Croeso i Caerdydd

That's Welsh for 'Welcome to Cardiff.'  It was charming to be in a country in which English is commonly used, but still would show the Welsh version as well-on everything from signs to tour maps. 

Two weeks ago, during my first 'unemployed weekend,' Simon & I went to Cardiff, Wales for the night.  While my passport is off being visa-ed, I'm limited to where I can go, and Cardiff is a simple jaunt from Paddington Station-which is as convenient as it gets-so it seemed like a logical choice.

Cardiff during the day?  Lovely:  pretty, clean, friendly...everything you'd want and more. Cardiff a nite?  A totally different story.  Let me put it like this:  by 9.30pm, we were sitting in the hotel bar having a beer because of the drunken, mad chaos on the streets.  And mind you, this wasn't a rare occasion-this is apparently Cardiff *every* Saturday nite.  Anyhoo, I'm jumping ahead...

We got to Cardiff around 11a on Saturday, and dropped our things off at the hotel.  We were lucky to have a great location-effectively a hotel on the main street (but thankfully, a room on the quiet, back side).  If you're in the mood to shop, Cardiff is definitely the place!  More High Street shops than you can shake a stick at.  And, if mainstream isn't your thing, there are tons of amazing, little boutiques in the labrynthe of arcades in city-center as well.  The Arcades alone make Cardiff worth a quick trip, if for no other reason.  So, this is how Simon & I spent the bulk of our day: just having a nice wander around the town, and popping into one shop after another.  Surprisingly, neither of us bought anything, but the looking was fun enough!  We also spent a few hours at "Castell Caerdydd"-Cardiff Castle, which was lovley-well preserved and beautiful-but a bit expensive on the admissions (tickets are about 10 quid each).

We spent so much time walking around, that both of us were actually ready for an early dinner.  Well that, and the fact that Simon knew the 'tone' of the town would change at night-and he knew neither of us would enjoy being out in the drunken mess. Good call on his part...

We had dinner at Positano -and Italian resto.  Apparently, Cardiff is a bit known for Italian, and Positano looked good from the ouside.  And, it was!  Simple, fresh, authentic dishes.  Amazing prices (starters and mains for both of us, 2 beers, and a delicious tiramisu to share all for under £35), and good service.  score.

After dinner, we were going to go for a wander, but it was pushing 9pm, and the madness outside had already begun (I feel like I'm referencing something from a zombie movie..), so we decided to head back to the hotel for another drink and call it a night.

While having a wander on Saturday, we came across Madame Fromage in one of the arcades.  I'd heard of Madame Fromage before (though I didn't know it was in Cardiff), so we decided to have lunch there on Sunday.  I am so glad we went there!  The food was amazing.  It's a pity we weren't hungrier-meals aside, they had a good number of Welsh cheeses in their cheese case I was itching try.  Pity I didn't get to. :(  But, our mains were still delicious.  I had lasagne, and Simon had a Breton Fougasse (a pastry with cheese, ham, and olives).  Yum on both accounts.

After lunch, we walked down to the bay, where we spent the rest of the day before having to come back up to town and catching our train. The bay was fab-a great weather day, and clearly folks decided to take advantage!

All in all, Cardiff-nightime follies aside-was a good, cheap, easy overnight trip.  If for no other reason but to have anothe wander thru the arcades, and cheese at Madame Fromage, I'd go back!

Cardiff Castle                                                                                      Breton Fougasse                                 

                                                           

Cardiff  Bay

Travel, travel, travel

Details to follow, but in the course of getting sorted for my trips the past few weeks-and one more upcoming to Canterbury-I heavily relied on the tourist websites for the towns I visited.  And, I have to say-they were FANTASTIC!  Plentiful, helpful, up-to-date information.  Good maps.  Good 'itenerary planning' functionality.  The works!  If you're thinking about going to any of these places, I highly recommend the following:

Visit Cardiff
Visit Brighton
Canterbury

Responding to a few Comments

My crap laptop settings won't allow me to respond to comments the past few days, so I guess there's no other way to do this...

@Ashley Edwards (re: comments on Proximity): I transferred over with my US company who had an outpost here in the UK.  18-24 months ago, I would have said: pack your bags and come on over!  You're young and will have 3 months to find a job.  Piece of cake!  Now?  Not so much.  General economy woes aside (which make it challenging even for Brits to find jobs...), the UK government is making it more difficult for expats to get working visas.  Not *impossible*, just *more difficult.*  So, I'd strongly encourage you to do your legwork/networking on the US side of the pond before coming over.  And, in a perfect world, you'll have some Very Strong leads before coming over.  Obviously this will be more difficult, but the expense of living here without a job-and with it being as hard as it is...not worth the risk.  Totally my $.02.

@Boston chick (re: comments on Lambing Live):  In truth, not much about my expenses has changed since my last post.  I've moved in with my BF to a cheaper flat ('just' £560/week now v the £730 in the old flat), and have tweaked a few montly bills-ie cheaper monthly mobile phone contract and killed the landline/internet in favor of Skype and a PAYG monthly mobile broadband connection, but that's about it.  All told, I'm probably spending about £360/month less than.  Well, actually, I guess that is a big difference...

Proximity

I swear, this is the week of revelations!...

While getting my last dose of Lambing Live last nite, there was a montage of lambs and sheep in different settings around the UK:  the coast (did you know that there's a type of sheep that lives off of *seaweed*?!?!?), mountains, rolling hills, etc...And, while I was watching, there were several scenes that made me think to myself, 'wow. that looks great!  i'd really love to go there one weekend.'  And, that's when it hit me:  popping away for the weekend here in the UK is totally possible-and in particular, with all of the food/cooking/lambing...programs that are on TV here, it seems like I've seen more of this country than the US-and am more familiar with where-and *how* food is sourced here than in the US.

I mean, I *know* that potatos come from Idaho, but it would probably take 10 hours (at best?..) to drive there from Seattle and find a potato farm.  The UK?  I could probably be on a farm in less than 3 hours.  And, there's something I find comforting about that; the proximity itself is definitely a good thing-I am most definitely a fan of buying local.  But, beyond the actual proximity, is the knowledge that I'm gaining by learning about where the food is sourced from.  Good stuff.

Lambing Live

You know you've been in England too long, when the following happens:  On BBC2 each night this week-and this week only-is a show called 'Lambing Live.'  The show is following a farming family in Wales this week as their ewes give birth to the spring lambs (lambing), and sometimes live on the program.

Now, the first time I stumbled across the show on Monday, I watched for 20 minutes, and thought...ok.  Definitely not something I'd see in the States.  Tuesday at 8pm came, and as I was looking at the program guide, I thought....ok.  maybe worth watching again.  No live births on Monday, maybe something tonite.  And, the little lambs were cute.

But, last night takes the cake:  I actually made a point of going to BBC2 at 8pm to watch the show again!

I have definitely been in England too long.  I'd love to embed a video in my blog to show, but I don't konw how to do that (if anyone knows how, please let me know!)  So, I'll just have to go old school with a link: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pxqv3

It's the Corn, Silly!

Since moving here, I've noticed that my eating habits have shifted.  Namely, I'm eating less beef-ground (mince, as the Brits say) to be specific...I don't eat as much gound beef because it tastes different than US beef, and it's a taste I haven't been able to adapt to.  It's more 'earthy' for lack of a better way to put it.
Well, two weeks ago, I finally figured out why.  I was taken to a business lunch at Automat, a Mayfair American-style restaurant perhaps most well known as the location of where Renee Zellweger 'plumped up' for her Bridget Jones role.  Well, I have to say, I can certainly understand why!  The food was fantastic, and the burger I had tasted like 'home'.  Read:  AMERICAN Beef.  Why?  Because, it was actually 'USDA Corn-fed Beef'-it proudly said so on the menu.  Corn-fed:  the same stuff that I now know is completely harmful to the food industry (both beef rearing and corn-farming) in the US.  Anyone who has read Omnivores Dilemma will know this.

So, while in Automat it hit me: it's the corn, silly!  This is why UK beef tastes so different-cattle are grass-fed, not corn-fed!  And worst part?  I prefer the no-good-for-me-no-good-for-the-cows, Corn-Fed beef.

Hmph.  I am a horrible, horrible omnivore.

Say Twat?

Sorry Americans, for the seemingly offensive language. But, unilke the US where 'twat' is a fairly offensive word (at least to my ears...), it's tossed around here much like 'jackass' would be back home.  In addition to twat, there's also 'twatted'-usually used in reference to being drunk-but that seems to be used less frequently than twat.

Sadly, I think I've now picked up this word, and though I don't use it with every passing breath, familarity breeds comfort; I've found myself uttering it on more than one occasion-usually when dealing with Joe Q. Public while out and about.

Note to self:  this is one British-ism that should *not* make it's way back to the states with me!