Pump am y Penwythnos / Friday Five 14/09/2018

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Bore da! Hope you have a decent weekend ahead, despite the cool, damp weather.

Ok, here goes…

1) Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.

2) When did you last laugh till you were weak and why?

3) When I was a child in the 70s a bakery van used to come to our street. As a treat my Mam would buy us chocolate covered, jammy teacake biscuits. But as the man who drove the van was called Jack, the teacake biscuits were always known as ‘Cacan Jack’ / ‘Jack’s cake(s)’. When Aran was a child, his family used to refer to baked beans as ‘billy beans’. Do you have any such memories from your childhood? Or does your family use alternative names for common things?

4) What is something you’ve recently found yourself having to explain over and over again ?

5) What will be your focus for personal improvement in the coming months?

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

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#2

For anyone not raised in the UK who may be puzzled by…

Here they are…

These in particular are jam teacake biscuits/jammy teacake biscuits. You can also get them without jam. :wink:

But just to add to your confusion, these are also teackes. But unlike the above which are teacake biscuits, the ones below are toasted teacakes… :joy:

1-Teacake-fingers-big-web-stock.jpg1000×1000 177 KB

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#3

I vote buttery teacakes ever time. The other ones are a fiddle because you have to bite the biscuity bottom off, and pick the chocolate outer away so you can ignore whatever that fluffy tat is in the middle. Something nice about the foil wrapping, mind. Not to eat though…
I’m hungry.

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#4

Paid gwrando ar y geiria
Be’ bynnag wyt ti’n neud

We have a running joke in the office that is probably not even remotely funny to anyone else, but a couple of weeks ago it went far enough to make me literally double-up, with tears rolling down my face.

Not really the same thing, but I am the undisputed king of making mashed potato. Attention to detail; choosing the right potatoes, getting the quantities of butter and milk correct, perfect seasoning - is key. When Tegwen was little she always used to ask when presented with a portion of mash if it was ‘dada mash’, and that persists to this day. All mashed potato is compared to the legendary dada mash, and it is the only acceptable accompaniment if we’re having sausages for tea.

“Yes, I manage the team. No, I don’t manage the building. Please stop putting letters about the business rates or the gas bill or the lack of a television licence on my desk.”

There are several things that I need to stop being rubbish at, and one of those is to think about improvement rather than not being rubbish.

Where did that lyric come from?

Here:

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#5

1) Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.
“Breathe out so I can breathe you in, hold you in.”

2) When did you last laugh till you were weak and why?
Quite often but the last time I lost it to the point of literally rolling on the floor was watching @ianblandford “perform” during one of the bootcamps.

3) When I was a child in the 70s a bakery van used to come to our street. As a treat my Mam would buy us chocolate covered jam teacake biscuits. But as the man who drove the van was called Jack, the teacake biscuits were always known as ‘Cacan Jack’ / ‘Jack’s cake(s)’. When Aran was a child, his family used to refer to baked beans as ‘billy beans’. Do you have any such memories from your childhood? Or does your family use alternative names for common things?
There’s a few but only seem to come to mind when the opportunity shows itself. “Bike pass” instead of by-pass is the only one that comes to mind.

4) What is something you’ve recently found yourself having to explain over and over again ?
Probably the thing I’ve explained over and over the most is how to play a paradiddle. So simple but yet seemingly so difficult for some.

5) What will be your focus for personal improvement in the coming months?
Reading more Welsh.
Reading more Welsh.
Reading more Welsh.

6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it.
How many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Just one but all the others will stand around discussing how they would have done it better!

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#6

1) Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.
“It was an itsie-witsie teenie-weenie yellow polka dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today.”
(knowing my luck it’s probably not original :laughing: )
2) When did you last laugh till you were weak and why
In a B&B the night before taking my young son on a boating holiday on the Caledonian call, I watched Billy Conolly on the TV. His stories are far too rude to repeat here, but I laughed so much that I fell of the sofa and injured my back. I spent the whole week bent double.
3) When I was a child in the 70s (a typo, surely) … Do you have any such memories from your childhood? Or does your family use alternative names for common things?
Jake Carini’s icecream from his shop on Beaufort Hill above Ebbw Vale. The family still has a shop there, serving lovely ice cream, I’m delighted to say.
My baby name for Weetabix was “Doleydos” and no-one in the family has a clue why.
4) What is something you’ve recently found yourself having to explain over and over again ?
Quantum electrodynamics. My granddaughter just can’t get a grip on it. :laughing:
5) What will be your focus for personal improvement in the coming months?
I speak Welsh quite tidy now but I’m determined to improve my reading and writing.
6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it.
Q: What, after my dashing good looks, is my best quality?
A: My modesty.

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#7

We have a running joke in the office

So let’s hear it then! :smile:

#8

[quote=“catrinlliarjones, post:1, topic:13886”]

  1. Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.
    [/quote]Hm. Well, most lyrics aren’t that stunning without the music: Tom Waits is like poetry, but it’s brooding, angry, weird poetry, so maybe not the mood for this thread. So I don’t know about stunning, but I thought Mr Northern Voice might appreciate Carlos Núñez “El Pozo de Arán”. Carlos Núñez is from Galicia, but was for a long time the pipe-player with the Chieftains, so he has loads of eclectic links with musicians from all over, but especially Ireland. El Pozo de Arán is in Spanish, but it’s about the story of someone hoping that water from a Holy Well on one of the Aran Islands would cure her son’s blindness. (I know metaphorical blindness in stories can come across as extremely ablist these days, but it is a traditional story.) I’ve tried my (dodgy) best to put the words into Cymraeg as well as English.

Sé bien, es difícil aunque quisiera
hacer que toda la vida florezca,
que hoy termine por fin esta espera,
que hoy pueda ver mi niño esta tierra.
Hoy pido a las estrellas que bendigan este agua
que el mundo no te ciegue, que tu noche sea clara.

Hoy verás la luz que inunda todo,
verás por fin el Sol sobre nosotros,
verás el cielo grande, azul y limpio,
vas a ver donde se unen cielo y mar,
con la vida en tus ojos.

Dw i’n gwybod yn iawn, mae’n anodd er bo’ fi eisiau / gwneud i’r bywyd cyfan flodeuo (ffynnu), / i’r aros 'ma orffen o’r diwedd heddiw, / i fy mab fedru gweld y ddaear hon. / Heddiw dw i’n gweddïo ar y sêr iddyn nhw gysegru’r dŵr hwn, / i’r byd beidio â dy ddallu, i dy nos di fod yn eglur.
Heddiw weli di’r golau sy’n llifo dros bopeth, / weli di o’r diwedd yr haul uwch ein pennau, / weli di’r awyr fawr, glas a thryloyw, / wnei di weld lle mae’r awyr ac y môr yn ymuno â’i gilydd, / efo’r bywyd yn dy lygaid di.

I know well, it’s difficult even if I wished to, to make it so that all of life blossoms (flourishes), so that this wait might finally end today, that my son might see this Earth. Today, I beg the stars to bless this water, that the world may not blind you and your night may be clear.
Today you’ll see the light that floods everything, you’ll finally see the sun above us, you’ll see the sky, huge, blue and limpid, you’re going to see where the sky joins the sea, with life in your eyes.

I guess it sounds better in Spanish…

There are certain household tasks about which my partner and I agree that there is one right way to do them, but disagree over which way is actually right. Fighting to help each other to do up the duvet, or to refill the water filter regularly reduces us both to helpless giggles. Sad, I know.

Not really, but when I was really little I did call VW Beetles ‘Powell cars’, because we knew a Mr Powell who drove one. I can just about remember that I used to have a Matchbox on e I kept under my pillow. What I can’t remember, but remember being retold and retold in later childhood as a family story, was me overhearing my parents saying that Mr Powell was not a nice man, and bursting out into tears of hot denial because he was a nice man, he was, he was. Apparently they were discussing something Enoch Powell had said or done.

I teach Functional Skills and have young children. I’ve lost track of how many things I have to explain repeatedly…

Improving my Welsh and improving my ability to speak other languages without accidentally speaking Welsh!

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#9

…

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#10

Just one from me today.

When I read this again last week:

My Famous Recipe For Vodka Christmas Cake

Once again this year I’ve had requests for my Vodka Christmas Cake recipe, so here goes. Made mine this morning!

1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup water, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup brown sugar, lemon juice, 4 large eggs, nuts, 1…bottle Vodka, 2 cups dried fruit.

Sample a cup of Vodka to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality, then repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again.

At this point, it is best to make sure the Vodka is still okay. Try another cup just in case. Turn off the mixer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the fruit up off the floor, wash it and put it in the bowl a piece at a time trying to count it. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters, just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the Vodka to test for tonsisticity. Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something. Check the Vodka. Now sh!t the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the Vodka and wipe the counter with the cat.

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#11

Oh, I had never clicked on these “Pump am y Penwythnos” because I thought they were about events taking place in Wales!
At this point, I guess I can try and answer too:

  1. Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.
    “Rho i mi dy galon
    Ond paid a colli gwaed ar y llawr”
    (“Ms. Bara Lawr” by Datblygu - who else, I’m here because of them; and this verse just kills me!) :joy:

  2. When did you last laugh till you were weak and why?
    A strange side effect of Welsh language is that sometimes it gets me to laugh like a three-year-old for silly things and…I don’t know why, but I just can’t stop.
    It happened also a few weeks ago, while practicing with SSiW pretty late in the evening. A little intro needed: in Italian, there’s an expression of dissappointment that naturally comes to my mind every time I miss a mutation or can’t remember a word during challenges. It’s actually root to a wide variety of curses - but by itself it’s mild and quite appropriate for the circumstances: “ma porc”. All of a sudden I noticed it sounded like the beginning of a Welsh sentence. So I started messing about with Google Translate to generate funny “fake curses” in Welsh, based on sound of Italian words and then translating them again in English. Er…anyway. I started laughing so hard of the silly, absurd results that I thought my husband, who was already sleeping, or even the neighbors would come over to check what was going on with me!!!

  3. (…) Do you have any such memories from your childhood? Or does your family use alternative names for common things?
    The only thing that comes to mind is a nickname we used for the record store in the neighborhood where I begged all relatives and family friends to take me, since I was about 3 years old. It was called “la ricciola”. It means “the curly haired” (it also happen to be the name of a fish, but not related!). The girl who ran it had a trendy 70s afro-like perm. Someone in my family started calling her that way and it stuck, even though she soon moved to a very short haircut that pretty much stuck until the last time I ran into her a few years ago.
    By the way, she still remembered me - the little girl who had to stand on a chair to reach the records but then browsed through them like a pro, without saying a word!
    (I hated to speak, and tried to avoid it as much as possible - and learning other languages was/is very useful to improve my conversation skills)

  4. What is something you’ve recently found yourself having to explain over and over again ?
    The importance of having backups. Especially when it’s their files for a project we’re working at together and I had even given them an hard disk of mine for the purpose. And I won’t get into details here, because it would take much more than a “ma porc”!

  5. What will be your focus for personal improvement in the coming months?
    I would say…keeping my level of pshysical activity/exercise decent also during winter, when I tend to get lazy.
    And well, since I’m here it’s good to add a reminder to keep on learning and practicing Welsh until I can have a basic conversation!

  6. Make up your own Friday Five question and answer it.
    What’s the first gig you attended?
    With parents, as a child: Matia Bazar
    With friends: Style Council

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#12

1) Go on, hit me with a stunning song lyric.
(you’re gonna hate me, but…

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
The Blockheads

In the deserts of Sudan
And the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatan
Every woman, every man

Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Je t’adore, ich liebe dich,
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me slowly, hit me quick.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

In the wilds of Borneo
And the vineyards of Bordeaux
Eskimo, Arapaho
Move their body to and fro.

Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Das ist gut! C’est fantastique!
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
It’s nice to be a lunatic.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

In the dock of Tiger Bay
On the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fe
Over hills and far away
Hit me…

2) When did you last laugh till you were weak and why?

Several films I can’t remember the names of. Most recently, probably Laurel and Hardy on Youtube:

3) When I was a child in the 70s a bakery van used to come to our street. As a treat my Mam would buy us chocolate covered, jammy teacake biscuits. But as the man who drove the van was called Jack, the teacake biscuits were always known as ‘Cacan Jack’ / ‘Jack’s cake(s)’. When Aran was a child, his family used to refer to baked beans as ‘billy beans’. Do you have any such memories from your childhood? Or does your family use alternative names for common things?

We used to call all our lemons “Jack”.
(Not true, obviously, but I can’t think of any special family names at the moment, although I’m sure we used to have them)…

When our daughter was young enough to go in a pushchair, she came up with the phrase “cover dry” for the plastic shield thing you attached when it was raining. Needless to say, we use this phrase for the corresponding item on our grandson’s pushchair (even if the design has changed a bit!).

4) What is something you’ve recently found yourself having to explain over and over again ?

How long have you got…?

5) What will be your focus for personal improvement in the coming months?

Several health-related ones, but otherwise, trying not to be so much of a grouch and a cynic… :slight_smile:

6) Make up your own Friday Five question and answer

"What’s it all about, Alfie?"

Blowed if I know missus.

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#13

LOL! If “Bake Off” was like that, I might even watch it. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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#14

Chuckle - I wonder what would happen if you toasted the chocolate ones? (Perhaps the Scots would batter and deep-fry them).

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#15

Ah, didn’t think along those lines! We call all sorts of moisturiser etc. ‘creamon’, from our children mis-analysing phrases like “I’ll just put you some cream on.” Hence, “Where’s the creamon?” etc.

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#16

(you’re gonna hate me, but…

Dim o gwbl / not at all
These lyrics will and should enDury for ever. :thumbsup:

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#17

Did anyone else eat “wet nellies”? They were called custard tarts in the shops.
Sue

#18

Swetie oggies for pasties.

#19

Lyrics, where to start?
Tom Waits, Bjork and David Gedge are among my favourites, but I will go with the mighty Stephen Morrissey - Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me.

#20

About 40 years ago, when we ere in the car with our children, the wind screen wipers were “wind screamers” and we used to go over “crackle dids” not cattle grids. And we still call them that to this very day! x