I am in Cardiff spending a few days following John around and getting an idea of how things work at the Castle Arcade, home to NTW. Devinda gave me a few strategic documents to look at and I listened in on the plans for the Beach. The negotiations between the different artists involved are fascinating, NTW have a clear presence within the creative process and its technical preparations. We looked at a cornflake packet set design, the designer had to travel from Ireland by plane this morning so his options were fairly limited when it came to building a set that he could take through airport security.

The evening was spent in a bar where I ate a chicken and bacon melt with curly fries and drank rioja. It was cheap!!! And the wine was quite good. Cheap in Aberystywth certainly doesn't equal quality, and neither does expensive. This might well be the price to pay (pardon the pun) for living in a small remote town on the west coast of Wales.