@deborah-keyser - ma’am… I think you’re right - you’ve just squeaked into July (and what an absolute pleasure it will be to have you all there!). Don;t worry - there is no free for all booking, and I will let people know when I am booking. It won’t be until April though…
@joanne-taylor Yes certainly - the story with booking Bwtcamps, is that I will offer you a place on the next available bwtcamp depending on where you are on my list, but obviously, if that’s no the Bwtcamp you want, then I’l move you to a more suitable space on the list! So, please, don’t anyone worry about being forgotten or having to take a Bwtcamp space that they don’t want.
My name is Gareth and I live in a small village called North Waltham which is near Basingstoke in Hampshire.
I want to speak Welsh because I am half Welsh (I too have Welsh ancestors. They’re on my father’s side of the family but none as far as I can tell spoke the language). So I’ve visited Wales throughout my life and the language has always fascinated me as have lots of languages. But I have a real calling to dysgu siarad Cymraeg.
My main interest outside of my family life is Motorcycles. I have a few and try to go for at least one long journey and holiday each year on one of them. The plan this year is to ride the Pyranees. Covid19 may scupper that but at least it’s a plan.
The activity I enjoy most but struggle to find time to do is playing guitar.
My name is Julie. I am originally from Cheshire ( lived 8 miles from Chester for my first 21 years) and have lived in Guildford (8 years), Colchester (5 years) and I am now in Norfolk where I have lived for 20 years. Yes, I am 60 now .
One of my reasons for learning welsh is that I am half welsh - my mother was from Anglesey and was 1st language welsh speaker. She died in 2007 and learning welsh is just some thing I wanted to do as well as well as wanting to be able to speak to my welsh cousin and family - she lives near Porthmadog. I speak via FaceTime to my cousin every Sunday night and we say ‘dim Saesneg’ for half an hour but often find it difficult to stick to it. I hardly ever manage to get the timing right to do Hangout so I can’t wait to be forced to do nothing but! .
I enjoy generally keeping fit - walking/ running/cycling but not serious distances . I love drinking coffee and chatting …,and cooking.
Really, really hope the worst of virus is over by then.
S’mae Iestyn and fellow Bwtcampers!
I’m Cetra (pronounced with “s”, not with “c” as you would in Welsh!) and I live in Derbyshire, England with my husband, a cat, lots of birds and woodmice, some hedgehogs, and the occasional fox and squirrel.
I enjoy watching wildlife, walking and photography and like to combine all three whenever I can. (Sometimes in Norfolk @julie-lwrnc!)
We’ve got a tandem so I do quite a bit of cycling and I also enjoy yoga and painting.
I’ve been learning Welsh for exactly one year now and I started because I love the sound and I really don’t want such a lovely language to die out.
I’m looking forward to Bwtcamp and meeting everyone - we must all be boncers!
Hello Iestyn & fellow Bwtcampers,
My name is Tom and I was born and brought up in Cardiff.
I retired from work at a relatively young age and moved to the Isle of Wight where I have now lived with my wife for the last ten years.
I have always wanted to learn how to speak Welsh but didn’t think I was capable.
I stumbled across SSIW 18 months ago and realised that, maybe, it wasn’t beyond me.
I hope to get the chance to speak to you all on line so that we can hit the ground running when we get to bwtcamp.
I enjoy running, swimming and cycling so it will come as no surprise to hear I am a member of a triathlon club.
The Isle of Wight is a lovely place but ‘Hiraeth’ is calling and we are looking to move back to West Wales in the near future.
I am looking forward to meeting you all.
Hi Iestyn , I’m confused as to which bootcamp you’re referring to here.
Is it June or July? When I counted down from Di on the original list, I thought that I was going to be on the July bootcamp…which is the one I wanted. Can you clear things up for me…I’m not very good at following things on the forum and I’m getting your emails re bootcamps in general…apologies! Helen
My name’s David. I live in a small town called Southam (just south of Coventry in England) with my wife, two daughters in their teens and a cat. I was born in Merthyr Tydfil and grew up in Pencoed (both English speaking areas of South Wales, to the west of Cardiff).
Whilst I grew up in an English speaking area, my dad was a Welsh speaker and Welsh was all around to an extent. I wanted to learn Welsh, but didn’t get on well with the method used in school in the 1980s, which seemed to focus on learning whole sentences and several potential answers, more than focusing on what individual words meant and how to build sentences. In fairness it wasn’t just that, I probably had a load of other teenage ideas and distractions going on as well at the time. After school I always wanted to try again but felt that the opportunity had gone as I moved and set up home in England. Discovering SSiW was fantastic - with it’s distance learning and learning in a more natural way.
While my kids were growing up I did a lot of family stuff and it was like that was my interest. I must admit now my kids are older my interest is rediscovering having interests of my own and more time to do them. At the moment, I am having a slow start to getting fit again. I hope to be able to touch my toes when I meet you all at Bwtcamp - I’m a long way from it now!
I enjoy going for long walks regularly in the countryside with my wife. Not proper rambling as such as it’s on B roads and and paths. Warwickshire is a lot flatter than Wales and has a lot less sheep!
June Bootcamp participant - I’m Clare from Wiltshire I’m a retired Classics teacher with maternal Welsh roots: I enjoy modern embroidery,knitting, walking, reading (Hilary Mantell at the moment) I’ve travelled a lot and speak fluent Italian, have one son who lives in Milan
Hello fellow boot campers. I’ll start by apologizing for any gobbledygook that appears here. I have broken my right wrist and have to use dictation. I am really looking forward to this camp. At the moment I’m living in a cave up
a mountain in Gran Canaria. It’s a very comfortable cave. I’m not sure when I will get back what with the fracture and the travel restrictions. You might have guessed I like travel, I love walking in the mountains and being fully immersed in nature. I am going through all the levels for the Third time. I live in mid Wales and imhoffWelsh. LOL. I had just taken up the guitar again and have bean learning Welsh songs. I can still sing but my strumming is rubbish. Looking forward to meeting you all on the other side. Hwyl
Hi @gareth-mitchell Gareth. Well I hope this camp takes place. I feel like we should start preparing. I’m going to look into this Zoom thing. The April camp seem to be using it. How are you getting on with the guitar? If you’re interested I can give you details of the songs I’m working on. I download them off YouTube with the tube mate app. Do you know that distant dreamers upload Welsh songs with the lyrics and English translation? Let me know what you think. Jude
Hi Julie @julie-lwrnc. I really hope this Camp takes place. Where do you live in Norfolk? I went to UEA, in the seventies, then went back for a few years and worked at the Bell School. Both my sons were born at the N&N. I also enjoy running, walking and cycling, slowly and for short distances LOL. See you there, gobeithio, Jude
Hi Cetra(@Cetra). Looking forward to meeting you. I see we have walking, wildlife, cycling, yoga and painting in common. What kind of painting do you do? Maybe wildlife? Jude
Hi Tom @hillt2878. That’s great that you’re a triathlete. Are you able to get out and train I wonder? Have you got any further with connecting online? I see the April camp have set up a zoom thingy. Maybe we should do the same? Hope to see you in Tresaith, Jude
Hi @david-davies. Yes SSIW is so exciting compared to traditional teaching methods. My friend says she doesn’t speak Welsh but both her parents did. However when she hears me practice she always understands and sometimes answers with a really good accent. It will probably be the same 4 you. Well let’s hope we get the chance to find out! Jude
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