The Creative Diary of Chris Elphick: Swansea

Showing posts with label Swansea. Show all posts

Jesus Christ Superstar

Saturday, 06 April, 2024

Me and my wife went to see our favourite musical this evening in Swansea's Digital Arena. It was a spectacular setting for a fantastic show. Really enjoyed :)

It was one of my better days yesterday. It started with me vising the marsh to get some shots of the high tide, continued with us almost completing the removal of all our things from the upstairs and attic of our charred house, and, after an evening's drive back to the caravan beneath the most fantastic of skies (see yesterday's post if you want to see it for yourself,) we watched continued watching the brilliant 3 Body Problem on Netflix! And in between all that, I finally picked up the courage to ask Tara, the daughter of my favourite author, if she would let me publish one of her Dad's unique manuscripts I have in my collection in my forthcoming tribute book to him. I cannot describe the elated feeling I got when she gave me her blessing 🙂 I am turning this venture into a '100-Day-Project', and the clock starts tomorrow. Time to plan...

In the afternoon, I finally took some pics of these trees by the Swansea dump I've been frequenting for the past few weeks.

We drove along the marsh road on the way back to the caravan and I stopped off briefly to take a short video of the small church there with it modern tweeting Swift boxes:

A beautiful evening ended the day, reminding us to always make the best of bad situation:

Driving, Sunsets & Extreme Weather

Wednesday, 27 March, 2024

A day of driving, sunsets and extreme weather :)

Down in the Dump

Wednesday, 20 March, 2024

"I'm beginning to feel like I live down the rubbish tip.

I know I promised to stop taking pics of gloves, lol, but I couldn't resist snapping these. I don't think that this particular pair were lost tho - just waiting for action:

I twinged my back today getting things out of the house and down the dump. North Gower didn't disappoint and the caravan park we are staying at gets some to temper my aches and pains:

The Hum

Tuesday, 19 March, 2024

Another day clearing the house.

We stopped off for a breather at Paper Mill Pond for a wee drink and snacks in the car on the way back to the caravan:

On the Road

Friday, 16 March, 2024

It seems like we are continually on the road these days. The commute from our temporary accommodation to the house is becoming a chore despite the scenery en route. The landlord wants us to empty the house of our belongings so he can start work on the place, so we have to box up anything thing that is remotely salvageable and take everything else to the dump. Despite masking and gloving up, our chests are beginning to suffer, and we have had to remind the landlord that we can't "spend every spare minute in the house clearing things" as he would like. We have our health to think of, as well as laundrettes to visit, rubbish dump trips to undertake, food shopping etc. I can feel my resilience lowering with each successive day...

Anyway, here are some road videos and photographs I've tried to entertain myself with today.

The daily drive to our house:

Pics taken en route to the rubbish dump:

Driving home:

At least there were two rays of sunshine to lift our moods today. The first was meeting a couple of friends from my work, who gave us an amazing gift to help us through our trying times - thank you, I love you all. Secondly, there was the more literal ray of sunshine. For the first time since all this nightmare started, the sun came out:

A Neighbourbood Walk

Saturday, 02 March, 2024

Unfortunately, the wonders of my fortnightly meds have worn off now (apparently it takes 16 weeks for them to build up in your system so that their effects last the full two weeks between injections). And so I am in a bit of a pickle again. At least the return of sleepless nights means I can increase my work on my Cold Comfort novel.

In the meantime, I am just going to try and keep myself as busy as again and try and take my mind off physical discomfort. With that in mind, I forced myself out of the house this morning and took a short walk around the neighbourhood:

The magic of a Spring sunshine

Last Christmas

The weathered paintwork reminded me of an atlas of long-lost continents

Sunrise over Swansea

Thursday, 18 January, 2024

The morning sun burnishes the sky whilst the Port Talbot steelworks add to the distant cloud cover

Spring, I'm assured, is on its way...

Ubik on Yule

December 22, 2023

The shortest day of the year but no Winter Solstice celebrations this year. When the kids were younger, we used to attend Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury celebration at this time of year. But not today. No, this morning I had to work a half day at the office :(

Heading out to work

The view from my desk at work.

Work wasn't too bad actually, there was quite a nice mood at the office with just a handful of us there. And we were all out of there at 12, when the building was closed. Not quite Christmas for me yet though, as I left work early as I felt ill last Tuesday so I have to make back the hours before the end of the week - So in I go for a 6-1.45 shift tomorrow morning.

When I got home, my new read had been posted through my letterbox - Philip K Dick's Ubik: