under another sun

A splendid night's sleep in the Llandindrod Wells Metropole. Up in time to have breakfast. The hotel has an air of faded grandeur and there were only a few people in the big dining room. We scooped up lots of breakfast, and drank some of their curiously tasteless coffee. Then packing and taking everything to the car and checking out. Noticed near reception a nice naive painting of the green hotel. We were given a large postcard sized copy of it for free. Then a mooch about Llandindrod Wells. It must have been a lovely place once, when the spa was really going strong. Beautiful buildings, but like the hotel all a bit run down, and like everywhere, shops that were closed. A nice little park. Then a lakeside interlude with dragons. A large lake dragon sculpture in the lake, and the paths up to the building at the side of it, where there was a cafe, toilets and red or green dragon pedaloes and so on were crowded with Canada geese, swans with cygnets, and ducks and moorhens and so on, w...

Cream tea and a big ass turtle A busy day with Sprinkles. And in Brighton the weather did its best to put on a good English show, running the gamut from grey to rain. However I took Sarah off to The Royal Pavilion and revelled in its orientalist splendour. Sarah quite liking this. We took the telephone guide handsets and drifted about looking at the sumptuous Chinoiserie of the interior. Built by the Prince Regent, later George the IV. The place is crawling with dragons. The bad luck experienced by the Music room are even attributed to too many dragons. It was attacked by an arsonist in the mid 70s, and then just as the repairs were finished in 1987 the famous hurricane dislodged a huge stone globe from the roofing which then came crashing through the newly restored roof, so they had to start again. Then off to the Mock Turtle for a cheeky cream tea. Sarah liked this immensely, and we enjoyed tucking into their still-warm, freshly-baked scones. After his refreshment we wandered down to...

The dragon wakes Regular readers will remember Anton and I planning a Dragon Quest, which will be on a route invented by Anton. Unfortunately we took time off work to start it, but both were ill. At the time I sent a proposal to the local BBC station about it. I got a response today, and the good news was that they love the idea. I called but missed the producer who gets in to work at 5.00am and leaves early, but spoke to a colleague and will follow up next week. I texted Anton and we are having a planning meeting tomorrow night on his return from skiing. Really excited by this - but of course it means me and Anton will have to do the walk now. Otherwise dead tired in the morning, and working on the pitch. However I had a nice oxygenating walk along the river at lunchtime for an hour with the Gnome. He was telling me again about being knocked over by tram in Wimbledon, and laughing at himself because it's not as if trams move in unpredictable ways. He said he was lucky not to be...

The Gnome is steady A pinch and a punch for the start of the month, but not much to report. Completely useless this morning. Managed to sleep through my alarm. When I woke up I was in plenty of time for the later train, but for some reason managed to miss this too. Heroically late to work. Once there, however, The Gnome and I were suddenly very busy - and spent time running about the building and doing scraps of this and that and trying to come up with a big idea for the new pitch. I stayed behind in the evening to compensate for being so tardy in the morning. The Gnome stayed there too, and he is quite cheerful at the moment and he can be very funny. His steadiness is a great help sometimes, and sometimes I take for granted how much I rely on him. Read more about Sussex dragons on the train coming home. Sussex was once a good place for dragons. The one in St Leonard's forest sounds disgusting: "There is always in his tracke or path left a glutinous and slimie matter (as by a ...

Moon and dragon Bleary day, after a terrible night's sleep. Once I did fall asleep I was woken inside ten minutes by shouting from outside. Missed my normal train by a few seconds, and sat on the next one which was strangely empty, writing a few lines of a poem about the waxing moon which I sent to Sarah who appreciates such things. Not in a good frame of mind today at work, feeling disconnected and it that it is all meaningless. I have to nip this in the bud as I DO need to be paid. However at least today was another day eating pure stuff, and not drinking. My social life has been getting out of control lately. Anton round in the evening with two large Ordnance Survey maps and print-outs from the Internet. We sat about drinking sparkling mineral water and discussing his ideas for a Dragon quest into East Sussex. Felt a bit like a scene from The Hobbit. This county does have some amazing history. The proposed route includes a fossil beach, abandoned airfields, an open prison, Roman...