Holiday?

No Group Meal can ever really be called a success if there has been no major argument over the bill.  Usually, it has to be said this usually takes the form of I-didn’t-have-any-wine-so-I-am-not-paying-an-equal-share sort of thing.  On Saturday there was certainly an element of that but the major upset was the presentation of a bill for over eight hundred quid for a very ordinary meal, lubricated by extraordinarily expensive bottles of booze.

We will not be returning to The Meating Place (sic) at the bottom end of St Marys Street.  To make the evening complete even after Angela had, as usual taken financial control of a situation that was spiralling out of control, one foolish member of the grasping staff came out on to the street demanding more money!  Our response was not one of outraged indignation, merely that of tired drunken boredom and total ignoring.  A most satisfying end to a Grand Meeting of Friends.

The week was one of almost continuous Doing Something.  We visited Maesteg, Port Talbot, Llandaff, The Millennium Centre, Le Monde, Boots, Matalan, The Rumney Pottery, Tesco in all its variations, Ceri and Dianne’s, M&S, every shoe shop in Cardiff, Hadyn’s, my Uncle Eric, my Aunt Micky, the National Museum of Wales, Professor Wynn Thomas, MacArthur Glen, Boots, and – you get the idea.  Not exactly relaxing, but definitely enjoyable.

We seemed to eat fairly continuously with some excellent meals.  Didn’t do much of the work that I had set myself, but I did manage to read Wynn’s book (R.S. Thomas – Serial Obsessive) before I met him.  Which I told him gesturing for him to take in the fact that I had the book with me for our meeting.  ‘Have you read it?’ he asked.  And when I replied in the affirmative, he responded by asking, ‘Twice?’  The next time I get the better of that gentleman will be the first time as well.

My chapbook is now well and truly distributed and I am awaiting comments.  Comments about this one ensure the delivery of the next – though, thinking about it I am not sure if that is incentive or warning!

A most stimulating time was had by all and now we have time to relax!

The MOOC Creative Writing course has started and I have been deep into the forums reading a frankly bewilderingly various collection of poetry.  I have written one myself and look forward to the production of many more during the six-week (I think) course.

One member of the last course is also on this one and I have yet to make contact with her.  The Closed Forum from the last course seems to be a little dead at the moment, but I have every confidence that things will spring back into life when our results have finally been given to us.  Another twelve days and then we can truly start concentrating on the next academic year starting in October.

The next week seems rather dismal as far as the weather is concerned so at least I will be able to get back up to date with my various courses.