sundries, Cardiff edition

(news items will come later)

As you may have heard in other social networking mediums I am in scads of pain. Both my knees are completely covered in bruises from where I fell with my bags. I've also a huge gash and bruise on my thigh from where I dropped a bag on me and have munged up my shin and a tendon in my right foot through same. But none of this compares to the agony my arms and shoulders are experiencing, in part, thanks to the clusterfuck that was the train to Cardiff. I can't even really sit up straight.

You see, somewhere around the middle of the journey, a train employee came into our car, in which the lights were working just fine and said, "the lights in here aren't working right, we've got to close the car, health and safety."

There was, immediately, a passenger uprising. It was nothing like what I'd have expected in the US where people either would have cursed and moved or just ignored the guy as long as we could. No, people were on their feet and pumping their fists. "We paid for these seats, you're going to have us stand all the way to Cardiff? Health and safety is cramming us into some other car; we'll sit in the dark to keep our seats."

The train employee said that if we got stuck in a tunnel and had to evacuate without lights it would be dangerous, but people continued to shout that it wasn't right. Finally, the conduct said that the train would leave the station 'til we moved, so if we wanted to get where we were going we had to move.

At first they said we could keep our bags in the car; then they told us we had to get them as they were locking the car, so I got mine, dragged 'em into another car, and then a conductor got on with a screwdriver, mucked around for five minutes and said yeah, the lights were fine now we could go back into the car.

So I dragged my crap back the other way. This, plus everything else (train to the airport, airport hell, getting my bags up on the plane, plane to cab, cab to paddington, paddington), plus the later walk with Patty, means that I'm in a situation where pretty much everything hurts -- particularly any motion of my upper body, including typing. I am doing this at about half speed and in pieces. It's quite miserable. Last night I hurt so much I was close to taking the hardcore painkillers for my kidney stones instead of the panadol.

When I got into Cardiff, everyone was going to rugby match against Fiji. The streets were filled with people wearing Welsh capes, dragon costumes, and flower hats, all chanting and marching together towards the stadium, I loved it, with all my heart.

It's also, remarkably, Christmas here, which is quite surreal, and I feel trapped in any number of films, including Love Actually, because I keep hearing that blasted song everywhere.

I like it very much here, but weird things take me aback -- like how little sunlight there is (it's not just the clouds, it gets dark SO EARLY; much earlier than in Switzerland). Also I've had a few "OMG, I KNOW THAT FROM TORCHWOOD" moments. Today we walked through Bute Park.

Tomorrow we check into the St. David's to just use the spa for a day. Then we're off to Hay-on-Wye for a day. Back Tuesday.

Today we saw the new Harry Potter film, which I liked very much and to which I must say "OH MY GOD, WHAT IS A NICK CAVE SONG DOING IN A HARRY POTTER FILM?" ( also, I don't remember the book that well, but )

I must say, I found the act of going to the movies here very moving. It was the largest screen I've ever seen a film on, and they played tracks from classic film scores as we were waiting for the movie to start. There wasn't a film I've loved, and quite a few I haven't, that I didn't wish I'd seen on that screen.

Patty has a great local pub near her house, and we went last night and will go again tonight probably. Last night I had sausages cooked in white wine, mustard, lemon juice and spices with spinach and peppers and I dipped chips into the broth and was as happy as could be.

We've started locating some ingredients for Thanksgiving. All is very well.