Who knows where this path will take me?
Until we speak again, whether you leap, waddle or jump… just go for it!
Quiet contemplation
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Category Archives: Cats in Cardiff
Who needs Glastonbury?
If it’s July then it must be time for Cardiff Bay to host the International Food Festival. That’s the one where cuisine from all over… well Cardiff, masquerades as being representative of the four corners of the globe (who said the world is round?). And, while I am asking the fundamental questions of life, why go continental when you can have Welsh crepes?
![Food Festival 2017 crowd [2]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/food-festival-2017-crowd-2.jpg?w=584)
But then again, it’s all about folks coming together and having fun, not serious authenticity…
![Food Feestival 2017 crowd [1]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/food-feestival-2017-crowd-1.jpg?w=584)
The music line up is to be marvelled at… here you will find a whole lot of musical concoctions you’ve never heard of… and quite probably will never hear of again!
And, though Martin Scorsese is known for his music documentary films, such as ‘The Last Waltz’ (The Band) and ‘Shine a Light’ (The Rolling Stones)… move over man, it’s time for some revolutionary music filming techniques. Check out 40 seconds of ‘Bae Caerdydd‘… a sideways glance at a fusion of African, Irish and Caribbean flavours!
But it’s really all about the food. And, until we speak again, this cat is going to be immersed in a black pudding scotch egg (courtesy of the Handmade Scotch Egg Company) with cheese to blow your socks off (courtesy of Blacks Cheeses). What’s not to love about cheese with combinations like Irish Whiskey & Stem Ginger, or Caramelised Onion & Rioja, or Jalepeno & Lime, finishing off with some Sticky Toffee cheese?
Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!
So, there I was, a bedraggled and tired travelling cat arriving home from a fabulous trip to the USA. When all of a sudden I am metaphorically arrested by a sight that would send so many Americans into rapturous delight…
Why, in American culture there are those who believe in the right that this is what every city street should look like. As for me, in my addled brain, all I could muster as a fleeting thought was an old mantra for self-respecting city cats, Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!”
So, what was going on here? I like the implied message, but couldn’t see how it was meant to be a homecoming for me…
However, the image did bring to mind the old saying: “lift up any pony tail, and what you’ll find beneath is a horses ass!”, Best be careful who you aim that description at; after all, “Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!”
In the meantime, it seems like all roads home are blocked off…
Could it be preparations for the stilettoed hordes descending on the city for a long weekend of perma-tanned indiscretion? If so, then the advancing mob above are surely unwittingly walking into a psychodrama beyond their wildest imaginations. After all, “Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!”
It seems that the ‘lionesses of liquor’ have already set up a roll-call of their preferred end of night play-things, with the castle walls providing a historic backdrop for contemporary fantasies. If you don’t want to end up strung up on the battlements, “Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!”…
As it turns out, there was a simple explanation for all this metropolitan malarkey… it was the small matter of the biggest sporting event on the planet this year happening just around the corner from home. As much as I have fantasised about Cardiff City FC going to the Champions League Final, it could be a long wait; so the Champions League Final had come to Cardiff City! For the victors, the spoils, and the opportunity to kiss ‘old big ears’ (affectionate name for the trophy, not one of the belles of bedlam).
Until we speak again, all I can advise Luca Modric in the image above, is kiss the metal by all means fella, but “Don’t mess with Valleys Girls!”
Icon revival
As much as I would like this heading to be applied to Juno and Bella, thus reversing two tragic demises of recent years, in reality it is an update for my loyal follower. The Coal Exchange building, deep in the heart of Mount Stuart Square, has been apparently left to rot and collapse through gross negligence by local and national Welsh administrations. How nice it is to refer to an ‘iconic’ status on perimeter hoardings, while the subject of said reference basks in a catastrophic state of neglect behind.
![Coal Exchange exterior decay [3]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-exterior-decay-3.jpg?w=584)
![Coal Exchange [6]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-6.jpg?w=584)
Rumour had it that developers of a boutique hotel would be the saviour of the building where the very first £1 million cheque was handed over. No, that’s a historical fact not an inflated cost of a suite in the proposed new hotel!
Well, in March 2017 there were distinctly positive signs, for those who hold a candle (rather than an incendiary device) to the preservation of Cardiff’s architectural heritage! 
Then, just as Spring in May should bring a promise of new beginnings, so the revival of a favourite old building seems truly under way…
![Coal Exchange May 17 [2]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-2.jpg?w=584)
![Coal Exchange May 17 [3]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-3.jpg?w=584)
![Coal exchange May 17 [4]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-4.jpg?w=584)
With extensive work still to be completed across most of the site, the ultimate sign of intent is captured… as bona fide hotel residents arrive to occupy some of the small number of rooms early opened.
![Coal Exchange May 17 [6]](https://cardiffcoolcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/coal-exchange-may-17-6.jpg?w=584)
It seems that Signature Living have sympathetic plans for the regeneration of the building, that will recapture its historic past as well as provide a sustainable basis for looking forward. And while there will be the inevitable carping about handing a community resource over to a commercial venture, the photographs at the top of this post are evidence enough of the only other real alternative!
Until we speak again, Juno’s View promises to bring documented evidence of the interior in the near future. [However, in the interim period, behold views of Chicago and New Orleans coming here very soon!]
Papal declaration
Perhaps religious rituals are not as sacrosanct as we were led to believe! Is this a declaration of a new Welsh Pope?
Until we speak again, they say the Jury’s out, but it looks to me like the Jury’s Inn!
What the NHS doesn’t need!
Created out of a post-war political furore, with the locally revered Aneurin Bevan winning the battle against political and medical foe; the National Health Service has become the cherished possession of the nation. Well, most of the nation anyway. It’s free at the point of need for everyone for a reason… we all experience health and the possibilities of ill-health, and this remains something that we believe shouldn’t be determined by wealth. Well, at least most of us do.
The NHS is an institution…
… but that doesn’t mean we look on it as some antiquated entity. It is staffed by many (not all) experienced, passionately committed and skilled individuals. What we need to do is listen to them and support them to develop best practice.
What we don’t need is meddling politicians creating incomprehensible NHS structures and systems, requiring faceless bureaucrats to create incomprehensible and time-consuming administrative procedures. Why, just the other day, I noticed that this so-called ‘blue sky thinking’ comes with an exclamation mark…
And talking of institutions, until we speak again Juno always kept a close eye on one when she saw one!
What could possibly happen?
So 2016 has gone, and you are no doubt left wondering what on earth happened there? It was a year when some of the great seats of power were reduced to simply spinning the wheel…
Across the world the light touch paper was ignited, as populist decisions set off fireworks under the seats of the so-called western democracies…
And, with all of the celebrity departures leaving so many sobbing into their record and film collections, there was always the great reassurance that shopping never dies…
So, what will 2017 bring? Who knows, just try asking Bella and see what reaction you get… 
Until we speak again, Cardiff sends you the very best of wishes in whatever happens across the next 12 months!
Feline felicitations
Juno and Bella were always partial to an event where tasty morsels would appear in abundance. So I’m sure they would be more than happy for those of you who are cat lovers to use the season of joy and giving as a time for sharing some of the plump bird with furry friends (even a dog or two if you have to!).
As a mark of the occasion, Cardiff presents its decorative side with a message of good will to all who stumble across this site. It seems we are home to some lost and confused reindeer…
We even have some alien visitors who are more than likely lost in their search for intelligent life (particularly in the city centre during party season)…
If you’re looking for a wooden shed as a gift to the man in your life, we have a surplus of the things left on the doorstep of the old library…
And if it’s rain you’re looking for, we are the UK capital of the wet stuff…
Until we speak again, Juno and Bella will forever do their impression of an old Smith & Jones sketch (older UK readers may get that reference)…
Architectural cat
Juxtaposition, symmetry, curvilinear, articulation, truncated, composition… what world do architects live in? Come to think of it, pick a profession, any profession, and you will not have to look far before you get bogged down in the jargon of self-importance.
As a cat who observes local architecture with a critical eye, I feel Cardiff has an ability to identify modern architectural styles that cut through the unfathomable nonsense of obscure language. In many cases, the only true nonsense is the architectural style itself… but you make your own judgement on that observation.
Sharp and groovy…
Pointy…
Curvy not groovy…
Wavy…
Spiky…
Mind-boggling (c/o the BBC)…
Just plain baffling…
Until we speak again, Bella reminds us that the devil is in the detail… if you can be bothered looking for it!
Gothic cats
It was late one night… ‘after pub closing’ late at night; which might just help to explain the odd personal reflections on the stagger home! There looming like a gothic image, in the light of the full moon, was St Johns Church in the centre of Cardiff.
This place has some history when it comes to looming over weary travellers, whether on their way to the pub or on their way home…
It stands majestic, flanked by foliage with a brilliant crown piercing an inky black sky. A bit like me when the beer has given way to Jameson’s, which in turn gives way to instability of gait, and flight of thought…
Talking of inky black and piercing… Until we speak again, I remember that Juno had her way of seeing right through my alcohol driven ramblings!
JUNO's VIEW 