On The Road To Nowhere....It Was Meant To Be Neath

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So it's Wednesday in the first full week of my daughter's summer break. The first day as well where my wife is at work and I have to assume the duties of entertainment officer by myself.

My child is thirteen, so those moments where a trip in the cinema with dad watching a film allowed you to cross off a day from the six week schedule have long since gone (though to be fair she would be watching the movie whilst I took an afternoon nap). For those moments not spent with her friends you have to be,for want of a better word, inventive.

As it is the intention to move house we're not taken any holidays abroad this year (perhaps that's a good thing as I suspect Europeans will look upon anybody British post Brexit with a mixture of amusement and pity) but later on this month she will be spending a week looking at the sights of London with my mother. I and my wife have also taken the last full week off work to take her out places. So that just leaves really these four weeks at the beginning.

Well I have a plan. I'm not sure how my mind stumbled onto it in all honesty, But still, it's a plan.

There are towns in South Wales that we've never been to or at the most driven passed. Towns we've never gone to not for any particular reason just that there were no particular reasons to visit.It occurred to me that if there was a day that there were no plans made we'd go to the town centre and wander around. No guides whether paper or digital to our hands just a leisurely ramble to see what the place was like.

Ebbw Vale and Merthyr Tydfil are on my mental list. But for this particular Wednesday the first town, was Neath.

"What's in Neath?" asked someone I knew from Cardiff when mentioning this beforehand. Replied that I didn't know. But that's the point. It was going to be a mystery tour. If it turned out to be a magical one I'd know after the visit.

"I've been to Neath...there's nothing there" said someone later from Bridgend. To him I mentioned the prime example of urban neglect that is Bridgend Town (won't go into detail here - wrote a post on the issue months ago).

So Neath it was going to be.

I'd picked Neath as it was relatively close and on the M4 westbound corridor. We had been to Port Talbot (the Lido part with daughter) and Swansea. Neath is in between. We have, being world travellers, even gone further westbound beyond the motorway to Tenby.

The South Walian towns to visit bucket list was going to have one less to deal with after today.

We left just before eleven, as there was a viewing for the house around quarter past. The weather was grey and miserable but dry and, barring the odd shower that was the forecast for the day. So in other words tolerable to visiting a town not a beach.

As we were going along the thing I'd realised was that this was going to be a practice run for when I take her to my mother's for her week in London. Practicing the art of shutting your mind to girl gossip whilst pretending to pay attention and instead concentrating on driving is an artform. The non motoring version is where I'm seemingly paying full attention to the wife whilst the football's on.

Only once was I shown up.

"You're pregnant?"

Shrieks of laughter from my side.

*I said I pranked her!!"

She was also asking a lot of questions about my attitude towards her having a boyfriend. I said there was no problem as long as he was vetted by the security services. Later that day I'd learnt that there was already such a boy. Better call MI5 now.

It had started spitting water from the moment we got to the motorway. But with a few junctions to go the rain got far more intense and heavy. There was a quick decision to make. Should we continue to a place we don't know wandering in the rain? Was this fair on my daughter? Or should I abandon the trip and turn back?

I turned back. Daughter didn't really mind. Especially as we had KFC (aka unsnobby Nandos) for lunch.

So Neath remains unvisited. The bucket list of South Walian towns to visit remains untouched.

We'll try again another day.

Until the next time.