Well, hello everyone once again. It’s been a busy few weeks, but not with work for a change. Inspired by format of @jenlong‘s latest entry on her log on Kruger Labs, I offer you this:

5 things I’ve done since my last blogpost

Got a new car

Yes, I’ve got myself a new car. A Mini Cooper Diesel. A substantial change on my old Volkswagen Polo. Quicker, cheaper to run and a lot more fun to drive.

I’m not going to write a great deal about it, except to say that in contains a lot of funky stuff BMW pack into their cars these days (e.g. Start-Stop engine, which switches off the engine if the car is in neutral).

Saw the Oysterband live.

I went down to Cardiff to see The Oysterband live at Saint David’s Hall with Telsa and Alan. Fantastic show, with June Tabor and One String Loose supporting. Fantastic performances by everyone, with included a cover of All along the Watchtower, Love will tear us apart and a fair few tracks from the new album.

Seen Cardiff Bay

Whilst I was down in that neck of the woods, I had the chance to go down and see Cardiff Bay and have a look around. I should confess at this stage that before this last weekend, I’d only been down to Cardiff once before. I regret not going down to see the place sooner.

I also took the opportunity to have a look around the National Assembly building, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while:

Public area in the Assembly building

A wonderful building, open, clean, light and really quiet (I rather suspect it gets a lot noisier and busier when the Senedd is in session). Outside, in Roald Dahl Plass, we got a chance to look around the food fair and enjoy eating some damned good food and the sunshine. Before heading over to see the Doctor Who exhibition.

Arranged a trip down to the Eisteddfod

During all this activity, I was quite fortunate to be offered a place to stay for the National Eisteddfod in Meirionydd, this year in Bala (Diolch Menna!). I’m looking forward a great deal for the Gorsedd y Gîcs, a meeting for Welsh programmers, bloggers, social networking users, web designers and gadget geeks (all organised by the crew of Metastwnsh).

Picked up some new CDs

Yeah, I know… cheating slightly, but feh. I’ve been listening quite a bit to the radio shows of @adamwalton, @huwstephens and @BethanElfyn. Through them, I’ve been taking some time to revist old CDs and experiment with a few new ones. Also, since Glastonbury, I’ve been re-listening to a lot of Blur (and Oasis) nad it’s been bringing back memories of school trips up to Blackpool to see a production of something-or-other. Blur fans on one side, Oasis on the other, each fighting to gain control of the tape machine to get theirs played.

Also of interest was the Vinyl Vendettas podcast (a collection DJs who play every Saturday in Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff).

Thanks a great lot to Telsa and Alan for putting me up for the long weekend.

That’s it really, until next time.

B