cornerofmadness

First I woke ridiculously early and couldn't get back to sleep. I had to set off a flea bomb so I did that while I ran to the grocery store and library. All i did after that was run in to shove cold stuff into the fridge and open the windows to ventilate. I didn't see the message my secretary left for me. Not that it would have mattered.

I get to the post office to collect three weeks worth of mail only to see a) they still have no power (that storm was vicious apparently) b) someone drove through the post office. I get to work and it's hotter than holy hell. They also only have spotty power. I can't use any of the smart rooms. We find a lap top and projector on a cart but i have no way of running off syllabi or notes. At first it wouldn't work and I had to take the connectors apart then it worked after I reconnected them right where they were...I told the students to just sit and listen and I'd give them the notes tomorrow. Half way through the syllabus the projector bites it (probably a power surge). one hour into me soldiering on the secretary runs in. "you have three minutes to wrap it up. they're cutting the remaining power.' with over an hour and a half to go I wave to the students and tell them bye bye.

I go get the cats who stink like they've been wallowing in shit. It took two baths to get it out of Kanda's fur (his undercoat is still wet) so after being in the kennel for weeks and immediately getting bathed, I became persona non grata. Pouring food in bowl did nothing. Treats did nothing. Picking up the phone and ignoring them did (four hours later).

I ran over just a little bit on Verizon and the fuckers charged me over 100$. If I bought the 10g package it would only be 80. I'm done with these morons. I'm canceling them as soon as possible and retiring the verizon sucks tag. Worst service anywhere.

And my microwave has been having problems. It just caught fire and the side melted. WTF!

And of course, more trip.



Wales Day Four

Today was driving day, traveling from South Wales to North. So many adorable little towns. While not too thrilled with the terrace housing I do love the rural stone houses so very much. I could see me in them. We stopped in Barmouth, a typical British seaside attraction sort of thing. We wandered the promenade for a while looking for lunch. They had donkey rides into the surf, but I'm too fat for a poor donkey. I was introduced to a starchy abomination called a chip butty. Butter up a hamburger bun, slap in chips and you're done. I slathered on something else new to me, Heinz's HP sauce. I rather liked that.

Barmouth

We headed next to Dyffyrn burial chamber (mid-Wales in oddly not active for the Neolithic society. Must ruminate on that). This was a really nice site, two perfect little dolmen burials, but what is nice here is that even though there were massive stone walls made from the cairn stones, the whole cairn was still rock covered (most of the others have been completely or partial stripped of the massive amount of rocks that once covered the whole burial) Oddly they look less stark with all the river rock around them.

Dyffryn all three chambers

me looking too big to fit in a burial chamber

close up

From there we stopped in Harlech Castle
. It was built by Edward I and later held in the 1400’s by Owain Glyndwr (I used him in the short story I recently sold). It featured in the war of the roses inspiring the song the Men of Harlech. How fantastic was that? A truly old castle without much of the frills of later ones. I did hike to the top of the tower. I have a few thoughts. Climbing up and down spiral staircases is just plain old fashioned work. It was so windy I was buffeted against the safety bar more than once, as big as I am. How in the world did those people do guard duty? It was fricking freezing on July the first (okay, it's unseasonably cool). I did sadly pass on going out and walking the ledge because it meant another tower climb and my guide and her friend were waiting on me. (I do not climb quickly). I loved it. I found a great T-shirt for dad with the castle on it. I'm having shit luck finding stuff for people. I would have bought more of these shirts, but they only had tiny sizes and one lonely large (now dad's).
Harlech

Gate house

me half way up the tower stairs going crap there’s more UP and damn I have to go back DOWN

hideous picture of me nearly blowing off the top of the tower.

another view of the gatehouse.


We headed next into Snowdonia mountain range. Gorgeous. Snowdonia is the place most Wales tours from the states make a priority. I loved it. What I really loved was going up to the mountains, all the iron aged stone walls that just cut all the available land up, into picturesque sheep pens. Heck I just love all the sheep. If I were in better shape (I'm not), and had more time (I don't) I would have liked to hike Mt Snowdon.

Also on the way up there we stopped a beautiful river (people were putting into it for kayaking). Then came Dinas Emrys and Llan Gwyant, the mountain that was the birthplace of the Merlin legend and the lake involved. Dinas Emrys was where Arthur's father, Uthur was trying to build a castle, but it kept collapsing. A young boy was brought before him and told him that under where he was trying to build was a well and in the well were two dragons fighting, a white and a red, and that's what was bringing the castle down. The man to free the dragons would be a true king. Uthur thought about killing this boy but didn't. Instead he dug up the dragons and eventually the red won (points to Welsh flag) and the white died, drowning in the lake. The boy turned out, of course, to be Merlin. Most of us know this story, but what might not be known is that while there are Norman era ruins at the top of Dinas Emrys, there are also signs of much older ruins and that under them there is a well, filled in, a little grain of truth in the Arthurian legend.

Near Dinas Emyrs

Mt Snowdon looking ominous

Blowing away in the Snowdonia range


As we drove all around the Snowdonia range, we did pass through Caernarfon which is where I had decided Sebastian (Scarred soldier story) was from. No offense to anyone from that area, I was not impressed. I went through so many adorable towns, you'd think I could remember their names. I might use the town I’m staying in tonight, Criccieth. My hotel is a seafront one (I have a lovely view of the fire escape and the bins). It's a very nice room. I'm going to really miss having tea and biscuits waiting for me (Okay I do it for myself sans biscuits or sugar free ones). When we got here it was so windy and began to (as my guide says) tiddling down. Someone was swimming out on the roughest surf (with a stone beach) which shocked me. There are dolphins out there in theory. Not sure I'd get to see them. There is a castle here, Criccieth Castle . I probably won't have time to investigate it, but I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

Awel Mor, my seaside B&B in Criccieth

someone is swimming in Tremadog Bay (off to the left)

Castle Criccieth

We went to the Y Castel pub for dinner. Got something called 'Swampy' ruby bitters by Big Bog brewing (local I assume). It was delightful. I do have to remember that bacon here is not the bacon I'm used to. It's even more like a ham steak than Canadian bacon. That said, it might make me actually like ham. I got a chicken breast with bacon and stilton (love stilton). So much food, it was like a chicken breast hiding under a big old charred nicely ham steak smothered in stilton. Went also to a local ice cream shop my guide likes. Coconut raspberry, yum.

And naturally I couldn't keep my hands off the biscuits, the fruited Shrewsbury ones are delicious. Wouldn't have minded another pint of those bitters but my god beer is expensive here (it's going for between 6-8 dollars a pint). I'll not whine now the next time I pick up a six pack of import beer for 12-15$.