Alt.Cardiff Magazine: The Women's Issue

Alt. Cardiff THE WOMEN’S ISSUE

FINDING FRIENDSHIP IN FANTASY FICTION CARDIFF’S CASHLESS CHRISTMAS THE KORFBALL CRAZE

Meet The sober sisterhood of Cardiff

CARDIFF’S CONTROVERSIAL PORTRAIT

January 2024 Issue 1

Will it be a cashless Christmas in Cardiff?

A new survey by UK Finance suggests cash payments increased for the first time in a decade, last year. As a result of budgeting pressures, cash purchases are likely to rise this Christmas, so how do vendors feel about cash vs card?

The Welsh beach korfball team and supporters at the Beach Korfball World Cup in Poland, 2023

Tans, Sand... and Korf?

Photo by Yasmin Williams

Writtten by Sophie Colson

Beach korfball joins the World Games and Welsh player, Yasmin Williams, talks about its rising popularity in Cardiff Known as a cross between netball and basketball but with a gender-equal team, korfball is gaining popularity in Cardiff with new opportunities to play internationally.

The International World Games Association (IWGA) announced recently that beach korfball has joined the World Games, to be held in China (PRC) on 7-17 August 2025.

Thailand will host the second World Beach Korfball Championship in 2024, which will be the qualifying event for the World Games.

Yasmin Williams, who plays for the Wales National Korfball team, said: “It’s incredibly exciting. Wales are very keen to go to the World Games.”

Williams, who is also on the International Beach Korfball Committee, said korfball is on the rise in Cardiff as events like the World Games and Champion’s League,

which Cardiff hosted this year, spreads awareness of the sport. “It brings more visibility,” she said.

Cardiff has a variety of teams including Cardiff Raptors, Cardiff City and many more.

Williams explained the Cardiff teams are accessible to everyone, no matter their familiarity with the sport, and joining one could quickly see you playing in the more elite leagues. She said: “I made the Welsh National team after playing for one year when I was at university.

“You have a much greater opportunity of playing at an elite level because there’s so fewer people playing it.

“About half of the Welsh National Squad play for other Cardiff teams.

So, if you want to play internationally, these are the right people to be in communication with.”

Karen Shellam, the proprietor of Hot Welsh Cakes by Mum & Me said: “I only take cash because I don’t want to bother with the machine.”

Jan Holmes, proprietor of Jan’s Crafts and Gifts said: “I’m a bit old fashioned. I draw out so much money from the bank every week and that’s how much I know I’ve got to spend.”

Simon Matthews, who runs the Melted Cheese Company, said: “I prefer card. As a food business, it’s easier if I have no interaction with the customer because of food hygiene standards.”

The exhibit is a community project created The Reframing Picton exhibit currently open at Cardiff’s National Museum explores by museum experts and young community representatives from across Wales.

Thomas Picton, a man once recognised as O’Molemo Thamae, a representative of a ‘hero,’ but now considered ‘The Tyrant of Trinidad’ for his crimes against Trinidadians. Race Council Cymru (RCC), said: “I believe future generations will benefit from being Despite opening in August 2022, this told a much more accurate version of history, exhibition remains particularly relevant in December, a month that hosts Human Rights including that of characters like Thomas Day (10 December) and the International Day Picton. Never erasing history but telling a fuller version of it.” for the Abolition of Slavery (2 December).

2 News

Javier De Francesco, owner of Il Giardino said: “I prefer cash because I know how much I’m spending. When I pay by card I just tap it and then at the end of the day I don’t really know how much I’ve spent.”

Photos by Sophie Colson

Cardiff’s controversial Painting

‘Reading is like my shield’

Words and Photo by Sophie Colson

Waterstones bookseller Rowan Maddock talks about creating safe community for readers to share their love of fantasy fiction through a book club

O

nce a month, as the cafe is closing, Rowan Maddock, 22, co-hosts a fantasy book club in Cardiff ’s Waterstones. Completely free, the book club chooses a novel each month to read individually and then meets to discuss their opinions on the story.

Rowan hosts this event with her colleague, Lisa Foley, who both work as Waterstones booksellers, but Rowan felt that Cardiff needed more community reading spaces.

Rowan said: “Having a space where you can talk to other readers and share your passion was really needed.

Reading is quite a solitary activity, so it’s nice because everyone that comes along is really grateful they have a space to sit and discuss these books with others.”

The book club was started in July 2023, and is named Rowan and Lisa’s Fantasy Book Club “or Lisa and Rowan’s,” clarified Rowan with a laugh, “depending on how active I’m

going to be that month.”

Rowan explained how important it is to talk about the books you read, and how, even when she didn’t enjoy a book, the discussions helped her to see the story in a new light, which in turn enabled her to enjoy it a little more.

“I think just having a safe space where everyone can voice their opinions without feeling like they’re being judged for it, is so important,” Rowan said.

The bookseller has loved reading fantasy since she was 11, when she read the entirety of her school library’s fantasy section until they had nothing left for her to read.

Even in adulthood, Rowan felt that the escapist nature of fantasy fiction could bring relief from life’s stresses.

She said in the pandemic, living in student accommodation without heating was a real struggle, and fantasy books enabled her to escape from those problems.

She added: “I know that I have books that I read in dark times that

“I feel there’s always something to be learned from the pages of a book”

brought me happiness. And now when I reread them, I don’t think of the dark times I was in. I remember the happiness they brought me and it brings that happiness back.”

The book club host explained that reading allowed her to experience someone else’s life, and helped her to forget the worries in her own life.

“Reading is like my shield,” Rowan added with a laugh, “and I like the adventures as well, plus dragons.”

She explained that characters became like family. They were role models that she could relate to, offered her comfort and boosted her self-esteem. “I feel there’s always something to be learned from the pages of a book, even if it’s fantasy. I just love books in their entirety” she summarised.

Rowan’s Recommendations: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Eragon by Christopher Paolini A House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Fantasy fiction fanatics 3

Christmas wreath-making was a sober event held at Motel Nights in Cardiff and hosted by two members of the Sober Gals Wales group, Rosie Regan and Poppy Osborne

meet the sober sisterhood reshaping christmasA in cardiff

Sober Gals Wales is creating a safe space for non-drinking women to celebrate and socialise without booze, this festive season

well lit room, crowded with women of all ages, laughing and chatting. The walls are covered in tinsel and bright twinkling lights, Christmas music is playing, and decorated trees stand in every corner. The bar is filled with snacks and mugs of warm mulled wine. It’s a scene recognisable to most people as a Christmas party. The only difference?

There’s no alcohol in sight.

Sober Gals Wales is a community of some 700 women who are at different levels of sobriety and who host events like this one, Christmas wreath-making, to meet like-minded women.

4 The sober sisterhood

Photos by Sophie Colson and Rosie Regan Written by Sophie colson

Emily Power, 29, Founder of Sober Gals Wales

“I show up for myself now. If I say I’m going to do something, I always do it” - Katie McMenamin, pictured above It began in 2022 as a way for founder, Emily Power, 29, to make more female friends who could relate to becoming sober. “It was my way of finding my own sober network, but now it’s me providing that for others as well,” she said.

Power added: “Sober Gals Wales is all about enjoying life without booze and proving that it’s possible.”

Power had begun by trying to meet women on the Sober Girl Society, a social media group with 210k Instagram followers, but struggled to arrange meet-ups with local people.

So, she created Sober Gals Wales with those in the area who seemed willing to meet.

Katie McMenamin, 29, was one of those added to the initial group chat. She said: “When I joined I was trying to meet new people.”

“SOBER GALS WALES IS ALL ABOUT ENJOYING LIFE WITHOUT BOOZE AND PROVING THAT IT’S POSSIBLE” - EMILY POWER

The ‘Non-Drinking Generation’

Power explained she used to drink at the park when she was 16. Her drinking habits were normalised when she went to university, and began binge-drinking. She said: “I’ve always had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I was aware of that for a long time before I accepted it.”

Current beliefs around young people’s drinking habits are very mixed. University students are seen as binge-drinkers and drinking at 16 is common. Yet, it’s also a popular belief that the current generation of young adults are non-drinkers.

According to DrinkAware, 16-24 year olds are more likely to be non-

5

Photo by KRosie Regan

drinkers (21%) compared to the rest of the population (13%). That’s one in five young adults, according to the report made in November 2023.

Despite this, adults aged between 18-34 in Wales who do drink are more likely to binge. Almost three in four (73%) of people in this age range report binge-drinking in the last year compared to half (50%) of those aged 55 and over.

“I’m completely teetotal. I don’t see myself ever drinking again because I don’t feel I can moderate. My life’s better off without it,” said Power.

Sobriety and mental health

Another reason Power became sober was for her mental health. Hangovers would last two days, and leave her feeling anxious for up to a week.

While at university, she was seeing a counsellor who asked if alcohol could be a factor and she could try giving it up. “I genuinely laughed,” said Power, “because I didn’t think it was possible. I just couldn’t imagine life without it.

“It took me a while to accept that it was alcohol that needed to go, and then to have the guts to actually do it took me a while too,” she added.

McMenamin’s journey to sobriety also began because of the health benefits it offered. “I was a bingedrinker so if I went out, I went out,” she explained, “ I wouldn’t say I had a problem with alcohol, it was just always there. Social events always focused around it, you didn’t see the girls unless you were going for bottomless brunch.”

She explained that it was a bottomless brunch that convinced her to try sobriety as it prevented her from running a 10k the following morning.

6 The sober sisterhood

Photo by Katie McMenamin

“A group like Sober Gals Wales, where everyone undestands, is a nice way of getting out there and still being social,” said Power

According to DrinkAware, this is a common problem for young adult drinkers (aged 16-24) as they are twice as likely to experience memory loss and twice as likely to fail to do what is usually expected of them, compared to older drinkers.

McMenamin said she never would have got her dog if she hadn’t become sober. She would have felt guilty skipping walks when she was hungover, and now her pup is their mascot.

“It’s just so nice to know that she exists for me because I don’t drink anymore,” added McMenamin.

Misconceptions and safe spaces

McMenamin said misconceptions to being sober include alcoholism, religion or being boring.

Power explained she still liked going to the pub with her friends and it was common for people to assume she wouldn’t.

Both women agreed that there seemed to be more alcohol-free options available now, and that the attitude towards sobriety seems to be improving.

Power emphasised that Sober Gals is a safe space for women who can relate to each other because of their shared sobriety. “For a lot of us in the group, some of those issues that might’ve led to us drinking are quite gender specific,” Places to visit for sober fun in Pictured above: explained Power, “We Tifa, the are also very welcoming Cardiff: Sober Gals Wales of non-binary and trans - Chance and Counters or Scaredy Cats, mascot women. We don’t want it board game cafes to exclude anyone but we also need it to feel safe.”

- Peggy’s Pots, Pottery painting Sober, according to Collins - Mini golf in st David’s dictionary, can have a few meanings; not drunk, a serious and thoughtful - Light trail at Bute park person, and when in relation to clothes, - Ice skating, food and games at winter plain, dull or subdued. It seems there’s a wonderland lot of connotations to the word, but this event couldn’t contradict them more.

- Comedy night and other shows at Cardiff As women welcome newcomers like Christmas Festival: In the Spiegeltent old friends, they twine fir tree branches - Curling, candle-making and, wreath with orange slices and pinecones. The walls are covered in tinsel and bright making at Tiger Yard’s Winter wunder-Yard twinkling lights. Christmas music - Or try one of the activities with Sober Gals is playing and they’re singing along.

Wales There’s no alcohol in sight.