RIP Kelly the Cat

It's with much regret that I have to inform you all of the passing of one of the worlds most awesome animals. A week before we were due to visit my dad back in my native land of Yorkshire, Kelly the cat had gone missing and sadly when found, it wasn't good news.

It was just weeks before we were due to visit sunny Yorkshire that he was still gathering mice for the new Kittens my dad had taken in, but he had also been getting a bit bigger and a bit slower - as all cats seem to do when they get a bit older - so it wasn't totally a shock when he did go missing. We went searching for him when we were over, checking up at the house he'd spent a week at before when he was being fed by two families simultaneously - the sneaky beast - but sadly we couldn't find him. We put up posters in local shops but kind of expected the worst, so it wasn't a big shock when his remains eventually showed up under a dividing bush between two houses across the road. The neighbour found his remains by the power of smell as you can imagine. Apparently the spot was next to one of his sun bathing areas and so by all accounts he likely curled up in a ball and never woke up, nothing seemed untoward at least, so it seems like natural causes. The best way out we can all hope for really, so that was a comfort.

That's the morbid bit over, so why was Kelly the Cat so awesome?

Well, first of all, he started life under the guise of a girl. We don't go rummaging around down there on our animals and we'd been told he was a she. I guess it's a tricky thing to know when the said feline has long fur. It wasn't long before a vet found the mistake, it's hard to be spay a cat that has no ovaries. Oops.

Thankfully, the name Kelly (as Kelly of the Stereophonics will attest) can be used for either gender without much bother so it was kept as initially intended - named after Leeds United legend and Republic of Ireland international footballer - Gary Kelly.

As far as cats go he wasn't one with a huge attention span, he was quite the live wire. We got him during my first year at high school and many a time I would be walking home from school and he'd meet me at the top of the road and walk all the way along side me back to the house, getting as far off the ground as he could whilst doing so by tight rope walking on walls, fences and gates, eager for some food and attention.

He tortured a fair few smaller creatures in his time, especially mice, but he also took on bigger competition. At least one time that we know of (which was witnessed) he had a face off for territory in the back garden with a fox twice his size. and won. Thankfully both animals survived the encounter though Kelly the Cat did come out of it with a cut or two. Similar cuts appeared once or twice over the years so he probably had other run ins with local wildlife too but we'll never really know.

Unlike the local wildlife though, his known run ins with humans was the exact opposite, well except my cousins leg but to be fair Kelly was given good reason to retaliate after being nudged out of the way so often with a foot. At home he always seemed strangely responsive to emotion, if you were feeling down he'd be over to sit on your lap and offer a purr. Strangely when my dad was going around the neighbours and the local area, the people he spoke to all knew who Kelly was, enjoyed him visiting their gardens and knew where his favourite spots were for prowling and lazing around.

Normally you find some people who despise cats in their garden but it seems either my dad lives near to people who are all just uber polite or who really liked having 'The Old Man' around since he seemed to use his own back yard as his main toilet spot, as it should be really.

And as he had been fertilising the garden for years, so it is he'll be fertilising the garden for even more because his burial was by the cherry tree in the garden.

An awesome cat and my best bud for many a year. I'll remember Kels as a crazy but kind nutter butter of a domestic tiger, he really was one of the family.

We're just hoping since they got to spend some time together that a little of Kelly rubbed off on the latest additions to my dads house, Nelix and Kes:

Nelix

Kes

Like their Star Trek namesakes, Nelix found himself branching out when he got stuck in the tree on one of his first adventures out and Kes has already tried flying the nest.

Kes even managed to leave the house one night and the only way out was a very partially opened 2nd story window. Thankfully both survived and will hopefully grow up to become awesome cats like Kelly.

The Rest of our Cardiff Adventure

Once we had finished exploring Cardiff Castle, we headed back to our hotel to make use of the Spa facilities to begin an evening of fun and relaxation.

I can't adequately describe how relaxing a dunk in a swimming pool and some time in a sauna and jacuzzi can be after travelling and sightseeing for 72 hours, but my best effort would be the feeling of taking sitting down on the sofa with a long beer or glass of wine after a long gym session. The only minor downside to the pool at the Cardiff Novotel was that the pool is quite small (and also used for swimming lessons) so it was a bit cramped if you're trying to swim when there are several people in it at once. After we had started to get wrinkly toes and fingers we headed back to the room and got dolled up for the night.

In some smart casual clothes, we first had a pre-wander drink in the hotel bar to check on our phones the times and options for our transport to the airport the next day and feeling better about having some times to aim for the next day, we set off on our walk down to Cardiff Bay.

On our way we walked passed the key sides that would have been the industrial docklands of Cardiff in the past which are now the open spaces that divide blocks of apartments and houses. The first waterway that we passed over on the road was a small stream, and there hiding under the industrial piping was a nesting bird and her young. It was all very cute.

It was then back on the path until we reached our destination. The first thing we saw was a big water feature and across the road, the bumps of the Wales Millennium Centre and the Water Tower in Roald Dahl Plass made most famous by the Dr Who spin off series Torchwood.

Cardiff was heavily used as a setting in the series and there Hub - aka Torchwood Three, sat over the fictional rift in time and space which ran under Cardiff and the Plass. The water tower in the show has a perception filter which is one of the ways that Jack his merry band of relatively short lived friends (for the most part), can enter the hub - via the lift on the slabs of stone in front of the tower.

As you can probably tell, I took lots of photos here before Norngirl got an itch! - the itch to be a kid again and ride the Carousel.

I tend to end up doing this sort of stuff one way or another so I just went along with it and we rode the magical horsies until the ride stopped. It was actually good fun. We must have looked suitably impressed anyway since the moment we got off the ride was flooded with people who came out of nowhere. maybe there really is a Torchwood hub under there!

After our ride taking in the view over the water and wondering what the Celtic Knot was all about, we made our way to look for somewhere to eat.

The first couple of places looked nice but it was Saturday night and everywhere was pretty much full. After a quick look we opted for Italian and headed along to Signor Valentino restaurant. The food and wine were nice but the view was better, it was a lively atmosphere, maybe a bit noisy when the stag and hens and other assorted drunken randomers were falling into and out of the bars down by the water front but it was a relaxed sort of busy. By the time we'd had our nice meal it had dropped dark and the light was shimmering over the water from the restaurant on the pier.

We made our way back to see the Roald Dahl Plass at night time and it looked even more impressive by night. I took a few photos of the same sights again but this time all lit up.

I have to admit it took our slightly tipsy heads a moment or two to work out what the windows of words actually said on the Millennium Centre. Trying to fathom the Welsh was beyond us but we picked out the English version: "In These Stones Horizons Sing"

A wander up Lloyd George Avenue and around the corner later and we were back at our hotel, we had a night cap (mine being a diet coke because I wanted to really enjoy the spa again in the morning without feeling too out of sorts) in the bar whilst the music channels on all the TV shows were playing Amy Winehouse videos as she'd passed away earlier that day. Between that and the shootings the day before in Norway it was quite a tragic news heavy weekend. We'd had a really nice night though and tragic events aside I was feeling very happy and very glad we'd made the detour to Cardiff instead of flying home directly.

The next morning we woke up and hit the spa to get our last bit of relaxing in. Sufficiently hydrated, cleansed, steams and cooked and cooled, we checked out and took both ourselves and our bags on a whistle stop run around the last places we really wanted to fit into the trip, first we walked back into the centre of town with the back of Cardiff City Centre skyline which oddly seemed to include a giant phallus.

A few more streets later and we took a closer look at the outside of the Millennium Stadium, it was rather impressive sat against the river like it is.

Next was a mercy run through the high streets of the city...

...to reach Sugarswirlz and Starbucks for Norngirl to get her next fix of Cupcake and Caffeine before a hurry back to the bus stop in time to eat our giant cupcakes before getting on the bus. Once on board the bus with our fellow passengers, we made the 11.7 mile trip to Cardiff Airport. The Airport reminded me of what Leeds Bradford used to be like, a little smaller than your average airport and not quite as well laid out as Belfast City. We made it back - eventually - on what was supposed to be a direct flight which, without prior notice (before getting to the gate at any rate) we were now told was also going to fly via Birmingham Airport to pick up more passengers. According to other regular passengers this was the 2nd time in 2 weeks the same flight had done this. So about an hour later than billed and an extra take off and landing later (even though we took off on time to start with) we arrived back in Belfast. Thanks for that BMIBaby.

It was a great football match inspired mini trip, hopefully the sort of thing we can do again in the not so distant future, not being delayed on a flight or bad things happening in the news mind you, no, the taking trips to new places and having a really nice time. I really liked Cardiff and would love to revisit the city at some point to really take in more of what the Welsh capital has to offer.

Visiting Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle was well worth the visit, the entrance fee was 11 pounds each for a regular ticket but worth every penny compared to a lot of other attractions I've visited in the UK and this is what we found.

We'd only been in Wales a few hours but we were heading home the next day and so we wanted to enjoy all we could of the city during our flying visit. It was a Saturday afternoon and we had found ourselves having a drink outside the walls of this gem of a castle.

Cardiff Castle is a Norman Castle built on a site of Roman history, developed into a palace by some wealthy Victorians and a castle whose exterior walls were utilised in World War II as an air raid shelter. The Castle is owned by Cardiff Council and is a truly fine example of an awesome inner city tourist attraction which is keeping it's history alive. That's a brief summary but there is obviously a lot more to it than that. Our visit lasted a couple of hours and we saw most of the site, my favourite part was the walk through the walls that were used as air raid shelters and the view from the top of the keep of the Norman Castle and the amazing decorations inside the Victorian palace.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't been so if you're visiting Cardiff and haven't yet taken it in, click away now, but the best way to describe what your missing is with a few photos. By the way here is a link to the opening times and prices etc in case any of this wets your appetite (and no, like anything else, I'm not being paid to advertise, it just impressed me that much I had to share).

Here are some of the scenes you might see:

The grounds of the castle.

The view out of an embrasure of the keep.

Stained Glass in the Mansion.

The ornate ceiling of the Victorian Mansion's Arab Room.

Mootilary madness.

A web of history.

And a bit of modern history with a walk within the walls.

And the view from the top of the keep looking out over the centre of Cardiff.