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Wales:
Probably our favourite country, and somewhere we usually visit every year if we can.
Last year westest Wales, Newquay (yes there's a Newquay in Wales as well as Cornwall) to see the dolphins and this year porthcawl to see the welshies. The lovely couple Steve and Jackie (lovely boy) we met on holiday in turkey last year.
Well all that 'we must keep in touch' 'let's meet up next year' means we really should make an effort. Given that vikki and I never need an excuse to visit Wales and in particular the coastal Wales we planned our trip here to be the first of our respite weekends of the year. Jackie and Steve were pleased to hear of our plans and we arranged to meet up with them tonight for a pub meal and the promise of a pub crawl and kareoke! Not our usual Saturday night, but nor was a trip into Gumbet but we enjoyed that well enough in their company.
Now I'm sensing a pattern here.... In an attempt to avoid spending Christmas with us, my mum and Gordon went to New Zealand. Now either it was just very bad timing or it's a bad taste way of avoiding us .... I received a text from Jackie to say Steve's dad had been taken very ill and they had been with him at Cardiff hospital for the last two days so she didn't know when they would be home. Hmm ok well that does sound a bit extreme if it is an excuse.
Mind you vikki and I are now relishing the thought of 'just the two of us' time and relieved that we may have escaped kareoke after all.
After a brief stop at a Bridgend shopping outlet and sainsburys to purchase the essentials left behind... Toothbrush, coat and various other toiletries ( I do hope I packed with our housemates better than I did for myself) , we arrived in porthcawl just in time to catch the sunset. Lush it is (Stacey from Gavin and Stacey accent applied here please).
We found butterfly guest house with ease, and were delighted that it is situated just yards from the prom and even more delighted that it wasn't cold, wet or windy.
Now, despite being banned from picking accommodation, since the last debacle that was Turgutreis oh and the one before that on an organic farm without showers and only a composting loo, I managed to convince vikki that this time things would be different because trip advisor said good things and they had come first in the tv programme 'Four in a Bed'. In any case they also had running water, showers and a loo (of the ordinary flushing variety) in each room. So she agreed to my choice of accommodation.
What I neglected to tell her was that every room is themed, butterfly themed and given my love of butterflies I kept quiet on that matter.
It's not just the bedrooms that are adorned with butterflies, the bedding, furniture, curtains, pictures, ornaments and so on.... There are literally butterfly memorabilia or references everywhere... Even our host The lovely smiley Theresa has butterfly tattoos, wearing a butterfly blouse when we arrived and a butterfly apron to cook breakfast. She lloves them she does (Stacey accent again please) . I love it! She made vikki giggle when she said 'I'm going to stop now because anymore and it would be tacky!'. I'm thinking maybe the welsh have a different definition of tacky to the English because, I hate to say it, it is just a little tacky. But tastefully tacky ... No it's tacky. And clean and welcoming and well decorated and comfortable and quiet and restful and in a perfect location.
Our room called 'sleepy sulphur' and is bedecked in every imaginable manifestation of a butterfly in a kind if greeny yellowy hue and situated on the top floor next door to 'red admiral' which I'm guessing might be a red and black themed room ... Only a guess.
I giggled like a kid when Clive lead us into our room, so very 'diary of an Edwardian lady' so very female, pretty, twee, quaint ... I'm resisting the word tacky. But wait what is that twinkling in the corner of the room .... The en suite!
In complete and utter contrast the shower en suite, which occupies the very tallest part of this former attic and reaches up some 12 feet, comprises walls and ceiling cladded in black laminate shiny plastic with iridescent silver and rainbow flecks all over it. The fixtures and fittings black, silver and crystals that twinkle rainbow colours in the artificial light. I did actually laugh out loud, I don't know if it was shock or delight ... Maybe a bit if both! Now this tops the tacky scale in my book.
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