Great Train Robbery

Good natured bank holiday crowds gather, as they always do, at Easter-time. The crowds were something to behold. There were traffic jams on the streets leading to their church. The church of DIY - B&Q. Why do they all believe that DIY can only be started at Easter?

The boys of summer are back. Saw my first Red Sox game yesterday on NASN. They won it with a walk-off home run to beat Seattle. Nice to see David Ortiz helping my fantasy team again.

Cricket season also kicks off this week. Glamorgan’s home opener is against Essex on the 26th. What a great way to spend a lunch break away from the office.

Haven’t seen much of the endless cricket coverage on Sky this winter. This is the problem when there is wall-to-wall coverage; you don’t know what to watch so you don’t watch any. If the swallows of Capistrano flew past my window every day it simply wouldn’t be a big deal. Sometimes less is more.

Another funeral last week. You know you are getting old when the priests start looking young.

Travel notes

I noticed last week that the old benches on the platform at Pontypridd station were no longer there. They were so old that they had “GWR” molded in the ironwork on the end of the benches. I asked one of the guards why they had been taken away. “They were nicked” he said, “even though they were bolted to the floor.”

How do you nick a small collection of 8 foot cast-iron seats from a train station in the middle of the town and nobody see you? These masterminds are wasted on petty theft. They should be robbing trains, not train stations.

Rugby notes

Best not to loiter too long on Ebbw’s short trip (and even shorter trip for me) to Sardis Road ten days ago. Could have been very different if early chances had been accepted.

Magnificent win for Ebbw on the bank holiday weekend. 52-25. All you could want from a game – some really good tries, lots of local derby niggle, one red and four yellow cards. Another huge game tomorrow night when we take on Maesteg & their collection of 40-year-olds, Kevin Ellis, John Deveraux and Allan Bateman. Another win could see us race up the table to the heady heights of 12th place.

TV notes

Dr Who is back. Hurrah! David Tennant makes a good Doctor, and seems to be from the cheeky-chappie Tom Baker school of doctoring. Have you played the game of spot the Cardiff landmark? In this week’s pile of escapist tosh, the interior of the new Wales Millennium Centre was used as the set for a futuristic hospital.

The Apprentice – Trevor the useless salesman went acouple of weeks ago, followed by Sharon last week. When Sir Alan was given the choice between a liar, a whinger or a planner in the boardroom, amazingly, the liar stayed and the whinger went. The Badger’s looking like a tough cookie to beat.

Grumpy Old Men – yep, that’s me.

Running notes

Got in a one hour run last week, but all spare time since has been taken up by the big garden project.

Garden notes

The holiday weekend was lost to the “lets build a patio” project. Ingredients: 50 square metres of bluestone from a quarry in Swansea, 2 ton of stone dust, 15 bags of concrete, a new frog pond, and lots of blood, sweat and tears.

The new concrete was of course christened by Marv’s paw prints almost as soon as it was laid.

Another bird feeder bites the dust. If the squirrels can’t take them apart (I’ve taken to taping & gluing the feeders together) then they simply eat though the plastic until there’s a hole & then all the seed falls out. Little furry buggers.