the journey back

Just got back from another St Audries weekend, this time for the wedding of Karen and Dan.The plans kept spiralling ever upward so I went down last Thursday and I'm glad I did, it was full on (as weddings always are) but everyone seemed very happy and it had a great atmosphere.

Karen worked for me for a season and for Matt before me and her grandmother Barb was the legendary head of housekeeping among other things for 45 years. We so wanted her day to be a wonderful one.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get my hands on a video made of the reception, then you'll be able to see for yourselves, so until I do...

Anyway today I was in the hands of Arriva trains and Virgin trains and Great western and I don't quite know who all. I love travelling by train in spite of all the aforementioned can do to make me change my mind (while emptying my bank account).

I was of course stuck for ages at Bristol Parkway station as there were signalling faults and broken down trains and probably rains of frogs too.

It used to be quite a nice station with a wooden cafe/ticket hall, very domestic and cosy and friendly of the sort we (used to be) so good at. But sometime in the reign of terror (Tony Blair) it had to be 'modernized', because we were such a go getting thrusting modern country and cosiness has no place here!

I'm sure on the plans it was all very futuristic and slick, but after the health and safety experts (enough to strike dread into any ones soul) and the accountants and all the rest had had their way it's now hard to imagine a bleaker more soulless place with its all weather rubber flooring and perforated steel seating which are only not in torture chambers because they are cheap and shoddy and the whole place looking tatty and run down and badly in need of repair after only a few years use.

Whoever thinks thin steel sheet corrugated and painted to look like stainless steel is a good idea is fooling themselves - badly.

But absolute worst of all, the endless announcements preceded by damn three note chimes (undoubtedly chosen by some absolute b***ard to cause maximum irritation) '*I* (pause) am very sorry (pause) for (pause) the delay on (pause) the thirteen (pause) oh seven (pause) train to (pause) Swansea (pause).. on and on, you get the idea...

How can *you* be so sorry? you're a damn collection of badly sequenced digital files and they can't even be bothered to make sure it's the same anouncertron's voice used through the whole thing - ARGH! I tell you it's no wonder people flip and cut loose with an Uzi..

Maybe I'm just tired, 18 hour days tend to do that.. no I'm right it's tat...

May you live in interesting times

It has been an interesting week, in fact I hardly know where to begin. I have bought one of those tiny new netbooks, not the pretend ones running some weird species of Linux but a proper full fledged (very small) Lenovo running full proper windows XP (and been as I am one of the Vista haters, that suits me just fine).

Second, and much bigger, I've got a full on iPod, a 120gb classic in black (though it looks more charcoal to me, others I see are 'proper' black) OK all the horrible things I have said about them all these years are (possibly!) incorrect and the fact I now have 3/4 of my CD's on this tiny machine and still have 100gb free is quite incredible. My vinyl is of course utterly sacrosanct..

And of course the reason for this sea change and bout of retail therapy? I am back at St Audries Bay as the bar manager and this was the minimum needed to get me through the summer..

For those of you that do not know it have a look at http://www.staudriesbay.co.uk/
I have known the place since I was a kid, in fact the first holiday there with my mum and dad was in 1966 when it was a full on British Holiday camp. I think I fell in love with it then and unfortunately things have never changed.

And one day I found myself running the bars and as maybe you know last year I left (when John and I moved from Bridgwater back to Wales) and in all honesty I thought that was the end of it. In fact friends asked me and I swore that was the finish.

My downfall was trannie week (I am sure that's been said before) The new guy was nice enough, but in all honesty he was making a mess of MY bar and I was surprised to find I couldn't stand it.

I know I can't explain how deep this goes, and by no means am I the only person that has discovered it, St Audries has a visceral attraction that seems impossible to break, but when I was asked to come back, I found I could not refuse.

I really hope John and I can have fun with this, I have a really nice caravan (one we spent a winter in a few years ago) I love my home in Wales, but I love this place too...