Prenuptial blog

Last blog as a bachelor. Because of a certain wedding and honeymoon there will be a break in transmission for a few weeks.

Rugby News

After leading the table for several weeks, it’s finally beyond us. Ebbw Vale are not going to win the Principality Premiership this season. The best we can hope for is second place, even if we win our last game of the season. On Saturday (after a three week layoff) we are at home to Llanelli. I’ll be at my own match at the Peterstone Court Hotel

Cricket Notes

The fixtures for the Haddocks have been published as we start our campaign to avoid relegation. We fortunately sneaked promotion into Division 2 in 2006, and this year I’m sure will be more in line with the club’s motto of “aspire to mediocrity”.

The fixtures can be found on the Cardiff Midweek Cricket League website.

Useless Link of the Week

If you’ve ever wanted your own gangland nickname, then here’s the website for you. Enter your name and it selects a gangster nickname for you.

Worst Lyrics?

The Times had an article about some of the worst pop lyrics even written. Here’s just a taster:

“I know that I must do what’s right/ Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.”
Toto’s Africa

“Slowly walking down the hall/ Faster than a cannonball.”
Oasis’s Champagne Supernova

“What a drag it is/ The shape I’m in/ Well I go out somewhere/ Then I come home again.”
Razorlight’s America

“He starts to shake and cough/ Just like the old man in/ That book by Nabokov”
Police’s Don’t Stand so Close to Me

“Gonna write a classic/ Gonna write it in an attic/ Boy I'm an addict/ An addict for your love.”
Adrian Gurvitz’s Classic

"He caught a plane and he got on it".
Mink DeVille's Spanish Stroll

“And fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door/ Don't say you're easy on me, you're about as easy as a nuclear war."
Duran Duran’s Is There Something I Should Know?

"I don't want to see a ghost/ It's the sight that I fear most/ I'd rather have a piece of toast."
Des'ree’s Life

Ponty Crime Wave

OK, now I’m pissed off. It’s the third time in the last six weeks that our cars have been damaged.

First, three tyres were slashed. Thanks for that yob. Called the police, a copper came up, wrote a few notes and left.

Then a few weeks ago someone put a rock through the back window of Cath’s car. Thanks again, citizens of Ponty. Called police: on hold for an eternity and then the line goes dead. So I report it at police station. Uninterested admin person writes a note on a piece of paper. Nothing further until we get a call from the police to say that they were going to call up to take a look but…are you ready for this… they “couldn’t find the house”. It’s a good job it wasn’t a 999 call, eh?

Now last night, someone drove into my car while it was parked on the side of the road. Broken back light, broken wing mirror and scratched paintwork down the side. The driver of the other car must have been seriously drunk, because it’s a well-lit and wide road. He (I assume it’s a he) left his wing mirror at the scene of the crime. Except according to the police (another wasted afternoon at the police station) it’s not a crime, it’s a “failure to stop after a road traffic accident”. I thought that was a crime too, but obviously not. When reporting the incident I was told that Merthyr Road was “off their rounds” and “yeah, they drive like idiots around there” and “there’s nothing we can do”. Ta, PC 1987.

So there we are. Crimes: three. Culprits caught: zero. Effort to catch criminals by South Wales Police: zero. Pissed off victims: two (me and Cath).

Wedding stuff

Yes, its nearly here. The social event of the year, or as its know around here, the Vealey/Janesey wedding. I know that you’re all queuing up to buy lots of toasters and tea towels, but if you are stop it right now.

About gift lists. The thing is, there isn’t one. We’ve asked people either to contribute to our photography fund, via Mark Cleghorn Photography, or alternatively to make a charitable donation. We’ve selected Mind and Hospice of the Valleys, as both are close to our hearts. Your donations would make such a difference.

Sunny Tresaith

Spent a wonderful Easter holiday break down at the caravan in Tresaith. The weather was superb for early April, with temperatures hitting almost 70 degrees (21 in new money). Marvin enjoyed frolicking on Tresaith beach and snoozing in the sun. Which is pretty much what Cath and I did too.

The only hiccup was Good Friday, which for a large part of the day was shrouded in sea fog. The photo is of nearby Llangrannog in the fog. Bizarrely it only reached 100 yards inland, and we basked in sunshine on a trip to Meurig’s cottage a little way inland. His site has got some nice pictures of the area.

Free Prescriptions

As of 2 April, Wales has become the first country in the UK to make all prescriptions free of charge. Of course, the large majority of people in Wales have always had exemption from prescriptions charges (80% or so) – those under 16 or still in fulltime education, over 60s, benefit claimants and those with certain medical conditions.

Dental and optical charges continue though, so we haven’t quite got back to Aneurin Bevan’s stated aim of medical care free at the point of service.

Smoking Ban

A huge step forward in healthcare in Wales. As of 2 April smoking in all public places is banned. It will be a pleasure to have a night out in a smoke-free restaurant or pub. Here’s the website with all the guidance.

Old Jokes Home

Q: What do you get if you cross a robot with a pirate?
A: Arrrrrrgh 2D2.

Link of the Week

Oh dear, what I have I done. Some people have realised that if I can write a blog then so can they. It’s all my fault that the Roberts boys have entered cyberspace. There’s Neil Roberts’ blog and there’s Dai Roberts’ blog. I’m sorry. I really am.

Rugby Notes

Missed Saturday’s game against Llandovery. Ebbw Vale ran out winners 28-21 in a nail-biter, recovering from being 21-7 down early in the second half. There’s a full report on the Ebbw Vale RFC website.

Scorers: Tries for lock Will Jones (on his debut), Kristian Owen, Simon Hunt and Matthew Williams, all converted by Sam Mills.

There’s just one game left for Ebbw Vale at home to Llanelli. Originally scheduled for next Saturday (which would have meant the earliest finish to a rugby season for many a year), its been postponed because of Llanelli’s involvement in the cup. No date for the game has been announced yet.

Running Notes

It’s time to register for the Swansea 10k run again. Its scheduled for Sunday 23 September, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be there again. Here’s the link to register.

Vertical horizon

Cath and I went rock climbing for the first time last night at the Welsh International Climbing Centre in Bedlinog. It has the biggest indoor climbing wall in Europe and must be one of the undiscovered gems in South Wales.

It was fantastic fun, once you get over the terror of being at the mercy of a piece of rope. Old hands Jon & B gave us all the right pointers and encouragement, and before long we had each scampered up to the top of one of the climbing walls. OK, it was the easiest grade of all, but it was still over 50 feet up to the top. After a couple of climbs I was completely knackered and my arms were (and still are) aching. Yes, that's me looking likely to plummet at any moment.

Birthday Notes

Happy birthday to our Brother over the pond. 47 today.

Squash Notes

A tightly fought 4-0 win over Dave this week, 9-3, 9-6, 10-8, 10-8. Turning point came on a contentious let at 3-8 down in the third set.

Rugby Notes

Ebbw Vale managed a 26-26 draw at Glamorgan Wanderers on Saturday. It was a game where the Ebbw pack absolutely dominated in the set piece, demolishing the Wanderers scrum, yet squandered a lot of chances in the face of some enthusiastic defence. In the end it was a late Sam Mills penalty which earned us the draw. Good game for the neutral, but I think that both sets of fans left thinking that they could have won.

Highights: The magnificent try started from a counter attack deep in Ebbw territory. McLaughlan, Hunt and Bevan all had a hand in the break. Hywel Jenkins held off the tacklers long enough to give Nelly the easy run in.

Lowlights: Failure to capitalise when Wanderers had a prop in the sin bin. As seems to always be the case, we ship points when we have a man advantage.

Scorers: Tries for Neil Edwards and Sam Mills (great solo effort), and two conversions and four penalties for Mills.

Travel Notes

The development of the new train service is underway, but to nobodies surprise is behind schedule. This report says that passenger trains are now likely to start in October 2007. However, the Assembly is committed to paying the wages of Arriva Trains Wales from July. Oops.

Coffeenerdness

Another blow to civilisation has been struck in the past couple of weeks with the decision of Starbucks in Llantrisant to close an hour earlier, at 8pm. This has been forced upon them by the Borders store in which are located now closing at 9pm instead of 10pm.

TV Notes

This past week has seen the return of The Apprentice. On BBC on Wednesday nights it’s essential viewing. OK, so Sir Alan Sugar isn’t Donald Trump, but it’s a pretty good impersonation.

In a completely different vain, the new cartoon from the makers of Wall is BBC’s children’s show Shaun the Sheep. Brilliant five minute shows. Check BBC daytime listings and set your video/tivo/Sky+.

Baseball Notes

The boys of summer are back. The new baseball season started on Sunday. There’s extensive coverage on five (two live games a week) and NASN (umpteen live and delayed games, subscription needed). Go Sox!

Foodie Notes

Had dinner last night with Jon and B at a new place in Cardiff's Brewery Quarter, Coal Grill and Bar. We only picked it because it features in the Invitation Book’s list of restaurants. And we will certainly be going back too.

The food was good – steaks, pizzas and pasta – and the service was terrific too. At full price it would have been good value, but with a 25% discount from the Invitation Book it was a steal.

Cricket Notes

The cricket World Cup has just started to warm up now that the final eight are in place. The first round produced a few upsets and a surprise last eight team in Ireland, but the majority of minnows looked well out of their depth.

Highlight thus far has been Matthew Hayden (pictured) launching the ball to all parts of some small Caribbean grounds.

Of course, the whole event has been shrouded by the death of Bob Woolmer in very suspicious circumstances.

Also in cricket news, to mark the launch of the 2007 edition of Wisden, a player of the year has been picked for every year since 1900. The list is on The Times’ website. The earliest of these I saw in person was Mike Proctor (1971), the Gloucestershire all-rounder who used to look as though he bowled off the wrong foot.

Glamorgan have announced that Matthew Elliot will return for the beginning of the season. He will be around until the middle of May when Jimmy Maher arrives.

Astonomy Notes

It’s a disaster. Due to small class sizes, our weekly astronomy class on Wednesday evenings has been cancelled. The EU funding has been pulled and our stargazing has been stopped in its prime. Just as I was getting the hang of astral photography, too.

Last Wednesday Alan took the class to Cefn Eglwysilan mountain up above the Pontypridd. From there the sky was a lot clearer than down in the valley with all its pollution and light pollution. This is a picture I took that day.

We’ll now have to make do with the monthly public lectures, although Cath is going to attend another of the University of Glamorgan’s community outreach courses that is held on Monday afternoons.

Squash Notes

My move to Pontypridd from Ebbw Vale meant that playing squash at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre had to be curtailed. That has meant a layoff from squash for 18 months.

I’ve just found a new squash partner though, in the form of Dave from work. We’ve recently started playing at Cardiff University’s squash courts, just across the road from work.

Managed to win both times thus far, despite giving away a big advantage in terms of age and weight! Last night it was 9-2, 9-6, 8-10, 9-5. It won't last.

Fantasy Baseball

Its fantasy baseball time of year, so I’ve been busy picking my team. I play a free fantasy baseball league on Yahoo! Here’s a link to the league.

My team looks like a pretty good offence, but the pitching may be a bit ropey. Of course I’ll have to trade Derek Jeter; can’t be having a Yankee on the team.

C Víctor Martínez (Cle)
1B Albert Pujols (StL)
2B Brandon Phillips (Cin)
3B Ryan Zimmerman (Was)
SS Derek Jeter (NYY)
OF Grady Sizemore (Cle)
OF Jermaine Dye (CWS)
OF Mike Cameron (SD)
Util Carlos Guillén (Det) or Mike Piazza (Oak)

Starters
Matt Cain (SF), Derek Lowe (LAD), Dave Bush (Mil)
Brett Myers (Phi), Rich Harden (Oak) & Randy Johnson (Ari)
Closers
Joe Borowski (Cle - RP) & Solomon Torres (Pit)

Rugby Notes

I didn't make it to Dave Parade for the Gwent derby on Saturday. By all accounts I didn't miss much.

N**port beat Ebbw Vale 22 - 11 and with this loss went an realistic chance of winning the Premiership title. The report on the Ebbw Vale RFC website is that the game could have gone either way as late as the 75th minute. There were plenty of mistakes which and not much quality attacking rugby.

Ebbw's best move: hooker Mathew Williams made one of his trademark breaks and found Andrew Bevan outside him, who had Neil Edwards on his shoulder. Unfortunately Nelly was tackled just short of the line and the chance had gone.

In the second half, Ebbw pressure paid off as Daniel Phillips sliced through the middle and passed to Andrew Bevan who powered through several tacklers to score. But that was all she wrote, and Newport's late try gave a flattering look to the scoreline.

Scorers: Try for Andrew Bevan and two penalties for Sam Mills

Astronomy Notes

This is a photo taken earlier this evening from the University of Glamorgan. It’s the moon.

Frankly, with the amount of light pollution in the area (see Allan Trow’s rant on the CASE blog site), we were lucky to see anything else.

Krakow Notes

1. On the way out, Bristol airport was full of rugby fans flying out for Wales’ game in Rome and stag parties heading for Krakow. With lashings of lager and full English breakfasts at 6 in the morning, it looked like the bar from Star Wars.

2. We stayed at the Hotel Chopin. It was one of Dai’s better hotel picks in recent years. The hotel in Berlin last year was very strange – reception was on the third floor of an East German apartment block and completely deserted when we arrived. The only downside to the Hotel Chopin that we could see was that it was a little out of the city centre. With trams running from the hotel for just 3zl (about 50p), this wasn’t exactly a problem.

3. There are lots of wonderful sights in Krakow. The Market Square is a natural tourist draw, with its medieval buildings and basilica mixed with outdoor cafes. Along with the royal castle, it’s the main centre of tourist life.

4. Lots of bars, many of them located down in the cellars of the old town. This meant lots of steps for John and his newly reconstructed knee. Never mind, the booze at less than £1 a pint eased the pain.

5. Food in general was ridiculously cheap, with a full three-course meal costing around £5. Lots of borsch, goulash and cabbage on the menus. Good wholesome food.

6. Bagelmama.com does the best bagels in Krakow, which is allegedly the home of the bagel. Located next to a synagogue in the heart of the Jewish quarter, they indeed lived up to expectations.

7. Saturday saw a trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The trip down the mine goes almost 1000 feet underground, and starts with a wooden staircase. A long staircase. 54 flights of stairs, to be precise. Thankfully there was a lift back up though. The tour takes in mineshafts and underground lakes, as well as a huge cathedral carved out of the salt. And yes, you can lick the walls and they taste salty!

8. Sunday was an early start for a day trip to Auschwitz. Not exactly somewhere you want to go, but rather somewhere that you feel that you have to go. A very sombre experience. Our Polish guide explained in graphic detail the atrocities that were carried out there during World War II. The sheer scale of it is almost impossible to comprehend: at one point 10,000 people were being killed there every day. In total, it’s estimated that around 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered there before the liberation in 1945.

9. The final night away involved far too much to drink. Ridley had an idea for a round a tequila to go with the local Zywiec lager. One round turned into many more. The only bit of the end of the night that I can remember is falling out of a taxi outside the hotel! The airport was very quiet as we all waited for the flight home the next morning; everyone nursed their headaches. A subdued end to a great trip.

Rugby notes

1. It’s an unfair advantage to know exactly how many points you have to score to win the Six Nations.

2. What exactly is the role of the Television Match Official? The ref in the France/Scotland game said “it’s a try unless you can see anything to rule it out”! At this rate, the game will be entirely refereed by the TMO.

3. Twice France robbed Ireland. First it was in the last minute of their game at Croke Park and again in the last minute of their Scotland game. If games were 79 minutes long, Ireland would have won the Championship and the Grand Slam.

4. Shane Williams again looked too greedy. He needs to be a team player and have an awareness of who is around him. Headless chicken is not a good look at international level.

5. Ryan Jones had his best game of the series.

6. So did James Hook. The number 10 debate is now officially over.

7. Alfie’s coasting gave Harry Ellis his try. He should have played for the bounce. Ellis did. Thomas didn’t.

8. As long as wee beat the English, everything in the Welsh rugby garden is fine. And therein lies the problem.

9. Quote of the weekend from Brain Moore, one of the better commentators simply because he actually has an opinion. “You can’t let the ball bounce. It could go anywhere. And it did.”

10. My team of the Six Nations Championship:

15. Morgan (Wales)
14. Patterson (Scotland)
13. D’Arcy (Ireland)
12. O’Driscoll (Ireland)
11. Robinson (England)
10. Skrela (France)
9. Ellis (England)
1. Lo Cicero (Italy)
2. Ibanez (France)
3. Hayes (Ireland)
4. O’Connell (Ireland)
5. Thion (France)
6. Bergamasco (Italy)
8. Parisse (Italy)
7. Wallace (Ireland)

That’s one each from Wales and Scotland, two Englishmen, three each from France and Italy, and five Irishmen. Seems about right. The pack may be a little biased in favour of Italy, but they were a tower of strength in the tournament.

I’m back

Apologies for the break in transmission, I’ve been away on a long weekend with the lads to Krakow. The combination of cheap beer & Dai pushing the pace meant that a monumental hangover was inevitable. More on the trip in due course, but here’s a sneak photo preview.

So that means no 6 Nations review this week – which is probably just as well for all concerned.

Get ready to vote

The third elections for the National Assembly for Wales are due to be held on Thursday 3 May 2007. If you’re not registered to vote or need to arrange a postal vote (if say, for example, you are away on honeymoon that day), then you need to get yourself organised. The website to help is About My Vote.

Rugby Notes

Things are starting to go pear-shaped for Ebbw Vale. They went down 27-22 to Alex Powell and the other 14 Cardiff players on Wednesday night.

With just 4 games left, Ebbw holds a 4 point lead over Pontypridd. But they have 2 games in hand. So our fate is no longer in our own hands. We need some favourable results elsewhere, as well as winning our own games, if we are to win the Principality Welsh Premiership. Need to cheer on Bedwas and Llanelli tonight.

Ebbw didn’t show well on Wednesday in a game where the better play all came from the Blues 2nds. International Alex Powell was everywhere and their half backs dominated. Ebbw had only an interception try from Simon Hunt and two tries late on when Powell was sin-binned to show for their efforts. It would have been robbery if we’d pinched the game at the death, but hey, we’ve been robbed in the past.

Scorers: Tries for Simon Hunt, Craig Blunsden and a penalty try. One conversion and a penalty for Sam Mills, and a conversion for Dai Langdon.

Highlights: Ebbw stuck at it and came back into the game late on. Kristian Owen had his best game of the season and MacLaughlan looked dangerous every time he had the ball.

Lowlights: Matt Griffin dislocated his ankle at a line out in the first five minutes. Looks like he will be out for the rest of the season. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

WRU promotion criteria

The news has dribbled out from the WRU that one Premiership club has failed to pass the minimum standard of facilities set by the WRU. Bedwas have failed the assessment and are now favourites to be relegated at the end of the season.

However, it appears that they will only be relegated if a first division club finishes in a promotion spot and passes this assessment, and allegedly only four have passed: Carmarthen Quins and Narberth in the West and Newbridge and Pontypool in the East. So it may be no change at the end of the season.

New coach for Ebbw

The Ebbw Vale RFC website gives details of the new coach for next season. Patrick Horgan, an assistant this year, will take over from Alex Codling. The assistant coach role will be filled by Will Thomas, who returns to Ebbw Vale after a 3 year spell at Cross Keys.

Link of the Week

George Lange is a famous US photographer, and this video flipbook has a great collection of cool photos. Well worth 5 minutes of your time.

Famous Veale

Bob Veale was a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Red Sox in the 1960s and early 1970s. Here are his stats.

With Pittsburgh he won the World Series in 1971, and the same year was part of the first all-black Major League Baseball line-up.

Brynmawr radio

OK, it’s a niche, but Brynmawr radio is going back on the airwaves 24/7. BRfm has got a licence to broadcast to Brynmawr and north Gwent, and it’s even available online. Here’s the link

Total eclipse of the moon

We witnessed a fabulous total eclipse of the Moon on Saturday night. As we walked out of the Wales Millennium Centre we looked up to see the start of the eclipse. Hot-footing it to the University of Glamorgan we joined Allan Trow who was manning his telescope in the university’s observatory.

There we saw the eclipse reach totality and were able to take a few pictures too, once Allan had been prized away from the viewfinder.

The weather held sufficiently for Allan to get a huge pile of photographs, and allegedly better ones than his colleague Martin Griffiths was able to take in Cardiff. I hope to get the one I took up on the blog in the next couple of days.

The BBC has some good pictures, but many of them aren’t as good as the ones we took in Treforest. The University’s Difference Engine blog has more, including this photo.

Opera Notes

OK, this is a very occasional series of notes. Cath and I went to the Wales Millennium Centre on Saturday night to see the Welsh National Opera perform Madame Butterfly.

The show itself was wonderful. The staging and lighting was very simple and yet very effective. It was strange to see Welsh actors playing the part of Japanese and Americans, all the while singing in Italian. A truly multicultural event, with surtitles in Welsh and English. It was all accompanied by the sound of sobbing from large parts of the audience!

One anachronistic error in the production was pointed out by a neighbour at the theatre. The villain of the piece, Lt Pinkerton, had a camera. Now the opera is set in 1889 and yet the box brownie didn’t even start to go on sale until 1900.

Rugby Notes

We wuz robbed. Ebbw Vale lost 31-22 at Pontypridd on Saturday.

It all turned on an Ebbw kick that went into touch as we were defending a 22-17 lead. Pontypridd took a quick lineout and scored under the posts. The TV footage on Scrum V raises two questions about the validity of the try.

It looked as though the ball was grounded on the dead ball line – therefore no try. My replays were inconclusive.

And, even more obviously, when the ball was kicked into touch a member of the crowd clearly batted the ball back to the Ponty winger to take the lineout. Under these circumstances no quick throw is allowed. Both referee and touch judge failed to spot this and allowed Ponty to play on.

In Scrum V’s analysis they said… Oh, actually they didn’t bother to comment on the game at all.

I wouldn’t complain if we’d lost fair and square because I didn’t think we were the better team. Their backs looked far more menancing in attack, and in centre Dafydd Lockyer they had the best player on the field.

That said, there were some excellent performances from Ebbw Vale, including the usual magnificent lineout show from Neil Edwards and a huge game from prop Ian George.

A summary and links to various reviews are on the Ebbw Vale RFC website.

In a recent survey, Ebbw’s website was found to the 19th most visited rugby site in the UK, and the 3rd most visited in Wales, beating out even the Dragons and the Scarlets. Congratulations to Ebbw’s webmaster.

Scorers: Interception try for Kristian Owen, conversion and five penalties for Sam Mills.

Highlights: The best game of the season. Excellent atmosphere from two sets of fans who actually made some noise. Often at away games the travelling Ebbw Vale support outnumbers the home fans – not at Sardis Road. Impressive work rate amongst the forwards, who had excellent games in the scrum and lineout. Tacking was good,

Lowlights: The maul has been a strength all season yet was used far too sparingly. Kicking out of hand was often aimless and we gave Ponty far too much opportunity to run it back at us. If we’re pinching lots of their ball, why not kick into touch?

Famous Veale

First in an occasional series about other Veales.

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio has a Veale connection. Tinkham Veale II (great name, eh?) who is a wealthy Cleveland businessman who founded many businesses in the USA, including Ikon.

He donated a small fortune to the University to help construction of the Veale Centre. It houses four multi-purpose courts (for activities such as basketball, tennis, soccer and volleyball), a six-lane indoor track, a workout room, a weight room, nine racquetball courts, two squash courts, and a rock climbing wall. Not too shabby.

TV Notes

Here’s my quick take on TV worth watching at the moment. One thing they have in common is that they are buried in the TV listings on obscure channels. No prime time soaps or reality TV here, thankfully.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the only news satire programme out there. It’s on More 4 weekdays at 8:30.

Friday Night Lights is the new US drama on ITV4 (I didn’t know they had four channels either). It’s based on the award-winning book by H.G. Bissinger about high school football in the small town of Odessa, Texas. Wednesdays at 8pm.

William Shatner is the star turn of the required viewing that is Boston Legal on Living TV. The second series is on Thursdays at 10pm.

This clip continues the William Shatner link. It goes back to the 1978 and is his bizarre version of Elton John’s Rocket Man. Enjoy.