Where Do I Begin? All I Know Is Gone

That evening we spent hanging out with Matt and Bailey, going into Cardiff for dinner and a movie. Typical date scenario, I know. Jay had already mentioned as much when he called the house to see what we were up to just as we were leaving. I’m not too sure if I’m happy that I answered the phone or not. At least I managed to shock him a little by doing so, even though he felt the need to rub in that he knew it was only a matter of time before Padge and I were living together. Who knows how he thought that was a certainty, but I learnt very quickly that Jay’s mind is someplace you don’t want to venture through unless your life depended on it. Even then I’d be wary though.

Thankfully the rain had thinned out by the time we got into Cardiff, so walking through the streets didn’t result in the four of us being drenched. The restaurant Matt led us to was warm and inviting, nothing too fancy, and it had a homely feel. We were seated towards the back of the dining room and had a great view into the kitchen. It was a little noisy with the crashing of metal pans and the yelling of orders, but that just added to the atmosphere.

Steaks all around seemed to shock the waiter a little, obviously not used to two women who didn’t survive on salads and bread. The alcohol consumption was less than our usual get-togethers, but we were busy talking and eating, just having a nice meal, not trying to get drunk.

The movie theatre was beautiful. It had been restored and renovated from its former days as a bank, apparently. Padge literally had to drag me inside because I was too busy staring at the stonework. The movie was a little more entertaining to all of us, some comedy that had us all chuckling and occupied our conversation the whole drive back to Bridgend.

Once we got back to Padge’s he insisted on me unlocking the door, claiming that it was my right as an actual resident. I had to punch him in the arm for being so cheesy about things, but took the keys from his outstretched hand to shut him up.

“Don’t you feel so proud?” he joked once we were inside.

Looking at him with one eyebrow raised I offered a sceptical, “No,” before climbing the stairs and heading to what was now officially my bedroom. I guess it did feel a little different this time, but I wasn’t going to tell Padge that. Besides, he’d still be in there with me so nothing had really changed.

x

Waking up to see the sun just peeking over the horizon was a great way to start the day. We had to be up early enough that we could get up the coast with a decent amount of time to view each castle, and without ending up arriving home in the middle of the night. It was going to be a long day, but it should be worth it.

Arriving at Beaumaris it was already nearing lunch time. Being a weekend, and still summer, the car park was quite full. We’d decided on the ride up that if we gave ourselves an hour and a half at each castle, plus a half hour or so for some lunch that we’d make it back to Bridgend by around eight. That left enough time for dinner and a few drinks before bed, which suited our nightly habits, and catered for the early morning Padge would have the next day. The guys had deemed Monday their rehearsal day, to go through their full set and starting to re-pack all their gear.

Beaumaris was a beautiful Edwardian castle, and had a great view from the wall walk. I annoyed Padge by sneakily adding him into the frame whenever I took a photo; at least until he noticed and decided he’d stand behind me for the rest of our exploration. That didn’t faze me though; I just took random pictures over my shoulder to piss him off even more. I know, I’m mean.

After stopping at a café for lunch, where Padge was asked for a few autographs by the kitchen staff who were big fans, we walked around Caernarfon. It wasn’t as technically advanced at Beaumaris, and lacked the complete symmetry of its neighbour, it held a lot more tradition. The stone circle in the middle of the upper lawn was where Prince Charles was crowned as Prince of Wales.

Again I got a little carried away with my ‘creative’ camera work, but this time Padge just grabbed the camera out of my hands and started taking pictures of me instead. Most consisted of large views of my palms, or me giving him the finger while I pretended to kick him. It was a fun little argument that earned us a lot of looks. Most of them were amused, but there was the odd parent looking at us like they wanted to come over and thump us themselves for acting like children.

We managed to annoy them even further by just stopping in the middle of our fight to link hands and walk off silently with smiles over our faces. Once we made our way into out of the grounds we were laughing again and probably pissing off more people with our loud rundown of the situation to each other. Sitting in the car as we caught our breaths I looked back through all of the photos, which probably wasn’t the best idea since it only had us cracking up more.

It was a fun day, probably the best one I’d had in Wales, and the first I hadn’t thought of Conor at any time. That was a realisation that only hit me once we were safely tucked up in bed that evening. It was odd, but at the same time slightly pleasing that I was capable of getting him out of my head.