But then the Senedd itself was somehow not what I'd really anticipated at all.

What seemed like months after AM Nerys Evans first suggested I went down to Cardiff for a visit, I'd finally arrived in Cardiff Bay and battled airport-style security.

My expectations of Cardiff and the Bay area were based entirely on Torchwood, so I think I was always destined to be disappointed. But with the Senedd itself I wasn't.

The building is truly magnificent. Not in a grand, regal, traditional way. In a modern way, it somehow encapsulates everything the Assembly is.

There's light flooding in from every direction, the remarkable wooden ceiling that almost resembles a giant mushroom, funnelling light into the main assembly chamber.

There's so much glass that cleaning the windows must be like painting the Forth Bridge.

Here there are no corridors of power. Just vast open spaces.

Nerys had a busy morning, she'd already done a day's work by the time I caught up with her – and it was still only mid morning. She was on to item number four on her timetable.

There was a protest on the Senedd steps about widening the M4. Straight out the Plaid group meeting to meet the protesters, it was finally time for her to catch a breath.

But only after more mundane matters had been sorted.

With Arwel, a Plaid press and political officer, dispatched to meet the man who'd arrived to fix her car windscreen, she seemed almost apologetic.

"It's about the only time my car will be in the same place for more than two hours this week," she told me, adding: "It's difficult to find the time sometimes."

Time, it appeared, was at a premium in the Senedd.
Within minutes we'd moved on, protesters to pupils in the blink of an eye.

Leaving the Gwent environmentalists on the steps, we'd moved into the Oriel, the public gallery for the main chamber, to meet some pupils from Sennybridge School.

Her probably well-rehearsed speech over, it was question time. Cue an awkward silence, until one brave youngster asked about rugby funding.
There's more schools want to visit the Senedd than they can accommodate, and Nerys readily admitted it is always difficult to know how to pitch it.

"You just don't know what to expect," she said, "you don't know what they might ask."

While some pupils clam up, some don't. One school visit had recently sent 180 children her way, all with questions. 'How much do you get paid?', 'Do you like the queen?', 'Why are you closing our school?' What, as a politician, are you supposed to say?

Lunch over, the Senedd was in session at 2pm.

Around 1.50pm a buzzer sounds around the building. "That's to remind them" remarks Arwel. Should the Assembly members really require a school bell to remind them of their duties?

Back in the Oriel, I'm confronted with a touch-screen monitor. Looking down into the chamber, all the members have laptops. My monitor simply says English, volume, Cymraeg. It's all very hi-tech.

First Minister's Question Time opens with Nick Bourne taking to his feet. He has a large patch above his right eye, and a deep gash below. Had he been brawling?

"I thought it was the deputy first minister that had met Muhammad Ali, not you," said Rhodri Morgan, "I hope you are making a satisfactory recovery?"

Soon Mick Bates takes to the floor. Cue whooping and drumming of the desks. The whole thing feels very amiable, but I suppose it was the first day 'back at school'.

The atmosphere is very relaxed, but as Nerys later told me: "There's only 60 of us and so you get to know people quite well, it's quite informal."

"Welcome back," Rhodri tells him, "it's like a report from the front in 1916".

One of the next questions asked is on the recent floods.

"One thing I have learnt in eight and a half years as First Minister is don't give guarantees," Rhodri told members.

For a man who'd assured the readers of Powys that they'd got off scot free in the great windfarm invasion, only for us to discover just days later that a massive scheme was planned for the Dyfnant Forest, it was somewhat ironic.

Nerys was next up, with a question about broadband. Over lunch she'd told me the question, which was about how plans were progressing to sort out the 'not spots' in Mid Wales.

She also told me what his answer would be.

She's either psychic or knows this politics game all too well.
A digital clock times how long is spent on each question. Broadband was given 6:18. Her question answered, we returned to her office.

A Welsh flag and a Cuban flag adorn the walls, along with pictures of family.

At 28, Nerys, a graduate of Manchester University, is one of the youngest Assembly members. But not the youngest. One of her colleagues in the Plaid Cymru party is just 27.

She admits people can sometimes be surprised by her age. "I went to a meeting near Carmarthen and went to shake this man's hand. 'Who the hell are you?' he said. People hurriedly told him I was the AM, he was quite red-faced."

You'd be forgiven for thinking the Senedd was all part of a masterplan.
"Definitely not," she said, "I was interested in politics, did politics at A-level and degree, and a masters in Cardiff, and then I worked for Plaid in various jobs.

"Plaid is really good in pushing young people forward."

In 2006 a reorganisation of the regions left a vacancy on the party list, and party members approached her.

"I had no personal ambition to be a politician, I didn't have time to think about it. I think I'm still in a bit of denial to be honest."

Perhaps not the answer I expected, but refreshingly honest. And throughout the interview Nerys's passion for politics and Wales was clearly apparent.

Wales was the first ever country to have more women than men in power. "It's important that when people look at the Assembly it's not the Westminster men in suits attitude. The young element and the fact that there's more women definitely affects policies.

"We're having debates you wouldn't have in Westminster."

She cited the example of domestic violence, high on the Cardiff agenda. "I am launching a blog soon where people can anonymously tell their experiences, it all serves to put added pressure on the ministers to act."

As AM for Mid and West Wales, she is confronted daily by the unique problems that being an Assembly Member for Wales' largest region creates.

"Nothing ties the people of Welshpool, Fishguard, Abersoch and Llanelli," she said. "You don't feel part of Mid and Mid Wales, you're part of a constituency."

With four of the eight constituencies in Mid and West Wales served by a Plaid AM, Nerys has an agreement that any casework from those areas is passed on.

That allows her to focus on Powys, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen West, where she says certain issues are cropping up again and again at the moment.

"The threat to rural communities is a big issue," she said, "With some rural post office closures the Assembly had no voice. I don't think that's right."

Nerys talks passionately about devolution, and a possible referendum in 2011. "I don't just want a parliament for the sake of it. We need the tools to do the job.

"It's about where the decision are made, is it London, or is it Cardiff? Most parts of Wales are off the radar in Westminster.

"But it's the people of Wales who must decide."

And she claims opposition from Welsh Labour MPs is merely self-preservation.

"It's self interest," she said, "they fear losing their jobs."
Any referendum would need two thirds agreement in the Assembly before it could be presented to Westminster, and Nerys is adamant that it must happen.

The Plaid-Labour coalition was dependent on Labour backing a referendum and she added: "If that's not delivered we could walk away from the agreement. And that's a possibility. No-one's sure what would happen then."

The hectic diary is not uncommon. "Meetings tomorrow start at 8am." Starting her second full year in the Assembly, she admits "it's still a massive learning curve", but the long hours don't seem to faze her in the slightest.

In fact, she wants the days at the Assembly to get longer.
Assembly business is done Tuesday to Thursday, with 'family friendly hours' allowing members to get home in time to spend the evening with their family.

"I would argue for longer days to get through more to not have to come in on Thursdays. Family friendly hours only benefit people with constituencies around Cardiff."

Plaid has often been seen as the party of Welsh nationalism.

"Now we're a credible party of government the world has not collapsed," she said, somewhat tongue in cheek, "there's been no manning of the borders."

Of their 15 Assembly members, six don't even speak Welsh.

"It's something you still get confronted with campaigning," she said, "but it's just a myth."

Our interview over, Nerys still had at least one more engagement to fulfil - the launch of the People Like Us initiative - but there was one question still unanswered.

And yes, in case anyone's worried, the windscreen did get fixed.