Palladium - the journey begins on a bus

The start of the journey as the 132 pulls to a stop in Tongwynlais

Periodic Table

In yesterday's post I remembered challenges that Dr Robin Croft
had given me in previous trips, including one when the blog posts all had to have song titles as the post title. Well this time Robin has exceeded himself and given me a challange that I am going to find even harder. His comment was as follows:

RobinJazz1 August 2019 at 14:42Perhaps given the title, you could take the theme of 'the elements' in this blog? I know that a scientist would say that earth, air, fire and water aren't on the Periodic Table, but we have to allow some poetic licence. And allow Haydn to dust off his Latin?

My sister joined in with the idea and possibly knowing my mark of 13/100 in year 3 Chemistry that led me to drop the subject before starting O levels, helped by providing a song to remind me off (or introduce me to) the Periodic Table.

Given that today is largely the story of two bus journeys, it seems that Palladium, the element Pd with atomic number 46, with one of its key uses being in catalytic conversion in vehicles, should form the title of the post. 

Thanks Robin and Janet.

The night before we depart

While the focus of this post is the travelling day, I should mention the night before we left when we decided to eat out, rather than be faced with lots of washing up, etc to do on our departure day.

Car Parking

My neighbour, Pat, is 85, but still alert and engaged, and she takes delight in being aware of what is going on in the street. She is also always very happy to keep an eye on our car when we are away. However 'keeping an eye' is not a metaphor in this case - she likes the car to be parked so she can see it from her bed, in the upstairs room at the front of the house. This means that just before going away we have to park the car in a position that allows her to see it.

Having visited the other 85 year old in my life, my Dad, on Wednesday. I returned to Tongwynlais to look for a parking space. There was no space in the street, but Pat was standing outside, so I explained I'd be popping in and out every so often to check if a space had become available. However by the time Pat had caught me up with her medical condition - she recently had quite a major operation - the people was car was parked directly in front of Pat's house arrived and began to drive away. I got my car and drove around the block, to find Pat stood in the middle of the road - acting as a live action Traffic Cone to keep the space free. I pulled in and parked, giving Pat the key, so the car is safe in place (we hope) for the next 24 days.

The location of the car meant we needed to eat somewhere close enough to home not to need to use the car to get there. One of the nearest places is Nandos in Treforest Industrial Estate. Given our need to be ready for tomorrow, we went for dinner early, getting to Nandos at 6pm.

Nandos 

It is about six years since Drew and I last visited a Nandos, and it is not clear why we have waited so long, as the food is surprisingly good.

Nandos, for those who are not aficionados, is a cross between fast food and a restaurant. With us being seated and given a table number and then ordering at an order counter before food is brought to the table.  

The food style is Portuguese influenced South African, with a big emphasis on Chicken.

Peri-Peri Nuts

I began with a potion of Peri-Peri Nuts which were crunchy nicely spiced and included almonds, cashews and macademias.

Houmous with Peri-Peri Drizzle

Drew opted for Houmous with Peri-Peri Drizzle. The drizzle came in a very cute little bottle, you can see it on the side of the plate in the photograph. There was lots of houmous and flatbread, so I was allowed to share some of Drew's starters. Very tasty it was too.

Chicken Livers & Portuguese Roll with Corn on the Cob and Peri-Salted Chips

For mains I opted for Chicken Livers and Portuguese Roll with Corn on the Cob and Peri-Salted Chips. The livers were coated in a lovely rich livery sauce. Exceedingly yummy. I had thought they liver flavour might have been turned down for Mass consumption, but no, they were as rich and luscious as liver I have had anywhere.

Pitta Peri-Peri chicken breast fillet grilled in hot sauce with Coleslaw and spicy Rice

Drew went with Pitta Peri-Peri chicken breast fillet grilled in hot sauce with Coleslaw and spicy Rice. This healthier version of a Chicken Burger proved to be just enough for Drew and he wondered why we didn't come to Nandos more often (maybe in another six years we will remember this thought!!)

Walk

We left Nandos at 7:15pm and walked the 2.8 miles home in about 50 minutes. A few last minute items to pack we relaxed for the evening and got to bed just after 10.00pm

Thursday Morning

My body clock always gets me up early when I am excited, so it was 4am when I woke up alert, bright and ready for the day. I never sleep well the night before a holiday - the holiday excitement creeps up on me now in my 60s as much as it did when I was a child. 

I know Drew would say I'm retired so am on an eternal holiday, but my body doesn't feel like that! 

I caught up with blogging and emails, did a wash of clothes I'm not taking with me, but didn't want dirty around the house. We took our, now traditional pre-holiday picture of our luggage. As you can see Captain Jack, our holiday companion of the last 15 years, is again travelling with us this year.

Captain Jack guarding the luggage

Drew left for work on the 6:15am bus, I showered and shaved etc before catching the 7:22am bus which got me th Nazareth House in time for the 8.00am Mass in the Little Oratory which is in a tastefully restored garage behind the building. I can't think of a better way of starting the holiday than by handing over some of my time to the Lord, who has gifted me with so much.

The 8:46am Bus got me home by 9:12am and I did those final pre-holiday tidying things, putting rubbish in the bins, waste in the composter and turning off the myriad electronic devices.

Travelling to the Airport

132

I walked up to the Bus Stop at Wyndham Street and caught the 132 at 12:48pm, the bus was perfectly on time.

I arrived in Cardiff at 13:15, walked over the Taff

The River Taff

and got to the National Express Coach Park at 13:27am. Those who know me will be impressed that I was only 63 minutes early for the coach, which is not early at all by my standards, just enough leeway to be comfortable.

National Express

Drew at the Coach Park

Drew arrived at 2:05 and we began boarding at 2:10pm 

Our Coach

The 202 to Heathrow

Again, with perfect timing, we departed at 2:30pm. For a very comfortable ride that seemed to go by very quickly as I read by novel (One of the Shardlake stories called Tombland) and checked my emails/facebook.)

My sister again came up trumps by sharing the video below, to give us a feel for National Express. Though in truth the journey was much more comfortable and direct that the video might suggest. 

We arrived at Heathrow at 6.10pm and caught the Heathrow Hoppa to our hotel, the Premier Inn, Bath Road where we arrived at 6:40pm. 

I discussed the choice of coach travel in one of last year's blog posts, it still seems the best way for us to get here from South Wales. I have also talked about the quality of the hotel, as we stayed here two years ago.

Dinner

Conveniently the hotel has a restaurant on site, and we chose to eat here. We were pleasantly surprised by the restaurant, sometimes chains of restaurants can go far bland tasting food. Not here, the food was wonderful. 

Lamb Kofta

I began with a Lamb Kofta which had a lightly spiced flavour, this was served with an excellent crispy salad of tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese, tzatziki dip (yes Paula the lamb is in the dip!!) and three pieces of toasted ciabatta, fresh, tasty, delicious. I can say no more.

Tomato Bruschetta

Drew went for a Tomato Bruschetta which was served on a flat bread rather than the more traditional toast, but this worked really well. It had a good serving of mint and was well flavoured. He was pleased with his choice.

Pork Chop

For mains I went with the slow-cooked pork chop which was served with ratatouille, garlic, new potatoes and rocket. The Chop was grilled beutufully and, as you can see from the photo, was huge. The ratatouille had a light spiciness and the vegatables were a good accompaniment. 

Haddock and chips

Drew went with Haddock and Chips. It has been a long time since he has had haddock and chips. The batter was light and allowed the taste of the haddock to emerge well, the chips were also crisp and served with garden peas. 

We were both content with our meals and got back to the hotel room at 9.30pm and were asleep by 10.00pm - an eighteen hour day for me, which may seem like a short one compared with the length of tomorrow.