Just Another Day?

It was perhaps a bit of a last minute effort but several shops and homes entered into the royal wedding spirit and by Thursday had set out some bunting. But as may befit a small Welsh town, evidence of any real royal fervour was nevertheless thin on the ground. The only "official" street party was at Llys Erw but there were at least two other gatherings and no doubt sundry local ones.

Of course, Tesco and the Co-op had jumped on the bandwagon quite early, driven no doubt by a commercial opportunity to encourage us to spend.

Bunting was visible from the street in the windows of Harris Toys, Pop Eye, Vanity Fayre, Threads and the Middleton Arms.

Meanwhile, yesterday morning, traffic in & around town was busy. Plenty of cars moving about during the ceremony. There were no police on hand to round up the unpatriotic rebel detractors and dissenters. Not just cars. There were several stock vehicles, a logger, an unloading dray, an Asda home delivery van plus sundry bikers off to rip through our countryside. While wondering around, I saw one biker make not the most judicious of manœuvres, typically with his "L" plate flapping at the rear.

At about the time William & Kate plighted their troth, I'd say Tesco's car park was modestly about a fifth full but the few shoppers within contradicted even that number. If you weren't interested in the wedding, this surely must've been a wonderful time to shop.

There were a few hardy stores open in town. Among them, Montecito, Leonardo's, Vale Carpets, Tommy's, Reebee's, Bar Llaeth, the Village Bakery, Cutting Corner and the Wynnstay road pet shop were all hopeful of the passing trade that wasn't really there. Popeye said it was open on the door but looked dark inside.

The image is of the some-time guest house on Park Road.