My Cricketing heroics!

I was rumaging through trying to look for a birth certificate of Simon's today and found this clipping from, I think, The Cambrian News. It was around 1978 if I remember correctly, and I'm quite proud of it. It certainly made me think that I could be successful in cricket, but it wasn't to be. What was remarkable about our team is that we had on average about 4 school kids playing regularly. I was 15, Aled and Ian were 13, and Ian's brother Wyn was 12! I really enjoyed my time with the team and because of Blaenau's notorious weather, we hardly played home games! I can remember playing once that season at Dolawel! The team pulled out of the league the following season because of lack of funds due to the fact that we could not stage any home games!

The scorecard image will enlarge when double clicked.

YYZ animation video

This is great. Found it on You Tube and it was made by Bobby Standridge. His web site can be found here. Animation video of Neil Peart performing the Rush instrumental 'YYZ'

A great Genesis tune

One of my favourite Genesis tunes, 'Entangled' is taken from 'A Trick of the Tail' album. This amazing video is a decent of a Space Shuttle back to Earth which I found on You Tube.

iPlayer from the BBC

Handy thing I learnt about today. You can watch any BBC programme within the last 7 days on your computer by logging on to their iplayer site. An e-mail is sent to you with registration details and an easy step by step instructions. I personally don't watch as much BBC programmes as I did, but there are the odd occasions when there is something good on. For instance, last Thursday there was a real clash in our house where 3 of us wanted to see different programmes. Actually I wanted to see 2 of them (Wales versus Japan and Who Do You Think You Are?), Simon wanted to see the Rugby, and Tracy the What Not To Wear programme. All were on at the same time. This doesn't happen very often, not like the bad old days when Top of the Pops always clashed with The Six Million Dollar Man back in the 70's! So, I am attempting to download last Thursday's programme at this moment.

Useful PC information

Today I picked up a couple of PC mags to see if I could get some (ok, I admit it!) free stuff for my laptop. They are a bit costly, especially on limited income, but I saw some possibility of obtaining handy little tips. I purchased 'PC Advisor' and 'PC Answers'.
An add in 'PC Answers' caught my eye from the off. A free anti-spyware programme called 'Spyware Terminator' seemed a handy tool. Download it from http://www.spywareterminator.com/ and you won't be sorry. I have run a full spyware scan and it found loads of unwanted stuff. It even keeps running in the background so full protection is guaranteed, which the free Adaware doesn't do. To date there has been over 9 million downloads in September alone! 9 million! In this month's issue, there are very useful and simple tips on how to look after your computer, such as speeding up the start up (due to the many applications running in the background). Also there is a list of the 10 best free programs (I hit gold!) out there, and some of them surprised me. There is also a great article on how to use Windows Movie Maker, with some new applications that I didn't know about.
I've yet to read all of 'PC Advisor' but it too looks packed with some useful information. My friend Rich from Blaenau would find it useful, so get yourself a copy, mate!

Leeds United march on!

Leeds United won again today!

Their defeat of Swansea with a 2-0 scoreline equals the best start to a season by a Leeds United side. That was in 1973 in the Revie years. After having the punishment of being docked 15 points at the start of this season they have rammed those points down the throats of their opponents. With an appeal on the way let's hope that the season can get even better.

Our Wedding Anniversary today

We were married in 1990 at 2:30 at Copdock church near the village of Washbrook. It was the last day of summer and a bit on the cold side. In fact Tracy caught a chill because the photographer was such a perfectionist! This resulted in us missing our honeymoon in Paris, so instead of walking along the Seine, we stayed in sleepy old Washbrook for a week!
A few days after the wedding we were walking along the confines of the church and along the cemetery, when I stumbled on the edge of a grave. I looked at the headstone and the person had died on 13 Jan. 1963. The day of my birth! A truly spooky moment.

New movie!

I think I'm getting the hang of this! The track is called 'Last chance to evacuate planet Earth before it is recycled' and one of my all time favourites of Porcupine Tree, taken off the album 'Lightbulb Sun'. The naration used by the band was taken from a video made by the leader of the cult Heaven's Gate, who all committed suicide by being convinced that they were going to hitch a ride on a spaceship in Halley's comet back in 1986.

My next project will be a video of the Genesis track 'Entangled'.

A Blaenau connection from down under

Glad to see an old (not really!) school mate has joined the blogging fraternity. Tracy is living in Australia with his family and had a long career in the Welsh Guards. I look forward to his posts and hope some other old friends will do the same soon. A link to his blog has been added to my list.

Time out!

I had a rare opportunity last week to visit a pub in Llandudno! That may not be a big deal to most people, but with the current situation at home it was a great feeling just walking into the Albert pub (pictured) and having a pint of bitter. The situation arose through chance as my son Simon was not well at school and we went to pick him up. I had an appointment with Cam Ymlaen at 11 so Tracy decide to take him home. I stayed on for the appointment and intended to catch a bus home to Rhos-on-Sea. Tracy has OCD so it was a big test for her to drive home without me.

As it happens I needed change for the bus and I was standing around the same place as where this photo was taken, wondering where could I go to buy something for loose change! No contest! The pint of smooth John Smith's tasted magnificent, and I spent around 20 minutes just savouring the atmosphere. I have been going into this pub for over 20 years and remember how it used to be before it was refurbished. Some happy memories. I met my old college mate Dave Bland here for an afternoon drinking session back in 1988, just before graduation. He was in Llandudno for the week on a driving course. It's still a decent pub and one of my favourites to visit, with good food.

Family photos movie

This is a little movie I put together on Windows Movie Maker which has some of the photos I have acquired from my family history research. The song is called Sentimental by Porcupine Tree.

Best Progressive band in the US?

Band of the week this time is Spock's Beard, who play progressive music as it did, so if you like Genesis, Yes and even Emerson, Lake and Palmer, then there will be elements in their music that can be appreciated. They have lost their main creative force, Neal Morse, who left to do his solo career. He has carried on making prog music but with religious overtones. God did tell him to leave Spock's Beard after all! Neal also formed the group TransAtlantic, which produced some of the best progressive music in years. They produced 2 albums.

The Beard's drummer, Nick D'Virgilio played on Genesis' last album 'Calling All Stations'. Click on the link below for some great drumming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDSTbnQsje4&mode=related&search=

Here are some links from You Tube for future reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9NLFpzh9d4&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77B0LTxG5bM&mode=related&search=

Weird past experiences!

Okay, trip down memory lane again!

When my family moved to Llandudno in 1982, it was quite an exciting experience, possibly not so for my sister who took a while longer to adjust. She was losing school friends who were close to her and still in the Blaenau area, whilst most of mine had moved on, but nevertheless I had (and still do) have a great friend in Richard, who has never let me down and kept in touch over the years. I certainly missed him, but I wasn't too far away and I got down to Blaenau pretty regularly until I moved to Portsmouth to study. During this period of time (1982-1986) I became open minded about the world, possibly because Blaenau wasn't the centre of the universe any more; Llandudno was a lonely place with friends that would come and go, and I was jobless (don't forget that it was Thatcher's Britain), and I became self sufficient or even self indulgent, in respect that I had no real resposibilities as such, only myself to think of. Anyway, more on my depressing, lonely time at the beginning of the 80's another time (bet you can't wait for that rivetting tale!). The reason why I go back to this period is the fact that I used to read more and in particular about the paranormal. I knew all about UFO and abductions long before Fox Mulder came on the scene! I told you I was more open minded didn't I! There just seemed to me that there was some pretty strange stuff going around, but the more I read there seemed to be a secret history of the world that not a lot of people knew of. An example of the books I was reading was the Charles Berlitz series on The Philadelphia Experiment and the famous Roswell incident of 1947, among others. I also read about spiritual phenomena, the possible existance of life after death, and these things certainly seemed plausable to me at the time. Why not!

Anyway, we go forward to 1987 and I am in Portsmouth, in my 2nd year of my Historical Studies degree, and have agreed to take part in a seance with some friends. Now, I can't remember why this happened or who suggested it. I think we were at Gary Parker's flat on the South Parade in Southsea, and he was on my History course. He and his girlfriend dropped out of the seance early as they didn't take it seriously, so that left me, my course mate Simon Oliver, and a lass from Liverpool, whom I have forgotten her name. As soon as the disbelievers had gone, we started the proceedings with the usual 'Is anybody there?', which come to think of it was not the correct phrase as there couldn't possibly be a body there! Anyway, the glass started moving around the makeshift board (letters written on pieces of paper), and I remember looking over to Simon and asking him to stop playing about, and I was convinced that it was him doing this, as he had told me and the girl earlier that he had done 'loads' of seances before, and told us tales of horror, with bad spirits coming through, chucking knives about. So, I was sceptical, let's say.

Then, a while later, Simon went to the toilet and it was just me and the girl (I wish I could remember her name, it's gonna bug me!), AND THE GLASS WAS STILL MOVING! This, you can imagine, freaked us out! I looked at her, she looked at me, and we both shouted 'SIMON!' He came back, cool as a cucumber (nothing could phase him!) sat down, and just carried on asking questions, with a look on his face as if to say 'see I knew what I was talking about'. We decided to see if we could get further verification of what we were experiencing, and asked other questions. I remember asking about my gran's brother David, who had passed away in late 1982, and got the message back from beyond that he could not come through. I suppose he was too busy playing snooker up there and just could not tear himself to speak to his great nephew! I must admit I did feel a bit deflated as it's not often I dabble in the occult and I didn't know when I'd get the chance again. As it happens I have not tried again, so I guess he'll just have to wait!The girl that was with us tried to get in touch with a relative and did get through to an uncle who had died in Germany while in the army. He gave her a message for her not to go to Africa as she would be killed. She looked up and her mouth fell lower than it usually did. This was her final year in university and she was intending to go to Africa to do volunteer work. So, that changed her plans! When I saw her the following year she was a barmaid at a local snooker club! I guess the seance did change her life and scared the hell out of her.

However, for me the clincher was this. We asked the spirit (the girl's uncle) if anyone we knew secretly fancied any of us. Simon got a girl in our History year, the girl from Liverpool some lad she knew, and I got my landlady's daughter! This is a true story I swear. The spirit even got her surname right - Inkpen. Even her first name, Rose! I would ask questions mentally and the spirit would answer by moving the glass to the appropriate letters. So, that's how they do it. They can read minds. Simon nor the girl could know my landlady's surname, and let's face it, not the most widespread of names. So this carried on till about 4 in the morning, and after a very exciting and fruitful night we agreed to do it again the following week. It did happen but I was away that week-end visiting Tracy up in Suffolk. When I got back on Monday morning, Simon told me that even though they started off ok, but there was another person who joined them instead of me, and she got so upset and histerical they had to stop proceedings. News of her imminent death is what was the cause of her freaking out, which I'm glad I wasn't there for that! We never attempted this sort of thing again, but it will remain with me till the day I die...and beyond obviously!

A footnote: A few weeks later I was home for Easter and unfortunately there was a young girl I knew before I went to Portsmouth was murdered in Rhos-on-Sea. The police came to question me on my wherabouts on that night, so I told them, I was at a seance in Portsmouth till 4 am! They looked at me, as you can imagine, as if I was making it up so I had to give names of people I was with to prove where I was. I said Simon, this girl from Liverpool, and her uncle! He was there in spirit, I added!

School

My kids have been back to school now for a whole week, and after a long break (longer for Simon) it's amazing that things settle down quite fast. After a couple of days of readjustment at the beginning, things have, thankfully, gone back to normal The summer is already a distant memory, and the realisation of its twilight period (darker evenings, christmas cards in the shops etc.) is starting to kick in. Ben is in a much better form class than last year, where it was the worst that teachers had seen, which says something about the general behaviour of the kids going there. Simon, being in the sixth form, was taken aback at the 'pep talk' given to them by the head teacher, who basically warned that some of them were lucky to be there and laid into those taking history as there were too many taking the subject! I, as a parent, would have liked a few encouraging words for them and congratulations for getting there, inspire them rather than drag them down. What do I know, eh?
Is this a record I wonder? Barely an hour and half into his new school, a lad was permantly excluded from John Bright School, for setting off a fire alarm. They are pretty strict on this misdemenour because of an epidemic of such incidents when the new school was started. Mind you, fire alarms were being deliberately set off in the middle of exams last summer term. I have some pretty strong views on school policies but I know that complaining and giving an opinion to those 'in charge' is a waste of breath; I've tried and it makes no difference and it just frustrates you to hell! Simon was attacked by a pupil in the middle of a PE lesson, with 2 teachers present, and the person we reported it to kept it quiet from the head for 3 MONTHS! And all the time we thought that the school were dealing with it! By the time the head did find out it was near the summer holidays, and she excluded him for just 2 weeks. The teacher who was at fault was retiring so she obviously tried to ride her time out and had no concern for Simon's welfare. This an incident that has affected Simon deeply, and for a long time was very bitter about everything. By going to 6th Form is a sign that he is getting over these experiences.

The joy of work!

Being forced to give up work through difficult circumstances has been a tough adjustment. Having worked non stop since 1988, and most of those years with a second job as well, it was bound to be a strange experience. The motivation is of course money and the hope that progression will follow to a higher level and earn even more money. This never happened to me, sorry to say, so I don't know what it feels like to get a promotion. The second thing you hope for is good environment to work in and that you don't have to work with assholes. Unfortunately, I have worked with prize assholes and it is a shame that promotion does not come your way through the suffering! So, at this moment in time I have mixed feelings about returning to work again, which will I'm sure happen quite soon. When you have had a period out of work the one thing you do have is the time to reflect on your experiences, which has good points and bad. On the negative side, there are doubts that creep in now and again at whether you can cut it again, whether you can fit in to a completely new group of people, and of course the ultimate worry, can you get a decent job. Well I never was in a 'decent' job, so the only way is up! On the plus side, there are organisations out there who do want to help you get back, and I don't mean the Job Centre! They just want to push you to ANY job just to get you off their books. There is such an organisation here called Cam Ymlaen (Welsh for Step Ahead) who will support you in obtaining the confidence to go back to work. I will be starting an 8 week course this Friday at Colwyn Bay and I am hoping that it will help me get back on track. Furthermore, they will assess my strengths and help me get what I want to do. In a strange way, the unfortunate turn of events that we have endured in the last 2 years may be a blessing in disguise, and I am determined to forge something positive from this. I have already signed up for a course in basic counselling skills which will start in January and I intend to carry on this path afterwards.

Talking about work environments has made me think of the best one I ever had. This is easy. From 1988 to 1990 I worked for Essex County Council, with their Historic Buildings Section, a part of the Planning Department. If circumstances had been different I would have stayed here a lot longer. I was 25 years old just received my degree that summer and this was my first proper job since leaving University. I had been working for the Post Office in Ipswich just before and was only there for about 6 weeks. I remember going for the interview for the Essex job whilst I was on strike instigated by the Post Office union, and accepted the job while still stiking. So it was sort of a relief that I was leaving that place. I digress, the job at Essex was, how should I put it, flexible, easy going, fun. I have so many happy memories there, the only down side was my salary. I started on less than £7,000 per annum, hardly enough to get married on! I had my own desk! I had my own drawing board! And I could claim expenses whenever I went on site! I started at the same time as another graduate, Nicola Mawer, we were the junior members of the section but we were always included, even attended planning meetings. It was a nice feeling belonging to this group and we were surrounded by very knowledgable conservationists. In fact these people were the original conservationists in terms of preserving historic buildings and conservation areas as this section was the first one to be set up in the local council framework. They were consultants and were called in to assist planning applications received by the district councils of Essex. Therefore, for instance, our section head had the Rochford, Southend districts, and Judy Enticknap, the grants officer, had Saffron Walden. Nicola and I would go along with these officers and it was wonderful to experience the Essex country settings and witness some truly historic buildings. I can remember going with Dave Stenning (in charge of Colchester area) and visiting the Red Lion hotel which was being renovated. Every time the place was undergoing work, there was the chance to look at a Roman mosaic underneath the foundations. It was very rare to see this and I was just lucky to be there at this time. The site visits were great, and always included a visit to some pub. Don't get the wrong idea here, we did get the job done. There was just this easy going attitude that went with the job. the building we were based at was called Globe House, an old ball bearing factory converted into offices. On our floor, there was also other sections, such as Forward Planning and archaeology, and...a social club! Yes we had a pub down the corridor! Many a time was spent there having lunch, enjoying a pint (or two) or playing darts, pool and a couple of snooker tables. One time my boss, Peter, asked me if I wanted a game. Yeah, why not, I said. We were there till 3 o'clock, drinking pints and sinking snooker balls! We should have been backat least 2 pm, but what the hell I was with the boss, so...! There was another time when some of us went to watch a football international on the telly. Game did not finish till 4pm! So, you get the idea how relaxing it was working there. I doubt that there will be anywhere like this around now. A couple of days before I left, a collegue of mine suggested we go down the pub, so we went out at 11am and didn't come back till 5pm! To this day I think it was a liberty step too far and feel a bit ashamed for treating my colleagues with a bit of disrespect, but that was the mood I was in and I was leaving anyway. I still feel bad about it though. Still the memories of working and being involved with Essex County Council are happy ones for me and my only regret is that I left when I did. My next post was supposed to feel like a promotion but in hindsight was a big let down...

Blackfield live DVD out in October

Great news that this superb band have a DVD out on the 15th October (UK). There is a clip available to see on their MySpace website.

The site has a lot of information on the band and some killer tunes to listen to.

Band of the week feature

From this week I will be introducing some bands, unknown to some perhaps, which I think are good and deserve some exposure. I have always been an admirer of musical acts who are different, unique, original and who offer superb instrumentation.

This week it's Oceansize, a band from Manchester, and I rrecommend their first album, Efflorescence.

http://www.oceansize.co.uk/

Here is a link to a page from You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Oceansize+-+One+Day+All+This+Could+Be+Yours&search=Search

Michael Connelly novels

Back in June I posted that I had picked up a few Michael Connelly thrillers, from which I was going to read 'The Poet' a novel he wrote in the mid 1990's.

I did find the beginning a bit of a plod, but it got better, and in the end I was racing through it. Very well thought out and a convincing twist at the end. I have since started to read 'The Concrete Blonde' which was written before 'The Poet'.

He writes with authority as he knows all the ins and outs of police and judiciary procedure having been a crime reporter before he turned in novels.

Childhood memories of Tanrallt Terrace, part 2

Looking at this picture I can see where some of my closest relatives lived. We lived at N0.4, whilst my nain Williams lived at the other end at N0.9. She recently moved to a bungalow near the centre of town. Behind Tanrallt is Richmond Terrace and my great aunt May lived there for many years, the house 3rd from the end. Right in the distance at the top left hand corner of the photo, you can just see a propertyin the distance. My great grandparents, Thomas and Mary Williams lived here, a small farmstead, and my dad lived there for a while when he was a toddler. It got burned sometime in the 70's by Welsh extremists (Cwmdeithias yr Iaith) because it was a holiday home. Beyond this farm, is a mountainside covered in delicious bilberry. We used to spend most of a sunny day, with our empty ice cream tubs, trying to pick them and take them down so our mothers could make pies with them. This was very hard to do, as they tasted so good we were always tempted to eat what we picked! Purple stains around our mouths would reveal our crime and usually a trip back up the mountains the next day!

In winter, weather in Blaenau is something else! When fog used to descend it stayed for days! I remember standing in front of our gate looking towards the other end of Tanrallt (in the direction where nain Williams lived), and not being to see anything beyond the road that split Tanrallt down the middle. A pea souper as ever as I've seen!

The mountain in the distance were great for walkers. It led to Llyn Dwr Oer and Llyn Manod beyond that. As a family we used to go to Llyn Manod to have picnics, and try to fish. We never caught any, and I doubt that there were any there anyway! Llyn Dwr Oer was popular for swimming, great on a hot day, though I don't recall swimming there myself. The road that led to these places was known to us as the 'Roman Road', and was essentially the way quarrymen walked to work every day. When they finished their shift a few used to use what was known as 'y car gwyllt' (the wild car), which was basically a set of wheels on a railway track, with the quarryman riding what looked like a wheel. Looks pretty uncomfortable on the old movie footages!

That's it I think. Mostly happy memories, close neighbours, good community spirit.

Childhood memories of Tanrallt Terrace, part 1

This a photo I took last year when we visited Blaenau Ffestiniog. This is Tanrallt Terrace where I grew up in, and our house is the one with the flat roofed porch, the second house on view from the left hand bush. It was 1967 when we moved here and we left in April 1982, to live in Llandudno. When I looked at this photo last week I was reminded of so many memories.
Where do I begin? Well, the rock from which this photo was taken semed to attract kids. Whether it was to climb it or slide down the side of it or what, but many a time I would look out of my bedroom window and see someone attempting to climb it. This was our Everest, it had easy faces and of course difficult ones, but even the simplest route to the top could have easily ended up in tragedy. If you carried on walking in the direction the photo was taken, there was a slide to our left, but also a precarious route to get to it. This was the way I often went, but I shudder to think what would have happened to me if I had missed my footing. The more adventurous of us would tackle even scarier ways up. For instance to the right of this photo was a drop to the High Street. I can remember seeing a lad named Derek Jones actually succeeding to climb up this way with the traffic going by below him! And this was with no equipment, harness and no hooks. Just relying on his feet and hands! Why did people do such things? I presume because the rock was there, and it was sheer luck (and skill I suppose) that no one was killed.
The road outside our house was used for sports matches as well as a car park. God knows how we managed to find the room to play matches on it I will never know! But play we did, football, obviously, and cricket. The neighbours were nervous wrecks worrying if their cars were going to be damaged! Everytime someone hit a windscreen or the top of a car, we would all turn our faces with grimaces on them and expect the owner to come out and tell us off. We were so sports mad we would play anywhere. See that rock in the distance just beyond the top row of houses? Well we would play football there! The unfortunate and annoying thing about the place was the fact that at one end of the pitch there was a sheer face, and if someone happened to kick it wildly that way (or score a goal with a hard shot) the ball would sail over the edge and down to the bottom field. If the ball didn't catch on something, like a ditch, it invariably continued to roll down Richmond Terrace and beyond! Of course, the one who initially kicked the ball over would have to retreive it, which meant running down the grassy side and trying to get to the ball before it reached the Terrace below. The architecture of the terraces where we lived was so zig zagy that the poor unfortunate lad could end up right down to where the main road was, and believe me that was some climb back to the playing area! By the time he got back up there he would either collapse with exhaustion or find that the rest had got fed up and gone home for lunch! By the end of the game, everyone would have had to go through this as we all had a wild shot in us during the football game, and not only we had our fill of football practice we also got in a dose of athletics as well!
Another playing area we used a lot was the patch of field at the end of Tanrallt Terrace. This was a multi-purpose area for the community. It served as a place for the mothers to hang their washing to dry, and there would be up to at least 5 different sets of washing. In the middle was the street cricket pitch, and even this would be prone to disaster. To the right of this patch of grass would be the back doors of the houses in the high street, and almost all of one would be enclosed. Except for one! And that was the end one, right where mid on (cricket term) would be. This would be a favourite shot for most and if you got it right it would mean that it would head towards the exposed edge of this end house, and if this was the case the cricket ball would trickle down right to the bottom where their back door would be. And to make things worse there would usually be a sheepdog down there! At the time, being bitten by a sheepdog at the age of 4 was still a fresh memory for me (this story I will relate at a later date), so we would hope that Dafydd (the owner) would come out and give us back our ball. If not, and we didn't have another cricket ball, then game over.
I had an unfortunate encounter with one of those washing lines. On one occasion I was running about the area, I jumped across the ditch that surrounded the washing line field and didn't see the steel wire that was hung from one post to the other that was the washing line. I didn't see the wire as it was probably camuflaged with the dull, grey sky that seemed to permanently reside over Blaenau. It caught my throat and swung me into the air and I landed on my back on the field. I was lucky I wasn't decapitated! Fortunately I was ok and a little shocked more than injured.
I also saw my taid Hughes for the last time from this field. It was February 1974 and I saw him on his way home to Hafod Druffydd and we waved. He died a week later of a heart attack. Unknown to me at the time he was suffering from heart problems, ever since he saw me being mauled by a farmer's sheepdog back in 1967. It happened right in front of his house and unfortunately he witnessed this event and obviously was shocked at what he saw. I will post some more of my taid in a future post.
More later...

Video Clips

Video has arrived to my blog!

On the left hand side of the page I will be placing some video clips which I hope people will find interesting. The first one I've found is this wonderful images of my home town Blaenau Ffestiniog from the air. Just click and move to the top of the page.
I wonder what else I can find?

Additional:
I have included clips of some of my favourite media interests.

Seinfeld - in my opinion the funniest TV show ever from America. If you like good comedy and surrealism to boot, then you will laugh your socks off! There haven't been many funny shows where all 4 main characters are as equally funny as each other. That's some achievement in my book.

Red Dwarf - What can I say? Probably the funniest show from OUR side! Not really a sci-fi show, just a very funny show which happens to be set in deep, deep space!

Porcupine Tree - Very underated rock band, unfairly labelled as 'progressive', but actually masters of all music genres. Steven Wilson is a musical genius and very prolific in his output. I first heard of them from a 30 second clip on Amazon.co.uk (of the song 'Lightbulb Sun') and was instantly converted. In recent albums they have moved over to the metal side and have aquired a lot of new fans, but they still churn out classic ballads and moving music. Quite melancholic in their music, but this only serves to heighten the emotional mood of their songs. Click on the video clips below and try them out. Serious music lovers only!

Blackfield - A side project of Steven Wilson and again melancholic in nature. Very profound song writing and killer melodies. A live DVD of a concert if theirs in New York is due out in October and by all accounts an outstanding performance. Aviv Geffen, an Israeli songwriter is his co-member and some of the songs have been transformed from Hebrew versions of Aviv's.

Frank Caliendo - Recently found out about this guy. Does very funny impressions of well known American media personalities, such as Robin Williams, Robert de Niro and John Madden. Does killer impressions of George W Bush and William Shatner, and also does all the characters in Seinfeld - including Newman. Check out the Seinfeld clips before watching him if you have never seen Seinfeld before.
Enjoy!

Visiting Cwm Celyn

Today I finally visited the farmstead called Cwm Celyn. For many years it was the home of my great great grandparents Evan and Grace Evans and their family. The present owners, Ian and Abigail had kindly invited us to go up and have resided there for 4 years.

We came off the main road just after passing the Fairy Glen Hotel on the A470, which can take you to Dolwyddelen and Blaenau Ffestiniog, and found Abigail and her husband waiting for us in their landrover. It was just as well, Cwm Celyn was a further 3 miles up a track that weaved and meandered through the pine trees that formed part of the Gwydir Forest. We passed the spot where Evan rescued an American lady from the hands of her newly wed husband, beaten to an inch of her life with a boulder. We found out later that the poor lady was pregnant at the time and contributed to the husband's decision to murder her. No doubt that this event made Evan headline news in his local community, but it also reached the national attention as The Times newspaper also reported it.

When we reached the top the house looked impressive, and the extension caught my eye, possibly because the only image I had previously seen was the half finished construction Evan was in the middle of building in the 1890's photo. The inside of the house has not changed a lot and is as authentic as a 19th century farmhouse can be. It is a credit to Abigail and Ian that they have not altered it too much nor do they wish to. They clearly enjoy being in these surroundings and are also very enthusiastic about the history of the building and the previous occupants. As Abigail commented she knows more about the Evans' than her own family! The age of the house goes back to at least 1680, and they both have accumulated an impressive amount of research. Rest assured that Cwm Celyn is in good hands!

Ian showed us the work that is ongoing in converting the barn/stable which is quite roomy. I can't wait to see it when it's completed. What is also interesting that they have saved some original stones from the walls which have initials carved into it. Evan Evans built the extension originally and has engraved his on the wall that still stands. On loose stones kept by Ian, there are M.O. and J.H. engraved. The M.O. could have been marked by either Margaret Owen or her daughter Mary Owen who lived nearby at Llanerch Elsi. It depends when the marks were made but stikes me as something a child would do so my guess would be Mary Owen, who was born in 1892. Mary and her family would emigrate to the United States in January 1913 on the same ship as Mary's uncle and younger son of Evan, Owen Evans, and start their American adventure at a place called McRoberts, a small mining town in Kentucky. Mary and her sister Margaret both married while they were in Kentucky but eventually moved to Akron, Ohio. Mary married Morgan L Boone, a descendant of Samuel Boone, brother to the famous frontiersman Daniel. Owen eventually settled at Glendale, Los Angeles with his new bride, a Welsh lady named Mabel Canfield from Pontypridd. He started a thriving construction business at Glendale.

We plan to go again (hopefully when the weather will be better) as there are other places to see around Cwm Celyn. I am amazed at how far the children had to walk to school every day and Evan used to work in the slate mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog. They just had to do it, no other choice, and I doubt that they ever complained about it.

Interesting characters in my family

Over the last year of researching, I have discovered a few interesting characters who I want write about.

A distant relation was Rebecca Stuart Clark, a cousin to my great grandmother Laura Morris. Born in Pwllheli in 1863, she became an entrepreneur in the fishing industry and is credited with the industry in Pwllheli lasting as long as it did. By the early 20th century, the fishing industry was in decline due to competion from other fishing fleets around the country. In a book by D. G. Lloyd Hughes on Pwllheli he comments:

'By the 1920's the town's fishing industry was a sorry sight with only a handful of boats, the popular nobbys, remaining. Most were owned by one fishmonger, the redoutable Rebecca Clark...But for her there would have been virtually no fishing of note from Pwllheli by the 1930's. Had someone of her calibre and financial backing taken an interest when catches were at their highest during the 1870's there might have been a chance that the industry could have been placed on a firmer footing'.

In the early 19th century Rebecca was living with Ellen Ann Morris, her cousin and sister to my great grandmother. Also living with them was a Eliza Ellen Roberts, daughter of Samuel Roberts and Cathrine Williams. It looks like both of Eliza's parents died in the 1890's, Samuel at St. Asaph Lunatic Asylum in 1897. Samuel was a brother to Rebecca's mother, Ann.

Rebecca lived to a good age and died a wealthy woman. My mother remembers meeting her at her fishmonger's shop when she was a little girl living with her aunt Elizabeth.