Gwynfa - Paradise?

Its been a very hectic but a really good day. I awoke at about 5:30am, I listened to birds, and felt warm sunshine, I just had to do it... a rare thing for me, but I got up early, had a cup of tea in my conservatory and listened to "Farming Today". Then the urge hit. I knew that the tourism people on Anglesey are trying to get a round Island walk connected up, and I am only a mile or so from the beach, so there must be a footpath close by to get there. I got out the old map that the previous owners of this place had left me, and I saw a straight green dotted line to the sea, clearly marked, just after the house over the road.
This was it, I took my bike with me and headed off to the beach.
I was stopped at the first hurdle, a KISSING GATE . My bike and the sheep were designed specifically to not be able to go through a kissing gate. So I padlocked my bike to a 40mph sign, and walked.
The dew on the grass, the birds singing, the purple foxgloves, to be honest, it was lovely. I walked across a couple of fields, around a caravan site nature reserve, with a few signs about birds/flowers etc, but not a human or a caravan in sight, and then had to give up because I had reached a dead end... the straight-line on the map had either gone in circles or the route I was on was different. I think I could have pushed on and found the beach, but with the bike on the road, I decided to try another route, that I had already driven down, so I walked back, baaaing at the sheep and taking a few pictures.

Now, I hope that Tuesday Rainstorms isn't reading this. She might be able to cycle London to Brighton, but I am an ageing woman that has lived for almost 30yrs in the flattest terrain in the UK. Although I have cycled to the shops... had a few fun rides, everything has been flat... constant pedalling, but no real effort. Cycling down that road to the beach was not just down, it was undulating, it had a few up bits, and some down ones. The puffing and panting that seemed to accompany me drowned the sounds of the countryside. I felt a strong compulsion to look at the scenery every so often to stop the world spinning quite so quickly. I thought about my sessions at the gym and and realised I had wasted my money and that all this was for free. Not only that, my cycling career had not equipped me with a few fundamental skills. Like... I really didn't know how to use the frigging gears as I hadn't needed all of them in flat as a cow turd Lincolnshire and Norfolk. So I struggled and walked... and rode and panted... and then came the other modern contraption that my bike had never needed in Lincolnshire.. brakes. In Lincs you just have to stop pedalling and you stop. Not here, I found myself stopping to see if my brake pads were melting, concerned at the deafening screech as the pads quickly removed all the 15yrs of rust that had accumulated on my bikes rims. They shine now! I forgot they could do that. I think in about 15yrs of use that bike has only had one change of brake pads. Now they would be gone in days!

Anyway, it was all worth it, as I cascaded down the hills, and awoke every living things between Dublin and Liverpool with the sound of my brakes, I reached a car park. and saw the sea across it. The walk across the beach was exhilarating and the place was deserted. This was Lligwy beach. I took photos, I walked to the sea as the tide was out. I saw no one. It was all mine.
I took a picture of a jellyfish and wondered if it would survive. Did I want it to? But it made a good photo.
I took a movie of the beach, it will download, so don't click here if you want to avoid a huge file. movie of beach

Then came the cycle back.
I am sure you can now imagine how I coped with that, but I did and I got back to Gwynfa before 9am.

I devoured some muesli and a banana as this was about all I had to eat in the house and thought ... SHIT!!.. I must get to Amlwch as my stuff from BT has arrived, I need the net!!
So I shot off in the car, and found the place to get my parcel, and rushed home... NO!.. I didn't
I got way laid.. I saw a sign. SMOKERY
A very nice man showed me his smoked fish, cheeses, bacon, chicken and I felt my purse emptying rapidly. I really shouldn't go to places like that when I am hungry. I came away with some kippers, a pork loin smoked and marinated in cider and some bacon, all absolutely essential. This smokery is about 2 miles, maybe 3 from where my place is.

Then I rushed home, and only had to ring up BT twice, but I did get my broadband connection working with no real probs.
Suddenly this place looked better. Gwynfa means "blessed place" or "paradise" it said in a book that I saw in a tourist information centre. Maybe, on a warm sunny day, they could be right.

Gone ... :(

The time has come again to head off to the sea and mountains and those sheep too...
See you all if I ever get connected.

Hugs

Sheila

a Geography lesson

This blog is to keep a few people informed as to where I will be. I have realised a some people had no idea where even Wales was. When I have had people say "Wales is in England, isn't it?" and "Wales is what? is it a state?" and "what do you guys have for states?" I knew it was time to educate again.
I admit, I am constantly looking up where one state is compared to another, I have a road map of USA that I use too. I am prepared to learn. So here we go... this one is for you lot that have never set foot in the UK.


I am now still in Spalding, which is also so insignificant that its not labelled. Can you see a square-ish bite size bit of sea, due north of Cambridge? Spalding is a few miles to the left of that. That bit of sea (known as The Wash) is almost the same size as Anglesey... and almost straight across the UK. It takes me between 5 and 6hrs to drive across, there are no motorways that go on that route, although a few faster roads over in Wales (A55). We are used to being photographed for speeding, every few yards, with cameras sometimes sign posted and sometimes hidden. Very few people have not paid fines and had some kind of an endorsement on their driving license. If you get 12 endorsements you lose your driving license, and its 3 every time you get done for speeding.
A nice thing about this map is it tries to give you an idea of where the mountains are. Please note the difference in terrain, in Spalding its smooth.. as flat as a pancake.. the thin crepe ones... not a hill for miles...
Wales is covered in folds and lumps... bloody big mountains, compared to most of UK.

Does the above map make it clearer? Anglesey is in the box.

And this is the complete island.

The Allotment in Spalding

The Allotment in Spalding
Originally uploaded by Sheila.again.

I Have Fairies at the Bottom of my Garden

I Have Fairies at the Bottom of my Garden
Originally uploaded by Sheila.again.

I couldn't cope with having 2 houses and all that gardening, if it wasn't for 2 lovely friends who have organised my garden and are steadily creating a paradise of veggies in my messed up weed ridden back garden, here at my house in Spalding, Lincolnshire. I would have been stuck without them.
Trina was a teaching assistant at the school I used to work at, with her husband, Stuart, they are responsible for all the green fingeredness. Its like having fairies at the bottom of my garden. I ply them with tea and various fluids, they create a transformation, one wave of a garden fork and out pops some spuds, a few peas, strawberries, spinach, parsnips or was it buttercups? The greenhouse was a problem to me, I wanted to get rid of it, but they have re-glassed it and created a working centre for tomatoes and cucumbers. There are courgettes, onions, and the list just goes on. They are even growing lettuces for my pampered snails, while fighting off all the garden slugs and snails. All the birds have loved it too.. yes, even my great tits.
So thanks Stuart and Trina!!
XX

Yahoo is in deep doodoo

As I am now able to carry on my addiction from my home in Spalding, I was most annoyed when I first had problems with Chitchat, and also found that a lot of user rooms had disappeared. I used Adium, Charla, but I am now glad to be back with Chitchat.
Chitchat is now working again, but I have also found out a bit of news on the Yahoo user rooms disappearance.

WackyB forum

more details

Its about time really, but its no surprise it took a few companies to remove ads with Yahoo to get them thinking.

A lot of Mac users seem to think the only way to access chat rooms in Yahoo is through a browser, and then usually something nasty like IE. so I thought I would put up all the links I know, this is for chatrooms, I run Chitchat and also messenger(YIM) while I am in a yahoo chatroom.

Chitchat
Chitchat has some rather nice emotes, smileys that aren't animated and its easy to access other rooms, the guys who make it default the program to enter the Mac room the first time, which is often useful, as help is available there.
Charla
I used to use Charla a lot, and only recently tried it again, it has animated smileys when you turn them on in prefs, but I didn't like the emotes.
Adium
I hate this, although some people love it. It is another prog that combines a lot of messenger progs together, but I just dislike the format. Adium does seem to work when Yahoo tweaks buttons and changes things, when Chitchat and Charla won't connect.

An Announcement

I am proud to announce that my snails have produced eggs.
It looks like they needed some peace and quiet and some time to .. well.. to... to do "it". And they have!!

Now I have to hope it gets warm enough that they hatch.

Thanks Brit for feeding and spraying, it has worked... :D

My very old snail site I did this site about 3 or 4yrs ago, but Geocities wouldn't let me change it and update.

Returning to England and the net

I finally packed up my Welsh house, filled my car with obnoxious ornaments and useless kitchen utensils and made my escape, after a quick visit to my brother and parents.
I put my foot down and avoided the myriad of cameras (I hope) and sped home to Lincolnshire. Now this is a problem.. the use of the word "home". Home is where the net is!
When I grew up in a London suburb, I would never have thought that Lincolnshire was going to feel civilised, modern and cosmopolitan, but compared to Anglesey, or my corner of Anglesey, Lincolnshire is 'where its at!!!"

I connected my computer up, and found that I could actually run yahoo and a browser. That 11 emails downloaded in seconds and didn't need 3 dial ups to get them. I even got a security upgrade from Apple.. and it just sort of arrived. Bliss!
How can I go back to that next week?
I am only back for a few days.
I guess an overdose of net is due now.

See you online
Hugs

btw ... Thanks Barclays Bank. The bottle of red wine and the bottle white wine will disappear soon, but I thought you were going to send it to my new house? Its a good job I am not like most people and am living in both houses now. Still, I am impressed, sending me bottles is a good idea. I hope we can have a few more cock ups in the future. >:)

Diary of a frustrated addict

written on Wednesday evening, before my parents even knew I was on Anglesey.

I can't get online tonight. I am now at the guest-house, having driven from Spalding to Anglesey, North Wales. The weather has been lovely today, I drove along the coast cursing all the chances of good photos, ruined because of an inability to stop the car, or because some stupid idiot had packed her camera deep within all those boxes in the back of the car.
There is no wifi signal, even my mobile phone is only just getting a signal, and only on one side of this room, 3 floors above the road. It's at times like this I suffer watching TV. At least I missed the football... bloody Danes!

Thursday, my parents diamond wedding anniversary

Friday, I got the house and mowed my parents lawn, while I was waiting.

I spent the first night in the house, looking in cupboards, sorting, and finally collapsing in a sleeping bag. Its odd to move into a furnished house, a new experience for me, some things are essential and will be kept, whereas others are instant throwaways and car-boot sale items.

Saturday
Another day of cleaning and sorting, my brother also came round and had a play with the PC which has had all its dial up internet access stuff removed. I have tried with my iBook to connect online, but can never maintain a connection. It dials, but won't get a signal strong enough to get access to anything, yet I can get online straight away at my parents place. I am beginning to think there is a fault on the line.

Sunday morning
I actually got net access for a few seconds at some silly time in the morning, but it didn't stay connected for more than a few seconds. In my frustration I phoned up BT, not sure why I bothered at before 8am on a Sunday, but an addict doesn't think straight. I typed in a lot of numbers on my phone keypad to the automated voice at BT and finally was told that the service department was only open Monday to Saturday.
If I scream will anyone hear me if I am not connected at the time?

Today has dawned with thick grey clouds and not a blue sky in sight. It makes me realise that the sun has shone all the time here, I heard figures that Saturday was Anglesey's turn for being the place with the most sunshine in the UK, 14hrs of it too. I need to get out into my new garden and pull a lot of weeds before I return to Spalding on Wednesday. It has been like a Mediterranean paradise until this morning, but I can put up with a grey day now and again. The beauty of this place is getting to me.. just a little.. maybe..

I went shopping, pricing up beds and cookers and went to my nearest university town - Bangor. Even Tescos is in a tent! At least it felt a bit more global than my corner of Anglesey.
A very strange thing happened on Sunday night, I went to bed at 9:30pm. See what not having the net does?

Monday - a day to organise
I awoke feeling ready to tackle anything, maybe a 10hr sleep has some benefits, this was my day for phoning utilities and organising and also visiting my parents when the chiropodist was there.
So I rang the electricity supplier and had all that arranged in minutes, all this before 9am.
At 8:55 I phoned BT, the monopoly who run our British phone system. As I am aware that this phone-line is not what it should be I thought I would have to use the bastards again as an ISP. I couldn't ordered broadband until I had had a phone-line for 48hrs, so it all just seemed easier to return to the idiots, at least I am aware of how it is done, or so I thought...
I pressed buttons, I pressed more buttons as I worked my way through the endless options and finally spoke to "Mike". Mike wanted to see if my line was now working as a fault had been reported on it yesterday. (oops!.. ) "Would I mind holding while he contacted the correct department to find this out?"
I held.. I listened to that bloody tune.. I waited and finally gave up when I saw the call had now taken 30mins.
Back to square one.. phone again... press buttons.. press more buttons.. this time I spoke to Jackie, who did seem to detect the panic in my voice when she too put me on hold... no music this time, just a phone ringing and a recorded "busy" message... after a mere 20 minutes John answered and asked for my account number, I hadn't got one as I wanted a broadband account.. confusion.. after a few more questions.. yes.. I was back on hold...
The steam coming from both my ears seemed to obscure my visibility of the timer on my phone and maybe it was the blood rushing to my eyeballs... but eventually I got to "Tom" who was certainly the joker of the pack. Tom at long last actually took my details, explained a few things and we did the deal. So I now only have a week to wait for broadband.. ain't life quaint here in UK. I will also bet that broadband doesn't work as something other than just a DACS box is wrecking this phone-line. I noticed it was now 10:30 when I finished my phoning of BT.

Anyway, I realised I had to rush to parents, I sprayed Mr Muscle all over my cooker and shot off to the old folks. Panic had hit them, as the stair lift had stopped working and the repair guys couldn't get there for a couple of days. So I spent a few hours running up and down stairs and eating the contents of my parents fridge.

When I got back to my place, the cooker had not dissolved but I did spend a few hours picking more grease off its surfaces.. and finally cooking some food, only to find I had no working can opener.
Its a good job I can be inventive and finally opened a can of sweet-corn with a bread knife and a pair of pliers. But I managed a pasta sauce without the tomatoes, I couldn't face opening a second can..

I have found that I can connect to the net for a few minutes, usually about 4 mins so I will try and paste this to my blog. I am told that Yahoo has now started to show me online when I am not, sorry.. but I am not able to control much round here.

The Queen and moving

Just a quick post, to let you all know that I am alive and well and now in my house on Anglesey.

My parents have had their diamond wedding anniversary, and the message from the Queen arrived. A total surprise, and it worked well. Thanks HRH, but mum is unsure how to thank you, will she need to send a letter, or do you read my blog?

I have moved into my new place, and have begun cleaning and sorting. The people who moved out had even had a carpet professionally cleaned, but had left so much of their stuff, that I am now filling boxes with kitchen utensils and all the china ornaments that filled every shelf. I will need to buy a new cooker, and some furniture, but I have spent the last 2 days cleaning the kitchen, and finding what they left for me in all the cupboards.

My biggest problem is that I am unable to connect to the net, even on dial up. I am now at my parents house where I can cope with the 28K dial up. But whatever BT has done to the phoneline at my place, it will not let me connect. Even my mobile phone has no signal, so I am surviving with radio 4 and a few local Welsh speaking radio stations. I guess I will have to get used to this isolation now.

I will be back in Spalding sometime Wednesday night, and hopefully connected as before. A few days back there... and then to Wales again...

Since I got here, I have not seen any rain, The sun has shone nearly all the time, and this place has looked green, lush and gorgeous. The sea has been blue, and all the flowers seem in full bloom. If I had time to photograph it, you might have been impressed, but all I have seen is the grease encrusted kitchen, and the top of the ironing board. Tomorrow, I will go shopping...

Anyway, if anyone was worrying about me, I am fine... Frustrated with no net, but it will do me good to survive.

See you again I miss you all, and thanks for the comments. I will be in touch again soon.
bfn

Genes and Orgasm

Why is it the interesting stuff shows up when I have no time to wind up people in chat rooms?
This is a goody, I am sure it will keep a few chatting for ages. And I do wonder how they managed to do the research. Is asking twins a fair test? Surely a few double blind tests could have produced a more scientific result?
Maybe I should volunteer...

Anyway, click on this to see what I mean..
ORGASM

Please add some comments.. I want to read these...

Boring day

Today has not been good, its been a sorting, washing, cleaning and mowing lawn day. So the details are boring.
The one thing that livened it up was when a friend happened to mention, in the traveler's room in yahoo, just as I logged in "Gwynedd". I sort of stopped in my tracks with an :0 face.
Gwynedd is the mainland county that I am almost moving to, Anglesey used to be in Gwynedd until very recently, so to see that word was a gobsmacker.

It's always a shock when a real travel chat happens in the travel room between sex, music, sex, food, sex and anything else... but travel that was in my new area too!..
Suddenly I felt myself becoming the hostess to an area I have only been cynical about until now. My friend wanted to know about castles, she even imagined that she could travel around by bus. So we searched, and the websites just kept cumming like a wanker in iVisit...
I thought I would use this space to advertise the area as we found quite a few, and this was really just the tip of the ice-burg. Maybe some more of you would like to come and visit me and I might even buy you a beer... or Scrumpy Jacks, Wops ;).

This is a map of where my new place is, if you look carefully in the centre you might see the word "Brynrefail", it's there somewhere... look closely...

My parents and annoying brother live at Benllech, its down the same road. But at a safe distance.

Information on Wales:
Moelfre This is my nearest town. its a holiday place, with pubs and fish and chip shops, its on a hill, which is strange to me after years of Fenland living.

Caernarfon
Harlech
Portmeirion This is better known as where The Prisoner was filmed. "who is number 1?" "You are number six"...
Beaumaris This is on Anglesey, a marina town with a castle too.
Snowdonia
More Snowdonia
Anglesey

I might add more to this, but I hope it gives you a taste for the area. Please come and visit, I need the company.


Tomorrow I will be throwing a few clothes into a suitcase and driving to Wales. I am staying in at the Woodlands, which is very close to my parents house. I am not sure when I will next be online, so this blog may have to wait a few days now.

See you all soon, I will miss you...

Banks and solicitors

When you ring up a solicitor in the UK, is it normal to get a saga about how he will not be there as his wife fell down stairs and was in hospital? As I had spent about 10 days during the last 2 months trying to phone the guy, my sympathy is not what it should be. Still, I persevered with the office staff and passed on information. I was told to try again during the afternoon.
I thought I was glad that I had already been into my bank, last week, and asked about arranging my money transfer to my solicitor in Wales. The nice guy at the bank said it could all be done on the phone.... amazing what difference a week makes.
Today, it was impossible to do over the phone... and would I go to the bank with 2 methods of identification. ( My passport is with my solicitors in Wales).
So, I returned to the bank... fuming... spoke to a lady first who passed me onto the the same bloke I had interrogated last week... ggrr!!
Anyway, some how I managed to transfer the last of my funds to Wales...
Then I had to phone the elusive solicitor back to let him know.
He wasn't there.. could I call back?
ok.. (I swore)
I then got the deluge of people from the bank phoning... one to confirm that I had really meant that amount, and to where?
But another checking customer service... so I cracked.. I went for the throat...
The consequence was I should be receiving a bottle of red wine at the new house, courtesy of Barclays bank! We will see if it arrives..
I also managed to get through to my solicitor, sorted out a few snippets, expressed condolences for his wife whose fall was actually causing surgery.
The day continues... How does anyone have time to buy a house if they are in full time employment?

Somewhere in between all these calls, I managed to get a phoneline installed at the new house, one minute after it gets disconnected from the other people, on Friday at 13:31. BUT no broadband can even be applied for until after the line has been working for 48hrs. And then I will have to get someone to remove the DACS box....
I don't believe a thing BT say...

contemplations and plans

I thought I would try to use a blog as a way to keep in touch while I am in my exile on Anglesey, North Wales.
I am not sure how this will work and may change formats and blogs as I find more suitable ones, but I will see.
My journey will start on June 8th, Wednesday, when I will quietly go, with a packed Berlingo, and stay in a B&B, still not booked yet. I will pop round to my parents on 9th to be there for their 60th wedding anniversary. The next day I should, solicitors permitting, be able to "move in" to my new place.

This is an odd move to even plan for. To buy a house that includes most of the furniture, I refused the TVs and the 3 piece suite, this is such an odd deal. I am lost as to what to take? So I am travelling light, with a sleeping bag, torch, iBook, and not much else except a few clothes. I need a look, a check of what I have bought, so that I can start writing lists.

I will have to return to Spalding, before the 17th June, when I have a major hospital apointment with Jill. So, I will need to get Elec, water, council tax, insurance, ... and a phone sorted before I return to Spalding.

So this is what a blog is.. a way to begin planning in my own head...