Mutterings for the Minority

We’ve never been ones to buy special occasion cakes from the big supermarkets, always preferring to order them direct from the local bakery shop.

But as with anything in life, it’s nice to have a change every now and then, so we were intrigued when our next door neighbour told us about the stunning birthday cake and specially made cupcakes they’d had made for their son’s 4th birthday.

The cake was made by a local lady from Swansea, better known as Mrs Cupcake.  After hearing of our neighbour’s rave review, I was curious to find out more and went to see what was being said about Mrs Cupcake on Facebook - which is where my neighbour first heard of her.

It quickly became obvious that these were pretty unique cupcakes.  There were loads of pictures and comments from people commenting on cupcakes they’d had made for all manner of occasions – new baby, birthdays, corporate events, anniversaries, christenings, wedding cupcakes and even thank you cupcakes for teachers!

Now being of sweet tooth (as I’ve mentioned previously in my blog) it didn’t take me long to head off over to the Mrs Cupcake website to get in touch with her and place an order.

With my order placed, I couldn’t wait to see if these homemade cupcakes – which everyone was raving about – really were as nice as everyone had said.

I’d ordered a box of 6 cupcakes (tempting though it was to order 12!) which comprised of 3 different flavoured cupcakes – vanilla, lemon and chocolate.

Given that it was the whole family that was going to be munching the cakes, I thought it best to get a mixture – just to keep everyone happy.

A couple of days later my cupcakes turned up and I was mightily impressed.  The cupcakes arrived in a pretty giftbox complete with hand tied ribbon and were actually hand delivered by Mrs Cupcake herself!

We even got to meet Mr Cupcake (who was driving) and what a lovely, friendly couple they were.

Tea time couldn’t come quick enough as we were all eager to taste the picture perfect cupcakes which smelt as enticing as they looked.

Being the gent that I am, I decided to let the ladies have first choice on what flavoured cupcake they’d like to try first – whilst at the same time secretly praying it wasn’t the chocolate ones!

Thankfully my mam, wife and daughter chose to try the lemon and vanilla ones respectively.

Lemon cupcake

Vanilla Cupcake

My son and I took care of the chocolate cupcakes, but not before sharing a slight (and I mean slight!) slither of each with the girls just for them to have a taste.

Chocolate cupcake

Everyone remarked how soft and light the sponge of each cupcake was and how the toppings added the right balance of sweetness and flavour to give the cupcakes a perfect mix of taste and texture.

The general concensus from all was “MMMmmmm”  quickly followed by “Do you mind if I try that one?”.

Whilst none of us could agree on which was THE favourite out of the 3 flavours, we were all in agreement on one thing – that Mrs Cupcake sure does make some exceedingly gorgeous homemade cupcakes.

And with Halloween and Christmas fast approaching, I’m rather tempted to place a few more orders, but not before trying to win some cupcakes by following Mrs Cupcake on Twitter first!

So all in all, everything I’d read and heard about the homemade cupcakes from Mrs Cupcake was spot on and I’d recommend ordering some special cupcakes for that special occasion – or just because you love cakes.

And if you’re not happy with the cupcakes, then I’ll happily take them off your hands and eat them for you

With Wales’ chances of qualifying for Euro 2012 extinguished quite some time ago, perhaps the most significant point about this match was that it was the very first senior competitive international to be held at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.

Switzerland still harboured hopes of qualification – pending other results going their way – whereas for Wales the game was all about building on the win over Montenegro and the encouraging (if undeserved) defeat against England.

On a personal note, this was my son’s very first Wales international game and it’s somewhat bizarre to think that almost 30 years ago today, I too went to watch my very first Wales game at Swansea’s now defunct Vetch Field.

I remember that game for all the wrong reasons, as it was the infamous 1982 World Cup qualifier against Iceland on 14th October 1981, when the floodlights failed and the game was abandoned at 2-2 .  It was also the night the lights went out on our qualifying campaign too!

Fast forward 30 years and here I was explaining to my son about the subtle differences between watching the Swans play and international football – the anthems, the away fans travelling from Europe, the different languages (not dissimilar to the Premier League I know!), qualification for a tournament, play acting, etc.  The majority of which – as you can imagine – flew right over the head of a 7 year old!!

Thankfully the inclusion of Swans’ Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen in the starting line-up did at least mean he recognised some of the players

Spot the Swans

Prior to kick-off, in my heart I was praying for an exciting game with goals and a Wales win, but my head felt we were more likely to see a drab stalemate between what I felt were two evenly matched sides.

After an impeccably observed minutes silence from the 12,300 odd crowd (take note some West Bromwich Albion fans) - in memory of Mike Dye and the Gleision Miners – the game kicked off with Wales quickly on the front foot.

Regular readers will know that I’m no Henry Winter or Harry Harris and as a result I’ll always leave the match reporting stuff to the professionals.  I will however give my take on what I saw (possibly through rose tinted spectacles I hasten to add).

• The Welsh build up play was excellent but the final pass or movement in the final 3rd was poor and as a result numerous half decent chances were wasted;
• Switzerland seemed content to rely on breaking quickly and attacking at set-peices.  Tactics which I suspect is the reason they don’t score that many goals;
• Wayne Hennessey didn’t have a great deal to do, although I do find him suspect under crosses;
• Craig Bellamy is as exciting as he is frustrating – good one minute, poor the next.  He does some good creative work with the ball creating opportunities for himself/others and yet on other occasions gives the ball away far too easily;
• Ashley Williams and Neil Taylor were excellent in defence and you can see the benefit of them having played in Premier League – even after only a short time.  Confident, classy and experienced;
• Joe Allen did extremely well in his first full start in a Wales senior jersey, although he didn’t have as much foot on the ball time as he is accustomed to due to that role being assumed by skipper Aaron Ramsey.  One sublime trap and swivel on the edge of the penalty area and subsequent pass upfield sticks in my mind though;

Spot the ball

• The 700 or so colourful Switzerland fans were in good – if repetitive – voice until the hour mark (when Wales scored).  I do hope they found their cow(s) eventually as well… although the constant ringing of the bells seemed to indicate that they hadn’t.  They also had a class “Love Swiss Football and Welsh Pubs” banner too;
• Those in the crowd can’t have failed to be impressed by the constant Swiss chanting throughout the game of “Ole“, which actually sounded sort of like “Ashley” - but spoken with a German accent ;-)
• The Welsh fans chanting/singing (if you can call it that) was sporadic to say the least and was mainly undertaken by the large numbers of exuberant teenagers in attendance – which was great to see.  ’Twas a bit chilly for being topless though lads!;
• The various Welsh flags draped around the Liberty – Jacs y Gogledd, Wrexham Reds, Y Fflint, Carmarthen Jacks, Caneri Cymraeg – seemed to indicate a good cross-Wales spread of support, but one which didn’t necessarily always ‘come together’ for their country (which is a shame);

• I counted at least two occasions when Aaron Ramsey and Craig Bellamy had a difference of opinion on certain passages of play.  Both of which Ramsey appeared to largely ignore, rather than react.  In troubled times, I suspect this sort of behaviour could become divisive;
• Gareth Bale is incredibly fast and caused Switzerland umpteen problems on the wing.  I’d love to see him and Nathan Dyer have a race down the wing;
• After Wales scored the 2nd goal, they sat back inviting pressure from Switzerland.  This wasn’t helped by some casual defending by Darcy Blake, Andrew Crofts and David Vaughan – much to the displeasure of Ashley Williams (whom told them so too!);
• Steve Morison’s workrate was excellent and I can see him being a handful for Norwich when they entertain the Swans a week Saturday;
• Never give children in your company too much to drink (non-alcoholic) whilst watching the game, as invariably they need to go to the toilet during either half!
• The Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers was the target of abuse from both sets of fans – which illustrates what a great game he had (not).  Maybe he should stick to running his supermarket;
• The £3 match programme was shocking – lacking in content (and any real depth) and sparse at 50 pages – including 15 pages of adverts!  In fact I’ve seen better League One programmes;

The home of Premier League football in Wales

Now being someone whom has an extremely sweet tooth I am, as you can imagine, a big lover of sweets.

In years gone by, a shopping trip to the high street also meant a visit to Woolworths or a good old-fashioned sweets shop for a big bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets.  Cola bottles, pear drops, fruit salad, black jacks, candy necklaces, jelly beans – you name it and I’d have tried it!

Sadly, the demise of these high street shops meant that I had to take my quest for retro sweets online and this is where I came across the rather cool concept of The Sweet Club.

As the name suggests, the Sweet Club is just that – an online sweet shop where as a member, you get to choose from hundreds of different and old-fashioned sweets.  The sweets are then delivered to your door (home, work or wherever) once a month or fortnight, it’s your choice of what and when.

The way it works is simple, you choose your 8 packets of sweets online and they get delivered in an attractive red box, with each pack of your chosen sweets individually wrapped and labelled – which is handy should you get your different flavoured bonbons mixed up!

My Sweet Club selection box

New Sweet Club members also get to try the ‘Introductory Sweet Box Offer’ of a their chosen sweet selection box for Just £4.95 including FREE delivery.

This is a saving of £5 off usual price of £9.95 and there’s also no on-going committment to buy again – but after trying them, I’m sure you will!

Right now I’ve described how this online sweet club works, it’s time to talk about the important bits – the sweets themselves.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my 7 year old son helped me choose which packets of retro sweets we bought.  The choice of sweets was huge ranging from candy to fudge, chocolate to liquorice and even sugar free sweets!

My favourite - Pear Drops

Top of my sweetie shopping list however were the legendary Pear Drops – my all time favourite hard boiled sweet.  Their long lasting flavour, tinged with a little sour kick once at the core, really keeps me wanting to pop ‘just one more’ into my mouth.

Once they’d been added to the shopping cart, it was time to satisfy my son’s craving or rather curious need to try some Bubble Gum!  This was quickly followed by his new found favourite – ABC Letters.

This was rather amusing, as not only did he love the sweet, crumbly candy taste, but also the fact that he could spell out words with them as well.  Who said sweets were bad for you

Learn the alphabet with sweets!

After a quick consultation with my wife, some more of the traditional sweets were added to our pack of 8, in the shape of Chocolate flavoured Bonbons, Orange Chocolate Nibbles, Jelly Beans and her all time favourite hard boiled sweets Rhubard & Custard.

The REAL Rhubarb and Custard

She wasn’t disappointed either and remarked how “they taste as good now as they did when I was a teenager” – which without wanting to incur her wrath – I’ll say was only 20 or so years ago… give or take a year.

So here I am now writing this – having spent most of the week munching my way (with the family)  through lots of different sweets – down to the last packet, the Mixed Selection.

Retro sweets anyone?

We’ll savour it that’s for sure – especially as it’s the last one – but not before making a visit to www.thesweetclub.co.uk to see what other wonderful selection of sweets our new found retro sweet shop can provide us with.

And whilst I slowly let this solitary fizzy cola bottle disintegrate in my mouth, I might start following The Sweet Club on Twitter or start entering some of the sweet competitions run on The Sweet Club Facebook page in the hope of winning or finding a discount code for my next shop.

Right, now where did those other sweets go…..

For the second time this month, I saw myself heading off to the big smoke to see my beloved Swans take on another premier league giant – this time in the shape of the multi-national, multi-million pound stars of Chelsea.  They’re quite a bit like Manchester City really, only poorer.

The trip took on all the more significance as I was accompanied by Loughor’s very own answer to Bear Grylls – Plastic Jack – whom was making his Swans away game debut.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt travelling to lots of Swans away games, it’s that leaving early is always a good idea. As a result, we were on the road by 07:30 and made speedy progress along the M4 to our tube station destination (try saying that after a few beverages) of Hounslow West – which is just off junction 3 of the M4.

In fact, I’d recommend catching the tube from Hounslow West for ANY game in London (especially if you’re coming along the M4) as it’s free to park there and costs just £8 for unlimited day travel on the underground between zones 1-5, which pretty much covers all the London based teams.

Here is Plastic Jack posing in his one and only Swans jersey at the tube station.

Once aboard the tube we headed for Earls Court, where we were meeting Director Jack (of Alex Jones’ ballet fame) and Teacher Jack (who was really an egg chaser in disguise).

Walking down Earls Court Road (just like the old Swans song – minus the Mumbles of course) we came across Penywern Road and just for a micro-second, we thought we were in Ystalyfera… until we noticed the abundance of grand houses.  Right that’s enough of the geography, moving on swiftly…

We all met up in a pub called the Courtfield which is pretty much opposite the tube station and was already rather busy with Chelsea fans by the time we got there at 11:30.  It was a decent enough place – if a bit dark and dingy – but the welcome was good with no bother whatsoever.  It was rather amusing however to see the bemused looks from the locals as we proceeded to speak to each other in Welsh – with the odd bit of English here and there.

It was also at this point that I realised that Plastic Jack and Teacher Jack really needed to go and get a room together – such was the intensity and passion with which they spoke about the Scarlets and Welsh rugby in general.  Now although I’m an ex-rugby player myself, I did find all this talk a bit weird, given that this was after all a football away day!

As noon approached we headed off to the Kings Head pub where we’d arranged to meet a larger group of TwitterJacks (whom are Swansea City fans on Twitter for those of you not in the know) for some pre-match food and conversation. It was good to see the Oxford Jacks once again and to finally get to meet Windsor Jack – although I did find his story about Fatima Whitbread’s sexiness rather disturbing to say the least!

I’d been warned that the barman at the Kings Head was of Cardiff origin, but unfortunately such facts couldn’t be substantiated on the day.  However, judging by the paltry, wafer thin, dried edge, piece of ham served with my egg and chips (costing £6.95) I suspect he might well have been exacting a wee bit of revenge. Bless it must be hard supporting a lower league football team

By 14:15 we were on our way to the game and opted against catching the tube to Fulham Broadway in favour of a walk on what was bizarrely a surprisingly warm and sunny September day. We made the 20 minute walk to the ground without any bother – despite passing a couple of “spotters” – and were soon queueing to get into the shed!

After being searched no less than 4 times, we made our way to the inner concourse and I can see why it’s called the ‘Shed End’.  Space wasn’t at a premium (unlike Arsenal) and you can see that Stamford Bridge is a ground that has been built up over the years as the club has grown, or rather as the bank balance has.

It was also nice to see a collection being made outside the ground for the Swansea Valley Miners Appeal Fund, as well as Chelsea donating the monies from their match day raffle and offering to double to the amount raised.  A nice gesture indeed from a club whose reputation is probably more associated with the infamous ‘Chelsea Headhunters’ of the 1970′s than being a club of goodwill and respect.  Da iawn.

So what of the game, well I’ll summarise my observations in the form of bullet points – as is the norm for me nowadays – rather than re-iterate what you can read elsewhere in terms of a full match report.

• As has been the case with all 6 PL games to date, we started off well and didn’t appear overawed by the stature of our opponents – which is always a good thing.  In fact Chelsea appeared somewhat rattled by the lack of ‘respect’ – for want of a better word – that we showed them;
• It was also quite noticeable that until the Torres goal, we’d restricted Chelsea to long range efforts on goal and crazy as it sounds in a 4-1 defeat, I’ve seen us play a heck of a lot worse defensively than that;
• That said, at least 2 of the Chelsea goals were sloppy in my opinion and I felt that Vorm wasn’t as quick to react as he had been in previous games. That said, he did make a couple of other good saves though;
• The Torres tackle was shocking and I shudder to think what state would have been on Mark Gower’s leg/ankle if he had made full contact with his 2 footed raised feet challenge!
• We created several good goal scoring opportunities but a lack of cutting edge and luck once again haunts us in front of goal – especially away from home;
• The video I have of one of these unlucky chances (Nathan Dyer hitting the crossbar) can’t be shared with you right now, as YouTube and the Premier League have issued me with a copyright infringement warning!! I’ll tell you more about that later in the week;
• The Swans fans reaction to Ashley Williams’ goal spoke volumes about how passionate we are about the club and indeed about how realistic the majority are about our PL journey (i.e. just enjoy every single minute);

• Overall we simply couldn’t compete for the full 90 minutes with the pace, power and overall class of the expensively assembled Chelsea team;
• My picks for the Swans were Leon Britton, Garry Monk and Mark Gower – with decent contributions from Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer;
• I’m still not convinced by Lita or Routledge.  Lita seemed well off the pace (unlike last weekend) and I can’t help but feel that Routledge’s heart simply isn’t in wearing a Swans shirt.  Both of which were in stark contrast to Danny Graham, who came on and seemed prepared to run through a brick wall, such was his work rate and enthusiasm. We need players like that if we’re going to do well this season;
• The chants of “Swansea Reject” and “You Jack Bast*rd” at Frank Lampard whilst he was warming up were quality and even he managed to have a chuckle at them;
• The 3,100+ Jacks were once again in fine voice, with the “You’re only here to watch the Swans” chant appearing to amuse the locals somewhat;
• Thankfully – in terms of noise – Stamford Bridge wasn’t a library, but perhaps more akin of a kindergarten.  I find this rather odd – but suspect it’s the norm for numerous reasons up and down the country (for reasons I won’t go into here!);
• The stewarding was far from friendly and in some causes bordered on harassment – even to the extent of ushering us out after the game – despite there still being long queues! There were also issues because of the language barrier in some cases;
• Seeing Petr Cech ask Scott Sinclair for his jersey was rather a strange sight.  Even Scotty was taken aback and pointed to Michel Vorm as if to say you want to swap goalkeepers jerseys? Cech’s response was to once again point at Sinclair… they duly swapped shirts.  To date, it has always been the other way around!

After the final whistle blew, I took comfort in the fact that we’d acquitted ourselves relatively well and scored our first away goal in the premier league. The fact is we’d simply been outdone by a classy top 4 outfit and there was certainly no shame in that.

Upon leaving the ground, we encountered our one and only bit of confrontational banter with a couple of Chelsea “fans” whom were visibly inebriated/high as kites.  We later learned that these two beauties and their accompanying “well fit birds” (NOT) hailed from Devon or rather the Chelsea supporters club from that area.

After the initial (and oh-so predictable) anti-Welsh comments, we then had the laughable… “We’re from Exeter, you know them, you Swans were playing them only a few seasons ago, remember? Only 90 minutes away from non-league remember? You’ll be playing them again soon!”.  Now as much as this got under my skin and I was tempted to give some verbal retort, I decided that it simply wasn’t worth the bother.  After all, they probably couldn’t read and they couldn’t write, but apparently they could drive a tractor!?

It also begged the question of course as to why they weren’t supporting Exeter City and not Chelsea, but heck we know the answer to that don’t we.  Bloody plastics

The remainder of our walk – including a short cut through the vast yet overgrown Brompton cemetery – was pleasant and we were stopped outside several pubs (the Imperial and Prince of Wales being two which I remember) by Chelsea fans wanting to have a friendly natter, offer of a pint or two and a farewell hand-shake (not that sort!) before moving on.

All the Chelsea fans we met were generally complimentary about our style of play, Nathan Dyer, Angel Rangel, how noisy the Swansea fans were and the predictable – yet condescending - “we hope you’ve enjoyed your day out”.

We duly arrived at West Brompton tube station and proceeded to board the next tube to Earls Court in order to change for the final leg of our tube journey to Hounslow.  Trust us then to find the one tube full of stone island clad Swans fans with the 10+ British Transport Police officers in tow.  All I can say is I bet the train journey from Paddington must have been an interesting one!

After queuing for a short space of time, we were on our way to Hounslow and the M4 was beckoning by 18:30.  Whilst at Hounslow tube station, we did our good deed for the day and gave our unlimited day travel passes to two unsuspecting ladies queuing to get their tickets. Despite us not speaking Polish, they were happy and so were we.

The journey home was rather eventful! We almost ran out of fuel and thankfully we just made it to Magor services in time.  Although it was at the services we were encountered some rather strange people whom thought it hilarious to play football in the gents toilets – complete with imaginary ball, sliding tackles and Gordon Banks’ heroics.  Messy and bizarre.

Fair play to Plastic Jack for being our driver for the day, he did a splendid job and I was back home by 21:30.  So all in all it was another enjoyable and eventful away day with the Swans and my Scarlets loving, egg chasing, Plastic Jack friend appears to have now caught the away day bug too.

I do wish he’d stop calling it “soccer” though…

With the original British Heart Foundation 2011 South Wales Bike Ride postponed in July due to the Fforestfach factory fire, it was good to get the green light for the event this time around.

Until this year, the charity ride was known as the British Heart Foundation Gower Bike Ride – I don’t know why it changed – but judging by the numbers involved today it seemed as popular as ever. It’s just a shame the atrocious weather couldn’t have been more accommodating, but I guess that’s the risk you take with a bike ride in mid-September.

The other (welcome) change was the addition of a 50 mile route to this year’s event, which in combination with the 29 and 16 mile route options meant that all cycling needs and abilities were catered for.

This was my 4th BHF bike ride in these parts and I simply couldn’t resist the challenge offered by the 50 mile route. Here is an overlay of the course as recorded by my Garmin:

Basically in order to ‘fit in’ the 50 miles, the route continued along Carmarthen road, through Penllergaer, Pontlliw, Pontardulais, Llanedi, Fforest before looping back through Pontardulais and then onto Grovesend, Gorseinon and Llwchwr before joining the 29 mile route in Gowerton.

As I’d expected – and been told by far more experienced cyclists – this route ‘extension’ wasn’t very forgiving and there were plenty of challenging climbs along the way! The elevation chart below illustrates this perfectly

Whilst it was certainly a challenge, I think the driving wind and rain for the majority of the first 20 odd miles made things far more difficult than perhaps they would have been otherwise. Although having said that, the thought of doing it in July amidst a 25°C plus temperature isn’t exactly ideal either!

I was fortunate enough to escape having a puncture – although I saw plenty who did – but my achilles heel was certainly my continued acquaintance with my cleats! Twice I managed to fall off before even reaching the halfway mark of the route.

The first time was at a set of traffic lights in Gorseinon. I successfully stopped and got my left foot out of the pedal… however, whilst adjusting myself – or rather my shorts – I lost balance and slowly (gracefully?) fell over to my right. Thankfully, the lights had only just changed – so apologies to the blonde lady driving a silver Mazda, I really wasn’t attempting to land on your car bonnet!

The second time was through mechanical failure – honestly. Whilst climbing up Ystrad road towards the B4295 going through Gowerton, I managed to jump gears and my chain came off… the next thing I was in the hedge, well brambles to be precise. Now I was nursing two sore buttocks, dented pride and had a chain to fix

During my downtime fixing the chain, at least half a dozen or so riders whom passed by, offered their assistance or asked if I was ok. Thanks to each and every one of you – it was a nice gesture and shows that there are decent, genuine people out there after all (which isn’t always the case at sporting events such as this).

I’m glad to say the rest of the ride passed without incident and the only items of interest worth mentioning were the fact that the showers began to become less frequent and some guy doing the 29 mile course on a unicycle! Fair play that must take some doing – especially giving the conditions and amount of climbing – respect to you whomever you are.

After all the climbing, it was a welcome (and speedy) descent down Mayals road and it was time to go flat out along Mumbles road with one eye on the clock and the other on the finishing line in the Recreation ground next door to St. Helens.

According to my Garmin, I covered 51.20 miles in 3 hours 47 minutes, averaging 13.5 mph with a top speed of 36.8 mph (probably down Mayals road!) and burnt 4,088 calories in the process.

I was relatively pleased with my time – the fastest I have ever done 50 miles – but no doubt I will pay for it tomorrow… especially if my butt cheeks are anything to go by!

Unfortunately, I have to round off my blog on a sour note. Without wanting to sound as though I’m… (a) a miserable 40 year old git or (b) a do-gooder, I do find it extremely stupid, annoying and contradictory that some people taking part in the event, see the need to stop at various pubs along the 29 mile route to have an alcoholic drink.

Apart from it being dangerous – you are after all in control (allegedly) of a mode of transport on a public highway – it kind of flies in the face of raising money for the British Heart Foundation don’t you think?