Four Go Down To Mumbles (and do other things as well!)

… a weekend with our good friends from Leicester …

It just so happens that Rich & Ros had just arrived when I got back from a meeting (on a Friday night? Yes, I know, I must be mad!) We spent the rest of the evening (and early hours of the morning) scoffing nibbles & quaffing copious amounts of wine, beer & lager, catching up on each others news & gossip. They had brought with them a variety drink including bottled lager brewed by Singha the new sponsors of Leicester City Football club. Bed finally at 3am – well, we had a lot to talk about!

Not surprisingly we all had a long lie in Saturday and
eventually got out gone two after a very leisurely breakfast. Jeff drove us round to Knab Rock, the far side of Swansea Bay, and from there we strolled to Mumbles Pier. R&R have just recently come up with a lovely idea of visiting every pier in Britain. Armed with their book of piers, with old pictures of them all, they are also aiming to take current day photos taken as near as possible from the same spot. We felt quite honoured to be with them visiting their very first ‘collectable’ pier!

Mumbles Pier is situated just before the lighthouse, on the corner as it were of the bay. Sadly the far end of the pier is now in rather a bad state of repair although ironically it does mean you get numerous Kittiwakes nesting round all the ledges in the summer. On this occasion we walked to the end passing along it a quartet of Turnstones in winter plumage, which amazingly only flew away if you got very close. We were also lucky in that it had looked like raining but for the whole time it remained sunny, and very warm when out of the wind.

We then walked up to the road to see if we could find where the original photo had been taken, but all agreed that the actual place was no longer there. Maybe some of the cliff had been cut back to make way for the road leading to the pier, but Rich still managed to take a good enough shot. Jeff then had his ‘dose’ of the amusement arcade fun, whilst Rich & Ros looked around the Basstastic fishing shop, coming away with a new ‘toy’ – a crab & lobster basket! We had a coffee in the café with the baby grand pianola – very strange hearing music and seeing the keys moving when there’s no-one actually playing the instrument! Then back to the car for a little detour round the back of Mumbles as far as Caswell Bay.

Relaxed at home with some nibbles before dinner – a very tasty Lasagne even if I say so myself, and a nice light pudding of blueberries, strawberries, beautifully arranged by Jeff as the picture shows, and vanilla icecream drizzled with rich Belgian chocolate sauce – I sound like Masterchef!!!! Then a quick late night visit to the Brunswick for Abbott, Courage Best and Hob Goblin. It was one of those night when everyone seemed to be down there so said hello to many friends & regulars.

Back at home we had all intended to go to bed it bit earlier but somehow this didn’t quite pan out. Maybe it was because we put the telly on just for one last drink or a coffee but end up watching the footie league show. This triggered off various odd bits of football trivia and before long I had jotted down loads of possible questions to have a sports round at the November quiz we are putting on, all connected with football! Jeff then sensibly went to bed. This time the three of us left started on politics … thank goodness the clocks were falling back in the morning!

Not so late getting up, helped of course by the extra hour. After breakfast we waved them off as they went back home via pier number 2 at Penarth. Got a text later “penarth ticked off” – wonder how long it will take to do them all?!

Les X