Now we have the first post out of the way, I can carry on blogging like this is my fiftieth post, not my second.
As I write this, I’m sat my living room after a four hour drive from hell back from my grandparents in the “sunny” seaside town of Rhyl, North Wales. I put sunny between quotation marks because, well, it wasn’t. We had a little peek of sun earlier on today, but that’s exactly what it was – a peek.
I drove the 160 odd miles there on Thursday evening, and it was probably the longest drive I’ve ever done. In fact, it didn’t strike me that I hadn’t done a long motorway drive in a year or so until I was half way down the M62, rain hammering down, windscreen wipers on full, going about 30 miles an hour with people overtaking me left, right and centre. Not to mention the fact I’d forgotten to take my sunglasses off. So not only was my vision impaired by the rain, but I was that moron who was driving in the rain with sunglasses on.
To make matter worse, I almost missed my turning, and to make matters even worse than that, some senseless woman abused my personal driving space by cutting me up and almost ramming into the side of me. When we caught up to her later, my sister informed me that she was twirling her hair between her fingers and staring at herself in her rear view mirror, so I’ll let her off on the basis of being cursed with the dreaded contemptuousness.
Alas, after panicking at twisty roads and steep hills, I did manage to get me and my sister, Emma, to my grandparents bungalow in one piece.
Apart from eating some lovely chicken casserole, cooked by my lovely Nanna, I didn’t really do much because I was shattered so just fell into bed and fell asleep almost instantly. It was nice to stay with my Grandparents and sleep in an actual bed. Usually we come with my parents and are exiled to the floor of the study, so a bed was very welcome!
On Friday, I met up with Annie, a friend, and housemate from university. It was so nice to see her and catch up because I hadn’t seen her for a good two months since we left for summer. We went to a lovely pub in Rhuddlan called Morfa (which translates as marsh apparently). I had a chicken club sandwich with side salad which was pleasant, but as I don’t really eat bread much anymore, it made me feel horrid for a couple of hours.
After eating, Annie and I parted ways, and Emma and me went on the Great Supermarket Tour of Wales 2014. First stop, Sainsbury’s. (I’d just like to add in here how bad the signal and 3G is on 3 network in North Wales, but for a second in Sainsbury’s car park, I got 4G for the very first time ever – a monumental occasion). I’d seen a lot of stationary when we popped in earlier so wanted to have another look. Everyone who knows me, will know I’m an ample stationary enthusiast. After loading my trolley full of goodies, I decided that ASDA would be cheaper, so left empty handed.
No matter where I go, I ALWAYS seem to find an ASDA. It’s like I’m magnetically attracted to it. The ASDA in Rhyl however, isn’t to my taste. The freezer aisles are right at the front of the store, so it just looked odd. So after a quick once-over, I bought some cool sticky notes and book markers and left.
ASDA was right next to a beach, Kinmel Bay I believe it was called. So we had a wander down there, and swiftly vacated when I saw the Liverpudlian chavs drinking Strongbow while their clamorous offspring dripped ice cream all over their grubby fingers. Not exactly the atmosphere I want to be part of, really.
Back in the car and back towards my Grandparents house, we tried to find a parking space on Rhyl’s promenade, but with no avail. I really fancied a go in the arcades too, but never mind, it looked very full of the same types we saw at Kinmel Bay anyway, which made me realise that Rhyl is a mecca for Liverpudlian holiday makers.
Back to Sainsbury’s now for the fourth visit of the day. And then back to my Grandparents where we at chicken, salad, coleslaw and potatoes. My sister then decided she wanted some melted chocolate and marshmallows, so we were back in the car for Sainsbury’s round 5. I know, I know, totally extirpating my own diet (not sure if I’ve mentioned but I’m currently following the Slimming World diet plan and have lost three stone so far). But I did have some melted chocolate, and some marshmallows, albeit sugar free, they tasted like nothingness. And the night was just a downward spiral from then on, dipping anything I could get my hands on in the melted chocolate. The abundance of chocolate and self loathing, from eating a huge amount of said chocolate, made me tired so I went to bed.
Up nice and early for a day at the zoo on Saturday!
Much to the disgust of Emma, my alarm went off at 8am and we were up, ready and out of the house by 10. Only half an hour after I wanted to be. I’d not been to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in years and it was a lot different, and a lot bigger than I’d remembered.
After me becoming ludicrously hysterical while driving up the mountain – I am not used to hills, driving up hills, and certainly not stopping and starting on hills, so this was quite a problematic task for me – we finally made it to the very quiet zoo car park. I was expecting an assemblage of more Liverpudlian tourists, due to it being a Saturday, but much to my surprise, we were one of only a few cars.
*cue photos of cute animals that you probably won’t care about*
We saw sea lions, flamingos, emus, snow leopards, lemurs, tigers, red pandas (literally the cutest little guys I’ve ever seen) and loads more. It was a lovely day and well worth the £10.95 (£9.95 + Gift Aid) admission fee.
The hoards of tourists turned up at about half past 1, just as we were going round the last part of the zoo. Which made me glad we woke up that bit earlier as I’m not very good at waiting half an hour for someone to move their pram (complete with child), which is blocking the exit door of the alligator enclosure. I’m also not very good at navigating myself around screaming children who are running after ducks, rabbits and turkeys in the “petting zoo”. Personally, I didn’t think that ducks and turkeys enjoyed being coddled by toddlers but who am I to judge?!
Despite this, it was a brilliant day and worth the entry just to see the view from the top of the mountain. Absolutely breathtaking:
Here’s Emma, pretending to enjoy the view (and the wind) in a Snapchat I sent to my parents:
After a delightful day at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, me and Emma headed back to Rhyl. Not without stopping at Sainsbury’s on the way home (of course), to get some chicken and a brown roll for lunch. Emma had McDonald’s, but I was trying to be good after the melted chocolate debacle from the previous night.
My efforts to be good were futile, Nanna and Granddad took us to a little pub called The Red Lion for dinner.
The Red Lion’s slimming choices were few and far between. I opted for a Welsh steak burger with chips, a side salad and the most amazing salsa I’ve ever eaten in my life.
It was okay, nothing to write home about, but it was lovely to have a meal out with the grandparents, and even lovelier that they treat us to the meal! The only downside was the fact we were seated right in the middle of 70th birthday so when the lady who’s birthday it is walked in to twenty odd people singing ‘happy birthday’, it was a little awkward, but funny nonetheless.
Spending time with my Welsh Nanna & Granddad was really great, and it was sad to leave not knowing when we’ll see them again.
I’m home now and ready to start another exciting (or not so exciting, depending on how you look at it) week. I have my first scheduled radio show tomorrow which I’m really thrilled about! You can listen to it here: http://hullrecoveryradio.disc-vol.org.uk if you so wish.
I hope that in time, my posts are a bit more orthodox. I feel like this one is all over the place, but I’m sure I’ll get into the swing of things soon!
Noson dda! (Welsh for good night, although it probably isn’t because it’s from Google Translate, and we all know how accurate that is…).
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