Daily Grind » Wales

Mabon

simon — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:37:07 +0000

Went to Theatre Mwldan last night, in Cardigan, to watch Mabon play. They’re a Celtic band – five Welsh plus one Scot. Think Riverdance – and you’ll be close to the kind of music they play.

One of their pieces was called Nicolai the Dancing Bear, it was stunning and very moving. The Scot (Calum Stewart) did a flute solo that was also amazing.

One of their albums, OK Pewter, is on iTunes.

Seeing Rod Thomas

simon — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:05:46 +0000

Going to see Rod Thomas, playing in Cardigan (notice the capital letter) tonight. He’ll be there with a singer called Devon Sproule.

Today’s Task – Welsh

simon — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:01:20 +0000

Today’s task is to learn some of the basics of Welsh. My parents are both half Welsh, grandfathers were Welsh, I currently live in Wales – so it would seem appropriate to learn the language; even more so, now that I’ve discovered pre-adoptive family members who speak it!

I guess I really need to go for lessons, as pronunciation is always the killer. I had a Spanish (Columbian actually) teacher at work, who was superb – you get to hear how to pronounce words, even if it was with a South American twist.

So – nouns, adjectives, prepositions, soft-mutations, aspirated-mutations (??!!) and so on – hello.

It’s also two years since I first started this blog. Hmm, how things have changed.

Seven Wonders of Wales

simon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:08:17 +0000

The Seven Wonders of Wales await me this weekend. I’ve already been to Snowdon and Pistyll Rhaeadr before, but would like to do them all at the same time. I may well be accompanied by an esteemed guest!

You can read my Travbuddy entry for the trip here.

England Rugby…. finally

simon — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:05:35 +0000

Finally a decent performance from England. If only they’d have played with the same level of interest against Wales and the (shocking) performance against Scotland – then it might be us at the top of the Six Nations table and not Wales.

I will be supporting Wales now. Come ON! Need them to win by more than three points, so that England come in second place.

I think Wilkinson has had his day, Cipriani is the new man on the block. Balshaw is not a full-back and Noon had a stonking game.

Post-edit – superb, well done Wales – one for Ray Gravelle! (also for the English defensive coach, and for the New Zealand manager).

Interesting

simon — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:51:40 +0000

First off – Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus! *

It’s quite interesting to see what happens when you write about something popular, as I did a few days ago. This happens to your stats:

I now go back to a handful of friends!

* Happy St David’s Day. I seem to remember that St David is the only natural patron saint of his own country. St Patrick was born in Wales and apparently captured by Irish pirates, so I’ve read; St Andrew was born near the Sea of Galilee; St George was born in Turkey.