Saturday, 9 November 2024

Gridlocked Pontcanna

When I woke up, I sent a singing birthday greeting to Rachel. Her birthday and the fall of the Berlin Wall coincide. Given the time zone difference, she won't get the message until she wakes up around three this afternoon.

After breakfast, Clare asked to be driven to the Steiner School in Llandaff North to drop of some special resource books for the staff. Traffic in both directions was very heavy going and coming back. There was nowhere in the street I could park when we returned, and I had to drive around for three quarters of an hour through streets unusually congested with cars hunting for parking spaces before finding a free space the other side of Thompson's Park. It's the first time I've had to go a kilometre away to park on a Saturday since this time last year. 

The reason, on both counts is a large Welsh Athletics Association meeting in Llandaff Fields attracting hundreds of competitors of all ages, plus supporters and their vehicles, as most come from other parts of the city or further afield. Neither the organisers nor the City Council seem to take into account the need for extra parking for mass events, like fun runs and tournaments in the park. It's local residents who have to put up with the inconvenience, and pollution from standing traffic jams in the side streets as well as on main roads.

Normally on the weekend routine sports and leisure activities in the parks result Llandaff and Pontcanna Fields car parks being in almost full, but with some measure of turnover. Today both were full and closed to new vehicles early in the morning at which point event participants arriving later by car clogged streets within convenient walking distance, depriving residents who had gone out to do their weekend shopping of a place to return to. The same can happen on stadium match days, though to a lesser extent. Residents come and go on the weekends. Usually there'll be a couple of free spaces at any time, unless it's a weekend when everyone is home and not going far. 

Pontcanna residents in this generation are much more mobile, with local and long distance commuters, and there are those who work from home too. We're having yet another consultation about parking and traffic in three different city zones and are threatened with paying for permit parking, though there would be no need for it if the exceptional event conditions were properly catered for.

After parking the car and walking home, I went out for walk again, looking for Clare, who was passing Thompson's Park when I was dashing to use the toilet - it's distressing being stuck in a long traffic jam when your bladder is full. I didn't find her, and when I got back she had started cooking pasta for lunch. I slept for an hour after we'd eaten, which I needed to recover from a late night, and the stress of being stuck in traffic the way I was. I went out again mid afternoon. By that time the athletics meeting was over and people were leaving Llandaff Fields on foot, or else by car, driving up the congestion due to shoppers on their way home after an expedition to town. A few empty parking spaces were beginning to appear in our vicinity, so I went and retrieved our car and found a space in the street straight away.

Clare surprised me by making delicious light vegan waffles for supper. Great with both sweet and savoury toppings, and not too heavy for an evening meal. We had a brief chat with Rachel and Jasmine afterwards. After a supper and breakfast celebration with Jas, she was about to set out for an overnight camping trip to a place with hot springs three hours away to the north. I don't know how she copes with spending so much time driving places.

Then it was time to watch last night's finale of 'The Chateau Murders'. It was complicated and confusing with so many characters and victims I'm not sure I really followed the conclusion it reached. Then I tried another French language crimmie, set in Paris, but gave up on it as it promised to be equally confusing and implausible. Enough for today, I think.

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