Tuesday 5th June 2012
Our Aberdyfi bungalow was set
amongst others on a zig zaggy trail road up a hill. The car journey upwards required the foot on
first gear and lots of gas from driver Jan.
We arrived after tea time and were
keen to start making the boy’s tea.
While putting on the bed covers, I heard the words, I least like to hear
on arriving at a holiday base: ‘Mike - We have a problem’. Returning to the kitchen, there was smoke
coming from the oven. The smoke alarm
was unmoved or unworking not adding any shrill noise to the undesirable
kitchen scenario.
Jan likes problems to be
immediately identified with words that broadly mean ‘can resolve’. My face emerging from the smoke, possibly a
bit darker than before, and none the wiser, initially infuriated.
However as some smoke dispersed, I could see that there was an uncleaned tray
of oil at the bottom of the oven. It looked like some previous occupants had
cooked some roast meat. I removed this,
poured the oil away and we used up our one sponge to give the tray a clean.
We opened the door and windows,
letting in some cool June evening air. Our
surroundings , when we were able to take stock of them, were great, as good as any view I can recall. Our hill view looked down to an estuary
surrounded by great landscape and the tide was coming in.
The water in our toilet bowl was
yellow. I pulled the flush but the bowl
refilled with more of the same coloured water. Our bath also filled up with this. Jan reminded me that the bungalow literature
said that there might be some colouring of the water but it’s perfectly good to
use. Perhaps it’s like the Donegal soil
tainted water that is said to have health enhancing properties. None the less, we weren’t ready to drop the
boys into a bath full of this coloured water.
We wouldn’t forgive ourselves if this generated slow moving soupy
ripples outwards. We showered the boys
instead where the colour wasn’t so apparent to the trained eye.
Wednesday 6th June 2012
Using the coastal road route, we
headed north to take a ride on the famous Blaenau Ffestiniog steam train. We planned to call at Portmerion
afterwards. The coast road was great
with its scenery and ruins (or perhaps remnants from the burnt holiday homes era) but it
wasn’t the quickest. Waiting at some temporary traffic lights, we realised we
would miss our scheduled train, leaving a two hour gap until the next one was
due to depart. We headed to the Portmerion
tourist village instead. Here there was
a visible amount of classic cars and a rally was taking place. I first became aware of the existence of the
village during the screening of Prisoner repeats in the early nineties on
Channel Four. This ushered in a brief
vogue for the sixties drama and those penny farthing stickers turned up on the
walls of my college with the accompanying words I am a free man. Today, I
fulfilled a twenty year old wish to visit the place but instead of striding
around, chin up, in modish gear or driving a classic car, I ill humouredly chased
the boys around as they ran their separate ways. ‘Ed is too far away from you…by the
colonnades’ yelled Jan on a bench before rejoining a mobile phone conversation
with Mum.
With the next train ride from Porthmadog
looming, we left after an hour. It
became quite a dash. Actually there was a train stop close to
where we were at Portmerion that would have been ideal and allowed us more time
at the village. I’ve read some travel writer’s accounts on
this railway service. It doesn’t get
warm write ups – the likes of Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux are usually several weeks into
their UK journey and weary of steam train enthusiasts ('Lets play at trains' the former said). Having seen it featured on CBeebies, we were
coming at it from a different tack, something that the children may enjoy. Dolphin shows and steam
train excursions seem to have become our away day outing of choice.
The train had first
class and third class carriages. We used
the latter, small habitable benches that faced each other. I had a look through the windows of a first
class carriage. There were detachable
chairs positioned around tables for a more pub snug feel and, indeed, drinks
could be ordered. Our hour long ride
revealed a picturesque panorama of greenness and Sam, two, remarked ‘the ride
is bumpy’. Coming up to Bleaneau Ffestiniog
we went into a darkened tunnel for quite a period. Our talk halted but perhaps we should have
seen how long we could hold a conversation in such pitch blackness. I enjoyed the expressions on the boy’s faces when we emerged back in
brightness.
The TV tonight was wall to wall Jubilee
hideousness. We didn’t come to Mid Wales
to get away from it but feel glad that we did at this time of the year.
Thursday 7th June 2012
We took the coast road and modest
toll bridge north in anticipation of kids' entertainments at Barmouth. We stopped at Aberdyfi, and on the promenade watched
some grandparents and kiddies partake in some crabbing activity. Excitement beckoned when the wind blew a
bucket of the said crabs over initiating a chase and netting of the errant crabs.
At Barmouth, we decided to eat at
the Pavilion Café.
There was a big sign which warned against outsiders using the toilets
with words more or less stipulating that there is eagle eyed monitoring of this. It looked like that it
had been designed by the same people that manufacture army range warnings. Jan had been in earlier and committed
some civil disobedience in not paying the requested 10p. Service at the till was surly but the place looked
well maintained and we heard some people saying of the lunch ‘this is actually
ok’ which was about right.
It became very windy and the rain
was relentlessly coming down. We headed to the
amusement arcade and filled a plastic tub with twopenny pieces which Jan and Ed
fed into the Penny Falls Machines. I
took Sam out towards the rides, got some tokens from to the booth, and led him to the carousels
where the lad working them dashed from one ride to the other to pull the lever. As the rain (and probably chip lunch),
lowered our spirits we went back to the car park to decide what to do next.
The list of other options such as
castles and dank caves lacked appeal in the weather and we decided, for the
second day running, to go on a steam train at Tywyn.
It was actually a children themed day with ‘Duncan’ train, one of Thomas the
Train Engine’s clan to be present. When we got there, however, there was a
notice saying Duncan was poorly and wouldn’t be with us today. This seemed unsatisfactory; we needed some
American kid to step forward, look the period uniformed staff member in the eye
and say ‘Now tell me the real reason why we can’t ride on it’. After yesterday’s long journey, we stayed on for a mere one stop from Tywyn, waited in the sheltered train stop for a bit before thumbing down a packed
returning train where we were allowed in the guard’s carriage.
In the evening, sitting tired while
some exhaustive Royal coverage played out on TV, we heard a gurgling sound from
the kitchen which sounded like a lot of water going down the plug hole. In a way, this is what happened. While rain water was plentiful outside it had
run dry inside. Our tap supply of Amber coloured Cambrian Hills produce was gone. I rang the number on a laminated card and was told that this was a site
problem and the water people are looking into it. Couldn’t say when it was coming back on. This meant problems for washing up and pulling the
flush but we had a bit of bottled water for the kettle.
Friday
8th June 2012 Exit, pursued
by some rainclouds
We managed to pull the flush – just,
but, like the previous people who stayed here, left a ‘present’ some dishes, cutlery and
mugs that we were unable to wash. Then
we departed an hour early. To put things in perspective, the next day, this
part of Mid Wales hit the national headlines when it was hit by
some horrendous flooding with people having to be evacuated from their homes
and caravans, leaving a whole lot of damage behind.
Footnote This
was the response from the people with which we rented the bungalow:
Many
thanks for your email, apologies for the delay in replying but I have just
arrived back from Plas Panteidal due to the problems caused by the weather
If I can
answer point 2 first, the water went off I understand between 8 -10pm. The
reason being due to weather conditions the water pipes became blocked and
caused a disruption to some of the bungalows, the water was back on again
around 11 am the following morning, because of the severe rainfall experienced
the pipes had to be unblocked several times over the next few days as the
debris the water was bringing down was incredible, we are glad to say that all
bungalows had water throughout the horrid weekend that Wales has just
experienced especially where the bungalow is situated.
We
apologise for the loss of water but it was totally beyond their control, we
hope that the enjoyment of your holiday was not marred although they can
understand the inconvenience encountered.
With
regards to the oven this should have been reported immediately to Lesley in
housekeeping so she could have come down and sorted the problem out, with
regards to the fire/smoke alarm I visited no 8 yesterday to check and all was
in working order, so not quite sure what happened with the smoke you
encountered. I understand from Lesley that all appliances are checked before
new arrivals, could you advise if their silver foil in the grill pan was new or
had been used??
In
summary we apologise most sincerely about the water situation and the oven
problems you encountered,if the oven problem had been reported they would have
been able to rectify for you, the water was a little more difficult.
We do
hope that you are able to visit Plas panteidal again and hope that we can be of
service to you.
