Llantwit Major

When we stepped off of the bus, it felt like we got off in the middle of no where. There was no people there was no hustle no bustle of any sort. To later learn that there was 13,000 people living somewhere in this empty town.

I found this awesome all recycled green house made out of empty pop bottles and string in side a school. How wonderful to know that they are promoting eco living.

This camping trip was the least organized that I have been in awhile usually I am quite on top of things and plans, this time I was not. I had written down a place called Landlow caravan and camping and didn`t make it there since I was so lazy. There was another camp site in the area called Acorn campsite and caravan park, we gave them a quick call and learned that it would be £14 for the both of us with no electric.

Camping here is pretty awesome since it comes with hot showers, toilets, blow dryer, pool table, internet and some other things that were all available on the site. We only made use of the washing facilities since it was there, I like camping with a bit of luxury but I have been raised on good old fashion out houses and needing to drag water all the back to camp to do the washing up.

We ate our ready to eat dinners and went off to bed, it has been a long day.

Off to Cardiff, Wales

It had been a hard week in Derby and it was time to get out of town and see some sights, that is the whole reason I got a working visa for the UK. (And to be with the one I love) After some mucking about I got 5 days off from work over the weekend and decided it was due time. I looked up lots of places to visit through http://www.weekendgetaways.co.uk/ the tours that they provide are fair priced and seems like you can see quite a bit in a day or two.

I had really wanted to visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice but I had missed the date by about a week.That just wasn't enough, I wanted to get in touch with nature and get away from the city life and get away from all the money woes.

After speaking with this lovely lady on the phone at work she convinced me that Wales was the way to go. Now I didn't met up with this 'Tina Turner' even though I emailed her, it was a good decision. We talked about making my way over to Tenby.

In the end we bought bus tickets to Cardiff for 2 people £75 a nice four hour trip with an hour stop in Birmingham for a nice Starbucks. Loved the iced soya cookie coffee!

When we arrived in Cardiff the sun was shinning and I was feeling really good about hitting up some camp grounds near Tenby, but due to lack of preparation we didn't make it to Tenby. Since I was thinking that we might be tired I looked up a campsite that was near Cardiff. Thank god for that since it was super expensive to get a train out all the way out there on the day of.

Wandered around Cardiff Farmers Market and then through the Royal Arcade  before we got on the local bus out to Llantwit Major.  Llantwit Major is located in southeast Wales and mid-west along the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan. Took about an hour to get there from Cardiff, strangely enough there was a bus X90 that was suppose to take us there but only ran on Sundays. At least there was another bus that would do us the good service of running 7 days a week even if it wasn't all that frequent.

I really wanted to hit up some inner markets and we got the chance to buy some Welsh Cakes!

Jam and chocolate chip Welsh Cakes.

A picture we took of this circular thingy whilst wandering around central Cardiff. 

Now off to Llantwit major.

Thanks Tax Man

I came home from work and there was a letter waiting for me, how nice it is to get mail. Lucky for me I don't have any bills under my name so no one bills me for anything, all I really get is bank statements and I read the pizza flyer's.

I found out something wonderful about England, it was even worth writing a post about it. Back at home in Canada we have to fill out these horrendous forms after waiting ages to get all the T-? papers from previous jobs, banks etc. These forms come in a manner of colours and variations depending on what kind of life status you currently live. There are more forms for some and less for other, it pretty much equates to matching line numbers and filling out the amount making sure your math is correct and then sending it off to the Tax Man. After the tax man receives it you have two letters sent to you the run down on all the income you have filed on your forms followed up by a cheque or a bill for outstanding balance months later when you have forgotten about it.

Most people take it to an accountant in hopes to get more money, or they take it to a place call H&R Block which will charge you a fee ($30-60) for filling them for you on their slick program and give you your refund right then and there.

Instead of going through all that hassle, I just received a cheque for £292.00 from HM Revenue & Customs. I really like the fact that I only had to fill out one piece of paper work when I started and they do my taxes for me. I am sure I am just being nieve and there is a pile of paper work somewhere waiting to be done by somebody. At least I don't have to. Now what should I buy with this money?