Christina?
She sallied forth to Wales a couple of months ago for a wedding; posted from there; then……
I do hope everything is ok.
Has anybody here seen…..
Christina?
She sallied forth to Wales a couple of months ago for a wedding; posted from there; then……
I do hope everything is ok.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Personally, I have no idea but I have missed her. She would have slaughtered me to pieces over a few of my recent posts. That’s all in the game.
Hope she’s OK.
I don’t know how long she was planning to be in Wales, Janus, but hopefully she is well.
I was thinking of Christina just yesterday while watching son running the London marathon. (2 hours 53 min if you want to know.) I remembered some of her comments on such activities, but it was a great day out. Accompanied by the other son and his three year old daughter and daughter-in-law with our six month old grandson, we visited Shadwell and Wapping Highway for the first time ever. Granddaughter was given lots of lollipops by the Shadwell station staff and enjoyed all the music and costumes. “There’s a fairy, Granny. Why’s that man wearing a pink fairy dress?” The green fairy was, I was informed, Tinkerbell. Grandson too seemed taken with all the colours and lights and being taken on and off trains. Then the family get-together in our “local” in Albemarle Street to celebrate with the runner who looked as if he’d just been for a stroll in the park. Sorry, Christina, we’re just plebs and we enjoy such simple pleasures, though I feel desperately sorry for those brave runners at the end of the procession. That takes guts to keep going. Hope all is going well in Wales.
I’m here!
I’m alive.
I’ve survived!
Just.
Got back a week ago, but takes me that long to get my act together.
God, people do that for pleasure?
Mission accomplished, sold the boy’s flat, all done and dusted and money safely in the bank, a huge plus all round. Needless to say, being a rentable property had 5 full price offers mainly wogs trying to get in before the end of march and the 3% increase in sales tax! Sold it in on the 30th march so everyone happy.
the tenant and furniture both went on to the new owner. salvaged a couple of family pieces and waved the rest goodbye.
Went to the wedding. a more conspicuous piece of consumption and general falderal never to have been witnessed. Two hours to take a few photographs? I pissed off to the bar, end of! Talk about narcissism! Over 40 and all in white lace frou frou, really! Him in full dress uniform plus sword! That little lot didn’t cost a penny under 40,000. Full sit down for 70 and then another hundred to a dance and buffet in the evening. I got into dreadful trouble sliding off at 7 pm, didn’t think they would notice, they did! Oops! Enough self aggrandisement witnessed for a long long time! Swansea always was that type of place, absolutely bloody ghastly! Oh well, I thought the bride would have had more sense and paid off her mortgage instead!
As usual I was ill. Ghastly cold but had taken antibiotics with me at the behest of my pulmonologist thank god! Saved a bout of pneumonia. didn’t get out of the house or pyjamas for a week. Rather threw the schedule! I was very careful not to tell a load of people I was in the country, obviating the necessity of having to see them. A good ruse, only saw those who I wanted to. Drove through Aberdovey on the floor in case the ex spotted me, funny! Ought to have gone to Brum, Nottingham and the I.O.W. but couldn’t be bothered. Getting too bloody old for visits of obligation. Went down to Devon.and saw my sister which was nice.
Mainly hung out in rural Wales, the daffodils were lyrically beautiful and the landscape in good heart.
But something ghastly is happening. The bloody English are invading big time, they sell up some rat hole for the odd million, come down and buy a mini mansion for a third of that have money to squander in their pockets, buy a fancy range rover and try to play Lord of the manor! Oh dear oh dear! Needless to say the locals have retreated into their language and have at least managed to repulse them from the local pubs by the expediency of not communicating in English. They are ghastly, all screwing other people’s wives, telling everyone what to do, and the most heinous crime of all complaining to the council and trying to get double yellow lines painted all over villages so they can roar around in their flash vehicles!!!! Guaranteed to gain social acceptance locally??? Most of the fuck off in a couple of years or seem to end up in jail for fraud (really, literally!) but it is seriously painful to endure their posturing meantime. Cardigan was wall to wall with cutesy boutiques, foodie joints,and Hunter wellies, not to be recognised at all at all!!
Good to see how many people still do not have computers or mobile phones or even answerphones You want me, keep ringing! Interesting to note how the cashless society does not touch these people. Long may it last. Dept of Agriculture tried to put this that and the other online only, needless to say that failed, they had very few replies. Hastily went back to paper, Clay tablets soon I expect, very amusing. Truth of the matter they were pissing off the very people in the community with real money, which they rarely spend!
God how the prices have gone up! A few groceries never less than 50.00! Shocking to me. Everything 50-100% dearer than here. I don’t know how people live and it seems to get worse every time I’m there. No surprise everyone seems to have become so money grubbing. Need every penny to pay exorbitant bills and put food on the table.
Anyway, very glad to get back here and retreat into my greenhouse! Much warmer too, the bloody climate over there was so cold, I wasn’t warm all the time I was there except where people had monster Agas roaring.
PS Needless to say all the bloody immigrants to Wales are white!
Word has it that they have fucked up their own country and now they’ve come to fuck up ours!
Somewhat uncharitable but fairly near the truth if you consider the Eastern half of the UK these days.
I note very few whites in Heathrow these days.
Even the bus to Wales was full of chinks, they all got off in East Wales, Newport and Cardiff, what on earth are they doing there one wonders?
Welcome back, CO! On top form too. Snow on and off here but still deliciously quiet.
Yes, so is here thank God, just waiting for the earthquake or the N Korea rocket to disturb the peace!
Where next?
Patagonia?
CO: More and more Chinese read at British universities. The best go to England and Scotland, the rest go to minor universities throughout the rest of the UK — including Wales. The government and universities make a fortune on the Chinese obsession with looking good and having bragging rights.
Odd thing I noticed… In my training group of 18 half are Americans. Most have admitted that they’re desperate to leave the US and few have any real desire to go back. However difficult their prospects in Spain are, they prefer life in Europe over the US and have mentioned how toxic the culture and life there has become. Many are incredibly jealous of me as I hold a European passport and can come and go as I please with no obligation to ever return to the US. I’m somewhat less impressed with Spain. Thank G-d for the Bolivians and Chinese, I’d go insane otherwise. Later this summer I will apply to transfer to Russia or Japan.
Good to see you back, Christina.
Welcome Home Christina! Love your ‘Report’.
Your comments re the wedding so rang a bell! I went to my grandson’s wedding last year. I have to admit it was the best wedding I’ve ever been to. But I couldn’t quite understand why so much was spent on a ‘grand occasion’ when the money would have paid the deposit on a house for the couple and their child… seems to me that the definition of common-sense has changed!
It does not surprise me that the English are invading Wales – there are precious few places in the UK left to be English anymore. When my mother starts complaining about the number of ‘furriners’ I know things have got pretty bad!
Your remarks about the price of food in the UK are interesting – I’ve always found it to be far, far cheaper than here – altho’ last year I did notice that prices were higher. We have (finally) got some competition here and our food prices have dropped – so I’ll be interested to see the difference when I get to the UK later this year.
Whites in Heathrow? Last time I left there was not one indigenous Brit in VAT returns – and precious few anywhere else…
Welcome back
Boadicea: Food prices in the UK didn’t shock me at all. They’re no worse than they are in California and arguably cheaper than they are in Minnesota. They’re not cheap, but they’re not heartbreaking like they are in Denmark are merely shocking like they are in Sweden — yes, I do compare prices!
You’re making me nervous about my future plans. Within the next couple years I intend to finally settle in the UK having exhausted my sense of wanderlust. Spain is pleasant but it’s a dead-end and the Huns think I’m British anyway.
There’s an article in today’s Nice Matin about the fact that supermarket prices on the Riviera are the third highest in France, after Paris and the surrounding area, Hauts de Seine. Certainly I find that prices in local markets in our neck of the woods are not much greater than in the supermarkets and the produce is usually better. But I wonder if the French government is going to do anything about this “inégalité”. And are the supermarket staff in Paris and other high-price areas paid more too?
Boadicea, just be thankful that your grandson’s wedding wasn’t held on some Caribbean or South Sea island, where the guests would have to spend a fortune for flights and accommodation, though the food poisoning is usually thrown in for free.