In Which I Have A Coffee In The Morning But Not A Bore Coffi. Why To Me It's Like Rugby and How Alex Salmond Was The Diplomatic Choice

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Health wise nothing has changed for me since I last posted. Been to work and back powered by coughing and spluttering. Returning home my body seems to say  "Work's done so everything's going downhill now". Not downhill enough though that my first call today (a day off) would be to the doctor.

So coughing, a sore throat and a bit of a head cold. My chest feels as if someone has opened it to let the draught in.Body feels uneasy but still in control.

It's affected my sleep. Between Friday night and Saturday morning apart from a 15 min session around 1am when I needed to make a cup of tea and waking up at 6am to make breakfast only to go to sleep half an hour later I was between 8pm until 10am. This morning a sudden coughing fit got me awake at 3am.

Worst thing so far is being unable to do things that I'd wanted to do. The dental appointment I'd mentioned in my previous post has been postponed until the middle of next month. Not felt able to volunteer to deliver leaflets for Plaid Cymru and the grass outside hasn't been cut for the same reason (In a suburbia sense - It's a jungle out there).

And today specifically the thing I'm most disappointed about was that I felt unable to go to a coffee morning, or Bore Coffi  in Porthcawl organised by the local Welsh language society where you can practise your Cymraeg with a similar group of learners. That will have to wait for another morning.

I did go out to Bridgend Town today though as I needed to put some money into our bank account to pay a credit card bill. The plan had been simple. To go in, pay the money go home. But once out of the bank my throat suddenly felt raw. A hot drink down my gullet was needed,

And so I went to a coffee house. Costa to be precise.

I should perhaps explain hear that view of coffee is exactly the same as my view of rugby in that although I don't dislike it, given the choice nine times out of ten I'd go for football (my view of rugby being incidentally one of the few "Welsh" things that I haven't changed my view of since I moved here). Similarly I don't dislike coffee, but given the choice I would normally go for tea.

Dislike those coffee chains though. Always felt you needed a bank loan and a degree in beverages before entering. Needs must though so went inside and as I've a dislike of the tea served by these establishments I ordered a small cappucchino.

This is apparently what Costa considers a "small" cappuchino

Now those of you who have followed my posts know that at this moment I have five books on the go.Today is a "library book" day. I often take a book out with me as I like to read wherever the opportunity takes me.

The book I should have taken out was Christopher Hitchens' informative read. But it's bigger than a brick and so would have been awkward to take around. The book about Swansea City would have been awkward for a different reason. Those fans of the round ball in South Wales follow their team with a passion. Of course there are those who support Manchester United and Liverpool and when I first moved up here in the late nineties Aston Villa had their fair share of support. I'd assumed it was because Dean Saunders, a Welsh striker of that time was playing for them, only to have it patiently explained to me that the Villa was the closest Premiership team from South Wales.

Haven't times changed.

But of course the bulk of support is now between Cardiff and Swansea City. Bridgend, being a place which is roughly halfway between the two, is a sort of twilight zone where supporters of both live (If you go to the next main town along the M4, Port Talbot, then the footballing support turns distinctly Swansea).

Now fans of these teams can hate each other to a level that is best described as Glaswegian without the religion. Being English and supporting West Ham I'm seen by those supporters I know as neutral. So was just not in the mood to explain why I was reading a "Swansea City" book. "I like both teams" being particularly wimpish. So as I could not be bothered to argue I took the surprisingly entertaining Alex Salmond biography by David Torrence instead to pass the time in Costa.

For the record the cappucchio (which was probably as Italian as frozen pizza) could be best described as drinkable and nothing more. My prejudices about coffee chains have not been broken.

One thing I did notice that opposite the Costa was another place in Bridgend Town that had closed down for I think between two and three years.

The Welsh Labour Party/Labour Leader Carwyn Jones' Office (once)

Now the point here is not that Labour moved their Bridgend office from the town (Bridgend is a wide area) but they didn't feel able to sustain the office in the town. Something the local council (Labour) or the National Assembly (Labour) could not help them with.

Until the next time