Welsh Country March-April 2017

AGame of Chess
Easter holidays. Unlike many of those in
past years, this one has been wet and
windy and somewhat colder, making up
for the mild, damp winter we’ve just had.
Still, in typically British fashion, we have watched
and waited, and now a gap in the weather sees us
out and about at last.
Framing the energy of a bored nine year old
daughter is difficult at the best of times, even
without the weather to contend with, so a stroll
along Porthcawl seafront and an ice-cream are the
order of the day.
Hunkered in against the wind, we make our way to
Coney Beach where I buy our refreshments – a double
scoop of bubble gum ice cream for Elle and a hot
chocolate for Rachel and I. We find a seat behind the
cabin where I bought them, seats overlooking the
beach but also affording us a view back toward the
fairground.
Even the British climate can’t deter the hardiest
holidaymakers, and there are plenty of new
accents – predominantly northern – bubbling up
from the trickle of people from nearby Trecco
Bay Caravan Park. Strangely oxymoronic, their
slang and verbal twangs play such an unfamiliar
tune and yet they seem so much a part of this
place. Such is the lot of the tourist town, I
suppose.
20 Mar-Apr 17