Ebbw Vale Notes

The £300 million redevelopment of the old steelworks site has finally been approved. Planning permission has been given for more than 700 homes, shops, a hospital, learning campus, theatre, leisure centre, school and train station to be built on the site over the next ten years.

Here are a couple of reports, from the South Wales Andrex and the Beeb (of course the BBC probably made this story up).

What’s in a Name?

Of course, recent events have led Cath and me to start musing about possible names for the baby when it arrives. I’m not going to give anything away (we’ve still not a very long short-list), but overhearing a few parents has helped to rule out a couple of names.

First, at the hospital when cath had her first scan there was Wolfie (short for Wolfgang? Or are his parents fans of Citizen Smith?) The yesterday, there was a right-on mum on the train with her daughter Liberty. Er…

Travel Notes

I was going to write a piece complaining about it taking an hour in rush hour traffic the other Friday to get from Cardiff to Newport on the M4.

But that pales into insignificance when compared to some horror stories about travels last Friday. A couple of colleagues took 18 hours to travel back to south Wales from London. They were travelling by train, and then transferred to bus, car and I think kayak. Then another friend took 48 hours to get from Plymouth back to Cardiff.

Makes me long for the Tresaith traffic jam of a few weeks ago. That was a herd of cows blocking the lane as they returned from being milked.

Squirrel Notes

Thus far very little damage but a great deal of eating by the squirrels on our bird table. Worryingly, if the squirrels are raiding the bird table in July, it looks like its going to be a long Veale vs squirrel winter.

In their defence though, the bird table is the only thing in Britain above sea level nowadays.

Mouse Notes

The wildlife seems to have taken a liking to Merthyr Road. The latest sighting is of a field mouse in the kitchen. They’ve been resident in our shed for months now, but one of them has been brave enough to eat the food out of Marvin’s bowl.

The pest control guy from RCT was duly called and there’s been no sign since.

Cricket Notes

OK. Almost four months into the cricket season, and I still haven’t seen or played in a single match. My decision not to invest in a Glamorgan season ticket appears to be a good one, as they managed only one home 20/20 game during the monsoon season. I’ll hopefully get to see them in Ebbw Vale this Sunday when they play a 40-over game against Middlesex (weather permitting). They’re also in Abergavenny from tomorrow for a 4-day game against Leicestershire.

As for the Haddocks, they’ve had hundreds of games washed out and have managed just four games. We currently sit in mid-table mediocrity.

Rugby Notes

The weather makes the mind turn to the forthcoming Ebbw Vale rugby season. It kicks off with a few friendlies (including a home one vs Plymouth Albion) before the league starts with the home opener vs Swansea on 1 September. The full fixture list is on the Ebbw Vale RFC website.