Eisteddford 2018: When Timing Is Everything

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as I mentioned yesterday timing is everything. If we had gone to the Eisteddfod held in Cardiff  Bay any day of the week we would have been bathed in sunshine and heat. Instead it turned out to have been yesterday....

Yes it was yesterday....in August

Wife, daughter and I went. Two of us had the presence of mind to bring a coat. One of us said "I don't need a coat as long as I've an umbrella I'll be fine..."

Guilty.

What I hadn't taken into account was how windy it was going to be. That plus the rain which came earlier than forecast and was the sort of taunting variety which was heavy one moment, clear the next, but mainly light but persistent meant that even with an umbrella your first thought was shelter.

Though I didn't take it here

We were able to hide under large tents and listen to Welsh language music. I must say that I've no real knowledge of Welsh language music. Of those I do know about tends to be the middle of the road easy listening variety of Sian Cothi. Still it was good and. note to self, best I make more of an effort in this regard.

We also went here.

Yes a cinema in a tent

If we had gone yesterday we would have seen the world's premiere of Monday's episode of Pobol Y Cwm and have seen some of the actors (more on Pobol later). Today though was a collection of home movies set throughout Wales through the decades. All of them were interesting. But the one that probably sent an emotional tear in the wife's eye was on Cardiff in the seventies when she was a child.

You know when you're growing old when what you consider nostalgia your daughter views as history.

Daughter got a few things. Her particular favourite was a Harry Potter novel translated in Welsh. I too got a couple of books. This was the first.

Blas Yr Iaith Cwmderi - Robyn Lewis/Robyn Llyn

Now we were in a stall of a North Walian bookseller (whose name I didn't catch but I will try and find out) and we had a chat in full on no English parachute Welsh with this very kind man. At the end I felt having occupied a lot of his time I should buy a book and picked the above Pobol one.

The guy (and how kind is this) said I could have it for free!

It is the most different Pobol Y Cwm book (published in 1993) I'm aware of where from first perusal the regional dialects of various characters are analysed. So better put my A game in Welsh to action here.

The other book was:

Y Fawr A'r Fach - Sion Tomos Owen

These are stories for learners from the Rhondda Valley. The writer is the presenter of Pobol Y Rhondda, a programme I've mentioned before where he interviews people there. A programme so good I know of one non Welsh speaking couple who live up there who are ardent fans.

We actually enjoyed our visit. Though obviously it would have been better if the weather had held up for that day. Memo to self. Next time the Eisteddfod is in South Wales, go on the earliest day possible so that if the weather's bad you've got another chance to enjoy it more.

Until the next time.

Treorchy Before I Die....Possibly

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

House news first. Six houses have been seen this weekend (it was meant to be seven but one, the one for me which I liked the most when I saw it online was sold before we were about to go out today) and none was liked by us all. So unless anything unexpected occurs a renting we will go.

Yesterday though we did nothing much except when friends, a couple from the legendary Rhondda Valley came round to visit. In the beginning it was to deliver some Easter eggs for my daughter but eventually it always develops into gossip as to how things are between us.

Normally the way things  turn the lady goes to chat with my wife whilst the gentleman and I watch some motorsport I've recorded for him. He is a fan, I'm more neutral. Today however all of us actually watched four episodes of the Welsh language channel's S4C programme Pobol Y Rhondda, Now it's second series it highlights the various interesting characters of that region, which as I've said before if you consider Wales as Italy with rain then this is the Welsh Tuscany.

To our friends it was a home movie full of people and places they recognised. I'd shown them the original series when that was on (they're not Welsh speakers) and they became fans. To my wife however it was a prompt to something I told her and indeed mentioned in this blog on Christmas day.

"My husband" she told them "has said that should I die before him he will move to Treorchy".

They turn and look a little surprised. You could tell from that comment that the wife was unimpressed when I told her this the first time. Suspect she thought it was rather ghoulish. Mind you in the scheme of things it's not as if I said that I was going to shack up with a woman half my age and we would perform sexual gymnastics to the limits that my heart and back would take me.

(Don't forget that this move to Penarth and the surrounding areas has been mainly been powered by the wife who gradually has been homesick for her homeland. As she was there for me (even when she didn't know it) when I suffered in silence from an agonising and paralysing depression on being unemployed I feel I owe her)

She had apparently also told this to some people in Cardiff/surrounding area who it appeared laughed at my plan. Wasn't bothered by this. There are some snobby people who consider a journey of over ten minutes from of the Welsh capital to be a trek outside of civilisation. And a journey to the Valleys? Why you need to hire Sherpas first.

The irony that they mocked my plan given that I'm a Londoner is not lost on me.

(And please note I said some snobby people. They are an extremely small minority. They do however exist)

The choice of Treorchy is simple. It's a town so in easy reach of shops. It also has a train station so if there came a time I was unable to drive would still would be able to travel. It is also, even from the town close to those Tuscan views that I treasure, but rarely in hot weather which I don't.

On reflection our friends were not surprised, They already knew how much I was a Valleys fan. What they did mention was that Treorchy is apparently considered the "posh" part of the Rhondda. Nearby Tonypandy has apparently experienced a marked decline. Last time I passed Tonypandy it was on a Bank holiday, shops were closed so couldn't really have an opinion.

Will it happen? Only the future will tell. Could be dead the moment I finish this post and just be marked as some deluded old romantic. The grass is always greener on the other side and in this case it's the green grass of the valley.

Until the next time.