Thursday 25 June

Uncomfortable night: uncomfortable bed and pillows and a hot room.

5.15am start (!!!) to catch ferry - back to the bad old days of early starts on the boat in the Greek islands.

It is a slightly smaller ferry than first crossing. Whereas that was a crossing from North Wales to Dublin this is from Rosslare (southeast of Wexford) to Pembroke, Milford Haven Harbour, South Wales. It also took slightly longer - 4 hours. Once again a millpond.

On board I bought a 4 part dvd of the Irish Famine.

We drive across South Wales and end up in Cardiff (Caerdydd). We have ONE hour in Cardiff which is a joke and many are unhappy - especially when out nice hotel is MILES out of Cardiff. So one hour is it for Cardiff. Thanks for coming.

Hotel is Copthorne Hotel Cardiff, room 221. Very nice hotel and we had a lovely view over a small lake/large pond. I asked reception where we were and they said St Fagans/Culverhouse Cross - I will track this down when I return. 39th bed.

We have the best optional meal out of the trip. Other places could learn a thing or two from this old pub (1380!!!!!! - think about that). Thatched roof. It is the Blue Anchor Inn in East Aberthaw, Vale of Glamorgan. I have a pint of the local beer (as usual). It is called "Brains" - does it give you some or take them away?

From the Guardian

A quarter page article discusses the word leptokurtic. Excerpts:

"It reminded me of the first time I heard the word heteroscedasticity"

"The word leptokurtic commands some 40,000 references on Google - against a mere 1,900 for its cousin platykurtic and a paltry 547 for mesokurtic."

The article then goes on to find common language uses of the word eg skew. The final sentence is "Generations to come may, I suspect, refer to the late spring of 2009 as a leptokurtic moment.