28 October: Cardiff

On this date in 1905 Cardiff was granted city status by King Edward VII. 10 things you might not know about the capital of Wales.

1. It has only been capital of Wales since 20 December 1955 when it was given the status by then Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. Caernarfon had also been in the running.
2. It is the 11^th largest city in the UK and the smallest capital city in Europe.
3. The name of the city derives from the Middle Welsh Caerdyf, which means “Fort beside the River Taff”. Today, the Welsh name for the city is Caerdydd.
4. Only 10% of the population of Cardiff speaks Welsh.
5. Cardiff is home to the oldest record shop in the world. It is called Spiller’s, and has been open since 1894, when it sold wax cylinders for the phonograph.
6. Cardiff is also home to The Millennium Stadium, the Second Largest in the World. It employs a professionally trained falcon to keep pests at bay, and the Stadium’s Toilet has won the Loo of the year award twice.
7. Cardiff claims to have the largest concentration of castles of any city in the world. There’s Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch, the remains of two Motte and Bailey castles in Radyr and Rhiwbina, a castle at Whitchurch (although houses were built over this one in the 1960s), and Castell Morgraig. Not to mention two which aren’t strictly speaking castles but which call themselves so – the ruined Llandaff Bishop's Palace, a fortified residence belonging to the Bishops of Llandaff and Saint Fagans Castle, a seventeenth century manor house, once the seat of the Earls of Plymouth.
8. Most people believe it’s always raining in Wales, but Cardiff actually gets more hours of sunshine per year than Milan in Italy.
9. Cardiff has lots of underground tunnels which nobody knows the true purpose of. Some were used as short cuts for dock workers, other tunnels have been found linking hotels and Cardiff Castle.
10. Famous people who come from Cardiff include Singers Shirley Bassey and Charlotte Church, comedian Griff Rhys-Jones, writer Roald Dahl and footballer Ryan Giggs.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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