A very long time ago; 30+ years ago, I went to uni in Lampeter as a so-called ‘mature student’ in my late 20s. Bit of a wasted opportunity as I didn’t finish my degree although I did play a lot of rugby, for the college and for local clubs. After dropping out my wife and I, joined by then by two small children, one born in Aberystwyth and the other in Carmarthen, stayed on for a few years, living in Llandysul.
I worked locally and did a course and so got to a level of very basic competence, at a transactional level, in spoken Welsh, though I found the written language pretty much beyond me. My boss’ daughter used to tease that I spoke Welsh like a small child, but I got by. 
(Still friends with her btw).
But then I got a job offer back in SE England, in the town where I was born, and where I live now, an offer too good to turn down and so moved back and my Welsh withered and, eventually died. Pre-pandemic we would visit Wales a lot, my wife’s father came from Llangurig and she has an aunt and cousins in Llanidloes, I have a sister and niece and great-nieces and nephews near Haverfordwest. A couple of years back, on our wedding anniversary we found ourselves in a lovely pub out in the wilds near Aber where I was amazed to hear the language of heaven being used, by staff and customers alike, and even more amazed that I could understand some parts of what was being said. And an ambition formed, to go back there one day and buy my wife dinner there yn Gymraeg!
The pandemic saw me make the decision to retire, a couple of years or so earlier than planned, and with the time retirement brings I discovered Duolingo had a Welsh course - I was familiar with the app from learning a bit of Danish/Swedish whilst I worked in those countries. Via the Duolingo Facebook group I discovered the Dysgu.Cymraeg courses and am now six weeks into the intensive beginners online course and loving it. That facebook group also tipped me off about Memrise - very useful tool - and I was given a strong steer towards SSiW. Today I was delighted to see Dysgu.Cymraeg offering an SSiW discount code so I signed up and here I am, hoping to build some competence and confidence in, and get some opportunities to use, spoken Welsh. Even with the limited vocabulary I currently have.
Wish me luck! 
