The Briar Rose – Wetherspoon hotel – 25 Bennets Hill, Birmingham B2 5RE

We knew we would be too late to get home to Aberystwyth from Birmingham airport, especially on a Sunday night, so used our favourite standby booking.com to find a B&B. Unfortunately, the NEC had been hosting a horsey show so no rooms available unless we went to the city centre.

The Briar Rose is a Wetherspoon hotel five-minute walk from Great Western rail station (previously called New Street Station), perfect at just £39 for twin room. It has notices up saying it was voted best budget hotel in the area so were not sure what to expect, especially when we arrived at a large, busy city-centre pub.

What a surprise – welcoming reception area in the original Arts & Crafts style, very friendly and helpful staff, and a spacious, clean, comfortable room. If you want a perfect example of noise protection in a first-floor room above a pub, this is it! Secondary glazing has around 9-inch gap from the original window and absolutely no sound from below us.

Wetherspoon’s is known for refurbishing beautiful old buildings to retain original features and this was no exception. Lots of information and photographs related to the Pre-Raphaelite artists (also see the great collection of works at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery) and lots of framed works on the first floor as part of a local primary school project on Sleeping Beauty theme. Clearly we were impressed, and at this price it is worth staying overnight when Christmas shopping or seeing a show – note it is generally cheaper to stay over on a Sunday night.

We are staying at the Wetherspoon's hotel at The Crown in Worcester next month so will see how that goes - £49 for Sunday night instead of the usual £74.

This blog is also featured on www.silvertraveladvisor.com along with my other 138 reviews

Exhibition on in Oriel at Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan – Jonathan Anderson’s Pylon Totems – until 26^th November 2017. The information states: “Anderson’s work Pylon Totems, cloaked in rags and bitumen, make pan-cultural references that allude to Crucifixes, Asian Buddhist statues, South American and African voodoo dolls”. Unlike some statements about art exhibitions, a bit pretentious sometimes, this actually summarises beautifully what the objects are about. You look at them, hanging on the wall, free-standing in groups or as individual pieces, and you do feel in awe at the way he suggests these references through what are essentially static non-figurative objects. I think the choices of how they are grouped or stand isolated adds even more to their powerful impact on the viewer.

Excellent exhibition well-presented to make the most of the space. Sorry I missed the talk by Jonathan, but I will certainly look out for more of his work. A perfect Gallery Visit project for my History of Art distance learning students! www.jonathanandersonartist.com  www.mwldan.co.uk

Carmarthen Library Book Fair, 9 St Peter’s St, Carmarthen SA31 1LN

if you are in the Carmarthen area on Saturday 21^st October, pop in and say hello as I shall be there from 11-1.00pm at their Book Fair. 

I shall have four of the current titles there for you to see (and buy of course!), and I am happy to answer questions about writing and publishing non-fiction. The next Book Fair is December 4th in Llandeilo.

We also have gift vouchers - great option for gifts for yourself or someone else

Fascinating exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, on until 16^th January 2018, “Hanes – Tales, Stories, Legends and Myths” including works by David Hockney, Ceri Richards, and Lea Sautin. I love the work by Lea Sautin and, of course, the etchings by David Hockney. You can find the gallery easily if you look out for the giant at the doorway! Great job by curator Steffan Jones-Hughes

Feathers Royal Hotel, Alban Square, Aberaeron, SA46 0AQ

We have eaten in the restaurant here before, but have to say this was an exceptional meal. Grilled fish of the day was sea bass, and at £13.95 was really good value. It was melt-in-the-mouth with light lemony touch and beautifully presented. Keeping to the fish theme, salmon and asparagus was also excellent. Generally, salmon is pretty good wherever you go, but this was perfectly cooked, moist but cooked through with a very tasty surface and at £14.95 a great choice.

We felt obliged to try the dessert menu, of course, all at £6.75. The crème brulee was soft and squishy, and sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce was much lighter in texture than it looked. The house Sauvignon Blanc £16.75 was a good choice with all the courses, which is not always the case with both sweet and fish dishes, so it was an excellent evening out at a small local restaurant in our beautiful harbor town.

Perpignan, South of France

Visiting my brother and his partner in Perpignan, this was our first trip to the region so everything was new to us. It is a fascinating town, lots of lovely little alleys, restaurants and shops in the old part near the castle, and a very pleasant walk along the river that runs through the centre of town. We didn’t have time to try out the public transport on this trip, but the train and bus route maps show an extensive system to go further into France or into northern Spain.

There are several hotels near the modern rail station, although the main street leading to the station is a bit run-down. We stayed at Appart-City on B&B basis, quite basic accommodation which you service yourself (putting rubbish out etc) and simple continental breakfast plus (packet) scrambled egg and some form of sausage. However, there are some great restaurants in the town so lots of choice for eating out.

We loved Grand Café de la Bourse in the castle square (2 Place de la Loge, 66000 Perpignan) where we had fillet of beef and French fries on the last evening plus a bottle of local red wine, all for €43.80 so a great deal.

Perpignan airport is very small so easy to go to/from. We had a package with lastminute.com so flights were with Air France. Great airline but you really do not want to go via Paris Charles de Gaulle, go across Paris by Le Bus to change for Paris Orly for internal flight to anywhere in France. You soon lose the will to live – think at least twice as big as Heathrow, finding the bus (which is not too bad as the signs are quite clear and bus staff very helpful) then going around several terminals before it leaves the airport half an hour later. A member of staff actually took us to the front of the queue of thousands waiting to get through passport control otherwise we would not have got our connection. If you have to go this route, allow at least 4-5 hours transfer time on the way there – not so bad on way back as it is easier to get Le Bus at Orly airport. We then found out we could have had a direct flight with Ryanair from Stansted to Perpignan…

One Man, Two Guvnors 13/10/17 Aberystwyth Arts Centre theatre £12 each

Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, this Black Rat Production is set in the 1960s. Having seen a version based on the original play, we had some expectations of what this version would look like. I think “confusion” best describes our early reactions as the performance started early with a skiffle band on stage, setting the 60s scene and playing several good old-fashioned bop songs. Great musicians, but we were still wondering what was going on.

Basically, an ex-member of the band is minder to an east-end crook Roscoe wanting to collect money owed, but Roscoe is really his twin sister Rachel as her boyfriend Stanley killed Roscoe and they need the money to escape the law…. So, typical mistaken identity, lots of confusion, and the central character Henshall getting in a mess as he takes on work for both Rachel & Stanley while keeping them in the dark.

Once we got into the plot (and the over-acting!) it definitely got better and was very enjoyable by the end. Lots of laughs and we loved the running jokes about ‘identical’ twins, the contortions of the tall, skinny young man who wants to be “an actor”, where did he get the knife from – Woollies! – and the very Welsh Henshall playing an Irishman. Even better was the part played by Christine from the audience – brilliant! Not what you would call ‘politically correct’, and the language was a bit coarse here and there, but it was still funny and once you got used to them, the regular appearance of the band was very entertaining.

It is still on tour in Wales, with several dates in October and November – see their website www.blackratproductions.co.uk for details. Just persevere past the first half to get the best out of the performance.