Cardiff Oddities

So in one of my last posts I ranted about some of the peculiarities of living in Cardiff (see 'Did you know that on Sundays in Cardiff you're not allowed to drive in bus lanes...'). It would appear that those little matters were only the beginning! Here are a few other oddities I have come across in this very bizarre city...

1) The cash machines here dispense £5 notes!!! That's just wrong. I thought the purpose of cash machines outside student unions was to rob the unsuspecting student of as much money as possible, knowing full well they'd just keep spending at the bar until they have no money left! I'm sure there was a conspiracy with the one in St Andrews when it was ALWAYS out of £10 notes and you had no choice but to take £20!
2) My local Post Office is staffed by two parrots - no joke! They fly about behind the glass counter. It's quirky to say the least!
3) If you're having trouble picking out a Welsh accent (never usually a problem really) then just listen for this defining phrase at the start of every sentence...'to be honest though'! It cracks me up every time! They have various other stupid phrases, but that's the one that's slowly turning me Welsh.

I'm sure as my year goes on this list will grow and grow!

What a whirlwind week

I can't believe how fast this week has gone! It's been a good week though. For those of you who'd like to 'witness' my goings-on I have (hopefully) managed to create a link to lots of my Cardiff photos for your perusal:


So to cut the week short I'll start from Wednesday - Monday and Tuesday are toooo long ago for me to remember! So, as usual, I transported myself from the land of nod into the real world with the help of Chris Moyles - the best way, I find! Thinking that I was going to have another day of milling about my room, pretending to be doing important things, I received a welcome text message from Alex inviting me to partake in Orange Wednesday at the cinema. I duly obliged, and off we went in his swanky (but quite manky) Mini to see The Departed at the Bay. I had been wanting to see it for a while and it definitely lived up to expectations. I would have been sooooo mad if Matt Damon had survived!!! In the evening a group of us (the usual suspects!) erred from the path of mainstream-dom and went to Cuba (a club) where there was a Brazilian themed night. It was a good night! The music was (as expected) very Latin and Exotic and at around 11 there was a Capoeira display. The boys in our group weren't all that enamoured by the night, but us girls enjoyed it!

On Thursday I had my first REAL seminar. Our supervisor is a guy called Prof. David Boucher and he seems to have everything under control. This whole Masters malarky all seems very straightforward, dare I say easy, so far. Apart from telling us all about Greece and Rome and their place in European history, he lets us girls choose how we'd like to be assessed this semester!!! We got to choose our assessment/exam weightings and how many essays we wanted to submit and everything - it was all very odd! I'm not complaining though! My thursday seminars finish at 8pm so it's a bit of a mad dash to get to the postgrad pub quiz on time, but nevertheless we scurried along the road to defend our title! Sadly we missed first place by one point this week, but the ultimate outcome was still the same - we still won another 24 bottles of Reef. This week we're being a bit more canny and saving them for a big night out.

I think I'm gonna stop there for just now, my ranting really is becoming uncontrollable. You'll just have to tune in next week for my chat on the Fratellis gig!

Did you know that on Sundays in Cardiff you're not allowed to drive in bus lanes...

So the phrase of the day yesterday was 'In Scotland, on a Sunday...'. It came about as I took four of my new friends on a road trip to Cardiff Bay. First of all, Cardiff bus lanes are still in action on a Sunday - how pointless! My reaction to this revelation was 'In Scotland, on a Sunday you can drive in the bus lanes' - it seemed pretty common sense to me...apparently not! Next, we arrive at Cardiff Bay and I naively ask where the Sunday parking is? Silly me! In Cardiff, on a Sunday, as with every other day, you have to pay for parking. Admittedly it wasn't as pricey as I expected, but it still wasn't free! For me, it's these little things that hamper the smooth cultural transition when a Scot moves to Wales!

Anyway, enough of that. So last night there was another Union pub quiz on the go, except this time it wasn't just for Postgrads, but a free-for-all. As our team gathered we were all getting pretty cocky, thinking that this would be like taking candy from a baby (or taking lots of free booze from lots of booze-thirsty freshers). How wrong we were! The quiz was a bit alternative, to say the least. First of all there were two hosts, who would have been better suited hosting some late night channel four mess about. Then, there was the obscurity of the quiz rounds! One round was all about super heros (not just shallow super hero knowledge required, more like 'what colour were the incredible hulk's socks?') while a later round was all about Steve Irwin. In principle I liked this sentiment, but then the sporadic playing of the theme tune to Stingray soured the atmosphere somewhat! Needless to say, we didn't shine in this pub quiz as we had in the postgrad one.

After the quiz we all headed to the Taf, the hip and trendy name that disguises the main union bar. To give it its dues though, it does sell very reasonably-priced drinks and accommodate several games machines! At this point, I should maybe name and shame the usual suspects present for this particular evening of fun and frolics: there was myself, Claire and Karen in the girls corner, and Ed, Alex and Pete in the boys corner. Once we'd all had a few drinks, Alex took it upon himself to organise another classic pub game - the one where you all write your name and phone number on a piece of paper, swap the paper and then hand out the phone number at your discretion! Everyone got into the spirit of the game, although Karen and Pete were being a bit coy at first, and everyone successfully distributed the numbers, although the outcomes weren't always as successful. Late-starter Karen had the most luck, when she started chatting up some guy by the dart boards, only to then find out he was a mere 18!!!

Eventually we got kicked out of the Taf. A new custom, which I am finding agreeable is this whole food-after-the-pub concept. I didn't partake in it too often during my St Andrews days (normally cos I was too legless to get there) but here in Cardiff you need a good meal inside you before you attempt the gruelling walk home! Hence, our first stop on the way home was CHIPS. By this time it was maybe about 1:30am and we'd messed around in the streets of Cathays for long enough - bed beckoned. Our next group night out will probably be Thursday (yes, the next postgrad pub quiz) so no doubt there will be more stories to be told then!

Friday Night - Ring of Fire Night!

So just because of the stupid photos of this night I have, I thought I'd add an entry about our Ring of Fire game the other night! As always I began the evening by giving reasons why I was NOT gonna get drunk, the main one being that I was gonna be pulling pints from 12:30 onwards the following day. And, true to form, this excuse was set aside and, on this occasion, the drinking games began! A group of us played Ring of Fire to the death (well, to the death of Karen who got the final king!) Here are the pics of her drinking her Cherry Lambrini/White Wine/Vodka&Pepsi cocktail...


All in all the evening was a good laugh, even if the consequences the following morning were hard to stomach! I made it to the Arms Parks and struggled through my stint of pint-pulling during the game, to then be promoted to one of the clubhouse bars. Although by this point I was fit to drop, I was rewarded with the presence of some fit Cardiff rugby players and an even more attractive barman!