Will the real Geraint Roberts stand up...
Funny, I thought my name was unique. Especially in Northampton. I should have known better, even working for
Bt, I was one of three. My
dopplegangers were a
wideband engineer in
Llanfairfechan and someone in the valleys. The former was a top bloke, but then he spent 5 years playing postie for those who didn't put the right e-mail address down for me.
Now I use
statcounter - a little piece of fun that tells you where the
ISP is of whoever has read your blog and if they've got their via an engine, what they searched for. that's all I can glean, so don't blame me for the mountain of junk mail - both
cyber and snail. I get it too. It's called modern life. Modern life is junk mail - Christ, that's a depressing thought...
Anyway, for those people who stopped by looking for someone else. thanks for coming, you're welcome to pop in. Hope all is well. In brief, this is who I'm not:
- I don't make sidecars with someone called Dagmar
- I don't play bass in a rock band in Germany.
- I'm not from Ystradgynlais and I've not written about Welsh Castles. Seen a few in my time mind.
- I've never held the baton for Trelawnyd Male Voice choir. I did used to sing in London Welsh though. They had 2 groups - drunks and deacons. I would never have sat at the front in chapel, shall we say...
- I've never been mauled by a 47 stone pig
- Never published anything scientific.
- Never played football for Dyffryn Banw
- Or rugby for Wrexham, Llandudno
- The only TT I've been in was an Audi
- I'm not a builder, director or in denbighshire Voluntary Services
- I'm not an Obs and gynae specialist. Honest, madam...
- I don't chair anything, not surveyed anything, planned anything
- I've never asked Newport Council to crush my car
- I've never met Tony Blair
- I'm not in Uni in Aberystywth. I may move back there, so sorry if that causes a problem...
- I'm not 20, like going out on the piss and have a girlfriend called Donna.
- I sadly don't own my own micro brewery. I do like a drop of Purple Moose now and then though!
- I wasn't in Hedd Wyn
- I don't rent hovercrafts
- I wish I knew about weight loss
- I'm not a rugby referee
- I've never worked in any school as a teacher.
- i know nothing about the red jaguar in the movie 'Get Carter'
- I hadn't realised there was a petition to rename the Prince William trophy, the Ray Gravell cup. But I am 1000% with you boys...
- And finally... when I published on this blog a poem called 'Dawn Desire', it was an outpouring after taking my young family to the airport so they could holiday whilst I worked. It was not a tribute to whom I am told is a charming young lady who excites the libido of certain chaps with her photographic tribute to clothing made with the fabric known as lycra or spandex.
Well, if you're still here. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm sure you'll find the right GR in the web. We're a pretty diverse bunch all told...
Catch up
Can't believe it's been so long since I last logged anything. It's been so busy, so much happening , ironically so much to write about. Let's bring myself up to date for posterity.
I'm out of work. Hooray! Hardly. It's quite depressing, when you need the income to assist your move back West. The last six weeks of my job were a living hell. I was training three people to do everything I used to do. one got on with his other work. one couldn't keep still and was flitting off every 5 seconds. One knuckled down, all the while telling me how they couldn't cope, they'd be signed off sick etc, etc. Many hours were spent bemoaning their lot rather than getting on with it while I was on hand to advise.
In the end, I left. Not knowing if they would take the mantle or just whinge about the lot they'd been dealt in
life. Meanwhile the unhealthy obsession with global sourcing means they'll probably be first line checking a team in
India who'll have 6 people on the job..
I spent my first week of freedom on a Welsh language course in
Nant Gwrtheyrn. I spent 5 days of learning tenses,
practicing verbs, propositions, directions and by the end, my mind was mush and I had completed the Foundation! So much to do.
Ymarfer,
Ymarfer,
Ymarfer!
There was so much to think about but many fond memories. The place itself is a gem. Hidden over a hill from a tiny village on the
Lleyn is a ghost village now restored as a language centre. As you go over the hill and through the forest, the first hairpin shows nothing behind the wall but sky. When you turn, you are hit with a sheer cliff of hundreds of feet, on which cascades a ribbon waterfall, making it truly magical.
Paying little attention to the ruins on the hills above, lest you run off the road, you weave your way down to a plateau in the rocks, where a tiny settlement from the late 1800s greets you. Two rows of about 10 terraces, perpendicular to each other. The shop on one end. The manager's house on the other. Facing a pleasant green where you looked out to the cafe/ old stores and of course, the chapel.
If you walked to the edge of the plateau, the beach can be seen below, accessible via steep narrow paths in a green and bracken carpet. Other paths lead to old workings, still full of rotting ironwork and trucks. the beach now bereft of its two jetties that was the link with civilisation of the past. It is now a truly wonderful strand with views of the
lleyn's majestic seascapes and the ghostly images of
Anglesey's coast in the North.
The place was truly magical and the course great fun. I met some really good people, from the tutor -
Ifan, to the
delegates. On the Wednesday afternoon, we were sent into
Pwllheli to ask for directions. In Welsh. Having succeeded with that, I then did some shopping in pigeon Welsh too.
The evening before and 40 minutes to kill, I took my house-mate up to see
Tre'r Ceiri. In iron-age times, somebody built a fortified settlement on a mountain. If you get to the top, it's so worth it. If you then walk to the end and look down the coast, where the foot of the mountains meet the flood plains of
Arfon. Well, it is really special.
All in all good fun. Now I have to practice and it is so hard. I have a novel to read - a child's diary set at the time of the
Penrhyn strike. I am trying to read a page a day - with a big dictionary. I hope some of these words will stick, but at present, I feel I have a head like a sieve.
Great time. Next installment. April rings the changes.
