Settling in satisfactorily

To assuage the guilt of such a long absence, here are a bunch of pictures from life in Nottingham!

Sian and Kris were our first dinner guests! Dave and I had been watching lots of Treme on HBO, so we ended up spending all day cooking gumbo, buttermilk biscuits and cornbread muffins (oh, yes, yum).

My bit of the UK had a pretty decent 95% solar eclipse, and I got in on the action (here's half way through, via a pin hole camera). Some had eclipse glasses, some medics brought out x-ray film, and physicists had lots of fun kit to view the event with. I was lucky and tried a bunch. Mainly, it was super cool to see just how many hundreds of people spilled outside to "watch"

Start with an eclipse, end with a sunset...

My first musical gig in Nottingham, playing 3rd oboe in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms: a damn good piece for orchestra and choir that I had done while in Cardiff. The music was satisfying and I hopefully made a few contacts for future gigs. It won't be as easy to find musical opportunities in Nottingham as it was in Cardiff, but I'm still optimistic.

I traveled southwest to Bristol to give a lecture; the train station featured Holland-ic levels of bicycles and, um, a steam engine train? This was my first guest lecture at this level, as there aren't many obvious teaching opportunities for me. I stressed, but it went very well: I had fantastic social media analogies to explain brain network structure that seemed to work well 

Seeing as I was most of the way there,  I headed back to Cardiff after the Bristol course, where spring was waiting to greet me.

I got to see some lovely familiar faces in Cardiff; here's the end of the night out... thanks especially to Kevin, my ex-boss and continuing friend, who hosted me :)

Nottingham has lovely people too! Here is Sian, demonstrating her epic unicycle skills just out of frame.

And Ben with his crazy bouncy stilt legs. I *did give them a try, although I needed a lot of ground support...

And Matt, going a little crazy towards the end of his PhD, with unintentional coordination between copies of his thesis and his socks.

So yes, lots of fun things bubbling along in the background! In science news, I had a paper accepted (finally! we first submitted in July 2014!) and it's causing a bit of a stir. It was picked up by perhaps the biggest Neuroscience blogger in the UK, who writes for Discover Magazine. I was initially freaking out, because he got something wrong and wrote something misleading, and the take-home message was already getting misinterpreted across social media. But I used twitter, talked to the blogger, made corrections, and hopefully things are more accurately represented now. I'm even starting to enjoy the little bit of buzz that the paper has garnered! Totally new territory, reinforcing my science-love for the twitter (@BrightMG, anyone?).

Here's the blog post:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2015/04/18/is-fmri-noise-really-noise/

It's also an open access paper, if anyone wants to chance a reading!
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811915002669

Sunshine BBQ

Nothing too special, just reporting some actual summer weather in Wales. And sunshine means... BBQ! Dave documented my glee (and ferocious beer drinking). I figure it's pretty rare to have these kinds of shots of me posted here, so I'll share the, er, moment. The food was pretty good, too :)

But Dave, can we please just EAT!?

Yeah, I don't know.

Breaking news from the police!

I have just received a call from the police detective associated with my case, and it appears that three men in my neighbourhood were arrested for a series of burglaries in the area, and problems have since evaporated. There is not a link to my own stolen items at this time, but to me (albeit completely without evidence) it seems plausible there is a relationship. Three cheers to the South Wales Police for their persistence and hard work!

Home intruders

With the change in weather last October, my flat inevitably picked up a few harmless but horrible guests... I'm used to the mice, in some ways. They appear, they give me me a bit of a shock, I wear wellies around the house for a few days, and the landlord sends over an exterminator with poison traps. The stress of worrying about whether one will run across my feet while I do dishes can only be maintained for so long; a few weeks pass and I am back to my usual self (although perhaps with a bit more diligence to crumbs and clothes on the floor).

But this autumn also brought a different type of home invader. I came home late Monday night, after a weekend in Oxford and an orchestra rehearsal, to find my flat had been burgled. It took a while to sink in, as I assumed the exterminator had just knocked over a few boxes while tending to the mouse problem. The open doors to the garden and the broken window in the bedroom eventually helped me put it together. Having no idea what I should do, I called Dave, who calmly got me to call the police. I also have two wonderful friends down the road, who came to my rescue at a run (although they then panted and complained about their knees for a while). We dealt with police until around midnight, and then I packed up some things and went to my friends' place to sleep. Shockingly, when I met with the crime scene investigator (dusting for fingerprints and swabbing for fluids and whatnot) at 9am the next morning, we found that burglars had actually come back and taken a few more things.

There was a lot of fingerprinting dust to be scrubbed off, but alas, the burglar wore gloves.

In most ways, I was lucky. I had my most important valuables (laptop, tablet, oboe) with me. The old laptop that was taken was very old and could barely turn on. I had contents insurance to cover the pricey digital camera. I had my photos already backed up online. I had proof, via Amazon records, gmail, and facebook photos, of my ownership of the stolen items, and the insurance claim came back quickly and with everything I asked for.

Still, it was my first experience with burglary. I didn't sleep in my flat the rest of the week. I bought timers for all my lights. My letting agency is frustratingly slow to actually replace the rotted broken windows: the one in my bedroom is still boarded up. I put a new curtain up, to prevent outside people from seeing if the room is unoccupied and to prevent me from seeing the window.

This was all in October, and, like with the mice, I can't maintain heightened alarm and paranoia this long. I still have a moment of concern when I open my front door, as twice I opened it to discover I had been burgled. I am much more militant about the extra locks on the doors and where I keep backups of my computer files. But, really, life inevitably goes back to normal.


(PS One excellent idea someone had was to train my house mice to defend it against burglars. Little uniforms, scurrying in formation... maybe next autumn.)

Cailin Comes to Cardiff (or, Castles, Colleges and Cake)

Much to might delight, Cailin visited me in Cardiff this summer! Lots of friends talk about making the trek across the ocean, or even just across the UK, to see me my Welsh home. But this friend is special... this friend really did it :)

Cailin was with me when I first stepped foot on the British Isles... back in our college years, she was wrapping up a semester in Switzerland and I was in the middle of a challenging summer internship in Berlin that had me feeling immensely lonely. We met in London, and it saved that summer for me. Looking back, we stayed in a hostel in a dreadfully sketchy part of London, did touristy activities, and spent more time talking to eachother (in beautiful, rapid English) than absorbing the bustling world around us. But it was glorious.

This visit was amusingly similar. The best bits involved her, me, coffee, cake, and good conversation. Or replace coffee with cocktails and repeat. We did touristy things, like visit castles, the Austen-esque city of Bath, and the windy streets and colleges of Oxford. Poor Cailin dealt admirably with an air mattress on my living room floor. We are older, wiser, but not that old and not too wise. She remains a unique friend in my life: we seem to have conversations that I don't have with anyone else, and we can always pick up where we left off despite there being an ocean between us.  It was, as before, glorious.


For (silly) practical reasons, the photos are divided between two albums:

Cailin-In-Cardiff

Cailin-in-Cardiff2

Easter Shenanigans

Happy Easter everyone! Here's a quick update on how we celebrated the holiday in Cardiff.

Dave arrived late Thursday and stayed through to Monday morning (Monday afternoon he attended a conducting masterclass with THE Valery Gergiev back in Oxford... rather unreal). We decided to try a new church for Easter: neither one of us has been particularly happy with the nearby Catholic church in Roath. Although St Peter's has been beautifully re-done and people had been friendly to me, something about the television monitors (ick), the music choices (hokey song for the Lord's Prayer? ick), and the cacophony of talking/"whispering"/crying/screaming/running-around children making it nearly impossible to hear the priest (GAH) made it a poor fit for us.

But Cardiff is also home to the Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral (it is also known as St. David's Cathedral, but everything is "St David's Something" in Wales and the Catholics and Anglicans have to compromise). The cathedral is a somewhat austere stone building tucked in behind the busy streets and shopping malls of central Cardiff, and is the seat of the Archbishop, who was present for the Triduum masses. Its congregation was smaller than expected, but crucially it boasts a choir made up of young children from the cathedral school and adult lay clerks. The music choices are entirely different from my existing experience with Catholic churches, featuring a few hymns and lots of polyphony and plainchant; this may explain a) why Dave and I like it so much and b) why mewling infants aren't present. Anyways, for the first time in a long time, I really like a specific church. It can actually get *quiet* during mass, the A-team singers are top-notch, the priest has a beautiful plainchant voice, and the bishop was funny. The only hiccup is that no one in the congregation knew how to queue up for communion (and we are in Britain! this is not supposed to happen here!)

Easter Sunday we invited a few friends over to help devour a leg of lamb. Alan and Cyril live five minutes away, and Alan's girlfriend Sinead was visiting from Dublin for the weekend. (You may recall that Alan and Sinead were the lovely people who helped entertain and chaperone me and Dave after Kevin's wedding in Dublin at New Year's.) We made lamb smothered in rosemary-garlic-butter, cabbage, and 1.5 kg of potatoes roasted in goose fat. Guests brought the roast veg, cheeses, and an apple-chocolate tart to finish off the feast. Oh, and there was a lot of wine.

We feasted for hours, wearing headgear furnished by Sinead (bunny ears for the gentlemen, hand-crafted "Easter Bonnet" headbands for the ladies). We took a brief break to watch Oxford dominate this year's Boat Race against Cambridge, and eventually had the genius idea to wander down to Waterloo Gardens with my camera for some impromptu acrobatics and silly antics. This silliness, and the earlier feasting, are documented and available for your consumption in the Album linked to below.  After sub-freezing temps and miserable gray wintry skies, Wales had finally shown us a glorious sunny day. With good weather, good food, and good company, it was a glorious Easter.

Easter Shenanigans

Andy in Wales!

This Thanksgiving, Andy booked a flight to finally come visit me in Wales... between his amazing long-awaited business trip to Brazil and the last-minute business trip to Japan (he's flying back as I type), he spent over a week traipsing about the southern Welsh coast in the wind and the wet, puttering about Cardiff while I spent a few token hours at work, and helping pull off one of the most ridiculous Thanksgiving feasts I could dream up.

Here are two albums from his visit. First up, a documentation of our day trips to see castles and coastline cliffs. For one day (and one day only) we had epic British weather. The blue skies smiled on our visit to Caerphilly Castle, which sits a 20 minute drive north of Cardiff but that I had yet to go see. Sometimes it takes a special visitor to get you out there! The rest of the week was less weather-friendly, as Wales and England were hit with record rainfall and flooding along with gale force winds. We still managed to stop by Tintern Abbey (a family favorite, it would seem, and featuring earlier on my blog) and Raglan Castle, which was possibly even more awesome for the fear of seriously being blown off the crumbling turrets. Finally, we dropped down to Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula to see the "Worm's Head" (Worm from the word Orm meaning Dragon... I told you we had dragons in Wales!).  We couldn't cross the causeway to the Worm's head like Dave and I did on our visit with my parents because it was high tide.  Instead, Andy and I went both up to the top of the nearby hill--where gorgeous views and horses made the muck and the incline worth it-- and down to the white sand beach, where reflections of clouds in the setting sunlight were surprisingly well-captured by our little point and shoot camera. Enjoy the album!

Andy's walks in Wales

At the end of the week we hosted Thanksgiving for my Cardiff friends. Instead of a typical Turkey, I decided to attempt a multi-bird roast. In our case, a five bird roast: a partridge inside a pheasant inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, all sewn up, covered in bacon, and roasted for many many hours. I have an album of the construction of this bizarre masterpiece, and from the merry feast that followed. Quite merry--- we went through large quantities of booze and guests left in the wee hours of the morning, leaving Andy with only two hours before he had to get picked up by a taxi on his way to the airport!

Thanksgiving Cardiff 2012

All in all, a fantastic visit. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone!

The end of winter

Winter is definitely coming to a close here in Cardiff.  It isn't as if we faced bitter cold and bracing winter storms--Cardiff barely goes below freezing, and when it does people LOVE to talk about it and how rare it is and what they will do to cope with such chilling conditions--but it is still a fantastic feeling to emerge from whatever season we were having into a land of daffodils and crocuses and no need for coats. Roath park, where I go jogging on my more successful mornings, suddenly looked as if it snowed lilac and yellow when the bulbs emerged. The local gardeners are outstanding, and there is always something new coming up. The swans in Roath lake are starting to be a bit more frisky, rather than just being annoying and greedily snatching all the stale bread from the puzzled geese and grebes. The herb plants I keep on my windowsill finally perked up. I haven't put away the warm wooly jumpers yet-- it might suddenly re-freeze tomorrow night. But in general you can almost taste Spring.

A few other events have occurred to welcome in the change of seasons... Dave was gone for the week of Valentine's Day, but made it up to me on the weekend with a visit to the Purple Poppadum on the far side of Cardiff. I didn't know until we starting walking there what I was in for... all Dave had told me was that I wasn't allowed to eat a big lunch. It was a bit intimidating when we first walked up the stairs and were greeted by swanky lighting and a sea of waiters and diners in suits while we had backpacks, but the crowd demographics shifted in our direction as the evening went on. Dave treated us to the Chef's tasting menu, which included perhaps the single best piece of chicken I have ever had in my life. There were exploding bitesize yogurt parcels (thank goodness the waiter told us to eat it in one bite!), salmon done three ways, three curries, lychee sorbet to cleanse the pallet, and chocolate ganache samosas... definitely remembering the chocolate ganache samosas. Thank you Dave!

Foreground: exploding yogurt parcel. Green blob: best piece of chicken I have ever had. Background: happy Molly.

A shadowy Dave surrounded by gluttony... I think Dave had over 35 courses this week, when you combine the tasting menu with his week of Oxford dinners (and lunches)!

Green tea creme brulee, chocolate samosa, and tandoori pineapple (first pineapple I have ever really become infatuated with)

In less gluttonous news, I have had some surprising musical developments. The director of the university chamber choir asked if I would perform something with them... he wouldn't give me any details until I met with him, perhaps because he figured the Sunday 8am performance time would scare most people off! But I am going to be making my radio debut... BBC radio 4 on March 11th at 8am, I will be the solo oboe accompanying Psalm 23 by Rutter. Live radio: I'm nervous but super psyched. For those with legal or quasi-legal access to BBC radio, tune in!

And lastly, a very happy St. David's Day from Cardiff... it's the St. Patrick's Day, the St. George's Day, the St. Andrew's Day, but of Wales. I went to a pub in the center of town, Owain Glyndwr, with a few friends from the uni orchestra. A violinist in that orchestra was going to be bringing her violin to the pub to join in some folk music. The evening was my first encounter with random pub folk music, which blankets the celtic countrysides but generally peters out when approaching the big cities. When we arrived there were bagpipes and bombards (very much like marching oboes, I would LOVE to try to play one!) that reflected more of Brittany's culture than Wales, but were impressive nonetheless. A pint in, and suddenly the table next to us (an older crowd) pulled out violins and flutes and a guitar and drum and began to play from their seat, sipping pints between numbers. I've never experienced that type of impromptu, expected music.... it was fantastic.

The pub devolved a bit into an open mic event, with younger pop singing and an American import playing Baby Got Back on banjo interrupting the folksy flow. Faint applause marked the otherwise unremarkable gaps in their performances. And then a more traditional group would stand up, say pipes and drums that knocked the roof off, and people were on their feet and cheering or singing along. The quieter folk players moved next door to a side room for a proper session of strictly Welsh music. Gwenno (the aforementioned violinist) invited me to come try someone's "pibgorn," which is an esoteric Welsh instrument with a brass-like mouthpiece and a reed hidden inside. I admit I sounded like a boy going through puberty, the way the pitches cracked uncontrollably, but it was highly entertaining to give it a go (even if it was in public, and a bit embarrassing!)  Overall, a fantastic (and very Welsh, and slightly tipsy, and definitely excellent) night in Cardiff.  Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!

You should visit my kitchen.

It is a warm and inviting place, full of happy things and enticing smells.

Note all the essential ingredients to a happy kitchen:

1. Pot with stuff simmering.  Who cares what, anything that simmers along is likely to end up lovely.
2. Fancy stirring devices in cheerful colors
3. A large bowl that makes even massive portions look reasonable
4. Random paper towel ready to absorb all of my many little accidents (I am no graceful Nigella)
5. Wine.  Oops, the glass is empty.  That means the dinner will definitely have that extra je ne sais quoi
6. Big knives looking impressive in a knife block.
7. Little knife I actually used.
8. Fresh herbs in pots, actually looking perky now that I interpreted their depressing wilting as a desperate cry for attention/water
9. A nice view with sunshine (er, it's Wales... indirect sun tempered by lots of, um, clouds)
10. Good tunes.  You can't see this, but I'm rocking out to the radio recorded Cambridge folk festival played far too loudly on my trusty speakers.

So in this environment dinner was guaranteed to be a success.  When I stopped dancing around the kitchen long enough to pour, chop, or stir, I managed to concoct:

Spicy turkish couscous with tomatoes, beans, capers, lemon, and fresh cilantro and parsley.  Possibly the best thing ever, I promise, although I was a little heavy handed with the cayenne and needed water rather than more of that wine :)

So you see, if you visit me you get fed.  Better yet, you will be invited to join me in cooking in this ever-so-inviting kitchen!

Let me know when flights are booked...

My new home at last

Yes, I did* just get back from an exceptional trip to Portugal, but those posts will take more work and this is a pressing matter... I have just gotten the keys and "moved in" to my new flat in Cardiff. A previous post showed the construction site that won me over with it's promise and potential. In the end, it is an absolutely lovely flat that has lost none of the original charm. The wood floors were kept and polished up, the tiles were cleaned, the new kitchen was installed, and the new furniture was actually being unloaded as I dropped my suitcases. Yes, the place needs some love (well, elbow grease, a mop, paper towels, chemical sprays, and a good vacuum), but it is everything I was hoping for! Enjoy the new pictures below (and have fun comparing with those of the previous post!)

My living room, with my intact bike boxes that were delivered while I was traveling.

View from living room into hallway/foyer area towards kitchen.

Enormous bathroom! To the right are the toilet, bidet, and shower.  After a dispute over whether to paint the sink black or white, the builders chose lavender and it matched the fixed up tile floors beautifully.

View from my flat into the building foyer area.  An Australian couple is apparently moving in upstairs in September, and we will share this entranceway.  The stained glass is only barely visible here, but it is really quite special.

View from my bed (door to garden!), just before the mattress was delivered.

The new kitchen.  Eeeep, I have so much counter/cabinet space! All for me!

Can you tell I'm excited!!??

Shwmae!

Lots of Welsh words look desperately in need of more vowels, or at least a rearrangement of letters.  Shwmae, meaning Hello in Welsh, is pronounced "shoe my" or "shu mai" (which I'm pretty sure are dumplings from trader joe's).  I have recently participated in a short "taster" course to learn Welsh, and I'm very much enjoying all the new consonants and the rather bouncy melody of the language.

Wales is officially bilingual, and all the signs around Cardiff have both Welsh and English.  It isn't quite like Montreal, where everyone first addressed me in both English and French and then determined what I preferred.  Especially in Cardiff, where very few people are fluent in Welsh, the default language is still English.  But I do get the sense that the Welsh government, and many Welsh people, would like to change that.  Learning Welsh is frequently subsidized by businesses and other organizations, and I got a questionnaire in my New Staff induction pack and an enthusiastic email about Welsh courses the day I began my new job at Cardiff University.  As staff, I can attend courses for free, like the taster one that I have just finished, but also including the 2+ year courses.

Welsh is an early Celtic language, and more removed from English than French and German.  Still, there are echos of some francais in certain Welsh words... I won't try to give examples because the spelling and the sounding are quite dauntingly different at first glance.  My class consisted of six (then five, then four) pupils, sitting in a semi circle in front of a rather adorable native Welsh speaker who was just filling in and wasn't quite sure what was supposed to going on.  The four people remaining for the third/last class were a nice blend... Sonya, my compatriot from lab, Adam, who had taken high school Welsh but since forgot a lot (but not enough to really be in a beginner class... still he was very patient and classy about knowing more than the rest of us!), and Anna, an Italian teacher who approached new sentences with gusto.  It was the right mix of people to really get me to stop being self-conscious and just start making silly sounds.  Nothing makes me giggle like trying to say "six" ("chwech") or anything with a double ll in it.  Spit flies.

But it is a beautiful language, and it never hurts a brain or an empty social calendar in a new city to take more courses.  So while Welsh is one of the least useful languages to learn on the planet, I might just do exactly that.  Come September, I might take a free one-year entry level course.

Have a look here, at a translation of the Welsh anthem: http://www.know-britain.com/songs/welsh_national_anthem_english_version.html

A country that has muses and poets and minstrels and language and harps featured proudly in its national anthem... I think Wales and I (and maybe Welsh and I) will get along quite nicely.

The Norweigian church on Cardiff Bay, where my class was held.  Norway produced all the timber that formed the support posts in the epic swathes of coal mines that covered Wales in its industrial age.

A flat at last!

After having places vanish an hour before viewing, after having the perfect place be dirty and broken, after finding toilets in separate rooms without sinks to wash your hands, after being asked for massive rent prices for the tiniest of apartments, I have finally found my future home in Cardiff... I left the bond fee at the agency today, next week I sign a contract and give the full deposit, and July 18th or so I move in!

What is this magical property that rescued me from weeks of trolling Craigslist and agency websites?  It is large, it is full of light, it is ticking all the boxes and in a rather posh location... it is also, however, currently a pile of rubble.  After being vacant for two years, the flat is being entirely refurbished.  It takes a lot of vision, and optimism, to see the result through the debris.  But I kinda fell in love with the idea of the place, with it's windows and gardens and original tile floors... I have faith that a brand new kitchen can't be that bad, and the lovely ceiling of the mostly finished living room helps me visualize the loveliness that could potentially emerge.

The lovely preserved/repaired bay window facing the street, with stained glass in the upper pains.  Not double glazed, but pretty enough for me not to begrudge them my increased heating bill.  The floor could almost be salvaged, but some gaps in the wood means they're putting in carpet (alas).  TV is going.  Blinds and curtain rod installed.

The bedroom with it's door direct to the walled back garden.

The inside of the bedroom (needs imagination to see past the debris!).  It will get a new bed, new wardrobe, and more carpet.

A rather quirky feature, this little annex/pantry room is attached to the kitchen, connected the rear and side gardens, and is meant to hold the washing machine.  It will eventually provide perfect secure bike storage with easy access through my gardens to the street!

The kitchen.  Well, none of this is staying.  It will get a new sink and new stove along the window wall facing the rear garden.  The opposite wall will have a long counter with cabinets.  Cabinets are wood, counters black, everything brand new.  I have a tough time picturing the final product, but fingers crossed!  They are saving the lovely tiled floor rather than covering it up like the previous owners.

The bathroom is large, albeit a little odd.  A sink (the agents want it black, the builders want it white...) a tub a toilet a bidet and a shower.  Oh my.

So there we have it.  Or there we can almost see it.  I love that it has personality.  It has charm.  It has all the things I need in a place.  I hope hope hope that the final result is lovely, having met the builders I think they really take pride in doing a nice job and I am very optimistic.  And come July, you are all invited to come see my new home in Cardiff!

Cosi fan tutte by the sea

On a whim, I picked up tickets for the Welsh National Opera's production of Mozart's Cosi, performed in the rather impressive Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay... my Oxford student ID has another two months on it, so I managed an orchestra ticket for only 10 quid.  The hall is lovely, with rich earthy walls and rather good acoustics.  The music was also delightful.  But the unusual English sea-side setting for Mozart's rather silly opera plot resulted in man-sized dragon people, bearded ladies, actual dogs, fake dogs, long sausage links, fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, tap dancing tutu-wielding aging street performers, and a small woman in a big bikini-ed fatsuit to appear upstage from the glorious quartets.  The director also made the ending, normally a roll-your-eyes-isn't-it-nice-it-all-sorta-worked-out finale, a brutally self-deprecating and bitter grimace.  But, they sell little cups of ice cream in the interval, and the music was top-quality Mozart, so a brilliant night out regardless!

"In these stones horizons sing"

Cardiff wanderings

I'm one week into my new job, and overdue for an update.  This one will be mostly visual, since I'm feeling a little sleepy!

Sonya,  my North American ambassador to Cardiff, spent a lot of time wandering the streets of Pen-y-lan and Roath with me... the general idea was to look at streets and houses in my quest for rental real estate, but the ultimate aim was the Waterloo Tea Garden for coffee and cake :)

Cardiff has a castle.  It totally trumps the one in Oxford.  As soon as I can prove I live here, I will go about getting my free pass.  Until then, I can walk around its walls in the park.  Think there are any flats to let in the castle?

Bute park is gorgeous.  The river would be glorious for punting, except that people don't punt here and the bridges would decapitate gnomes.  Still, there are near endless swaths of lush green wonderfulness just adjacent to the university.

Bute park apparently has a little mascot.  I don't know any more than you do.

See, there CAN be epically gorgeous weather in Wales!