The key to a good weekend

The Star has two flats - one in Tenby and one in Porthmadog - which are available for members of staff to rent at a bargain rate.

This week two of my friends are staying in Tenby, but at the weekend I accompanied one of them for a night out by the seaside. It didn't go to plan.

We left Shrewsbury at 10.30am (we were meant to leave at 9.30am, but I was waiting for a woman, so you know...) and off we set in the sunshine. We got as far as Newtown when my friend (although now I may refer to her simply as 'colleague') let out a gasp.

"I've forgotten to pick up the key for the flat," she announced.

"You're not even joking are you?" I replied, quite calmly in the circumstances, I thought.

And so we turned around and headed from Newtown to Ketley, where the flat keys are kept, before heading back towards Shrewsbury and then on to mid Wales for a second time.

Now I'm not one to suggest women can't map read, because my sense of direction isn't exactly hot, but my friend Rhea then decided to take us the long way, adding an extra hour or so to our journey.

As we got near Tenby (we'd been on the road for nearly six hours by now!) I asked Rhea to dig out the map so we could locate the flat.

"I've been here before," she confidently announced. "Let me do this without the map to show I can do something."

I don't know why I agreed.

"North beach or south beach?" I asked as we got to the outskirts of Tenby.

"There's two beaches? What kind of place has two beaches?"

Needless to say she picked the wrong one and we had to negotiate the tight streets of Tenby.

Still, when we got there the flat was lovely. And so was the beer.

The journey home was a trial as - alone - I battled the snow which had hit mid Wales. I was still back in half the time.