Last modified on Wed 4 Aug 2021 01.31 EDT
Tall plane trees, hanging baskets and pavement cafes line pedestrianised Wind Street as it passes the ruined castle. I don’t know what I expected Swansea to look like but it wasn’t quite this.
My preconceptions were partly based on Dylan Thomas’s “ugly, lovely town” by the sea, “white-horsed and full of fishes”. After three hours on an air-conditioned Great Western Railways train from London, I’m striding past the 17th-century No Sign bar towards the city’s five-mile-long beach.
Any lingering doubts about Swansea as a holiday base are dispelled when I reach Morgan’s Hotelnear the marina. The Edwardian building, with its dome and grand staircase, was once the offices of the Port Authority. The decor nods to its maritime history with stained-glass boats, wave-form lamps and an anchor on the stairs; my high-ceilinged, wood-floored bedroom is cool and elegant.
Swindon Borough Council is supporting the Fostering Network s Foster Care Fortnight initiative. This year s theme is Why We Care , which encourages anyone involved in fostering to share why they do it and why supporting young people in the area is so important to them. The council hopes to inspire people of all backgrounds and lifestyles to take the first step in becoming a foster carer, and will help provide more places in the borough for children who need them. Social media videos and newsletters posted through to May 23 will tell the stories of real foster carers and care leavers to give an idea of what it s like and the positive impact it can have on a child s life.
Mountain Scene
By MARK PRICE
The timing for our Aussie visitors couldn’t have been better.
Just three days after the first international flight in more than a year landed at Queenstown Airport, Arrowtown’s holding the mother of all autumn parties.
The 36th Arrowtown Autumn Festival fires up today after, like all major events last year, being forced to put the 2020 event on ice.
The town that sprang from the 1860s gold rush has turned on the colour just in time for the five-day festival and the town’s ready to celebrate.
Festival coordinator Carole Watts says having to pull the pin on last year’s Autumn Fest was ‘‘extremely disappointing’’, but it’s back this year, bigger and better.
BEST friends who dreamed of running the Town Gardens cafe when they were youngsters have been chosen as the new tenants. BBC Radio presenter Marie Kilford and hospitality manger Frances Tucker are excited to be picking up the keys to the popular landmark. They are both Swindon born and bred and met at New College when they were 16 years old. Marie said: “I’ve always dreamt of running the café.” Frances added: “It’s a dream come true, we’re overjoyed. We wanted this café so much and we’re still smiling from getting it. It still hasn’t sunk in yet.”
A shark fin (file picture). Source: 1 NEWS
A spokesperson for Surf Life Saving NZ told 1 NEWS up to three sharks swam “past the beach” and swimmers were ordered out of the water.
A lifeguard in the watchtower says it happened around 1:30pm and the beach is still closed.
The sharks were not large and swimmers should be back in the water soon barring another sighting.
The SLNZ spokesperson says sightings in the area are common and the beach being shut due to this is not uncommon.
However, tensions are heightened after a Waihi shark attack left a young woman dead on Thursday.