Such is Life

In two weeks I'll have paid off my debt to the housing association, and in six weeks I'll have paid off my debt to the insurance company for my car, thereby lightening the burden a little, but it still leaves the electricity company. Although I don't find life without electricity too much of an inconvenience my ex-wife, the mother of my children, regards it as a stigma, and is worried that I'm not right in the head. I'm heating the water on the gas for my tea and to do the dishes, I'm filing a backlog of papers, writing on here by battery power, then going to bed early with either a book on Welsh folklore, where today I came across the spelling 'Proseliand' for 'Broceliande', the enchanted forest just up the road a bit from where I'm living, so they claim at Paimpont, written in 1859; or catching up on my schoolboy 'Laureata' poetry book that somehow never got handed back.

Us & Them

Millionaires/Billionaires!!!!! WE are told to make sacrifices unselfishly, whilst THEY selfishly make. There's something sick in a society that has the Tory rich telling the poor that sacrifices must be made, that austerity is the only way, as they go on getting richer & richer. I'm not quite old enough to remember the post-war Labour government which invested in the infrastructure, putting people back in work and building us out of trouble, leading  to a 2 decades long successful economy, but I am old enough to have reason to be grateful for the council house with all mod-cons that we moved into in 1952. They knew we didn't deserve austerity after a 6 year war so they spent us out of trouble, wisely investing, earning the country a net profit, so it can and has been done. 

Discipline & Disappointment

I'm a social animal; I have never stayed in on a saturday, whether out playing as a child, going to the cinema, cruising the town as a teenager, spectating at matches, or going to the pub, and dance afterwards. I've had the discipline to put it out of my mind for the last 21 months out of the 27 I've been out of work, having to stick to a strict budget, but tonight for some reason it's hurting, similar to the need for a cigarette for some, or a beer for others. Nothing's going right, with the exception of Merthyr's promotion; Cardiff lost, though I'm not really a Cardiff supporter I want them to do well, ditto Wrexham; Lleuwen came today with Caradog and I forgot to get my camera out of the car, though I remember heading for the door more than once but failed to retain the intention, then I settled down to watch Matthew Stevens lose to Ronnie O'Sullivan again at his brilliant best, and to go back a day Plaid Cymru, my party, didn't do well; we are trying to emulate the success of the SNP, but now we've frightened people off with talk of independence, not saying we shouldn't, just saying we have, we've perhaps judged them ready when in fact they aren't yet, and Carwyn is coming closer to us, following Rhodri in keeping his distance from 'Head Office', pity about Peter Hain; the Labour Party knows it frightens people off with talk of socialism. I remember in a pub in Merthyr after we'd taken control, "I voted Plaid Cymru, Emrys Roberts is brilliant, it's those Welsh nationalists I don't like". I don't know what this tells us, but I was surprised, if not shocked to see that in the 11 wards of Merthyr there were TWO Plaid Cymru candidates, one of whom came bottom. Anyway, 3 visitors this week, the 2 Welsh came for a cup of tea, the Breton brought his own Guinness, last week I went with Terry, yesterday's visitor, to his Welsh friend's house in Trebrivan where we were offered a cup of tea. Went shopping in Carhaix this morning, my strict budget flew out of the window, it wasn't the birthday card I bought for my 3 years old granddaughter that did it, just the weekly shopping, only the 2nd time in over a year that I've shopped as per the norm, and now I'm sitting here with saturday night pangs with one eye on the telly and one eye on my computer; see you tomorrow most probably. PS. It's not like I even feel like a beer; it's possible that the chocolate I've eaten today has weakened my discipline, or it just might have been Lleuwen awakening my senses to the pungent atmosmeric smell of fish & chips with its accompanying salt & vinegar, while queuing for our takeaway on a saturday night, when  we were talking about Pontrhydfendigaid, Abaty Ystrad Fflur, Aberystwyth, Tregaron, Machynlleth & Pennal, and she mentioned that the best fish & chips in Cymru/Wales are served in Llanbedr Pont Steffan.Lampeter/Llambed

Vote for Plaid Cymru

I've just written two long passages, they've both crashed, so I'll just say that today's the day we'll see whether we are going back to the 20th century with the Labour Party or forward and onwards with Plaid Cymru. We can see that Leanne Wood is a breath of fresh air, she's highly principled and our candidates know that they follow her example or else, she is the leader of her party, not a puppet with the strings being pulled by their 'betters' over the border in London; there is no Welsh Labour Party, nor Welsh Conservative Party nor Welsh Liberal Democratic Party, THERE IS ONLY ONE WELSH POLITICAL PARTY? THAT IS WHY IT IS CALLED PLAID CYMRU/THE PARTY OF WALES. The Party that puts Wales first as its 'raison d'etre': Welsh speaking; English speaking; Urdu speaking; or Somali. Blow the cobwebs away, it's time for a Spring clean.

Good Snooker

I missed out on the snooker/billiard halls or 'lucanias (lukies) in Merthyr, Penydarren and Dowlais; the one in Penydarren becoming Eddie Thomas's boxing gym where he trained world champions, Howard Winstone & Ken Buchanan, Howard lived only a few yards up the road on the High St., however when I was a teenager I used to play on the tables at the Guest-Keen Sports & Social Club, built as the Guest Memorial Library. Philip Adams used to live in the grounds and every tuesday I'd meet up with Philip, Selwyn Regan and Peter (Greg) Griffiths. I've always had a feeling for the game, so I was very fortunate to switch on the telly two days ago to see the great Ronnie O'Sullivan back to his brilliant best, potting & placing at will, a pity is was against our own ex world No 1, Mark Williams. Then yesterday saw the former favourite to win the tournament, Judd Trump, participating in one of the most nail biting finishes possible in any sport, against Ali Carter; Ali had come back to draw 12 all, he threw his arm up in victory in the final frame only for Judd, refusing to admit defeat, coming back to the table and almost snatching victory through 'snookers', but ultimately failing. Referring back to f/b there was a message from Lleuwen who was out for some fresh air with her new family, I put my new family in the car, and a camera in my pocket, but I missed them by two minutes and came back to my photos, not before taking a snapshot of our 'lieu de rendezvous'. In the meantime I've finally finished my 'Penguin Modern Poets - John Ormond; Emyr Humphries; John Tripp. Most people these days seem to think that poetry has of necessity to do with rhyming; they ought to read John Tripp.