and on! Let me explain a little about Plas Dolguog, the place where we were staying, just outside the centre of Machynlleth. When I received the invitation to judge at the Show, I thought it could be an excellent opportunity to spend a few days in unfamiliar (to me) territory. My Hero had family links to this part of the world but I had never spent much time here myself. We looked for somewhere to base our stay and a timely review -somewhere- pointed us towards Machynlleth.

The review was of The Gwen, a small, 8 cover restaurant on Heol Maengwyn, the main street in Machynlleth. Almost opposite the chippy in fact, in that small black shop above. Years ago - I think, pre-blog - we dined at the restaurant Ynyshir, from where The Gwen has come, and that experience has stayed in our memories for all kinds of reasons. In the meantime, Ynyshir has changed patronage, has a whole new concept and at a minimum price of £385 a head for dinner, needs careful planning! But The Gwen was a different story and certainly worth a try.

I booked us a table and we looked for somewhere to stay, finding Plas Dolguog’s website and availability for the dates we were after.

A few days before we set off, my Hero received an email advising us of how to gain access to Plas Dolguog, via a security code on the front door and an envelope hanging by the entrance with another code to the keysafe containing the key to our room. Hmm. So there would be no-one there to greet us?

Sure enough, on arrival, we followed the instructions and made our way in and up to our room, where we accessed our key and opened the door to the Wagner Suite.

I can’t say our first impressions were great. Yes, it was clean and tidy, but the decor was a little dark on this summer afternoon and those curtains! 🙄 The bathroom looked good however and there was a door to an outside space so we could let in some fresh air.

There was also a kettle and ample supplies of tea and coffee - it will be fine, we said to ourselves.

But no TV? Maybe in that white cupboard by the front window?

Errrmmm, no. Not in here. I looked around the room and spotted another door, which I opened carefully…

Aha! A narrow little room, not much wider than the sofa was behind it and the TV was mounted high on the wall in the corner.

Not the most comfortable angle for viewing.

We were pretty tired on our first night, having had an early start before the show and then a longish drive afterwards to get here, so we flopped on that sofa with a drink and as darkness fell, my Hero went to switch on the table lamp which fell apart in his hands.

Oh heck! Mindful of the electrical safety aspect, never mind feeling bad about the damage (not that he had done anything but try to switch it on…it was surely already broken), my Hero found the telephone number we’d been given and picked up his phone.

No phone signal.

Enough already. Our three nights here were OK. We completed our breakfast choices and placed the card outside our room before going to bed each night. A young woman served a hot breakfast at the time we requested each morning but although my Hero told her about the broken lamp, nothing happened as a result.

It was a strange experience, then. On two of the three nights there was at least one other couple of people staying here, though we didn’t hear nor see them or anyone else until breakfast time. What I missed most of all is some hospitality - at least some genuine sign of welcome, but there we are. Chalk it up to experience - and add another story to the repertoire!

Every room in Plas Dolguog had at least one of these frame arrangements on the wall and it’s probably the image I will associate most with the place. Having spent the day judging competition entries, I was still in my “advisory” mode and was thinking “The best way to create the arrangement of frames would be to use a strong adhesive rather than using such noticeable screws. If you feel that adhesive wouldn’t be strong enough, then do consider using screws of a similar type and explore ways of disguising them by countersinking the heads, filling and painting the frame afterwards. A spirit level would enable you to keep the arrangement straight”.

Incidentally, The Gwen was great…more about that later!