Summer Break with a Difference!

It wasn't quite a holiday, but the venue was beautiful; it wasn't exactly work because I didn't get paid and the whole time wasn't productive; and it wasn't an entertainment although for the most part it was pleasant and enjoyable to observe.  The journey to Llandrindod Wells was an adventure in the 'old style' that was my work for many years: to follow SatNav's instructions for the most part but then to remember when I was fighting him in order to go a different way, and therefore would need to maintain that disagreement until he caught me up.  Catching me up is more prompt now, however, than was the case with the older machine that I ditched a couple of years ago.

Out and return, although by different routes, were, within a mile or so, the same distance and took about the same overall time, despite the different times of day.  The outward trip on Sunday afternoon involved the M1, where I had forgotten the miles and miles of 50 mph limit which - though still faster than most alternatives - always seems so slow on a motorway.  When I returned on Tuesday evening, I left the M40 further down and took the country roads into Milton Keynes, by-passing the M1 completely.  The journey in either direction took about five hours, including stops.

The view from my window

I'd never been there before and found Llandod (as the locals call it) an attractive town (made more so, I suppose, by the sunshine) that appears to straddle the A483.  Obviously I only saw the centre and there are probably, as with almost anywhere, less alluring parts to it.  My lodging - product of my first venture into the domain of Airbnb - was both the cheapest I could find and also the closest to my target, which was the Liberal Democrat office for the present by-election campaign.  It was a well-appointed room in a clean home that was newly-carpeted, it seemed, throughout.  The view from my window was magnificent and there was even a desk on which I could catch up with my personal admin on both evenings.  I shall have no hesitation in using this resource again.

For physical and personality reasons, I don't undertake canvassing or delivering leaflets, nor will I agree to make telephone calls (which otherwise I could have done from home, avoiding all the travelling).  Instead, I offer my time for clerical work behind the scenes which allows someone else to do these things.  My reward is the interest in seeing the whole election plan unfold around me ... as I've confessed before, I'm a time-served people-watcher!

The sunlit Park Crescent

Following my experiences at Witney in 2016 and St Albans for the general election the next year, I thought I knew what to expect.  I say 'I thought I knew'; what actually unfolded was not quite what I had foreseen when I committed myself to these two days.  Although the office in Llandrindod Wells is the official HQ, a far bigger office is some 25 miles away in Brecon and, although I had explained in advance which office I would be going to (which was in accord with the policy of inviting people to go the nearest one from their direction of travel), it soon became clear that the majority of  clerical work was going on at Brecon.

It transpired, therefore, that the intensity of work was not all that I had anticipated.  However, I enjoyed the comings and goings, and learned something of the daily life in a different part of the country.  I also made the acquaintance - for the first time in my life - with a lady named Portia.  Like me, she has started learning Welsh; in her case it's in order to keep up with her children who attend a school where the teaching is in Welsh.  It wasn't long before this came up in conversation, and she explained that she had installed an app on her phone for the purpose.

Since my own studies in that direction have been somewhat becalmed for several months, I thought this might help me too, so I now have the regular ministrations of a little green owl (the app's user-friendly avatar) to encourage my efforts.  Faced with the initial choice 'start from scratch' or 'know some Welsh already', I opted cautiously for the latter; I was then confronted by a series of test questions at the end of which came the declaration, "We'll start at the beginning."  The aim is to spend 10 minutes a day on the work and, halfway through my first week, I'm now part way through lesson two.  It will be interesting to see how this progresses in the coming months!