Is Your Journey Really Necessary?

I've been planning a break away from Aberdare for the past few weeks. The stifling, small-minded, and claustrophobic ( polyphobic , in fact) nature of the place has really been getting me down lately. I'm bored to tears with seeing the same bloody faces and having the same mind-numbing conversations day in and day out (see A Brief Interlude .) Last weekend I decided to do something about it. I've had a tent for a number of years, but I've never actually used it myself. Mother bought it for me as a Xmas present after I went to Cropredy with the boys one year, and it seemed as through I might be doing festivals more often. In the event, that was my one and only festival. For various reasons I never bothered going again. Leafy borrowed the tent one weekend when he went camping, ages ago. Other than that, it's lived in the cupboard under the stairs for its entire life. I decided that it, and I, could do with some fresh air. I had a bit of money from a proofreading job I...

Well, it's less than half an hour before I set off for my expedition to the Forest of Dean. I've been through innumerable websites and compared a huge variety of bus timetables before deciding on my itinerary. Here it is: Aberdare (dep)                0950 Merthyr (arr)                 1030 Merthyr (dep)                 1100 Abergavenny (arr)           1225 Abergavenny (dep)          1530 Monmouth (arr)               1615 Monmouth (dep)             1715 Coleford (arr)               1735 As you can see from this, I'm actually not travelling for longer than I'm travelling. It would be nice to have a look around Abergavenny and Monmouth for a little while, but not with a tent and a rucksack in tow. There won't be anywhere to leave them, either, so I think I'll probably end up killing time in a pub or a café with the crossword and/or a book. Now, remind me again, what was all that crap that politicians used to talk about 'integrated public transport...

In just under two weeks' time, Trecynon (and the wider area of the Valleys, in fact) will resound to the relentless drone of motorcycles. The National Road Races have taken place in the Park, only a tyre's throw from my house, since I was in my early teens. When I lived in my old house, it wasn't too bad. I was too young to go to the pubs anyway, and if the Park was out of bounds for one Saturday a year, it wasn't any great loss. When I lived in Llwydcoed, we were more or less within earshot, but we still didn't get the full effects. I was working in Pontypridd, and later on in Cardiff, so I generally managed to be out of the house before the first wave of bikers arrived in the village. When I got back to Aberdare in the evenings, the pubs would be full of people winding down after the day's event (see Motorcycle Emptiness .) My young friend Cath P., was in Cardiff one day and called into the shop on her way to the station. We made our way home on the train, and...