Funny how things stick with you throughout your life, but I can remember being told by a teacher in primary school (I must have been six or seven at the time) that we should always be grateful that we were born and lived in such a great city. She talked about how you could walk such short distances from the main station and bus depot to a castle, a superb civic centre with a good museum, the main shopping centre, great restaurants and pubs, theatres, cinemas and concert halls and international sporting facilities. She also spoke of Cardiff's racial tolerance and what she saw as its general friendliness.

Now, some of those things no longer apply (for example, criminally there is no bus depot, no Empire pool any more, Glamorgan no longer play right in the heart of the city and I must say that in general I've found the people in the valleys more friendly towards strangers than those in Cardiff), but I'd still say that most of what my teacher said sixty years ago applies - Cardiff is a great city.