Went to Cardiff a couple of days ago!

Had to go there for some research, but was surprised that I managed to actually get there! A while back a clairvoyant insisted on my grandmother telling her that I had to go to Wales. She told me a lot of other things as well, like that I’d bought three pairs of shoes that week, and everything was spot on! So I thought that at some point, I’d better go to Wales then. Better check out what it was that the spirits wanted to show me. I expected some amazing life changing sign of monstrous proportions.

But every time I had tried to get there, something had got in the way. It just hadn’t been working out! Not because of insignificant little things as me changing my mind because something else had come up, no, but because of seriously full on interference!
Once I had bought a ticket to get there over the day but then I couldn’t get to the station since the tube suddenly stopped for over half an hour and we were told that we had to take “alternative routes” in order to get to our destinations. Well, since the alternative routes were all very time consuming, I missed my departure! What can you do?

The next time me and a friend were supposed to go hand gliding in Wales with two others I’d met. In the last minute the van we were going to get there in was being held up by the driver’s friend, so we had to postpone the trip! Annoying, yes! But again, what can you do?

The third time I got really close and ended up in Bath with a promise of a connection, just in order to find out I wouldn’t be able to get back in time for my return trip. Then I started to seriously wonder what was going on…
It seemed to me that I wasn’t supposed to get to Wales until the time was ripe, that I was only allowed to get there in order to catch the right moment. Again there’s not all that much you can do in situations like that. You can’t argue with higher powers.

This time I wasn’t thinking much about the clairvoyant though. I was busy being concerned about where all the sheep had gone to! Wales is famous for their sheep. It’s their “thing”! So when crossing the border I was clinging to the window expecting to see hoards of sheep floating like white marshmallow rivers over the green meadows and fields. I had some pretty vivid pictures in my mind right there and then and was beginning to feel quite excited!

But not a single sheep was to be seen. Surely every heard has got at least one lost lamb? No, not even in the capital! I felt confused. I looked around myself in something that can probably only be described as panic, to see if the other passengers were experiencing the same trauma, but I couldn’t detect anything. Not right there and then, at least. I guess they hid their anxiety well. It was as if my paradigm of the world as I’d known it had suddenly been shattered to pieces! I asked the staff in the tourist information, the police, random people I got in contact with…no one knew what had happened to them. I mean it’s a bit like if you went to let’s say Dublin only to find out that the Guinness was finished! You’d ask for a refund, surely! I felt a bit annoyed.

I wanted sheep! Once when me and Marta were camping in the Isle of Skye in Scotland, we were, after a fair amount of booze, trying to get a sheep to come “home” and spend the night with us in the tent. It made sense! It was cold and people make clothes of the wool that comes from sheep (and also they looked so fluffy…) so the logical thing to do would surely be to invite one to function as a pillow? Did I mention that we weren’t sober?

Well even without the sheep it became an eventful day to say the least. The Welsh seems to be a very friendly bunch! Everyone seems to quite easily find a reason to chat with you. One particularly happy woman felt the need to come and talk to me in a café in order to tell me she was a Piscean. So am I! Immediately I remembered the clairvoyant and the signs I should be looking out for in Wales. Surely this must be it? A Piscean? That’s IT! I decided to absorb everything she had to tell me so I prepared myself for some eager listening.
We talked for quite a while but most of the conversation ended up being about her winning loads of money on a horse. She told me I simply had to go for it and do the same – put some money on a horse!

Ok, higher powers…listen, I appreciate that you’re trying to make me rich. I really do. I’m not complaining about that at all. But gambling?! Couldn’t you at least have used some reasonable means for me to accomplish it with? I’m rubbish at gambling! I haven’t bet on a horse since I was about 15 when I came with my friend to the stables where she used to hang out (because she had a crush on some jockey). I mean, if I were to bet on a horse, it would probably be on one that had a name similar to mine or one that had given me a particularly friendly look. In other words, this is really, really not my field…

I don’t even believe in gambling or betting or anything of the sorts. It seems stupid to me. Ok, fair enough, if you really know the horses then, well, I guess you’ve got a chance to win, but otherwise what’s the point! Joanna and Marta have been playing the Lottery for years and have eagerly tried to convince me to do it with them. Yawn. Yes, I tried. Guess what? I lost! I mean, I’m not saying it’s stupid to play the lottery, (what harm is there?), but the statistics are quite clear. I just don’t understand how people can feel any level of motivation or stimulation to do it. Or even worse – excitement! I guess it’s just never been my thing.

But then now, I guess I have to bet on a horse. No idea which one. I guess I’ll just look for a sign… Or the one closest to my name ;)
When I got home I thought that maybe it doesn’t have to be specifically on horses so I bought a scratch card. It had polar bears on it. I didn’t win.

Anyway, there was one thing there in Cardiff that did impress me. The Wales Millenium Centre. It’s got a huge stone with a beautiful piece of poetry reading half in Welsh and half in English saying;

“ Creu gwir fel gwydr, o ffwrnais awn” -

“Creating truth like glass, from the furnace of inspiration – in these stones horizons sing”.

I loved it! It’s beautiful! And ingeniously, if you’re bilingual and you understand both Welsh and English (which I don’t), you can overlap the two messages and get a third “poem”…

Brilliant!