Bala Getaway

View through the porthole window in one of the bedrooms at the cottage


Vic and I were married in March 1979. His Best Man was his best mate, Dave A_, but over the intervening years we lost touch and they last saw each other around 26 years ago. With Vic's 60th birthday coming up, I decided it was time for a reunion and tracked Dave down via his daughter through the FriendsReunited website in June this year. We swapped a few emails in which I learnt that Dave, like Vic, had suddenly (after years without a motorbike) bought a BMW last year. With both of them being confirmed aficionados of British bikes in their youth, this joint defection to BMW seemed almost uncanny, similar to the connection twins are said to have.

Dave and his family run a business near Bala in North Wales, so I booked a cottage near there for 3 nights, 3rd to 6th October, and invited Vic’s sister and her husband to join us for the weekend. (If you follow the link, it will take you off this page to the Cyffdy Farm website. You can use the back button on your browser to return to this page).

I’ve posted a number of photos and the full story (three pages) of the weekend and the reunion on my homepage. The scenery was fantastic! If you’d like the link, please email me (you’ll find an email address on the profile page of this site).

One aspect that made a big impression on me was the difference in the night sky at the cottage. Sunday was a clear night. When we returned to the cottage after an evening out with Dave and his family, we stood enrapt gazing up at a sight unlike anything you see from a garden in Bristol or Surrey! Us town-dwellers may enjoy the advantage of a vast number of stores on our doorstep, but in that moment I could understand a country-dweller's preference for seeing stars. Against the deep black velvet backdrop they sparkled in untold numbers, with the misty swirl of nebulas and galaxies adding to the awe-inspiring beauty. If you want to count the stores on your doorstep, live in the town. If you want to count the stars in the sky, choose the country!