Thursday 11 April 2019

On Taking a Wolfe On A Train And Other Meanderings Of Penarth To Cardiff Return


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It has been a long while since I've used the train. In fact I can't actually remember when that was. However this Tuesday afternoon daughter and I took a journey from Penarth to Cardiff Central and back.

Daughter was having an interview with the local college with regard to the next stage of her education once she knows the results of the exams she'll be having soon. I mention it just to explain the purpose of the trip. I won't say anything further on it as that's her business.

Penarth station then. Surprisingly small for a place popular with suburbanites. Just one platform. Must be packed at morning rush hour. Luckily for us it was early afternoon where there are few more peaceful things than a station at this time.

Surprisingly Peaceful

But eventually of course a train did come in. A small few carriages suburban job.

Of  Interest To Anoraks Only
I mentioned in the title that I brought a Wolfe onto the train. I didn't lie.



Now I'll chat about this properly when I've finished reading it but Nero Wolfe was a fat agrophobic private detective who got others to do the legwork but then was able to work out whodunnit.

He's not unlike Perry Mason in that he's literary fast food. Though I must be honest that whilst I can't remember why I do recall not liking the two books I read decades ago. Let's hope now I've aged my views have changed.

Also a quick word about the actor on the cover playing Nero in a subsequent TV series (which I never saw). He is William Conrad. As a child in the seventies I watched  him play fat private detective Frank Cannon which was shown on BBC1 on a Friday night ("A Quinn Martin production"). .From the late eighties for five years he also was cast as a Private investigator in Jake And The Fat man. I'll leave it to you to work out who he played.

So you see typecasting...

Back to the train. No idea how old it was but if the general wheezing was a guide it should cut down the fags quickly.  Eventually though after much huffing, puffing and general gasping for air (so much so it stopped for a few minutes) we eventually reached Cardiff Central.

Geography now. If you leave Cardiff Central by the front you're in the city centre. If you leave it by the back however you're in Grangetown. A place that does not really have a good reputation but I don't know it well enough to properly comment on it. Our walk around the college seemed to suggest a place with a curious mixture of Industrial units and Care homes (to be accurate Care apartment books).

But every place has hidden gems that make you stop and stare. I give this example of urban art.

Grangetown Style


And this. Small I'd grant you but I liked it.

A little bit of Italy in Cardiff
There's not much to say about the return trip. The train still wheezed along. Perhaps like cigarette packets it should be ordered to be painted black until it sounds better.

Until the next time.


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