VALE L IFE

Editor Jennifer Hobbs-Roberts jennifer@goodlifepublishing.co.uk

Creative Director Mark Roberts mark@goodlifepublishing.co.uk

Editorial editorial@goodlifepublishing.co.uk www.valelife.co.uk

0845 130 6452

Cardiff House, Cardiff Road, Barry CF63 2AW

Passionate about The Vale of Glamorgan

We are a small independent publisher. We are not a large publishing group pretending to be home grown. Vale Life magazine is written, designed and produced in the Vale of Glamorgan for the people of the Vale of Glamorgan.

Our philosophy

We are committed to quality. This quote by William Foster pretty much sums up our thinking: “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

Caveat emptor

Advertisers supply their own copy or artwork, and therefore Vale Life cannot accept any responsibility for disputes between advertisers and their customers. Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.

Important you read this

We have made every effort to ensure that all information contained in Vale Life or on www.valelife.co.uk (or our social media streams) is correct and accurate. However, we accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions and can offer no compensation should we get it wrong. Please note that the opinions, thoughts, views or ideas expressed in articles contained in Vale Life are strictly those of the authors.

Intellectual property

© Copyright Vale Life 2023. All rights reserved. Nothing in this magazine (including adverts) may be reproduced in any shape or form (in whole or part) without the express written permission of the publishers. We take breach of copyright and theft of intellectual property extremely seriously and will sue at the drop of a croissant. You have been warned (nicely); ignorance is no excuse.

Subscriptions

Apologies, we are not accepting subscriptions at present. However, you can reserve a copy with some of our outlets across the Vale or read articles on www.valelife.co.uk

Missed the last issue?

We hold a small number of each issue in stock so if you do need a pristine copy, please telephone us or email jennifer@goodlifepublishing.co.uk. Hopefully we’ll have the issue you want (but we cannot guarantee it). Each back issue costs £5 including postage and packing.

Yes it’s free. Priceless actually!

Vale Life is distributed free through a wide variety of outlets across Vale of Glamorgan and beyond and is given away free of charge on the understanding that we are happy for it to be lent, passed on, given to friends and generally read until it falls apart. At which point, you can recycle it and we’d be delighted if you did.

Green is good

The pulp used in the production of the paper Vale Life is printed on is sourced from sustainably managed Scandinavian tree farms and utilises an elementary chlorine-free bleaching process.

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2022 was a funny old year. Not dissimilar to 2021 or 2020 really but let’s not dwell on that!

To be perfectly honest, I’ve had it with all the doom and gloom. Yes, it’s tough out there (and here) but what we’re experiencing isn’t, as Tom Jones would say, unusual. Every country has similar issues at the moment, and we’re pretty much all in the same boat.

I find myself looking for the good stuff more these days. Reasons to be cheerful shall we say. I live in a beautiful county. I enjoy good health. I’m in love. I have a wonderful family. We have a really cool dog that brings us joy in the bucket loads. The things that make me happy these days aren’t things (although I do like clothes, and shoes, and bags, and other fashiony type things), it’s life: kindness, love, generosity, friendship. These are the important things.

I love funny jokes, and rude jokes. I like cheeky people, and smart people. I like people that make you think and don’t take everything at face value and believe the garbage that we’re spoon fed by the media. I can’t bare all this wokery and not being able to laugh at things without someone, as my husband eloquently puts it, “losing their skirt!”

Nope I’m past it. I make sure I have people around me that enrich my soul. Life is way too short and if we’re kind and compassionate, I believe the universe, in this life or the next, whatever form that takes, rewards us. And if it doesn’t, well we’ve had a laugh along the way.

Travel Life

If you love to travel like us, you might like to visit our Travel Life Magazine website. The website’s address is TravelLifeMag.co.uk and it’s becoming quite popular. You’ll be able to read about a few of our recent excursions on pages 64 to 73. #HappyTravels

Until spring. Keep smiling, life has a way of working itself out despite our best efforts to derail it.

Jennifer Hobbs-Roberts

Editor 07766 106 701 jennifer@goodlifepublishing.co.uk uk.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhobbsroberts

Our cover stars!

Our cover is graced by the talented trio Ryan Davies, Magdalena Popiela and Thomas Betts of Vale Eye Surgeons who have recently opened their shiny new clinic in the heart of Cowbridge, Check them out on pages 8 to 11.

Connect Resolve

Connect Resolve is a unique service working with children and parents to strengthen their relationships. Run by Cheryl, a qualified mediator with extensive experience of child and parental conflict and working with separated parents. Cheryl can also deliver training on communication and conflict.

Connect Resolve guides and enables families to improve communication and understand each other’s behaviour, when they are having difficulties. Her conversations allow parents to reflect and co-ordinate their parenting to support each other. She can also work towards reconnecting lost relationships between a parent and child.

This tailored service, depending on the age and willingness of everyone, is offered to parents or the whole family. Sessions are available online or face-to-face in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cheryl offers a free 15-minute consultation to help you decide if this support is right for you.

VALE LIFE FRONT COVERS Our shining stars

Our cover stars for this issue are Ryan, Magda and Tom of Vale Eye Surgeons. We love celebrating local people, and their stories over the last twelve months have been incredibly inspiring.

Emma was our first cover star of 2022. You can read all about her incredible life changing experience on pages 44 to 47.

Spring 2022’s cover really popped with Stacey and Carla of Coast Hair & Beauty adding a splash of pink to the season.

Nicky Bright graced our front cover back in summer 2022 and her story has now been picked up by national and international media. What a journey for this truely talented lady.

Marina and her beautiful Pom, Coco, made our autumn 2022 issue particularly gorgeous, and her story too was so worthy of a book, so she wrote one!

At this point, we’d also like to praise the great work that Sian Owen does for the magazine. All last year’s covers were taken by Sian (plus this issue’s). If you need any photography: wedding, lifestyle, portrait or corporate, please consider Sian - she’s immensely talented and extremely professional. www.sian-owen.co.uk

“Cheryl allowed us to bond and improve our relationship. Having a third person to guide us really helped. I can open up to my Mum now.”

Male, aged 15

Cheryl Edwards cheryl@connectresolve.co.uk www.connectresolve.co.uk

Connect Resolve connect.resolve jennifer@goodlifepublishing.co.uk

RHOOSE Posh Pawz Salon & Spa

In the very popular village of Rhoose (the Vale’s most southerly point), you’ll find the wellestablished, and much-loved, Posh Pawz Salon and Spa.

Kath’s team of passionate dog lovers offer a large range of services and cater for all shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Posh Pawz provides a calm, clean and air-conditioned environment in which they can handle all your dog’s needs and provide a positive experience of professional grooming. The team offer the highest level of care and attention throughout the grooming process and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the customers.

Kath highly recommends a bath and brush up in between grooms to maintain a good healthy coat and skin. All of which helps towards the wellbeing of your precious pooch.

11 Fontygary Road, Rhoose CF62 3DR 01446 710044 www.poshpawzsalonandspa.co.uk poshpawzsalonandsparhoose

Award winning construction company based in the Vale of Glamorgan, offering a total solution building service to domestic and commercial clients

We have recently had a complete renovation to our downstairs, MJ Construction ensured we were able to do this while still living at the property with minimal disruption whilst the project was ongoing. The quality of the work has been amazing, all of the team have been really friendly, tidy and joy to have in our home. .

The team’s professionalism, knowledge and enthusiasm was evident throughout. MJ Construction were committed to producing quality work while being extremely helpful in creating our vison. We would highly recommend them. .