The World of Siân

I have a love for Gilbern Motor Cars. Gilberns were produced in a place called Llantwit Fardre in South Wales. They were founded in the late 1950’s by a master butcher and a German engineer. Giles Smith and Bernard Frises. These brilliant cars are made with a glass fibre body. The Gilbern was always a component car rather than a kit car with the all the components being new and under warranty. The original cars were based upon the Austin A35 mechanical components, while a variety of engines were offered. A few different models of Gilberns were developed over the years being the GT, Genie, Invader Mk I, Invader MkII, Invader MkII Estate, and the Invader MkIII. Unfortunately by March 1974 Gilberns had ceased trading. Even though not many of these lovely cars were built some still survive today and most are kept with the Gilbern’s Owners club. I enjoy going to vintage car shows and so if they are not in Wales it is a particular challenge for me to track down a Gilbern at one ...

Well yesterday saw my first afternoon tea of 2012, which for me in comparison to last year is very late and only one by now is shocking. I took a lovely half day flexi to meet up with fabulous Ms James, after a mix up with meeting places and a break down in communication we were finally on our way. A little bit early to head straight to the venue we decided on a quick one in the brilliant pub the Mochyn Du which is near Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. The Mochyn Du is a lovely pub with a mix of old fashioned pub and modern furnishings and to be fair it works very well. It was nicely quiet as well with the odd group of people enjoying lunch. The bar staff were lovely and friendly. Unfortunately we weren’t able to stay longer and headed off for our champagne afternoon tea at Jolyon’s at No.10. Jolyon’s at No.10 is on Cathedral Road in Cardiff and not to far along either so easy to get to and easy to find. On arrival we took our seats and our table was laid by a very nice, f...

Well this lucky lady had the opportunity to dine in the Social in Cardiff. I have to say it was gorgeous and the food amazing, it was a little pleasure sensation with every mouthful, almost orgasmic in its way. The surroundings were pleasant, not too modern that it was in your face and garish, but subtly so and tasteful. We were greeted and served by lovely staff whose nothing was too much trouble attitude shone across and was genuine, which is unusual to see these days without an underlying tone of sarcasm, or being overly nice you know they don’t mean it. We started with a lovely glass of prosecco which was divine. Seeing some rather different things on the menu that I hadn’t tried before I had to go for them, this is a thing of mine, if there is something I haven’t tried before I have to go for it, and to be fair I am never disappointed. For starters I chose frog’s legs with a shrimp and chorizo salad, the fantastic Mr Bus had faggots, and both were gorgeous ...

For the fantastic Mr Bus’ birthday I decided to make him a digger cake and I have to say I was very pleased with the results, it also took less time to make than I had anticipated. I started off baking a square Madeira cake.  This I then cut in half and placed one half on top of the other to work out the length of the cab, roughly half again.   I used butter icing to hold them together and then placed butter icing all over for the ready to roll icing to go on top.  With the extra square of cake left from making the main body and cab of the digger, I scooped out the middle section to create the digger bucket, then covered this in butter icing and ready roll icing on top. I iced the main body of the digger and the bucket and then attached the bucket using two rolls of icing for the arms.   I used a food colouring pen for the initial detail on the digger and filled the bucket with rainbow drops and popping candy.   I placed melted...

The other weekend saw me and my besties hit West Wales for a girls weekend. We were lucky enough to stay in my Auntie’s Caravan in New Quay. Friday we set off a little later than planned but didn’t care as this was meant to be a chilled out weekend where there was no stress. We stopped off to see a friend on the way and then we were back on the road. Whenever I drive up to New Quay I make the error of trusting the auto route rather than my own judgement (also I am a massive campaigner against sat navs). So we ended up getting a little lost around the wilds of West Wales until I got my bearings and some fab navigation from my besties. We arrived!! We settled in, got the central heating on, chose our bedrooms (luckily one each) and cracked open the wine. This was the start of things to come. We ended up watching a program on TV about Frank Sinatra whilst chatting and drinking. For some reason Engelbert Humperdinck came on the and I really can’t look at him, he mak...

There is nothing worse than bumping into your ex, especially when you least expect it - I think this year has been my turn for bumping into exes, sometimes it’s hilarious and sometimes not. I was expecting to bump into the one sooner or later since he lives perilously nearby; I wasn’t expecting it to be at the local polling station where I had gone like a good citizen to place my vote. I spotted him on the way in and thought I could do a quick dash with just saying hello, as there is no reason to be rude. On the way out I stuck to the plan and managed a hello. Then the ex asked if we could have a chat. “Argh” I thought, do we really need to? He wanted to apologise for being an idiot and clear the air; fine by me, there were no hard feelings and I tried hard not to look really smug as I’m so happy now with my life and with Mr Bus. Times change. The ex knew I was seeing someone but didn’t know anything else - I wasn’t going to give him any more information in that respect. We parted ways...

There is something about seeing vintage cars that makes me want to don a head scarf and pack my picnic basket, set off into the countryside for a spiffing time with jam sandwiches and lashings and lashings of ginger beer. In reality though I am sure you would have the top of the car down, your hair looking like you styled it on the 80’s fashion complete with bugs stuck to your teeth. This vintage car show I didn’t have a picnic, but a cuppa from a dodgy vendor, but hey it was hot which was the main thing, as that point in time I was rather cold. I had just been watching a bird display with Mr Bus, which was really good and interesting but just standing there in the open made me cold as there was no where to hide from the gusts of wind. We decided on a cuppa and headed off on the forest walk as we had seen most of what we had wanted to. I did really enjoy looking around all the vintage cars etc. and also managing to find a Gilbern. This is a car that was made in Trefforest in ...