It’s another one of those Cardiff Bus curveballs that I’m slowly getting used to now.  The 25A only runs four times a day, all in the evenings.  It was therefore and early tea for me and off to town to prepare to catch the 19.35 to Whitchurch.  I arrived in town early and with the cafes closed so I was forced to go for a beer.  I chose the Cottage on St Mary Street which I haven’t been in for more than 40 years.  The last time I was here there was a bit of trouble brewing and the landlady came out from behind the bar with a baseball bat.  That sorted it!  Tonight I had a nice pint of Butty Bach and enjoyed the music before heading for the bus station to catch the No.25A.  It was surprisingly popular.

The bus went up through Llandaff and then headed to Gabalfa shops before going on to its terminus at the Three Elms.  I was curious to know what happened to it after that.  Apparently it renumbers itself the No.24 and goes back to town in the opposite direction.

The Tree Elms was the natural place to head for a beverage and a read.  It’s a sizable establishment and was pretty full but hardly anyone was talking.  It took a while for me to understand why.  It was quiz night and they were doing the picture round.  In fact they were doing the picture round when I arrived and when I left. That’s one long picture round!

I had a pint of the only draught beer being served, Green King IPA.  Not my sort of thing.  A chilled cask beer.  Why?

My book was Tommy Cooper’s Secret Joke Files.  Like many comedians of his time he filed his jokes away and was terrified of losing them.  For anyone from abroad, Tommy Cooper is hard to explain.  He was unique in having a magic show and was deliberately inept until the last moment when the trick worked.  His tricks were interspersed with daft jokes. 

I haven’t heard this one for ages:-

A drunk was driving his car the wrong way down a one-way street when a policeman stopped him. The cop said ‘Didn’t you see the arrows?’ He said, ‘Arrows? I didn’t even see the Indians!’  

I could see the ending of this one coming:-

The old man went to the doctor for a check-up and when the doctor finished examining him he said to the man ‘You’re in fine shape.  You’ll live to be eighty.’ The old guy said, ‘But I am eighty.’ The doctor said, ‘See, what did I tell you?’

And to finish:-

I broke my glasses when I dropped them.  I said to the optician, ‘Will I have to be examined all over again?’  He said, ‘No, just your eyes!’

It was a pretty wet day so what better thing to do than catch a bus.  It was the turn of the No.25 today which goes the opposite way round to the No.24 i.e. to Llandaff, Llandaff North and then Whitchurch. Having previously visited Llandaff and Whitchurch I chose today to explore Llandaff North.

It wasn’t really exploring weather but armed with an umbrella I did manage a brisk walk around Hailey Park, joining some brave dog walkers and runners.  The River Taff looked grey and fast-flowing.  There’s a very smart squirrel sculpture appeared as has a widened cycle/pedestrian path alongside the river. Work on the new sewage-pumping scheme is proving problematic with their tunnelling machine stuck underground and awaiting retrieval.   I’d make a quip but know better than to make jokes about schemes shrouded in controversy.

I was then into Café Artiste for a nice coffee and a read.  It wasn’t until afterwards did I spot on their website they advertise themselves with the tag-lines:-

Get whisked away, without the travel.  We all need a little break every now and then.  Whether you’re catching up with friends, getting lost in a book, or taking a quick ten minutes between meetings, Cafe Artiste, the perfect departure from the norm.

I chose the ‘get lost in a book’ option and read some of The Great British Bucket List. I made such a list once.  It was: Pail, Plastic, Galvanised, Sand-castle. The book was actually very well written but suffered from a serious flaw.  It didn’t have any maps.  Yes, they tended to specify which country each attraction was in and my geography is reasonably good but a map would have helped.

The bay widow was a perfect place to watch the goings-on on Llandaff North for half an hour before heading out into the rain again and catching a No.25 back into town via Whitchurch.

I remember the days when the terminus of the No.24 used to be near where I lived.  Not today though.  It departs from the Cardiff Bus Interchange.  I still wonder what would happen if I asked a stranger in the street if they could point me in the direction of the Cardiff Bus Interchange.  Some know-it-all may say, ‘Just keep walking down there, past the hyb’ (Cardiff’s new word for a library).

The No.24 now does an anti-clockwise loop around Whitchurch, Llandaff North and Llandaff.  We decided a visit to Llandaff Cathedral was in order, somewhere my wife tells me she’s never been inside, mainly because she’d always have the dog in tow when visiting Llandaff. First though it was a walk around the Green, a look at the statue of former Archdeacon of Llandaff, James Rice Buckley looking happy with himself in his bowler hat, and then onto the rather unusual war memorial designed by W. Goscombe John.

My book for today was one of the series of Real Cardiff books by local author Peter Finch. I do like these books which for me cram in prose, historical information and humour all the way through. When he penned this first of the series back in 2002 he didn’t appear enthralled with the inside of the cathedral layout.  I think things have improved somewhat over the intervening years.

Lunch was taken in Jaspers Tea Rooms, popular even in winter.  I had the cawl, Welsh for stew but it sounds much better and tastes better too come to that. There was just time for a mooch along the high street and the post-Christmas sales – half price Christmas cards etc, before catching the No.24 back to town.