Frances and Barrow celebrate their anniversary in terrifying style. Best wishes to you both X

So I’m about to to make a diary all about my 55th wedding anniversary which was on Monday. So, Barrow and I booked ourselves in for a go on the Zip Wire at the Tower Colliery.

We got there, we signed in, and had a coffee, and watched other people coming down and it looked really exciting. And then it was time to go and get our equipment, and you get sort of quite a lot of equipment sort of tied on to you and all sorts of health and safety issues, the helmet and goggles, the whole shebang. And then, you go in a mini bus and it’s ten minutes up to the top of the hill, and that’s when you discover that the wire you have been watching people coming down is just a little one, and that you’re going to something altogether much bigger.

So we got to the very crest of the hill where the trees are all on the same level as you, so there’s nothing above you. So you are really high up. And you can see all around you, you can see the Brecon Beacons, you can see over to Merthyr, and down towards Cardiff, though not actually into Cardiff. And it’s truly absolutely magnificent. And of course there’s no sign of the former coal pit that was here, it’s all greened over, all the slag heaps are completely green now, though I must admit when I went to Tower Colliery when it was working, of course there were slag heaps everywhere and that big colliery wheel was winding and there were miners coming up and down, but you could still visit it because it was only partially working even then. That’s probably twelve, thirteen years ago.

Anyway, your turn comes with a zip wire, they strap you to the wire, you have to stick your feet up on a board and there’s a void in front of you, and they open the gate and they go: three two one, and you just have to push your feet together and you’re THROUGH! And the sensation of it was… it’s almost hard to find the words, it was so utterly fabulous. And we both completely loved it. And of course we had more confidence when we went to do the second one, and that was utterly wonderful as well, something I would do again in the blink of an eye. And even though I have slight mobility issues, no balance and so on it was all made so easy and they were very helpful.

So that was that and we had lunch and then we came home and had a little sleep. And then in the evening we went out to a concert in somebody local’s huge garden and you could take your picnic, and then we listened to a concert. It was just the most wonderful end to a fantastic day and if I might tell you: a lot more fun than the wedding. And a lot less stressy too!

So that was my wonderful day.