Friday 18th June

Our last full day in Wales. We are a little bit sad, but at the same time a little bit glad. This is the longest holiday we have had, and it is long enough.

The day started grey and cloudy, but improved as the morning wore onto midday. We took the car to Mumbles Head and then walked down to the pier.
It almost seems as though The Mumbles is a bit embarrassed at being a seaside town. The pier is tucked into the corner and largely left to rot away. The only things it has is a lifeboat station and those mildly amusing scenes to put your head through and be photographed to make you look fatter than you actually are. Or thinner in our case!!

We had a quick play in the amusement arcade (again, tucked away like an embarrassing relative) and had a coffee from the freshly painted for the season cafe. (Which does its best to rise above its obvious greasy spoon past by offering alternatives to fish and chips on the menu)

Sitting at the waters edge, we can hear the sea lapping at the rocks and can see across the bay to Swansea with its housing estates built on the surrounding hillsides and its tower blocks of modern apartments and offices on the harbour front, the tallest of which glows red at night. With the sun beating down on the boats in the bay, you can imagine that you are in Monte Carlo . Only if you close your eyes really tightly though.

Had lunch at Casselmare Cafe Bar overlooking the bay outside in the sunshine. Fish for Sally, scampi for me - well it is Friday! They put loads of onion in the salad, so I got to eat both salads and had stinky breath for the rest of the day!!

Started packing up our things late in the afternoon in readiness of a quickish getaway in the morning. Several people arrived at the bungalow next door this afternoon bringing FIVE vehicles with them! Thank goodness there is plenty of parking space here. We haven't been able to work out if the bungalow is a holiday let too. The brochure says that the "Summer House" that we are staying in is in the grounds of the owners bungalow, but there has been no sign of life there until cleaners and gardener turned up yesterday, presumably in readiness for todays arrivals. Question is, are they the owners, friends of the owners or just holiday makers like ourselves???

We watched the fiasco of England v Algeria on TV, and barely managed to stay awake. Now I remember why I had gone off football!

Retreated to the bedroom for our last sleep here in Wales, and with that stunning view. If nothing else, that view is the thing I will miss the most when we get home. The view from our bedroom window at home really can't compete with this one.

The alarm is set for 7:30 in the hope that we will be able to get up at a sensible time and hit the road early enough for us to be home around lunch time.

What have I missed about home? Your own bed is always the most comfortable no matter what. A decent internet connection. Then again, that can be seen as a bad thing in someways. Once again, I have discovered that so many of the "things" I have at home really are not that important, and I could easily live without them. I have too many books and too many CDs. I MUST do something about this.

We really don't need a 3 bedroomed house, and once again need to seriously consider our alternative options. We also need to think through our possibilities career wise. What is the best way of achieving our ultimate aim of living on the coast? We have come up with a few ideas and have given ourselves food for thought.

Time to sleep now, and get back to the "real world" tomorrow........
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Thursday 17th June

I had set my alarm this morning, so we managed to get up earlier than we had been recently. One of the upsides to this was that we saw a fox on the golf course just in front of us.

After breakfast we headed out to Pennard & Southgate where we parked in the NT carpark and had a little walk along the cliff top looking towards Three Cliffs Bay. Southgate is a very nice village with some fabulous houses. I can only imagine that it is a lovely place to live.

Moving on to Oxwich, and its superb beach. From here we got a proper view of Three Cliffs Bay, and it is quite a view. Oxwich beach claims to be over two miles long, and we walked quite a lot of it. We had a paddle in the sea which was quite warm, and very much enjoyed our walk across the sand and through the water.

We ate our picnic lunch there after our walk before taking back to the car and driving out through Reynoldston and across an area that looked straight out of the New Forest. It was very pretty, full of animals by the roadside.

We then headed to The Mumbles for a "proper" look around the "shops". The carpark really should charge in 5 minute stages - there really is very little there, making Kenilworth town centre seem very cosmopolitan!

As you can guess it wasn't long before we were back at the house. We both had slight headaches which a large mug of tea helped to lesson. I fell asleep listening to the football as usual, and Sally did some more crafting.

The sun disappeared behind clouds and the temperature dropped rather. Dinner tonight is macaroni cheese for Sally and pasta with spicy sausage for me, with garlic bread to share. Tomorrow is our last day here, and it feels as though we have been here for ages!

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Wednesday 16th June

Another beautifully sunny morning. Overnight the flag has moved again AND the green has changed colour!! It is a darker green than it has been. I wondered if they had watered it, but the colour didn't change again as the day wore on and the sun dried the ground, so I really don't know what they have done to it.

We decided to have a lazy day today, and stayed at "home". We had Radio 4 for company, I had my book and dozing to keep me busy, Sally had her book, crafting and my snoring to keep her occupied. Of course, we also had the golfers to keep us amused too.

Sally made us pizza for lunch, which was really tasty. By now the sun was all over the balcony, so she took in some more rays while I watched Spain lose to Switzerland. (Well, I slept through most if it - again!)

Nothing else to report for today really I'm afraid. We have enjoyed our lazy day but plan to get out and about again tomorrow.

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Tuesday 15th June

We awoke to another sunny day. Very few clouds in the sky, a gentle breeze to keep some of the heat at bay and that stunning view across the golf course to the sea.

But what was this? The flag on the green in front of us had moved since we went to bed! It is a good job I knew this happens and had mentioned it to Sally yesterday, otherwise we would have been freaked out by it. I would still have liked to see them do it to find out exactly how it is done mind.

After a fairly relaxed start to the morning (by which I mean "late"!) We ventured out in the car again and headed to the North part of the Gower, and ended up at the village of Portmadog, which is in the top left corner of the peninsula. We had found a walk in a leaflet in the house for there. It wasn't a particularly long walk, but did involve some steep hills, and because of the temperature, we were glad it wasn't any longer.

Part of it was through a wood right on the coastline, it was not only beautiful but so peaceful too. All you could hear was the gentle sound of the sea, the birds singing and the occasional cow moo'ing. How wonderful.

Near to the carpark is a little church dating back to the 13th century. I don't know why, but little old churches fascinate me, and I was quite happy to spend some time looking around it.

We got back to the car and decided not to eat our picnic lunch there, but move along the coast a bit and find somewhere else to stop. As we moved East along this northern coastline, we discovered that not all parts of the Gower are quite as picturesque. We stopped to eat in the village of Pen-clawdd and found a fairly grim place populated with plenty of loud car owning youths who mostly looked as though they were very familiar with the term "ASBO"!! It reminded me of St Just from our trip to Cornwall in 2007.

We scoffed our food down quickly, and then checking the map discovered that we were not too far away from the M&S food store that we had stopped at on Saturday. Also, I discovered a route back to Langlands that avoided the awful centre of Swansea. So we went to M&S and topped up with provisions for the rest of the week and headed back to the house the easy way.

Sally sat on the balcony to catch some sun, but it was too hot for me, so I crashed out on one of the sofas downstairs to watch the remainder of the Ivory Coast v Portugal game. Apart from some of the best play acting I have seen for a while it was not a good game, and I actually missed the last part of it because I fell asleep!

An odd thing I have noticed. Last week when we had no phone signal, the battery on my Blackberry was running down a LOT faster than normal. Now we have a reasonable signal it is back to normal. I can only image it was because the phone kept trying to find a signal. But, when it did find a signal, I sometimes had to turn it off and back on before it could send or receive texts and emails. Modern technology eh?

Jacket potatoes for dinner - haven't had one for ages, so that was nice. Watched Brazil v North Korea before heading up to bed for a lovely sleep in preparation for another hard day!

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Monday 14th June

Some rain overnight meant that we awoke to a slightly damp morning. Dull and overcast, it didn't start out too promising, but improved as the day went on, and ended with quite a lot of sun and fairly warm.
Today, we decided to risk it, and went out in the car. We made it to the end of the narrow lane without meeting anything coming the other way. Phew. That was the hardest part of the journey done then!

We headed West deeper into the Gower Peninsula. One of the strangest things about today's trip was that the B road was a lot wider than the A road we went on.

I also noticed that most of the small villages in Wales only have one tiny village store, a pub or two and a hairdressers. Quite why there is such a need for hair stylists remains a mystery to me.

We made our way to Rhossili, which was the first designated area of outstanding natural beauty. This is a title which gives it a lot to live up to.

It more than lived up to its title - it is fabulously stunning. A huge curved beach that is hard to get to, which means it is pretty much unspoilt. Cliffs that rise up majestically to grassy tops, and a tidal causeway to a mightily impressive rock known as "The Worms Head".

We walked to the Coast Guard Volunteer Station, which overlooks The Worms Head, and got chatting to one of the men there who told us all about their work there, and showed us around their station. He also told us about the seals and pointed some out to us through their telescope. He was very interesting and knowledgeable, and we enjoyed our time with him.

We carried on our walk further around the cliff top until we could see into the next bay, and then walked back along the same route back to the car. Moving on to Port Eynon, which is a place that we very nearly stayed at instead of Langlands, we discovered that we had made a good decision - if Rhossili was a highlight of the holiday, then Port Eynon was a low point.

On the map it seems quite big. It does have quite a few houses and cottages, but it only has one pub, one gift shop, one open cafe and one closed cafe. There were no hairdressers though. We had a bite to eat at the cafe, but decided not to linger. Partly because there was nothing else to see, and partly because off all the "Beware of the Adders" signs warning you to stick to the paths!!!

We had both imagined it being an old fashioned fishing port full of quaint little cottages. It was none of these things.

Making our way back to The Mumbles, we stopped at the Co-Op for supplies, and had a very quick look around the town, and will have to investigate it further before we leave.

Back at the house, the golfers are back bashing their little white balls into the distance before walking after them with a trolley full of clubs and doing it all over again.

I would quite like to have a go at golf, but have to confess that I don't really "get it".

It seems to me that a lot of it is competing against ones own incompetence.

You hit the ball hoping to land it where you want to. If all goes well then great. Chances are it won't end up quite where you wanted it to, and depending on how badly you played the shot, you now have to get yourself out of trouble.

Some of the people we have seen playing have given us a good laugh. Two ladies this morning were obviously not really into the game. They weren't even looking at where they were hoping to play their shots:- head down, whack, trudge trudge trudge, head down, whack....and so on.

Mark Twain described golf as a good walk spoilt. If these people are so disinterested in the game, why not save themselves a fortune and just go for a walk???

Watching the Italy v Paraguay game on the TV, but it is so cold downstairs that I am seriously considering moving upstairs and listening to the second half on the radio! The difference in temperature between the two floors is surprising and very noticeable.

Hopefully I will put some more photos on here taken on the phone. If so, they are from Rhossili. They don't do it justice.


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Sunday 13th June

A wonderful nights sleep in a very comfortable bed. Another plus point for the house - I thought the bed at the flat was good, but this one is almost as good as ours at home. We left the curtains at the huge balcony window open to admire the view when we went to bed, only closing them as it was starting to get light at around 4am. In the distance last night we could see the light of what we assume is the Swansea / Port Talbot area, and the blinking of a lighthouse.

This morning, the weather started off looking very cloudy and dull, but still reasonably warm, and we decided to go for a walk. We put our boots on and headed off across the golf course in what I hoped was roughly the right direction to get down to the bay. It is probably about half a mile or so across one of the fairways, past the club house and down a narrow lane before you reach the bay. There were plenty of people walking their dogs along the coastal path, and some people on the beach already.
We sat and watched the sea for a while and a group of surfers who were having a lesson, before deciding to take the coastal path East towards The Mumbles itself. The path is mostly tarmac, so is easy to walk on , but itr rises and falls, sometimes quite steeply, along the cliff tops. We walked as far as Mumbles Pier, which appears to be 2 miles or so, having the odd rest here and there along the way to enjoy the spectacular views. We came back the same route, and by now the sun had come out and it was quite hot again.

When we got back to the house, we had a bite to eat and a drink of squash before chilling out for the rest of the afternoon. Sally has brought some of her craft things with her and spent some time doing that. I listened to the football on the radio. Well, that isn't totally true, I started off listening to the footy, and fell asleep for a couple of hours!!

We had a bit of rain this afternoon - it started off as drizzle but got heavier and the wind made it worse and lashed it at those daft enough to be playing golf in it.

The evening was spent watching Germany give Australia a lesson in how to play football. Dinner was an M&S special - a fish pie with herby potatoes followed by lemon tart.

Still can't get a good internet connection on the laptop, so am having to carry on typing this on the Blackberry. This also means no photos at the moment. Sorry. I wonder if I can send any from the phone? If this works, below will be the view from the balcony across the golf course.

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Saturday 12th June

I had set the alarm for 7:15, and was woken with a start by the darned bleeping. Got up straight away and hit the shower, had some cereal and a mug of tea, and then set to finishing the packing. There wasn't too much left to do really, and it didn't take long. Got the car packed and we still had an hour left before we had to be out of the flat. Or so we thought.....

We were sitting in the living room with the patio door open enjoying the sun and the view for the last time when someone opened the front door. It was the cleaners. It was only 9:20!!! We grabbed the last of our things, took a few quick pictures and that was that. Week one of the holiday over.

We took a gentle drive East, took a slight detour through Pendine Sands and eventually got to Carmarthen. Had a look at my phone and saw something strange. Something that I haven't seen for a week. A 3G signal!!! Wow, I didn't know they had 3G in Wales! Up to now, most of the time the display has either said "No Signal" or "SOS only", with the occasional "GSM" or if you are really lucky "GPRS". It has been during those rare moments that I have been sending the blog entries.

We had a wonder around Carmathen for a couple of hours. It has a new shopping precinct with some nice shops (mostly multiples) as well as plenty of the old narrow streets with the independants. The town has obviously had a lot of modernisation and work done to it over the last few years. It has a nice feel to it, and we could have spent longer there.

Moving on towards our destination, the roads were mostly dual carriageway and even a short stretch of the M4. On the outskirts of Swansea we found a retail park that has a Marks & Spencer Simply Food store, and we did a bit of stocking up there.

The roads signs in and through Swansea were, quite frankly, truly awful! We found our way more by luck than judgement, and by the time we were through the city I was a bit on the grumpy side. We then reached the village called "The Mumbles" where the office is that we have to get the keys to the house from.

Keys picked up, we followed the cryptic clues on how to get to the house. Again, more by luck than judgement we turned into the correct road. At the end of the road there is a narrow opening, no I mean a REALLY narrow opening, which leads onto an unmade track!! You go along this for about half a mile, praying that you don't meet anything coming the other way as it is single track with NO passing places.

Seeing a golf course on the left hand side made me think that this was correct, and eventually you go through two gate posts with no gate (not the four bar one that is mentioned in the instructions) up a steep drive, around a bend and...........

.........WOW!!! A bungalow appears in front of you - nothing special, but to the right is a small two story detached house that is to be our home for the next seven days.

Ouside there is a table and chairs in front of the house on a patio area. To the right of the house is room for two cars, and behind is a small "yard" with a clothes airer. The front door is on the left hand side of the house and leads into the kitchen, beyond which is the huge living/dining room complete with dining table, 2 sofas, wood burner and TV.

The stairs are in the corner of the kitchen and lead up to the one massive bedroom with queen sized bed, wardrobe, drawers etc, coffee table, 2 chairs and a sofabed. These are in front of a patio door which leads out to a balcony which runs the full width of the house, and offers a stunning view over the golf course and the sea beyond.

Off the bedroom is a large bathroom, but as this has a sloping ceiling due to the roof, it feels smaller than it is. It has a large bath with shower over, washbasin and toilet.

The house generally feels nice and airy and we have really taken to it. I feel a bit bad really, I was fond of the flat and almost feel a bit unfaithful to it to like this house so much already!!

We unloaded the car, had a cup of tea and then went for a walk across the golf course to the cliff top overlooking the bay. The views are certainly impressive and we look forward to exploring them during the week.

Back at thew house we sat looking out over the balcony watching the golfers. There is a green just the other side of the hedge, and it is quite amusing watching the golfers try to hit the green and then sink their putts. I feel that they may well give us some funny moments over the next week!

After dinner of salad, cheese and garlic bread, we watched the England v USA game. After a good start, the predictable happened and it ended up as a draw. Yawn.

We have moved to the upstairs room now as it is warmer than downstairs. I can't get an internet connection on either laptop, so you may have to wait for photos I'm sorry to say.

It is quite misty out to sea, and you can't see too far out which is a shame. All the golfers seem to have gone home too, and the only sound is the birds singing.

Here's hoping for a good nights sleep and another lovely day tomorrow.

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