Mutterings for the Minority

Dick Barton’s

Phew what an eventful day I’ve had - which is the complete opposite to a normal Saturday whereby I don’t do much at all.

My first port of call was my Mam and Dad’s who needed a piece of roof fascia board replacing and a leaky window sorted. I must confess to having been a touch nervous about undertaking the task - I’m not a lover of ladders and the bit that needed replacing was literally right on the edge of the house.

After a bit of trial and error I managed to get the ladder in a safe position - the narrow pathway below was safer than the embankment further back! It was then time to start fiddling with the replacement wooden fascia. After what seemed a ‘grand old duke of york’ time going up and down the ladder - I finally got the ideal fit. It was then time to add a cement finish! I was glad to see the back of job number one, but pleased with the result nevertheless.

The leaky window fix was a darn sight easier and straightforward I can tell you. I was even afforded the luxury of having DDWT Junior supervise in his new found role of foreman!

It had been a good start to the day and my parents were happy with the jobs I’d done.

We decided in the afternoon to take a trip into Swansea to get a few jobs done rather than sit around the house and garden. These ‘jobs’ included a visit to Toys ‘R’ Us where DDWT Junior finally got another Playmobil Dinosaur which he’d been promised and Baby DDWT got a small gift for her pushchair too.

Tea time quickly arrived and as it was such a lovely afternoon/evening I suggested that we took a nice stroll from Blackpill down to West Cross - well Dick Barton’s chippy to be precise. Dick Barton’s is legendary in these parts and I don’t think I’ve set foot inside the place in over 20 years, until tonight that is.

It was actually quite nice to take the family there as my parents had done with me when I was small. So the house of DDWT can now say that they’ve all experienced Dick Barton’s - well all of them except baby DDWT.

With our tummies full it was time to make our way back to the car, but not without taking a few snaps and having a pit stop at Blackpill lido.

So all in all it’s been a busy, but very enjoyable day. I’ll have to remember days like this when I’m next lounging around at home on a weekend!

Fresh vegetables

I’ve just returned from Asda’s in Morriston, having stocked up on fresh vegetables for Christmas day - and I can only describe it as a bizarre and crazy hour or so!

Given the siege mentality that appears to grip the nation on Christmas Eve - especially in respect of carrots, swedes, bread, milk, etc, I’d decided a dew days back that I’d hit the local 24 hour stores in the wee hours rather than early morning. As it was a Sunday, the stores were in the bizarre position of closing at 4pm and then re-opening at a minute past midnight.

So I duly arrived (safely) at Asda’s about 10 minutes past midnight, having encountered several boy racers/drunken drivers along the way and by that I mean the type who overtake you near a bend and around the road bollards.

I was shocked. Not only was it really busy, but they hadn’t re-stocked the bloody shelves! What’s the point in opening “early” if most of the fresh produce isn’t due “until the middle of the night” - as one of the shop assistants told me.

Anyway, there was just about enough fresh veg left for me to get what I needed, but I wasn’t impressed. Next year I think I’ll wait until the morning rush as I doubt it’ll be that much busier and the choice will be better.

I suppose the only positive was that I bumped into Swansea City’s very own Mr Versatile - Alan Tate - whilst in the store and stopped to have a chat with him, or rather he was complaining to me that his mrs had written the list and he didn’t know where everything was! Still it was nice to chat to him and it was refreshing to see how down to earth he was. Nice one beaker!

Temporary respite?

At long last the Swansea area has seen some respite from the torrential rain and winds of the last 36 hours. Early media reports suggested that Mumbles had seen the strongest winds overnight, with one gust reported of 70 mph. I can well believe it as the sound of the wind outside - not to mention one huge clap of thunder at around 3am) - certainly made it feel like a mini storm.

So with the wind and rain slacking off for a wee bit, we decided to make our usual fortnightly visit to the civic amentity site (to dispose of our plastic rubbish) and then head off to Fforestfach to do some last minute Christmas jobs. As is the norm for Fforestfach it was chaos - although I was suspecting worse (if it could get any worse!).

It was perhaps a little surprising that we found ourselves in a relatively quiet Pizza Hut for lunch, did somebody know something we didn’t? For a change we tried the new ‘4 for All’ pizza - which was ideal for the 3 of us and a lot lighter on the stomach than our usual choice - a stuffed crust. I must say though that the best Pizza Hut in this area is the one at Morfa, both in terms of the pizza’s and the service.

I weighed this morning and got a pleasant ‘ish surprise - 16st 13lbs - I was expecting it to be more and before you say/think it, no I know pizza isn’t going to help my wasteline *sigh*

Christmas session numero uno

This is a live update from the Hansons at Chelsea cafe in Swansea - the venue for my first Christmas party

More later after I’ve finished my food …..

Swansea v Hartlepool United

We are top of the league say we are top of the league! A 1 nil win for the Swans tonight against a useful monkey hangers outfit - but in all honesty we rode our luck (’pools hit the crossbar twice) and were lucky to get the 3 points in the end. So Angel Rangel take a bow son, your goal was a cracker!
Whilst I’ll savour the moment of being top of the table, it doesn’t disguise the fact that once again we struggled to break down a well organised and physical team. It was without a doubt a frustrating night with only glimpses of the free-flowing passing game the Swans can play. I still can’t get my head around the 4-5-1 formation either, especially at home.

I won’t bother commenting much about the game itself - I’ll let you read the media reports for that, but here are a few choice comments about all and sundry:

1. I still can’t figure out why a 5o odd year old man - a complete stranger I hasten to add - wanted to show me his adult porn collection on his mobile phone pre-match?!!?!?
2. Andy Robinson is unfit, lazy and even uninterested. January transfer window anyone?
3. Dorus, Chuckles, Painter, Anderson and Bodde were the stars this evening.
4. Jason Scotland is NOT a target man, please don’t try to make him one.
5. The boo-boys have seemingly left the asbo east stand - thankfully.

So roll on Friday and the luxury of seeing the Swans live on Sky Sports against Horsham in the FA Cup 2nd Round.

Earlier in the day, I was invited out to lunch with my old working buddies from work to celebrate a birthday. The venue was the Anarkali in St. Helen’s road, which is rumoured to be the first tandoori restaurant in South West Wales since 1978! Well however long it’s been there, its reputation seems well earned as the food was delicious.

Despite arriving before the chef and having to wait nigh on 30 odd minutes for food - after munching some delicious poppadoms - it was well worth it. My chicken korma, chips and keema nan were spot on and all for the bargain price of about £9. I will definitely be going back there sometime soon!

Yeovil Town v Swansea

At last the Huish Park bogey has been laid to rest and I was there! The Swans had failed to score or even get a point on our previous visits to Yeovil, but today the 1,400 odd travelling Jack Army saw that duck broken with a 2-1 win.

Once again I was part of the much travelled Dieters Bar Jacks contingent as we headed off to Yeovil at around 8:30 am. The initial mood in our affectionately named ‘bang bus’ was as subdued as the misty and drizzly conditions that greeted us all this morning. In no time at all we reached our first pit-stop (or p*ss stop in Helmut’s case) at Sedgemoor Services (southbound). After a very brief stay - long enough for me to stain Lance’s bang bus with blackcurrant juice and Helmut to grab hold of Sven Jacketts nuts (as in magazine) - we were on our way again and duly arrived in Yeovil at around 10:45.

Contrary to popular belief we hadn’t turned up early looking for some Yeovil Yoof to go dancing with - it was purely for the sake of going shopping (which I hadn’t instigated for once). We were looking for the well reknowed triathlon shop Tri-UK and after some 45 minutes or so of cruising around Yeovil town centre we got there. Now anyone who’s been to Yeovil will know that it takes like 3 minutes to go around the town centre (by tractor) in traffic. Anyway, we found the shop and the lads bought some cycling and swimming gear. After seeking the advice of the main man in the shop on where was best to eat - we headed off in search of the Half Moon in Mudford.

Westons traditional scrumpy was the order of the day (all 6% of it) and within 3 pints I was deep in ciderspace.

More to follow…

Bowl of cawl

Oww what a lovely warm taste and feeling I had, as I devoured my first bowl of home made cawl this autumn/winter. Bizarrely I used to hate the stuff as a kid, but somehow miraculously Mrs DDWT converted me back some 5 or so years ago - and I haven’t stopped making the stuff since!

Not that I’d eat cawl all year round of course, but come the cold winter snap you simply can’t beat it - as I’m sure any Welsh person would agree. Try it with beef or lamb, either way it’s simply sublime.

I gave my trainers a workout lunchtime today - especially now I’ve signed up for the Reindeer 10k. My 24 minutes 54 seconds stint was somewhat weird as on the way out I was faced with a biting north-easterly wind (a la yesterday) and on the way back it was shirt off time and running vest weather. Probably because I’d worked up a sweat and was like a beetroot by then!

Sunday cooking

The house of DDWT is fast becoming the equivalent of Ready Steady Cook on Sundays’ as the Mrs and I take it in turns to conjure up something new and by that I mean different in the kitchen.

This Sunday it was my turn and I decided to try and rustle up some sausage and mash fritters at lunchtime, and stuffed chicken breasts (herbs, cheese & carrots) with sliced green beans for dinner/tea/evening meal/supper - call it what you wish. The fritters were quite tasty but needed a little more cheese if I’m being hyper critical (which when it comes to cooking I am!). As for the chicken breasts, well they were a major disappointment as it were simply overcooked - the result being that they were very chewy. The panel of judges (well Mrs DDWT to be precise) gave the fritters a thumbs up and a “cook that again Sam”, but as for the chicken breast - forget it!

The rest of our day was spent down the beach overlooking Swansea Bay - which is always a great place to be when the sun is out, as you can see from the pictures below.

I also found a little bit of time to do some jobs around the house, such as re-assembling the rocking chair and putting up a new bike rack in the garage - to create some much needed room!

I’m going to be a Dad!

Oh yes indeed - I’m going to be a Daddy for the 2nd time and it’s a wonderful feeling. We’ve known for a couple of weeks, but today is the day that we’ve officially told everyone outside of the family (as they knew a few days ago). It’s soooo exciting and the thought of DDWT Junior 2 being around fills me with joy.

We decided not to tell DDWT Junior just yet - primarily because he’s obsessed with babies at the moment (you should see him with our friends babies!) and because we wouldn’t get a moments peace from him asking questions about it! I can see it now though when he does know, it’ll be like one of those kids in the car saying “Are we there yet?” only it would be “Is the baby here yet?”.

Mrs DDWT is due in June 2008 and ironically only a couple of days after our wedding anniversary. Now that’s what I call a wedding anniversary present!! I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to date with progress - so keep tabs on the blog for regular updates (including details of me and my phantom pregnancy symptoms!).

It’s been a day or revelation and upheaval all round actually, as I also moved office and team today - so it was like starting with a new family in work as well

I’m now in amongst the ICT teams and after 3 years or so being on the periphery - I’m now back where I perhaps naturally belong, with other ICT techies.

So what better way to celebrate, say farewell and toast someones birthday than to go out for lunch and have a good old natter. After the success of our visit to ‘The Village’ in Swansea’s SA1 district the other week we opted to go there again and once again indulge in the steak and kidney pie dish (well I did anyway).

Home working

After a week in work which I’d officially call bonkers, I decided to work from home today in an attempt to free myself from office visitors and phonecalls. Having not worked from home for quite some time, I could immediately see why it is becoming increasingly more popular.

Not only did I get more done, but I had the freedom and peace to do it - so both my employer and I benefit. With the advent of high-speed broaband connections (8MB in my case) and VPN remote access, the need for me to be on-site is ever decreasing, in my line of work anyway (web development).

So after a hard day’s work at the home office (sounds posh that doesn’t it), we decided to get 2 large stuffed crust pizza’s (meat feast and hawaiian) from the Pizza Hut in Fforestfach. One thing that struck me though - being a pizza hut regular - is that the best Pizza Hut in these parts is the one on the Morfa retail park by the liberty stadium. There is a noticeable difference in the quality of the pizza’s there compared to Fforestfach. Me thinks the chef in Fforestfach likes lashings of tomato puree on the pizza!

Pizza time in the house of DDWT is also movie time, so we all (apart from DDWT Junior who was fast asleep in bed) settled down to watch ‘RV: Runaway Vacation‘ starring that loon Robin Williams. After a slow start it begins to pick up (a bit like the RV in the film actually) and at times had us laughing so much we had tears rolling down our eyes. Not one of Williams’ best movies, but a decent enough laugh.