16c Mostly Cloudy
Barmouth Viaduct at Sunset 
Llanberis from Penllyn 
Morfa Bychan beach near Porthmadog 
North Wales Calendar 
THE ragamuffin boys and girls stare back insolently from the sepia-tinged, turn of the 19th century photographs on the wall.
Shin-deep in sea water, they seem to peer curiously at the man, possibly hiding under a black cloth, standing behind one of those newfangled camera thingies.
Some of these sandy urchins wear the bath gear du jour - more like long johns or crumpled pyjamas to you and me.
But all may be grateful for this blissful break from stuffy, suffocating classrooms that may have transported them from one of countless English Satanic milltowns to Llandudno's shore one Saturday morning, long ago.
Time seems important at the Old Station Hotel which is over 100 years old. Four clocks line the wall above the barmaid's head, like an horological mural.
Underneath, we see the words Cardiff, Paris, New York and Sydney, giving us a flavour of what travel can achieve. (Endearing to replace London with Cardiff, but why not when Gavin Henson & co rule the Six Nations?).
They also help remind you the pub's local nickname is the Killer because passengers popped in to kill time while waiting for a train at Llandudno Junction Station, across Conway (corr) Road.
The town grew up around the station, a junction between the Crewe-Holyhead line and the Llandudno-Blaenau Ffestiniog line. The junction was also a major steam loco servicing depot, called 6G, and goods facilities.
The new A546, also called Ffordd 6G Road, crosses the site, and above my route from the office.
Meanwhile, the site has become a business park, fast food outlets, a leisure centre, a Cineworld multiplex cinema, and Tesco.
Back in the Killer, when I point to the clocks, the barmaid admits she'd only recently learned about the nickname.
But she drops a real bombshell when she confesses: "We've run out of John Smith's."
Oh dear.
Apparently, the last delivery didn't arrive and the next one is three days away.
She adds: "We're going to have to borrow some bitter from another of our pubs in Chester."
By contrast, the fridge is positively bulging with J2Os drinks. So I buy a apple and blueberry flavour thirst quencher.
It washes down a ‘lite' fish and chips meal and an apple pie with obligatory vanilla scoop.
It's all OK but I have to hunt down cutlery for both main course and dessert.
The waiter, looking only marginally less pale than his white shirt, seems busy elsewhere even though the place is virtually empty.
The chef also cooks dishes from the Old Station Hotel's Tastes from Around the World range. They include Mediterranean chicken pasta or Aberdeen Angus lasagne.
