Cardiff Day Live Blog

I will live blog today’s events. Watch or refresh for updates if you like.

Breakfast time. By taking one of each of the hot items I seem to have constructed an English breakfast.

The baked beans were less sweet than I expected. Glad for that. Black pudding is subtly delicious.

While this is too much food, taking a bit of everything without fear or favor is a method I might try everywhere. This thing works as a set piece. Color me surprised.

A gross bit of photo evidence that I finished it.

Everyone eating breakfast in this middling hotel restaurant at 07:30 is either an older traveling couple or a working man. The working men are mostly full-Englishing. Important anthropological observations.

I do not plan on eating at Za🌶️ka Asian Cuisine. But you never know.

Here are some residences. Interesting little yards in front. In general the feel of everything is just a teensy bit run down but perfectly fine.

Always a pleasure to meet local cats. Big goal accomplished.

With everything written in both English and Welsh it is fun to try and parse this new-to-me language.

Exquisite.

A Statesman.

Another goal accomplished: Observe work being done.

KFC going hard.

There are innumerable excellent buildings:

This place has definitely been serving the American Hot longer than even the Americans:

Bollards rule.

Cardiff Castle:

My life for you, castle ducks.

Two happy dudes enjoying a furtive McDonald’s breakfast at the back gates.

No photos because I had squandered my battery life, but I just got fitted for and purchased a three-piece tweed suit at Hawkes Bespoke Outfitters. Will pick it up just before leaving town. Will probably not be able to wear it until autumn.

Wait! I did have photo of the suit:

They are good at their work but not pretentious. Great shop.

More work was being done and observed:

Another goal was to spend some time in a book shop. There is an excellent one in Castle Arcade called Troutmark:

I wanted to get some stories and/or poetry from Cardiff or Wales people. The sumo-enthusiast shopkeeper said Dylan Thomas and Dannie Abse were good for that. He was kind of sorry that they were such normal recommendations. But I didn’t know about Abse, and didn’t know Dylan Thomas was from Wales. I was more than satisfied by rote recs. The shopkeeper did offer the caveat that Dylan Thomas loved the US, and drinking heavily in the US, so maybe he wasn’t Welsh enough for me. No, he should be fine.

Castle Arcade was one of many, many arcades in the city centre area. Each one has its feel and themes and finds. Well worth intensive exploration.

A good thing was when the castle would peek out from some direction, like this:

Walking back to the hotel I took a different route than this morning. It took me through a neighborhood with lots of small, connected homes and immigrant businesses.