Welsh Wales and Fig Rolls

I'm rather fond of Welsh Wales.

This weekend we visited Swansea University, which is like a large comprehensive school with flats and a disco (showing my age) wedged between some parkland and the beach.

 It has a maths department that my son liked, with a proper mad professor with white unkempt hair, corduroy trousers and checked shirt that left a small triangle of his pale, hairy belly exposed at the point where the buttons tucked into the trousers. He gave a lecture on, "To infinity and beyond," which he demonstrated with sheep and hotels  (what do you expect in Wales?) and ended by saying, "My time is finite," and abruptly  leaving the room. The other maths staff were much more normal. On my way back from the toilet I had a chat with a woman about the Long Suffering Husband's suggestion that, although we'd seen many university statistics, no one had yet told us their establishment was in the top 1% for cleanliness of toilets. I told her that we were compiling our own and unfortunately Swansea was not near the top of the list. She agreed. Later, I discovered that she was the maths professor responsible for giving us the statistics talk. The LSH and my son, meanwhile, had been having sensible conversations with another member of the department. Before I joined them I spotted a table with biscuits and swooped. "I'm a sucker for a fig roll," I told the snickering students. 

"Oh, you're back," said the LSH, "Was there anything you wanted to ask?"

"No, it's perfect here; they've got fig rolls. Actually, I have, what's the weirdest question you've ever been asked?"

He laughed. I was serious.

We've heard some strange questions. My favourite (when we were visiting with my daughter) was, "Who cleans the windows ?" These are the things that have kept me going.  I know it's an important decision but I find they all blend into one and I'm developing my mother's problem of confusing any place that begins with the same letter: Swansea, Sussex, Suffolk, Southampton, what's the difference?

There are so many things to like about Welsh Wales: the people, their accents, welsh cakes, water that isn't the colour of mud, the things they paint on walls.

There's only one thing not to like; it's just too far away, even in a black transit van, pretending to be the A-team.