I went off to Garth Hall but as I was driving through Coedely I thought I could see a lamb on its own at the edge of the ferns. I intended to go and check that on my way to the alpacas. I went straight to the barn to give the lambs their creep. The trough area was filled with lambs waiting for more food. Not all of them are pets either. Cheeky buggers. I took the bucket and struggled to top it up. There were too many woolly heads in it! Arian was one of them. Yesterday I had made a note to clip his bum us he had clinkers. Today he was a lot worse. I shut the door to the pen after me and crept up behind him. He was stuffing his face so he didn’t notice me. I grabbed him and hefted him up. He’s a big lump too. I wrestled him out and got him on the shearing board. How to hold him and clip poo off? Hmmm. Brainwave. I pretty much sat on him. That stopped him. With the worse of the poo cut off I had to get the vectocert. It was high up on a shelf. I can reach it but not holding a chunky ram lamb. Somehow I got it and managed to spray him. He gave me a disgusted look and sloped off.
I topped the water buckets off and headed towards the ferns. Its a steep slope and hard going through the ferns. I couldn’t see a lamb but I did see an ewe. She was either stuck or in a dip. That would have looked like a lamb when I was driving. I went over to her. She was sleeping but woke and dashed off when I got close. At least she was alright.
I got to the livestock trailer and opened up. The bloody squirrels had been messing about again in search of food. They had tipped loads of things over too. I picked everything up, muttering crossly to myself. Then I turned around with the bucket. Garth Vader was waiting for attention. I had alittle chat to him and he hummed. I fed the little boys and then Leo and El Cap. I huffed and puffed up to the other 4 feed buckets, still wishing they were closer but not moving them either. They aren’t going to move on their own though are they 🤷♀️
The girls came rushing over to see me…or was it the bucket of food I wonder? I checked them all and then spent ages staring at Eden’s belly. I was convinced I could see a cria moving. Then I looked at Ffion and Betty Boo who were with Eden. Their bellies were moving in similar ways but were much, much smaller. Now I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Friday morning at Garth Hall and I went to the barn to feed creep to the lambs. No lambs eating. In fact no lambs in the barn at all. I checked the trough. Still relatively full. The creep pellets from Jenkins’s are a slightly different shape. Longer and thinner. Also far less tasty too it would seem!
I fed the alpacas without incident. In fact Tex and Atlas were flat out. Tex loves lazy mornings in bed. So much so that he didn’t even get up. I’m not doing breakfast in bed. It’s not that sort of service! I began the walk back up. Outside the pen area I saw a familiar sheared and rounded body. “Oi! Why are you out here?” Petra looked at me, did her deep “Baaa!” and strolled off. I picked Jordan up and we had a bit of a Garth Hall meeting before food. After dinner we headed into Cardiff on the bus. We had a bit of a wander and then finally found a bar with a bit of room. Cardiff was busy! We sampled the 3 Ed Sheeran cocktails on offer. Bad Habits had tequila and was strong. Cocktail on the Hill was our favourite and a lovely blue colour. Jordan decided she wanted to try Drinking Out Loud. This was a melon based one. I had another Cocktail on the Hill. The bar started emptying so when we finished our drinks, we made our way to the stadium.
We were well prepared. The Ed Sheeran tickets had been found and kept on my phone. We finished our bags of Monster Munch and walked to the first line of stewards. When we were nearer I pulled my phone out. No sign of the tickets and no signal. “Mam! One job!” 😂 A lovely lady helped us and eventually we found them and went in. We didn’t have bags so it was all easy. Toilets first then over to the bar for bottles of water and onto the pitch. The stage was circular and in the centre. We made our way fairly near the front. Ed was due on at 8.15. At 7.50 I decided I needed another wee. The queue was massive and I was gone for 20 minutes. The bar queue was also huge by now. The concert was amazing. Ed puts on an excellent show. We were by barriers so I had a better view. There were two fainters by us so we had that to watch as well.
The finale was amazing, lights, smoke, fireworks as well as the music. It was awesome. We were also told we were the biggest concert ever in Wales and looking around that was easy to believe. The lights went on, Ed Sheeran was accompanying off down the player’s tunnel and the crush to get out began. Wow! We queued patiently by the steps. We got a few steps up and there was a kerfuffle behind. Some very drunk bloke started ranting to one of the girls in front of us. They were arguing over us then. Not good. He was accusing them of pushing passed him whilst simultaneously pushing passed me and Jordan. He kept on and on shouting and then stopped, blocking the steps and still shouting and swearing. He could barely stand. The queue behind started telling him to get a move on. Including me. Only little but big gob on me 😁 And then it got nasty.
People further behind were calling for stewards because I suppose they could see. Jordan was over the other side now, I could just see her. I don’t really know what happened next but it seemed as though a steward rugby tackled him from above. They were heading straight for me. There was really nowhere to go apart from sideways into the seats. I moved just in time. They fell partially on the concrete steps and partially on the seats directly in front of me. They missed taking me out by a few inches. “MAM!” Jordan’s hand appeared and she grabbed me and pulled me up the steps while everybody was nosing at what had happened. There was loads of blood on the steps. Jordan said there was another bloke with blood pouring out of his mouth but I was in shock. I didn’t see that. The concourse was gridlocked. We held hands again and just slowly edged forward in the crush. It took ages but we were together. I have never seen some many people. Not after football or rugby. It was unbelievable. The journey home took a while too…
What a night! I’m suffering a bit this morning but the animals must be checked. Even though it’s a really late start.
Helen x
