Hi All,

It’s been a bank-holiday here in the UK, so today (tuesday) is the first that I have been in work this week.

I decided that I needed some time off, so took an extra day last friday and made it a four-day weekend; that said, friday itself was mostly a matter of lazing and shopping and garden-domestics – the mowing and tidying that I desperately needed to get done, and then I stumbled across a note by a friend at [found.pale.org] regarding the play in which he was starring this weekend…

…in Aberystwyth.

I booked a hotel and a play ticket, and saturday morning jumped on the motorbike (yay!) for the 200 miles northwest to Aber; it was nice to get some long distance under my belt once more, and the trip via Chippenham (to look at a new DR-Z400S) and over the Severn bridge was very pleasant, if rather dehydrating.

I think that I may have got very slightly heatstroked on the route, but I was taking regular breaks and drinking lots of fluids and not doing anything too silly, so I was OK…

I checked-in the hotel and met up with my friend Anna, on the beachfront; alas I managed to miss her (also biker) boyfriend Carl for the duration of the visit, but that was just an indication of my off-timing during the whole trip, of which more anon. Also ran into Steve Rose and his wife and multitudinous progeny, which was nice.

Aber has changed significantly since I was living there – new buildings, new shops, including a 24hr convenience store which has revolutionised the student culture.

At least half of the railway station is now a pub, A further quarter will become an Indian restaurant, and the rail line is overgrown with weeds although still used – it was in a terrible state compared to how it was in my day.

Anna and I had a bite to eat, and then I taxied to the Arts Centre, where (to cut a long story short) I managed to miss the first half of Jim’s play, being locked out of the auditorium. I watched a little of some of the other shows that were going on, and joined him for the second half. The play was Cloud Nine [www.amazon.com] and what I saw was very convincingly done. I stopped by for the after-show party, met the thesps and watched the hugging, and had a recap of what I had missed, from Jim and his SO Catrin, both starring in the production.

They all seemed a jolly nice bunch, which more than anything else helped drive home how well they had plpayed their parts, not least the one or two less-than-savoury characters.

Sunday: up with the seagulls, wander on the prom, coffee and chat and look-at-the-bikes-on-the-prom with Anna, then mount up and head off. I elected to go home via the A44 and Oxford, not least because a sculpture by Anish Kapoor had been installed at the Rollright Stones, and was nearing the end of its tenancy.

see also [www.geomancy.org] , [www.artfund100.org] , [www.chippingnorton.net] and kapoor rollright

I arrived towards teatime and as greeted by Don (wizened site manager) and Ilsa (gung-ho student summer-jobber) to the news that they might breat their all-time attendance record for one day, as their counter was approaching 600 people.

By the time I left around 7:30pm, the number had passed 750 and was still growing.

Brumm, brummm, home again, park, unpack and sleep; monday was interior domestics, laundry and paperwork…

…and now, here I am again.