treeofjudas may be coming to Wales! (through London)

i could probaly put you up in glorious sarf-east london if so wish. I won't be offended, if you accept a better offer in the meantime. Let me know nearer the time, best pm me. Don't panic if it takes awhile for me to reply, i'm not a regular user these days.

Well, I'll tell the lot of you about the dates, 'cause I wouldn't want to alienate the stalker contingent of the proletarian camp: we're thinking of the 5th to the 13th of October, give or take a few days. That would place us in London at around the 5th and around the 13th, with a trip through Wales in between. Ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than a day total in London itself, though my girlfriend thinks otherwise having never been to the Big Smoke.

A libcom drinks would be nice, LW, thanks for that and both you and Jason for offering lodging. It'll be great seeing some of you people in person.

If your in Cardiff on the sunday pop into the PAD for a massive cheap fried breakfast with the local anarchos.

Bah! Damn thine heathenous public transport system. Why is it so difficult to find the rates for travelling from London to Cardiff? And why must one order in advance?

Could anyone help me out here? Some Cardiff website pointed me to First Western, which was very cryptic about actual rates. Should we go with that? Or maybe we should take a bus? Or a stage-coach, possibly?

National Express are more reliable afaik than the likes of megabus and competitively priced in comparison. And the pricing structure is way more simple than the railways post-privatisation. But the train is pleasanter!!! The cheapest train tickets normally have to be booked at least a month in advance tho you may luck out. At least coach tickets are normally available at a reasonable price at shortish notice.

Good luck.

Love

LW X

No worries - i can accommodate you two for the nights of Thu 4 and Fri 5 Oct - plus i am the right side of London for ya!! And i am a night person so i will be up anyways even if you are delayed for an hour or two... I will expect you any time between like 8ish to midnight!!

Have to be up at a reasonable time on the Sat 6th as I am booked on a train to Glasgow but nowt too hideous - we will need to aim to leave t' Lair at about 10am on the Sat if that is ok?

Any special dietary requirements?? I mean i am not saying i can cook but do you want me to get something special in - i believe you are vegan? I am veggie so nowt awful will be lurking in the fridge.

Love

LW XX

looks like i am no match for lone wolf's social skills, but i can still put you up on the 13th? if wolfy can't.

As for the 13th, we'll actually be coming from Cardiff to London on the 14th in the morning, so no accommodation necessary, though thanks for the offer, Jason.

Don't drown. I will throw you a vowel if you need one.
Devrim

Well, I think I'll give a short report of my journy through auld Cymru, and offend native Welsh speakers and Britishers while I'm at it.

Our charter flight got delayed by an hour and a half or so, which made me regret the fact that neither my girlfriend nor myself were deemed enough of a security risk to be thoroughly searched. As it stood, we had to spend about four hours being bored out of our skulls in the small airport duty-free mall. We then got on the plane, and after 5 hours of boring airplane monotony, we got to Stansted, where we were subjected to the first of many instances of the Londoner "kindly-get-the-fuck-out-of-my-way" attitude. I would suggest that someone put valium in the London water supply in order to calm everyone the fuck down, but they all drink bottled water anyway, so..

The only high points of the London excursion were LW's kindly hospitality, which we hopefully did not abuse too much, a few very decent vegan places and the libcom drinks, which are another story (or thread) entirely. The rest of it was very disappointing for my girlfriend and needlessly stressful for myself.

We then went to Cardiff by bus, wherein we were exposed to another nasty side of British culture: it's after five, let's get drunk, even if we're on the fucking bus. Bunch of teenagers got pissed, one girl became sick, after which the rest mostly mocked her rather than helping her over to the bathroom.

Cardiff itself is very pretty. There we were, getting off the bus, and there's a castle right in front of us. The streets were blocked by a very peculiar animal called the Rugby fan: apparently the Aoteraoians lost to the French. My cousin's friend picked us up then, took us to a bit of hummus and political discussion, then off to his place we went. We next saw him for a brief time a few nights later before he again left us his key, since he's a doctor, and works crazy hours.

In the next few days we went to the National Museum, where we saw samples of the many forms of wildlife native and coloinal to Wales, to Cardiff Castle, where a tour guide gave us a few nationally-tinged lectures on the more recent parts of the castle, while we explored the rest on our lonesome, to various arcades and shops in the area, and repeatedly to a great Indian place on City Road near the Newport Road intersection, called Kismet, which offers a 2.5 pound buffet until about 7pm. We also went to Hay-on-Wye, where the ghastly public transport forced us to spend only four hours, as much or less than the accumulated time of getting there and returning to Cardiff. Lovely place, with just about the amount of bookstores I deem proper for a picturesque town.

We then went to Aberystwyth where we finally met my cousin, and let me tell you, that's probably the most beautiful little town that I ever did see in my life. She lives in a nearby village, and we spent a few hours the next day just roaming the countryside taking pictures. Then we went back to Cardiff, where we met another friend of my cousin's for more political discussion and discussion in general. Finally, we went back to London, were disappointed by Camden Market, and took the plane back to Israel. At least were were "randomly" frisked on the way back, mostly because we were practically the only non-Haredis boarding the plane. Then it was back home, then back to work as usual.

To conclude, it appears that I shall not be making a career in traveling or in publishing travelogues.

PS: Two things I noticed in Cardiff: plenty of "to let" signs, and plenty of job agencies. Anyone care to give me the low-down on that?

PPS: Also, there's a Muslim Plaid Cymru AM, who are these people anyway?

PPPS: Why can't you bastards travel on the right side of the road, for fuck's sake?

1. So basically the English are gentrifying South Wales as London suburbia?
2. Reminds me of certain tendencies in the Israeli radical left in the 1950's, who tried to link Jewish (or "Hebrew") national liberation with the Arab national liberation/officer coup movements. Amusing.