Archive for 2016
Triniaethau
1 Majestic ‘Majestic! Dacw fe, ail dro ar y chwith.’ Gadael y car, dilyn troli â’i olwynion gwyrdroëdig ar hyd yr eiliau gwydr. Dyma ti’n sefyll wedi ymgolli rhwng Merlot a Malbec, yn cyfieithu Ffrangeg y labeli llawen i iaith y claf. ‘Digon imi allu cynnig ichi set o wydrau, rhad ac am […]
Swansea art now
Set alongside Cardiff, its ancient rival, Swansea wins no prizes. Or so it seems. Political and financial power has long been concentrated in the capital. Cardiff’s economic magnet increases its force year by year. As a shopping centre Swansea has steadily lost ground – even Carmarthen has more to offer these days. Jobs tend to […]
The debate about Mytilene: a short footnote on Brexit
In 428 BC, three years into the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, the city of Mytilene on the Aegean island of Lesbos decides to secede from the Athenian empire. The oligarchic rulers of Mytilene fear that what independence they still have – unlike other states they had retained their navy […]
Wales Coast Path, day 65: Llanengan to Aberdaron
Same journey, same start point, but we’re now down to three, C, H and me, for our last day in southern Llŷn. Llanengan seems a bit busier than yesterday, though it’s a quieter place than it was when lead was mined here (a chimney still stands above the village). We walk down to Porth Neigwl, […]
Wales Coast Path, day 64: Abersoch from Llanengan
M has arrived from Yorkshire to join the three of us for today’s almost-circular clifftop walk. We start with the same introduction as yesterday, train to Pwllheli (same affable guard), and the Berwyn bus towards Abersoch (same wild career along single track roads). But this time we get off early, in the small village of […]
Wales Coast Path, day 63: Pwllheli from Abersoch
The heavy rain is back. By the time C and I have walked to Cricieth station we’re already drenched. No one else’s waiting for the train to Pwllheli. Birmingham International, the destination in the other direction, seems a more sensible choice today. The boarded-up station building carries murals of children on the beach, butterflies and […]
Wales Coast Path, day 62: Cricieth from Pwllheli
Heavy rain’s expected. But it hasn’t arrived yet, and C and I set out on the bus to Pwllheli. This is the end of the (railway) line, and the town has an old-fashioned look, with cafés, working chapels, bookshops and a big traditional ironmongers. The path takes us round the old harbour. It’s now empty, […]
Wales Coast Path, day 60: Harlech to Porthmadog
Five gather at Porthmadog station: C, H, me, and two guests, M-A and J. Sunshine beams through the roof of the elegant platform, and the three-carriage train arrives to take us to Harlech. Its manager is as friendly as we’ve come to expect on the Cambrian Coast. Is it daily experience of working on the […]
Wales Coast Path, day 61: Porthmadog to Cricieth
Dusk on Saturday. We’re in Cricieth, two days after UKIP’s ‘Independence Day’. Explosions sound outside the eccentric seaside apartment we’ve rented for the week (it features a very public bath in the front bedroom window, and an impudent fish, Billy Bass, who turns to face you and sings, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ when you open […]
‘Me, myself and I’ (slight reprise)
Since writing about Billie Holiday’s song Me, myself and I, the question of ‘who is I?’ has been gnawing away inside my mind. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a second-hand book in Thirsk that’s turned the gnawing into a gnashing. The book is called Into the silent land, and it’s by a […]