04 September, 2006

Cardiff College of Education and Cardiff Bay

I went to this college because of the annual conference of the UK Society for Coöperative Studies which was held here as this is where the Wales Institute of research into coöperatives is based. The college was extraordinarily average but the international company was excellent with Americans, Canadians and Hungarians. On one of the evenings, we went in a coach to see the new attractions at Cardiff Bay. These included the new home of the Welsh National Opera Company and the welsh assembly building. The bay has been improved by keeping it full of water; previously it was smelly mud flats. The Welsh National Opera was a spectacular building faced with copper with half Welsh language and half English inscription on the façade, no doubt making it incomprehensible to all but the 15000 people who speak Welsh. The Welsh Assembly Building looked like a modern airport and the water feature outside it could have done with lighting to ensure that it showed itself off well. The conference went well. A friend of mine called Robert, from Liverpool was also there and we took an opportunity to renew our acquaintance over a game of pool with Richard, the secretary of the UK Society.

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