Pump am y Penwythnos / Friday Five 06/07/2018

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Bore da gyfeillion!

1) This week we had a raging gorse fire on a hill about a mile from the house, it burned for about 16 hours or so. It was one of the most frightening things I have ever seen. Luckily we were safe, but the damage to the land and wildlife is so extremely sad. We have large trees in our garden which are wilting, despite attempts at watering, and from our elevated position, everything looks so dry and yellow. Unfortunately this part of Wales isn’t used to this much drought and blistering sunshine.

How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?

2) Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?

3) Invent your ideal summer festival.

4) What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

  • Canu
  • Pam?
  • Gorffennaf
  • Nos da
  • Gwneud

5) You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…

6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it…

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#2

1) How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?

I don’t know if Aberystwyth is hotter than other places I’ve lived in Wales, but this last fortnight has really hit me for six! I’ve been taking ice cold showers twice a day.

I really don’t handle being hot all that well! My ideal temperature is a nice aircon room set at 17 degrees. I am melting!!!

2) Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?

I have to say, this forum! As I have this morning been hoovering the room that @Novem will staying in for a couple of days from Sunday onwards - the idea that a simple language learning method/forum has opened up so many friendships for us, and the idea that someone from Finland is coming to stay with us and communicate through a language we both didn’t even speak a couple of years ago is just mind-boggling!!

3) Invent your ideal summer festival.

When I was a bit younger, this would have been a music-only affair, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to enjoy other things as well.

I guess my perfect summer festival would be a weird amalgamation of three different festivals into one super festival…

Maes B - providing the music.
Hay - providing the books.
Machynlleth Comedy Festival - providing the comedy.

If this could all take place in a big field no less than 5 miles from Aberystwyth this would be perfect!! If anyone has an actual name for this, I would be massively grateful - as “Mach B Hay Festival” would sell NO tickets at all.

4) What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu - Iestyn.
Pam? - Fi Duw, the short lived teen drama of the 90s.
Gorffennaf - Boiling.
Nos da - Sleep
Gwneud - Say Something in Welsh.

5) You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…

I was once in a band with a guy who ended up writing songs for an ex-member of a “guitar boy band”, that “guitar boy band” got back together eventually. My friend ended up using the basis for one of our songs in one of his songs, and it got to Number 3 in the UK Top 40. Unfortunately singles make literally no money, and the album crashed… but I did make about £200 in the process through royalties!!!

6) What is the ideal addition to toast?

I’m going to go with cheese!

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#3
  1. This week we had a raging gorse fire on a hill about a mile from the house, it burned for about 16 hours or so. It was one of the most frightening things I have ever seen. Luckily we were safe, but the damage to the land and wildlife is so extremely sad. We have large trees in our garden which are wilting, despite attempts at watering, and from our elevated position, everything looks so dry and yellow. Unfortunately this part of Wales isn’t used to this much drought and blistering sunshine.

How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?

Not quite as badly as expected, curiously enough. Yellowing lawns, but we’ve had those before.

2) Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?

T’internet, funnily enough.

3) Invent your ideal summer festival.

Probably one that didn’t take place, or if it did, it would be very small, and very local, with as little fuss as possible, and especially, as little traffic as possible.

4) What are the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu “Can 'e sing Mother…?”
Pam? Pam Ayres, an alleged poet.
Gorffennaf Several Welsh calendars that we had well before I started learning Welsh seriously.
Nos da Have known this phrase for years before I learned much Welsh; cosy feeling.
Gwneud “And g’neet to thee to mate…” ( aside: 'oo were that then?" )

5) You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…

I was quite slim for a relatively brief period of my early adulthood. :slight_smile:

6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it…

(Cue Wilfred Pickles) " 'ave you 'ever 'ad an embarassing moment?"

(Remembering Wilfred Pickles is embarrassing enough…)

Plenty, often caused by bending over backwards to try to be polite to one person, and ending up being rude to another (inadvertently) … e.g. standing out of the way of one person, but accidentally backing into another person. Happened to me so many times, in various ways.

Essentially boils down to lack of confidence I think, from early childhood onwards.

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#4

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?

The ability to fly.

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#5

1) How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?
Not well at all. M & I seem to be suffering more from the heat than in our youth. Our grandaughter is also having a hard time - not a good time to have chickenpox - poor lamb :frowning:
Some tips based on Physics and common sense: Maximise through drafts. Close curtains on the sunny side and open them on the shaded side. If you are using fans, always turn them off when leaving the room. Oddly, fans heat up rooms rather than cooling them through the windings of their motors and (to a lesser extent) the friction of their blades turning in the air. The cooling effect comes from the air currents causing evaporation (resulting in cooling by loss of latent heat) of the sweat on our skins. There is also a minor effect due to the circulation of stratified air in the room. Since hot air rises, it makes sense to place the fans low and point them upwards.

2) Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?
Nowhere unexpected really. Most of my long term frienships were formed in school and university and these have lasted 50 or 60 years or more. I met my best friend almost exactly 40 years ago and 11 weeks later, we married (Nov. '78)

3) Invent your ideal summer festival.
I suspect it wouldn’t be heavily attended, but I’d love to have a Madrigal and Glee festival.

4) What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu Yes but will he?
Pam? Pam lai?
Gorffennaf Leanne Wood & I are puzzled by it’s origin. I appears to mean summer’s end (which it clearly isn’t)
Nos da Cariad
Gwneud Dim lot ar hyn o bryd - wedi ymddeol / Not a lot at the moment - retired :slight_smile:

5) You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…
… I was conceited (until I became perfect). :laughing:

6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it…
Question: Why doesn’t everyone have the same outlook on life as I have?
Answer: 'cos they don’t - deal with it. :laughing:

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#6

(Remembering Wilfred Pickles is embarrassing enough…)

“Give her the money, Mabel” :blush:

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#7

It depends on your definition of summer, I think. If summer is the height of the fruiting season and Autumn is the harvesting season, then autumn starting in August seems to make sense. All of the Celtic cultures appear to have Spring running from Feb-Apr and Summer from May-July.

Edited to add - I clearly don’t know whether it’s currently conventional to capitalise the names of the seasons, and I’m not even bothered enough to be consistent. :rolling_eyes:

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#8

How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?
First - a complete coincidence I was thrying to sa “spot on” as in absolutley correct, in welsh ans looked up ‘spot’ and found “goddiath” - an area where bracken, gorse or heather has been burned back!!
As someone who works outdoor its mean buying quite a lot of suncream and drinking a lot of water particularly in the afternoons when its very hot and still
And as someone who used to fight fires for a living my admiration and respect for those firefighters spending hours in hot and testing conditions on heathland and peat moors - I’ve done it its hard,hot and dirty work.

  1. Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?
    Wembley Stadium! I was chosen to be part of a 32 strong fans choir to sing ‘Abide With Me’ before the 2016 Challenge Cup. We are all still firm friends after that experience.

  2. Invent your ideal summer festival.
    It almost exists already WOMAD near Salsibury is brilliant. Music and dance from across the world. I’ve not been to the Green Man festival yet but my daughter says that I’d enjoy it.

  3. What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu - Wrexham Community Choir
Pam? - always thing of my friend Pam Roberts!
Gorffennaf - End of summer
Nos da - a Welsh group called No Star (clever word play there)
Gwneud - Gwneud ddim deud!

  1. You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…
    I was arrested for being ‘drunk in public’.

6)If I you had hammer, would you hammer in the morning?
No, I’m not a morning person!

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#9

(If necessary, I’ll shift this interesting topic to its own thread)
Thanks @robbruce

There is a case for the “Celtic” summer, I agree, and this would certainly explain the derivation of Gorffenaf (with or without capitals :slight_smile: ), but the dates depend first of all on latitude and secondly on what our Celtic ancestors actually harvested.

Using the current UK harvests as an indicator, however, I take a clue from the fact that “harvest festivals” here usually take place in September these days.

I’m currently happy with the summer dates (meteorological and astronomical) I’ve just found on the Met Office site

I’ve just had a thought that the Earth’s precessing axis of rotation (which gives us our seasons) may have changed significantly since early Celtic times but, on checking, I found that it has only been a degree or so on either side of 23 degrees in the last 40000 years.

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#10

How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?

My nose is incredibly, painfully dry (on the inside). And I’m not sleeping…

  1. Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?

In the dinner queue at school. I was 12. Still my friend. Gave him one of my motorcycles about 18 months ago. He was punted off the thing a couple of weeks later and was out of work for a while but never blamed me. That’s friendship!!

  1. Invent your ideal summer festival.

Robot Wars!

  1. What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu. Côr Ysgol Gynradd Tywyn. In the 70’s.
Pam? Don’t know a Pam…
Gorffennaf. Pa Haf? Meinir Gwilym’s song.
Nos da. “No moon!” My dad…
Gwneud. Gwneuwch y pethe bychain. Dewi Sant.

  1. You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…

While on a study holiday in St. Malo, Brittany in 1976, I rescued a moped from one of the basins in the port and took it to a police station - the water was not too deep and it was a hot day. It turned out that it had stolen from its owner, the daughter of the Sous-Préfèt and dumped, probably when they found a little badge (as I did) with those details on. The lovely man sent 100 Francs as a reward.

  1. Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it…

One of these has to disappear:- Television and Radio. Choose which.

I’m with Mum on this, TV. She used to listen to boxing on the wireless and it was tremendously exciting because the commentator was utterly brilliant and described absolutely everything. When she first saw boxing on the TV she was really disappointed because the action was nowhere near as exciting! A good commentator can stimulate your imagination…

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#11

Used to be exactly the same with tennis. When I was growing up, tennis on the radio always seemed to be commentated by Max Robertson “…forehand down the line…”. Really made it sound exciting.

For some years, I did try having the radio commentary on while watching a muted TV, but it never really worked.

#12

I’m with Gary and Mike on the merits of radio sport. One of my early memories of boxing on the radio was listening to the Ingemar Johansson / Floyd Patterson bouts in the early hours with my dad. They were “edge of the seat” stuff

I still enjoy cricket commentaries but the heyday for me was the era of John Arlott and Brian Johnston and gems like "The batsman’s (Michael) Holding the bowler’s (Peter) Willey. - Ooh err :laughing:

Brian Johnston’s fit of giggles will go down in broadcasting history

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#13

  1. How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?
    Strangely, not as much as everyone else. Swansea’s provision of relatively high rainfall hasn’t let us down. Everything is still green. So, hot with the odd shower is great. Also nostalgia about some UK holidays when the weather was just like this (in my selective memory).

  2. Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?
    Possibly most places that we have lived, which is great as I am not naturally an easy mixer. More recently, also with my siblings, again great, as we had gently drifted apart (distance-wise) but modern communication has helped us back together. Even more recently, this forum and its friendly members.

  3. Invent your ideal summer festival.
    Probably a multilingual folk festival including acts from all the areas that I have lived in or visited. Situated close to my current home to make me feel part of it.

  4. What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -
    Canu
    Welsh singing but also “canny” = tidy or iawn in Geordie.

Pam?
Again, pam llai. Also anyone called Pam, who in my juvenile mind has a question mark after their name.

Gorffennaf
Nice weather. Also a vague recollection that the meanings of the names of our months have drifted, since some point when January and February were added.

Nos da
Good night / no star

Gwneud
Do, but also “snake/adder” (in my mind).

  1. You may find it difficult to believe this about me, but once…
    I cycled from Newcastle to Wales.

  2. Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it…
    Something to do if time allows
    Rebuild my parked-up 70s motorcycle and also a 70s car and push bike and take them on nostalgia tours.

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#14

You will also remember Huw, John Arlott’s classic comments when a streaker invaded the pitch…
…something like “…and we have a streaker, and it’s masculine…” There was a well-known newspaper photo of the event with a policemen using his helmet to cover the most delicate parts of the streaker’s body, the policemen apparently quite amused, and the streaker not looking too upset to be arrested. :slight_smile:

BTW, I found it very touching to discover that John Arlott had been a great friend and patron of Dylan Thomas, in a radio programme, which may still be around on the BBC website, called, I think, “John and Dylan”.

This is supposed to be a clip, but I can’t play it, as Flash won’t work in Chrome, and I don’t want to use another browser:

(Unfortunately, the programme from which it comes seems not to be there any more :frowning: ).

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#15

Not at all! Carry on! :slight_smile:

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#16

1) How has this unusually hot and dry weather affecting you or where you live?

One large and frightening gorse fire, wilting trees, yellow and orange landscape and very sad looking rivers and streams.

2) Where is the most unexpected place you have ever found lasting friendship?

I met Aran on a Welsh language online dating website. We met online in June 2004, had a blind date in July '04, He moved in August '04 and proposed in October '04. We married in July '05 and were the first wedding from the website… but I think we broke it as it no longer exists… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

3) Invent your ideal summer festival.

Laid back, chilled out, things for kids, authentic fresh foods, decent toilets, a glamping pod, no shouty music.

4) What ar the first things that come to mind when you hear the following words -

Canu - SSiW parties and gatherings
Pam? - my kids
Gorffennaf - three family birthdays and a wedding anniversary.
Nos da - Nos Da Nawr sang by Lleuwen.
Gwneud - Aran telling me to remember to say neud instead of gwneud when recording the lessons

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