Men of Harlech

People say that football's boring
Ronnie Glavin's always scoring
Can you hear the Ponty roarin'
Ronnie is our KING

That's that off the chest!

RED ARMY

 

'Men of Harlech' - song linked to the 7 year siege of Harlech Castle in C15 (longest siege in British History.)
Harlech Castle was in Lancastrian hands and with its fall to the Yorkists all England and Wales was under Yorkist control.

'Men of Harlech' also linked to Owain Glyndwr's defence of Cymru against the invading English.

In the C15 the sea came right up to Harlech Castle............not many people know that!

 

The castles in Wales are fabulous. Harlech, Caernarfon, Conway, Caerphilly, Beaumaris (never finished but a beautiful setting).

 

me exes family were one of the many that claimed to live in a house on the grounds of one Owain Glyndwr has once lived never knew I’t was true though.

I spent quite a bit of time round Harlech and was keen to learn welsh to fit in a bit better. We used to go into this newsagents where the only language was welsh so I got my ex to teach me (or so I thought) to ask for a paper in welsh. She actually had taught me to say come round here and give me a blow job. I’ve never seen a septuagenarian welsh woman get as angry or move so fast I thought she was gonna kick my head on of course the ex was outside pissing herself.

 

I did. Visited the place in 1969 as part of a geography field trip, apparently it had a gate with access to the sea. That gate is now about a mile from the sea due to the deposition of material to form Morpha Harlech.

 

like it!
brother asked his visiting English friend to pop to the local shop and ask for a copy of the local newspaper - told him to ask in Welsh -
friend walked into a crowded shop waited his turn and asked for a 'Copi o'r Got***' - not realising that 'Got***' was Welsh for 'lovely person*' (can't believe I've just typed that on a Sunday morning!)
Anyway the sharp intakes of breath and glares followed by laughter indicated something was amiss - he left in a hurry!

 

....symbols of English Empire building and Welsh oppression ----- Taffs will be dismantling them soon!

 

.... so a Welsh 'obscene' word (Got***) gets past 'censor' whilst the English word is exchanged for 'lovely person.'

o/t - Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech is the World's steepest road. (You Tube it)- not many people know that.

 

Well, yes, I was careful not to say Welsh castles! English Heritage members had to pay to visit which is slightly ironic! All friends now though

 

Baldwin Street in New Zealand was reinstated in April m8

 

When I worked for Wakefield Council as a part time Youth Worker, we had a full time
Community Worker who had met her partner in Barcelona when he was on an exchange
visit from Bradford Council. She spoke broken English when she first arrived ,but with some
tuition quickly got to grasps with the everyday English vocabulary.

She was based in an office at Woolley Hall with a couple of lads who loved a joke. She saw
a job for a worker in a different area of the City and asked the two lads to do some role play
with her that could mirror what she might expect come any interview. They went into finite detail even
down by way of introduction, to being able to discuss the weather.

Come the big day, it was absolutely lashing it down. As the meeting started one of the interviewing
panel asked her how the weather in England suited her and what was it doing when she left " home"
in Bradford.

One of my mates was on the interviewing panel and told me what happened. She started off by saying
that when she left home the weather had been fine. She then said " when I got to Wakefield, it started
pi*sing it down and I thought I was under a fall water ( waterfall)."

My mate knew straight away who had "tutored" her. It had our other mate Steve (her office colleague
who hailed from a Barnsley ) Steves DNA all over it. The panel realised she didn't fully understand what
she had said. She was a cracking lass and a very good Worker and thankfully, she got the job.

 

Walked it mate. It’s a killer for posties.

 

Wouldn’t fancy either TBH

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

Is that when she became your ex?

 

We're hoping to go off on holiday to Wales next month. Such a beautiful country, with a great history and the last time we were there, we were met with genuine warmth and friendliness.

 

Yes, love north Wales. Had a nice trip to Anglesey last November. I used to go to Criccieth a lot, was a nice guest house there, but sadly it closed.

 

We've booked a cottage near the beach at Old Colwyn, mate, assuming the lockdown doesn't stop it.

 

When I was a kid we used to go in the VW camper up in the hills over Colwyn Bay. My dad used to freewheel the van all the way into Colwyn Bay if we could, it was a bit of a game. I stopped off there to give the dogs a break on the way over. I don't get much DJ work out there, so rarely go now. Anglesey was smashing. 50% of the population I met were scousers though, who had moved there. I like scousers, so no problem. Anfield has been a happy hunting ground TBH.