Day of firsts

I've been in my current job nearly 10 years (yippee) and it involves a bit of traveling to different places around the UK. There are, however, a few cities I've managed to avoid in that time Swansea, home of the DVLA and Catherine Zeta Jonglas, being one of them. Until today.
What I thought I would end up writing, as I sat on the train at 7.45am with a 3 hour journey ahead of me was: "The best thing about Swansea is that First Great Western lay on their newest, shiniest trains for the journey".
Now I love sarcky put downs with the best of them but I'm struggling a bit here. Yes it's got some horrendous post-war architecture but the weather turned out beautiful and sunny once we got west of Cardiff and there is a really nice beach, boats twinkling in the marina, rolling hills around... Don't get me wrong I don't want to move there or anything and there is lot that could be done to beautify the city centre but there are places with a lot less going for them.
And my visit to Swansea wasn't my only first. At a working lunch in a great little restaurant on the waterfront at which you could choose your fish, seafood or meat from the display to be cooked how how you like, I decided to try one of the local dishes: laverbread (pronounced larver bread).
It isn't actually bread but seaweed and as it looks a bit like a fresh cow pat doesn't generally recommend itself as culinary delight. But it is actually quite tasty and apparently quite good for you with loads of iron and vitamins and stuff. It has to be boiled for hours until it goes gloopy and then is rolled in oatmeal and fried.
It is traditionally served at breakfast with cockles and bacon. I had it as a starter served with, well, cockles and bacon. If you have ever had the sushi rolls which are wrapped in a funny green paper then it tastes a bit like that. (The cockles were good too, never had them before either).
So if you are ever in South West Wales give it a try.

Laverbread, not cow shit on toast