Cardigan Bay & Pembrokeshire - Aberystwyth to St Davids.
A travelling tale of alternatives, history, prehistory and seaside.
17 September - To Aberaeron
Perhaps it's because there was no TV at home, but I was about ten years old when I first read Under Milk Wood. Since then I've seen the film, bought the DVD, read the book again and again and thoroughly enjoyed everything about the story. I have some of Dylan Thomas' readings in my i-pod and on Christmas Days I've even been known to read out loud the whole of A Child's Christmas in Wales to anyone too slow to avoid it. In 2005 Jo and I had been to see a production of Under Milk Wood here.
So, there we were on the hardly ever straight diagonal route across North Wales and I was saying to Jo that Dylan Thomas had lived in Laugharne on the south coast and we might not get that far, but even so I hoped we'd get to see some nice little seaside towns and villages in Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire.
Llyn Tegid.
We'd just driven past the entrance to the campsite of the Urdd Gobaith Cymru at Glanllyn near Bala. Suddenly I was furious........
How was it possible in our enlightened(?) times for me to have been so brainwashed?
Between the ages of ten and seventeen I went to school in Wales and until I was fourteen I learnt Welsh. There was no option, but I found it easy, almost enjoyed it even, but, other than to make occasional half-baked attempts at translating place-names, I've never since given the language much thought.
"Byddaf ffyddlon i Gymru, i Gyd-ddyn, i Grist", came bursting out. No preparation, there it was.
"I will be faithful to Wales, to my fellow man and to Christ", I interpreted for Jo.
"How dare they tell me to which nation I should be faithful?".
I was outraged.
"This is nationalism, Jo, bloody nationalism! Faithful to Wales, that's nationalism, faithful to my fellow man-person, that's something I'll decide for myself and how dare they try to impose a religion on me? Me, or anyone else aged 10, 11, 12, etc? What a bloody disgrace".
Is hindsight such a good thing, do you think? With hindsight I've remembered that a Scout promises to "Do my best To do my duty to God and to the Queen.......," and that being coerced into promising such nonsense had never annoyed me as the Urdd's presumptions annoyed me. Both organisations' promises should have annoyed me equally, because the difference between the promises is negligible.
Hmm, did you notice that there's no comma in that extract from the Scout's promise? That makes a difference, doesn't it.
We were somewhere near to Dolgellau before I'd started to feel a little less furious.
From my Welsh lessons I find I can remember odd things like this list of letters which undergo various mutations and, tripping off the tongue at a speed which would astonish, here it is:
"C, P, T, G, B, D, M, Ll and Rh".
Wow, you must surely be feeling so glad that I've shared that with you.
Good stuff from the Ordnance Survey, information about British place names of Welsh, Gaelic, Scandinavian, etc. origin. I'm finding the Scandinavian one particularly interesting.
In Brithdir, I think.
Around the corner was one very similar, but with blue paintwork.
Cadair Idris from close to Cross Foxes.
Whizz...............
Swoop..........
Swoop..........
.
Swoop on Talyllyn. (Not "Tally-ho for Talyllyn", because I wouldn't want to give any support to foxhunters, quite the opposite).
Amongst the many great things in the shop was a book, Teaching the Global Dimension: Key Principles and Effective Practice by Dave Hicks who in the 70's was one of my environmental studies lecturers at what was Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside. He's now Professor David Hicks at Bath Spa university. Not so long back, but nearly 30 years after finishing my course, I got in touch with him. I'm ashamed to say that Dave remembered me principally, if not solely, as someone he rightly suspected of having intended to miss a field trip, but who accidentally, and right at the time of departure, arrived at the departure point. Such is fame.
Should I worry that although this sort of exhibit is a great way of showing children that wind is a source of free and clean power, certain adults might have a oh-great-a-wind-powered-seat-that's-just-what-I-need-in-my-garden negative attitude to it?
Happening
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Generally in their late 20s to mid-30s, students were enrolling on courses and I felt excited and happy for them. For several long seconds I wanted to be enrolling too, but not very deep down inside I suspect I'm far too lazy. That realisation might have made me sad, but I felt excited and happy again as I ate my lentil dahl and rice (and some of Jo's shepherd's pie too).
I tend to think that sooner or later someone who wants to disagree will ask me for its source, and I won't know it, and then its value will be greatly weakened and doubt might be cast upon any other little pieces of information which I might want to use. I'd think like that about someone who used such statistics to try to counter a point I was making.
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