Going to the beach in Wales

Me at ‘Ogmore’ being very pensive

The beach in Wales

This is us camped out after the BBQ at the beach. This is after to tide moved in, so we’ve moved from the nice, sandy beach up onto the Rocks. Still comfy though.

‘The Crew’ and the village at Ogmore.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Well the term is winding down and exams are approaching. Well – for me and the medics anyways. Most other degrees are finishing their exams here at Bristol this week. Then a few luck people like Engineers, Dentists and Vets have ongoing exams. The medical students are the only ones still in classes (I think). We’ve got two more weeks of classes then a couple of days off and then our exam on June 15th. It’s pretty good, because the Wills Hall Ball is the next day on June 16th, so we’ll be exam free for that time. I’m planning to head home on June 24th provided the exam goes well! So I’m pretty much in study mode now – also, May was quite an expensive month, so I also need to stay in a bit.

Last Friday, I went to a party with the cast of the play I was in at the end of the second term (the Pre-clinical Review). We had a sort of bad-taste theme going on, so we had people come as very ‘bad-taste’ costumes (eg: Nazi, Monica Lewinski, Marmite (a rather revolting toast spread – looks like earwax, I apologize to anyone who likes Marmite). I went as part of the Adam West Batman cast. We had Batman, Robin, and I was the Riddler. He’s a green dude with question marks everywhere. It was great to have a night out with the cast – see everyone again as we’re not all in the same year of medicine and have a few good laughs. We had a few drinks as well.

Due to the long night out, my Saturday was quite uneventful. I did manage to play some squash. Sunday was also quite a relaxing day to be honest. I didn’t do much that day either. We had a nice roast dinner, I played some squash – as it’s been raining pretty much every day lately and I had some fish and chips for dinner.

On Tuesday, we got a bit of a break from the rain, so my friend Rich and I who often play Squash cancelled our game, and played some doubles tennis outdoors. I had another great match which finished up in time for dinner. That night I went out on a date, we went into Clifton for some drinks and mostly just chatted the night away. It went well, but it’s difficult to find time to go out now that exams are here.

On Wednesday again we were hoping for sun, but it rained. So I played some squash instead of going to the ‘Silly Sports’ day that was organized. Squash was good, I seem to be playing well lately due to the practice! That night was the pre-clinical year-end dinner. Year 1 and 2 medical students got together for an all you can eat Chinese buffet. Again, great to see many friends – and we finished off the night with Karaoke. I sang in two songs with others, but not on my own. I had a cold starting up, so I left early.

Due to the cold/stuffy nose, I stayed in on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I took the night off and I hung out with my North American friend in Wills (Kate) and Rich. We sat out on the Wills croquet lawn (yes, Wills Hall does have a croquet lawn!) and had some beers and Pimms. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned Pimms. It’s an English Liquor that has a fruity taste. So, you add it to Sprite, and usually pieces of Fruit are added such as Apple, Orange, Cucumber and Strawberries for taste. Mostly just played Guitar (Rich plays) and chatted. It was a great, relaxing night. On Friday I took got to bed nice and early and had about 12 hrs of sleep.

This was a long weekend here in England (bank holiday Monday). I didn’t do much on Sat/Sun – there was a Rugby match that I watched each day with some friends (we had to go to the pub because the game was only on Satellite). On Monday though, I was invited to go on a road trip to Wales. We got up pretty late and headed out at about 11:00am to go to the beach! It was beautiful in the morning. We stopped first in Bristol at ASDA (the British name for Wal-Mart – it was packed as it was the bank holiday). We bought some disposable BBQs, some beach toys, some burger/sausages and set off to Wales. It’s easy to get to from Bristol as there is a Bridge crossing the Bristol Channel between England and Wales that cuts off about 1-2hrs of the journey around the channel. We crossed the bridge and made it to a beach near a town call Bridgend, just past Cardiff. I think the beach was called ‘Ogmore.’ I’d never really been to Wales before, but it was really beautiful. There’s loads of hills – and tons and tons of Sheep (not only common to England, but even more so to Wales). I don’t think you could look at any bit of landscape without seeing a few white-dots on the hillside. With the iffy weather, we had some light rain at the start of our trip, but by the afternoon it was sunny. The wind was blowing, so I kept my sweatshirt on most of the time.

We mostly just sat around where we could. I dipped our feet in the freezing seawater a couple of times and played baseball/rugby/football(soccer). We did our BBQ at about 3:30, but we left it to warm up and played some football(soccer) and when we got back the BBQ had blown out – so a couple of us had to run out and find some lighter fluid, difficult to find on a bank holiday when most stores are closed! We did manage to find out and we enjoyed our sausages, hamburgers and marshmallows by dinner time. This was also after migrating up the beach a few times because the tide was rolling in quickly. After dinner a few of us went on a short hike about the coastline. It was really pretty, and I put some pics up to show you. There were a few sheep and bunnies about too. Got back to Bristol in the evening and got ready for class today.

Due to the day of yesterday – I had a full day of lectures, I paid attention most of the time, however, by then end of 5 hrs of lectures it was difficult to concentrate! So, I’m trying to get into study mode with exams fast approaching. Then home for the summer!

Hope all is well, I did notice the Ontario weather was 32degrees yesterday! Hope it’s not too humid for all you Canadians!

-Pete

Me and the Men on the Rocks when the tide was coming in

‘The Riddler Costume’, Pre-clinical dinner and singing Karaoke

Rugby on the Beach