Life in Cardiff Part II

June-July 2019

One of the things I loved about Cardiff was the central market and arcades. The central market was full of produce, from fresh veg to the butchers. It was also very reasonably priced, unlike many of the markets I was used to, where the produce is considered 'artisan' and thus twice the price.

This was a proper old school indoor market, and had been there in one form or another since the 1700s. The current building is Victorian however.

Close to the market, numerous arcades ran off in different directions, full of interesting shops. 

One of our favourites was Science Cream, Wales' first liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour. Whilst it sounds like a bit of a fad, it was actually really enjoyable. 

Dramatic to watch as it freezes the icecream almost instantly, the rapid freeze process prevents large ice crystals from forming, allowing for incredibly creamy icecream. We shared a number of different flavoured sundaes in our time in Cardiff, in order to find out which one tasted best. For uhh science?

I have learned since that the parlour sadly closed due to Covid-19, but if it ever opens again, keep your eyes out! Eating icecream and wandering the green spaces in Cardiff really made it feel like summer. There were even wildflowers!

On our travels we soon decided our favourite neighbourhood was Pontcanna, a trendy neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cardiff centre, which had a village feel to it. It had its own small supermarket, bakery, butchery and cafes, so it felt wonderfully self-sufficient and was only a thirty minute walk through the park to town. It was here we discovered our favourite pub of all time, Pontcanna inn. 

Many an afternoon was spent here, playing scrabble in the sun and enjoying a pint.

In fact, it was this very pub I took Ben to, to celebrate when he was offered a job in Cardiff working for the university.

We celebrated with a bottle of wine (something that's actually affordable to do in the UK, unlike NZ), an entree of breads and dips, and a main of mac n cheese for me (I quite forget what Ben had - probably a burger, but main thing was my mac n cheese was great).

Our short lease in Maindy was soon coming to an end, so we set about looking for a new flat. Because we loved Pontcanna so much, when we saw a room advertised there we were ecstatic! Sharing with a lady who was busy and out a lot of the time, we felt it would work well. Our room was large, location perfect, and within our price range. We took it!

 The next few months were probably my favourite in Cardiff, as summer was beautiful, work was going well, and we were living in an amazing area. 

On one of the days I even took a trip out to Barry, which is well known not only as a popular beach resort, but also as the setting for the famous trashy yet amusing Welsh TV show 'Gavin and Stacey' which we watched to acquaint ourselves with our new country. Barry island, where the beach is located, was indeed an island until the 1880s when it was linked to the mainland. 

We also soon discovered the Cardiff arcades had an upper level, semi-hidden, with even more interesting tucked away shops.

Our favourite was Bulles Wines. A wine shop, it also operated as a tiny wine bar on set days, with no corkage fee on sundays. They had the smallest kitchen you could imagine, out of which they served delicious thick slices of crusty sourdough, excellent olive oil, and a range of cheeses and meats. 

And the wine! The bottle was delicious and we whiled away a Sunday afternoon drinking delicious red wine and munching on bread. The bottle we bought had an amusing backstory, relating to the label of the pig with his faced stuffed with money. 

Apparently, the wine-maker had asked banking executives for a loan to get his business going, and they had refused, as wine is not a seizable asset. The wine-maker had friends pitch in to help until he was able to get his business going, which turned out rather successful! The label therefore represents a nice screw you to greedy pigs who refused to see his potential.

We were also lucky enough to be in Cardiff for a number of events, the first one being pure coincidence, on the weekend we decided to take a day trip to Penarth, we happened to arrive as the apparently famous 'Downhill Derby' was taking place, where people build their own go-karts and then rattle 300 metres downhill. 

People are awarded for both speed and creativity in different age groups (lots of kids were racing) and the ultimate winner is awarded the title of King of the Hill! Penarth itself is a small town (though I would call it a village) just four miles out of Cardiff, by the sea. 

I had also heard about a July food festival called Bite which I was determined we pop into. The premise being each dish is bite sized, cooked onsite, and reflects different cultures and cooking styles of individual chefs. My favourite was this manchego savoury piklet, but everything look mouthwateringly delicious.

There is a strong emphasis on sustainability, so you can either bring your own plates/knives etc, or else everything is on paper plates. Picnicking is encouraged, and every dish is only three pounds, so you can try a few! The festival was located about a twenty minute bus-ride from Cardiff central in Insole Court, Llandaff, and wandering the grounds of the mansion was a pleasure in itself.

Life in Cardiff Part I

May 2019

Back in Cardiff a few days later, it was time to begin my new job. I was nervous, but the staff were lovely and I soon settled into the rhythm of small library life.

Our first exploration of Cardiff was down to Cardiff Bay, we took the little river boat down, which provided us with an informative tour. 
Apparently the docklands area here were owned by the Third Marquess of Bute, who was the world's richest man due to the coal mining industry. This area is also well known to Doctor Who fans, as a number of episode shots were filmed here. You'll probably hear me mention the Butes family a bit, as they had a lot to do with Cardiff.

I also popped into 'Fabulous Welshcakes' in Cardiff Bay to try the famous Welsh sweet treat. Sort of a mix between a pikelet and a biscuit. I didn't adore it, but it was rather enjoyable, especially fresh and warm.

My favourite thing about Cardiff was Bute Park, a huge park running alongside Cardiff city, also including a castle on the grounds, once residence to the Bute family. Restored by the Third Marquess (the one with loads of money) it was eventually given to the people of Cardiff in 1947, by the Fifth Marquess. 

And that's what makes Cardiff so special, it's so green, with all this beautiful land gifted to Cardiff, on the condition it would never be built upon. 

The park wasn't only trees and the river either, way out to one side where we lived in Maindy was a cricket pitch, which if you walked through that and the park for long enough you hit the city. Being able to walk all the way into the city (about a 30-40 minute walk) entirely via the park was fantastic. Then in the centre of the park stood a cafe, and a private garden called The Nursery, surrounded by a brick wall and beautiful architecture. 

It reminded me of the Secret Garden, which funnily enough is exactly what the cafe was called. Within the walls is apparently a garden once used to grow produce for the Bute family - but its not open to the public. 

Arriving in Cardiff when we did, we were lucky enough to stumble on some sort of spring ceremony with dancing around a flagpole - it was very enjoyable to watch.

On one of our first weekends in Cardiff, we discovered one of our favourite pubs in the city, Tiny Rebel. They had a large range of tasty beer, and delicious loaded fries.

The one issue with Wales is, like Scotland, their public transport is somewhat lacking, so it was difficult to find places to go outside the city serviced by trains or buses. My biggest wish is that we had a car in Cardiff, as there were so many places to explore that we couldn't get to! 

One place we could day trip out to however was Llantwit Major, which was meant to have interesting rock formations by the sea. 

The beach was a thirty minute walk from the town, down narrow country lanes. It was certainly worth the trip, with wonderful cliff walks and views, and it apparently has amazing Jurassic period fossils. 

We didn't see any fossils (that we know of) but we thoroughly enjoyed the beach and the views even with the cold wind blowing. It was only May, so I imagine it would be much warmer in the summer months.

Although there was no footpath to follow from the beach back to the town, it was an enjoyable walk with very few cars and rather picturesque countryside, including these flowers reminding us that summer was finally just around the corner!

A Birthday in Wales

 May 2019

Saying goodbye to Joy and co, we left Crewe by train, with only a suitcase each (which was quite enough to lug around thank you). They had kindly let us leave our excess stuff in their attic as we had accumulated too much in Southampton. 

We arrived at our housesit, and greeted our hosts. Their house was small but cosy, and the best part was their lovely garden, where the husband had built a truly epic pub in the garden shed.

We used the time to go house viewing, and try to get to know some neighbourhoods. 4 days wasn't long, so we also booked a cheap airbnb room for the week following on, very close to Cardiff central to buy us more time. 

We couldn't wait to leave the housesit. The issue was the Westie, who might look cute, but was a demon dog. He. didn't. stop. barking. ever. It drove us completely insane. 

He clearly had separation issues or was possessed. It was constant, and drove us totally mad. We were soon thanking our lucky stars we were only there 4 days, not 4 weeks. Look at him, looking so innocent. Demon dog!

The Airbnb room wasn't much better, though the lack of barking made it a welcome respite. The location and price seemed to be too good to be true, and we soon found out the reason was due to the neighbourhood. The apartment building had a number of rooms all let out to different people, and a basic kitchen. It was very run down but servicable. However the area, Grangetown, was certainly not somewhere we would want to live. 

The nice part about being so close to the city however, was how easy it was to explore the town and surrounding neighbourhoods. It was in this way we saw a bunch of places for rent, and learned which neighbourhoods we liked and didn't. And see a bit more of the city itself of course! Including the fancy goverment building posted below.

Initially we had hoped to find our own place, but with me on only part time work, and Ben yet to find something, we decided it wasn't financially viable, and looked at spareroom instead, which is a website advertising rooms in rental houses, both from agencies and private landlords. 

Heartily sick of the run-down accomodation in Grangetown, and knowing I would be starting work soon, I treated us to a slightly more upmarket airbnb for one night, to raise our spirits.

A converted garden bungalow on someone's property, it was still reasonably priced, and absolutely adorable, modern and well thought out. They also provided us with a lovely little breakfast.

Spirits buoyed, we ended up finding the short term solution of staying in student residences, in an area called Maindy, while they were empty over the summer. We signed on for the time they had available, which was up until the end of July (after that students started moving in so they no longer had vacancies for us). 

We now had 3 months accomodation sorted - plenty of time to find something else - we hoped. 

The room was large, modern and clean, and we had our own little private bathroom with a shower (that actually worked - take that Southampton!). In other words, we were in heaven. 

It felt incredibly safe with 24/7 security, however the annoyance with this was how our fobs only sometimes worked on the security gates, the gates locked for good overnight between certain times, and there was a concierge desk where you had to check in guests if you wanted visitors.

 It certainly felt like a student residence as it didn't have the freedoms we were used to, but we wouldn't be there a long time, and it was just nice to have a clean, safe space. 

The flat we were in had something like 7 rooms, so it could have been horribly busy, but luckily only two students were staying over the summer, and they were very studious and busy, so we hardly ever saw them. 

We dumped our suitcases, and went to Primark and Wilcoes, our go-to cheap stores for basic furniture and goods. The room was furnished, so we just needed towels, bed sheets, pillows, and a lamp for the room. We tried to be as minimalist as possible as we weren't sure what our next place would have, and didn't want to accumulate too much again like in Southampton. 

Exhausted from the move, we treated ourselves by stopping by 'Nata&co', a bakery in the city that specialized in pastel de nata, Portuguese custard tarts.

We were only in our new home a few days, before it was the 7th May, the day before Ben's birthday. Money was tight, so we couldn't do anything too exciting (like go to Disneyland Paris, or Venice, both options we had hoped to be able to afford at some point). 

So instead I decided to plan a small surprise trip in our new home country, and book an airbnb deeper into Wales. We took the train to Pembroke dock, for the simple reason that the Airbnb was ridiculously cheap, the train actually ran to there, and it was close to Tenby, a super pretty village in Wales.

 I had hoped to find a place in Tenby itself, but that was far beyond my price range. 

The Airbnb was clean and cosy, and we had the whole place to ourselves. We cooked up a lovely dinner, played board games, and planned our day trip the next day to Tenby. Largely, it was just wonderful to get away to our own place for a bit, without having to share with anyone.

Tenby was ridiculously picturesque, a tumble of brightly coloured houses on the hillside, overlooking the sea. The trains ran regularly too, so we knew we had the flexibility to stay as long or as little as we liked.

The tide was out when we arrived, and we could see people walking down on the beach, so we assumed quicksand wasn't an issue and joined them. 

Tenby prospered greatly in medieval times, as a trading hub and port, but fell badly into decline in 1650 due to half the town's population being wiped out by the plague.

By the end of the 1700s, half of the town was in ruins and abandoned. However it had a change of fortunes in the 1800s, when it became a health resort for Victorians looking for sea-bathing baths (because apparently that's a thing).

Nowadays of course it's largely a tourist town, full of knick-knacks and fish and chip shops, but undeniably charming, and in my opinion, well worth a visit. Overall, a wonderful little adventure away!

The End of Southampton

 April 2019

Back in gloomy Southampton, I soon interviewed for another library role in Cardiff, this one just outside the city in a village called Rhiwbina (which is not pronounced Ribena like the drink, trust me). It was only a part-time role, however they promised it had a high chance of going to full time. I was shocked to discover out of over 600 applications, they chose me. I was ecstatic, and promptly quit my archaeology job. 

The role didn't start until May 20th, so I had over a month to kill, but I couldn't take the fieldwork any longer. Not only were the team unpleasant, but the pouring rain, muddy conditions and rats (I wish I was kidding) had gotten to me. Working on my knees on concrete for just over 2 months had left me with aching knees, and I couldn't imagine what 10 years of it would do. 

We gave notice on our awful flatshare, Ben handed in his notice for his job, and by the time this had all sorted out, we had managed to find a housesit for a long weekend in Cardiff at the beginning of May, to give us time to start flat hunting. 

This gave us about ten days between our flat agreement coming to an end, and our housesit starting, but as usual Joy and her family came to our rescue. 

We organised to go camping with Joy and her little family for a couple of days in the nearby New Forest, they would be driving down, so we could therefore pack up all our stuff, and go back to Crewe with it all at the end of our trip. 

From there we could get rid of anything we had accumulated and didn't need, and move down to Cardiff with only a suitcase each. It was brilliant. 

Our camp setup was epic, we were able to borrow a little tent off Joy, and they had the larger one for themselves. They brought a little coal fire too, to keep us warm as it was still early in the year.

We went for a couple of day trips and walks, including passing by this interesting factory; we eventually worked out that the enormous parts were for the wind turbines you see up on hills sometimes. Our guesses had ranged from airplane parts to bits for oil drilling rigs in the ocean, so thank you google!

We had chosen badly with the tide, so the usually pretty port was mainly mud and beached boats in the boiling sunshine, but it was nothing a nice cooling pint in a pub couldn't fix!

As always, a million thank yous to Joy and co, who never failed to rescue us, help us move, and generally be lifesavers whenever we needed help. The sun had set on our chapter in Southampton, and we couldn't wish it away faster. 
Onto better adventures!

A Trip to London

 April 2019

April was a busy month for us, as the next weekend we had a trip to London planned. Ben had bought tickets to one of my favourite bands for my birthday the year before, and we had decided to make the most of a trip to London by seeing Les Miserables the next day. 

The concert was at the O2 Academy in Brixton, so we had found an airbnb room nearby, which was cool as it wasn't an area of London we knew.  

I had done some research so we could make the most of our time, and our first port of call was a restaurant called Kricket. We were on a strict budget, but I had heard wonderful things about one of their starters, Keralan fried chicken, with pickled mooli (diakon radish) and curry leaf mayonnaise. So we were the oddballs who ordered one starter between us, much to the waiter's confusion.
 It didn't disappoint, and was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever eaten. One day I will go back and try everything on that menu!

Still a little hungry after only sharing a starter, we popped into Brixton Village, a street market which branches off into arcades. I wanted to sample the Japanese bistro Okan, famous for their Osakan street food - primarily Okonomiyaki. This is a filled pancake topped with sauce. It was so savoury I couldn't eat too much of it, so I'm glad we halved one. It was delicious and fun to try new things though!

Appetite satiated, we headed to the O2 for our concert. It was everything I wanted it to be, and one of the best birthday presents ever!

The airbnb was pretty dingy, and in an area where we felt like there was a high possibility of stabbings occurring, but we were fine, and the owner kept to himself (though we could hear his bad guitar playing through the walls, and he also talked to himself a lot). We headed off with our bags the next day, stopping for a late morning pizza (which was excellent). When in London right?

It felt incredibly luxurious going to two shows in as many days, but we had scored the tickets for cheap months before. Our view wasn't the best, and the leg room was so bad that Ben thought we might have to amputate his legs halfway through as they cramped up from being so terribly squished, but the show was excellent! 

Even if the gun blasts did give me a heart attack because it was so loud, and the theatre filled with the smell of gunpowder (which was pretty awesome actually).

We finished with an icecream at Grom, because how could we not? And then jumped on the bus to head home. 

Did I mention Southampton isn't served by a train station, so the only public transport options are to take the long distance bus? I'll add it to my 'reasons we hate Southampton list' - just kidding, I don't have such a list! (or do I?)...