Cardiff bay

Continuing with Job in His pain and strained relationship with God. He is also visited by four ‘friends’ they sit quietly in his presence for days and then speak.

Here are their names with their meanings and a summary of their many words.

Eliphaz : God is fine gold. He argues that humans are inherently flawed before God and that suffering is a direct result of sin.

Bildad : this translates as ‘ son of contention’. He tells Job that his children must have sinned to bring about their fate and urges Job to repent.

Zophar : means chirping/twittering. He claims Job deserves worse punishment.

Elihu: ‘My God is He.’ He is the youngest and joins the group later. He argues that God uses suffering to discipline, warn and mature people rather than punish them.

Job listens and responds to all these friends but then God answers with questions and says exactly what He thinks of them. This is for another time.

For this post we are in Cardiff bay. A fine place to spend time. Here are four places out of many: a memorial, a tree, a building and a restaurant.

First, there is a 3.2 mile cable-stayed bridge carrying the M4 motorway over the River Severn between South Gloucestershire ( England) and Monmouthshire ( Wales). Once we cross this we say ‘ Helô ‘ Wales.

The monument. A lady looks at me looking carefully. She says : ‘What is this about?’ I show her the information board and say: ‘I’m looking for the faces.’

It is the Captain Scott Memorial commemorating the centenary of the ‘ Age of Antarctic Discovery’ . It is by Cardiff based artist Jonathan Williams using ceramic mosaic tiles inspired by Antoni Gaudi.

Captain Scott and his crew set sail from Cardiff on the Terra Nova in 1910. The memorial is placed looking over the Bay he left from.

Here are some of Robert Falcon Scott’s last words written for us:

‘ Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which woukd have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.’

Then the willow tree. The willow lives between thirty to fifty years and there is no age for this one but let’s look at the fine blacksmith work done by Angharad Pearce-Jones. She is a Welsh sculptor, instalation artist and commercial blacksmith.

The famous landmark willow. To keep it healthy the Cardiff Council Park Services regularly coppice it.

The words in full read: ‘ Forever may you stay to smile your benedictions. Sweet tree of Cardiff Bay.’

Then in the distance red brick and modern side by side. The Pierhead building built in 1897 with its unofficially named clock, the ‘Big Ben of Wales’, and the Senedd building. This is an amazing build. The Parliament building of Wales designed by Richard Rogers Partnership in their words ‘…makes visible the inner workings of the Assembly and encourages public participation.’

The building faces southwest over Cardiff Bay, it has a glass façade around the entire building , a steel roof and wood ceiling.

The memorial in front is the 1997 Merchant Seafarer’s War Memorial. This is it on the other side.

A fine face.

The last of so many interesting places is the restraunt, a themed place to eat. The Botanist. Who was the person? The lady in the margins, Isabella Anne Allen, she was the botanist who illustrated her work beautifully but in the margins. Read about her below and look at the menu.

Isebella Anne Allen the inspiration for what they serve.

A pleasant place to spend time with friendly Welsh hosting.

We travel on.

sandyroybessandbugzy.com