As I am certain to have previously mentioned, a holiday with my family really wouldn't be a typical family holiday without the weather making some poor attempt to ruin it. However, we Brit's are more than accustomed to it by now so, following our drenching on Wednesday we went to my favourite shop, Sports direct (ultimate sarcasm), and purchased some raincoats. I say I don't like the shop, but beyond the cold sweats which seem to cover me when I think of doing sport (I've got better, but let's just say sport has never been a major priority in my family – eat a balanced diet and go for a walk; skin tight shorts or ugly jogging bottoms have never appealed to me), the main issue is with the shop itself. Whenever I have stepped foot in a Sports Direct shop I have usually found myself biting my tongue to stop myself telling off someone else's child (it's the Guide leader in me, I do apologise). Not to mention the fact that it normally resembles a jumble sale; the problem is that they try to cram such a vast amount into the shop that it becomes near-on impossible to navigate and, unfortunately, the staff have never seemed too bothered about offering assistance.
Once again, Cardiff town managed to make me reconsider my thoughts on places, as the shop in St David's was actually a pleasant atmosphere (don't get me wrong, it was still a sport shop) but there was a slightly calmer air about it...one which didn't make me want to grab the nearest lacrosse stick and race around the shop in a fit of rage. I think the staff generally seemed better, too. Thank you to the lady who saw we were a bit lost and not only climbed up a ladder to get me a hoodie in my size, but pointed us to the right direction to look at more when I decided I didn't like hoodie and it wasn't what I wanted after all. Never before have I been somewhere where the sales assistant says, 'no problem, ma'am, just let me know if you need anything else'.This is how I strongly believe all shops should be run, but unfortunately they aren't. Nevertheless, I purchased myself a jacket which will hopefully last some time, and the holiday could continue.
So, on Thursday we donned our coats and took a drive to Castell Coch which is a 19th century fantasy-style building, built on the site of a 13th century castle. From what I can gather (and read!), it was commissioned by an extremely wealthy man called Bute and built by his architect, William Bruges. It’s the kind of building which has been used for filming lots of different things; the one programme I remembered it featuring in was the Tracy Beaker film which I must have seen at least 6 years ago – it’s funny how your brain remembers things like that!
You could see why production companies would choose Castell Coch for their filming; it is so well decorated that it is clear that money was no object in building and decorating the building. There was gold paint everywhere and it was all overly ostentatious but very impressive all the same! I will say that it was far smaller than I had anticipated, though!
If you’re any fan of nature, it’s an unwritten rule that when you visit Wales, you really must visit the Brecon Beacons. Choosing to try and admire the Beacons on such a vile day was quite probably the worst of ideas as we could barely see where we were driving, let alone the view! However, we stopped off at Brecon town to wander around a little bit. Typically, the weather wasn't conducive to exploring to the extent that we would have liked to, but we took a brief stroll through the quaint little town and took shelter for 20 minutes or so in a little café.
Luckily enough, when we came to move on to Abergavenny later in the day, the weather had brightened up a lot for us to have a decent wander around the town. Unfortunately we missed the cattle market which would have been quite interesting to see, as I can't say I ever have seen one in action, as it were. I get the impression it's the kind of place which would make me temporarily want to become a vegetarian! Overall we had a rather nice day, even if a lot of it was spent in the car!
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