Tim Freemaninpreston has been in touch to remind me of tonight's inaugural Manchester Blog Awards, organised by Kate Manchizzle, and taking place in the swish surroundings of The Urbis. I'm not going to be there- not because I've thrown a massive tantrum at not being shortlisted (although I did briefly consider that course of action, obviously) but because we're going away tomorrow morning on Our Big Holidays For The Year (all three days of them), so I am too busy whittling down my own long list, which contains every item on the clothes pegs at the bottom of the stairs, to a Rainy Holiday In Wales Shortlist of just three lucky jackets. The current bookmaker's favourite to make the trip along the A55 in a packed Fiat Punto is the Navy Blue Stripy Afflecks Palace One From My 1995 Oasis Phase, while The Cream Summer Jacket From Gap That Has Certainly Seen Better Days is vieing for runners-up spot with The Replica Tour de France Cycle Racing Jacket I Got Off The Internet Back In The Days When I Could Afford Such Fripperies. The Vintage Mystery Parka, I am sure you will be interested to know, is a 66-1 rank outsider at this stage. It's chilly in North West Wales at this time of year, but not that chilly.
It will be quite chilly out there in remotest Anglesey... and very Welsh indeed. This has been drummed into us by the web-pages of the various holiday cottages we looked at his morning, which appear to be competing to see how many preposterous uses of the word 'Welsh' can be fitted into a three-paragraph blurb for a holiday cottage before it crumbles under the weight of its own Welshness. The first place we looked at promised 'A friendly Welsh welcome', only to be trumped by a second offering 'Warm and Spacious Accomodation With a Distinctly Welsh Flavour', followed by a 'Hearty Traditional Welsh Breakfast' and a choice of 'Windswept Walks along typically unspoilt Welsh cliffs' . In the end we have plumped for a third, which while laying claim only to a moderate degree of unique national character, distinguished itself by being situated in a village with a difficult-to-pronounce (and obviously Welsh) name, in striking distance of the local pub, and only 1.5 miles from the sea. The Irish Sea.
Right- off to pack the Scrabble (because it is obligatory by law to take Scrabble on an Autumn cottage holiday, even if you have no intention whatsoever of actually playing a game), the bucket and spade, and of course those three lucky shortlisted jackets. Back again soon...
Taking your main holiday in Anglesey in October makes you deserving of some kind of award. I think the incredibly mysterious parka deserves a trip out at some time though, even if not on this trip.
Oooh- the fun those brochure writers could have if it were called the Welsh Sea!
Have a great time, and remember to keep that tiny little self-observation thing going all the time so that you can blog it when you get back.
Posted by: looby | October 17, 2006 at 02:49 AM
We've just come back (about two hours ago) from a week's holiday on the Isle of Bute, a wee few miles to the west of Glasgow alang the tartan road following the Clyde to the ferry and a wee trip ower the Kyle to Rothesay.
Other than a Saltire flying proudly from the brig o' the boat, there was no indication that we were in Scotland.
They seem to be different to the Welsh.
Posted by: Nexus John | October 28, 2006 at 09:25 PM