I’ve never met Iestyn, but I feel like he and Cat are my “friends” after spending so much time learning by listening to their voices! He wrote me a very kind and encouraging post on the forum when I faltered at the end of Course 1, for which I was very grateful. Thank you, @Iestyn, for all the time and effort you put into SSiW and for helping me to become a Welsh speaker. And I agree, what an amazing voice! 
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Lots of lovely memories of Iestyn (and Cat, and their fine family of course) but one (of many) that stand out was a singing evening in a pub. So much fun combined with a sense of achievement.
Just wished it could have gone on for a lot longer!
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What a lovely thread to read first thing on a Monday morning. Thank you everyone for such kind, warm words.
I’m going to let you into a little secret now. I have always considered myself to be quite a lazy person, probably because I was always told I was lazy as a child and during my previous work life. The thing is, I could never bring myself to enjoy working hard at something that I couldn’t see the point of, and I was always looking for the short cut, for the bits of a job that people wouldn’t notice if I didn’t do. I only discovered how much fun working hard is in my 30s, when I started competing in stage rallies with a friend.
But I found that once you discover the joy of working towards an important goal - the pleasure that comes from achieving something that is important to you - you start to find that it affect all the other areas of your life.
And then my friendship with Aran led to a company that allowed me to work towards something important to me (the continuation, development and strengthening of my language, and the language of my children) and to help other people discover the joy of achieving impossible things (like speaking Welsh well!), It has given me the opportunity to share my joy at achievement with thousands of people, to help people past the roadblocks and challenges that always seem to stand in our way (but very often once we’re past them, actually turn out to boost our progress!), and to get closer to my personal goals whilst helping other to achieve theirs.
Even better, you do the hard work - hours of listening and talking and practising and remembering (and forgetting) and self criticism and heartbreak and darkest-hour-before-the-dawn moments - and I get to sit here with a cuip of coffee in my hand and share all of your “YES!” moments!
Can you see how that might be addictive?!!!
Like anyone else, I love to be praised for things that I value, and receive praise from people that I respect, so diolch Aran, and diolch to everyone else who has contributed here for making me feel particularly special this morning.
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I still can’t forget that moment at Bootcamp when I rushed up to Iestyn, to say I’d just been talking to a native Welsh speaker without being consciously aware of what language we were using! And Iestyn (despite having heard it all before many times on the transformative Tresaith bootcamps) looked as thrilled as I was. Lovely man and laid-back teacher/facilitator.
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I was on the point, a few years ago, of completing the old Level 1 course while on a train from Rhyl to Chester. I was determined to finish while still in Wales. I just about managed it and moments before crossing the border into England, I heard Iestyn telling me that I was “now a Welsh speaker”. I was incredibly moved, texted my husband straightaway and spent the rest of the journey home making firm resolutions to play my small part in keeping this beautiful language alive from my corner of Southern England.
Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi, Iestyn a Cat.
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… I seem to have something in my eye…
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Very well deserved! Iestyn (like Aran) is often the very first welsh speaking voice a lot of people actually hear and the amount f work you’ve done around these parts is definitely not unnoticed!
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What can I add that is original? Apart from that I’m miffed that we never thought of asking Iestyn to sing in a church on our Bootcamp. I admire Iesyn’s humour and unflappability as tutor, father, and carer for Cat. I’m in awe of his knowledge and commitment to the Welsh language. Having done the whole SW course I have spent hours in his company and I am proud to call him my friend.
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I’d like to propose for 
Seren yr Wythnos #2 a certain @aran Jones
His claim to stellar recognition is threefold, I think – as a family man, as a teacher and as a leader.
Family man: Aran works energetically and with love for two families, in fact. The first and most important is the one he shares with Catrin, Angharad Lliar and Bueno. The second is the SSi family which now consists of me and many thousand others.
Teacher: I recognise in him a superbly effective and dedicated teacher. He has that special ability of transmitting his knowledge and enthusiasm to his followers. Like all the best teachers, he keeps on top of his subject and supports his work with sound research and publications.
Leader: A good leader is simply someone that people (such as me) are prepared to follow. His visionary approach to Welsh teaching in particular and languages in general earns his huge following. He also provides leadership within this precious forum by shaping and monitoring (and policing) the forum’s shared values which provide such a secure and supportive environment for his “family”.
On a personal front, I value his company immensely. Although he and I hold diametrically opposed views on some political matters (I intend to set him straight on these when my Welsh is fluent enough), we share so many values based on our common outlook and humanity that I count him as a good friend.
That’s it! I can’t think of anything else good to say about him. Perhaps you guys can. 
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He puts up with me. That’s surely worth star of the week!
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@aran was the first llais Cymraeg I understood. Due to his and @CatrinLliarJones, and my mother-in-law, I sound far more Gog than Hwntw.
They both welcome Emma and I into their home for a very welcoming and patient chat in Welsh last time we were in the Gogledd.
Aran and I appear to share very similar views on the Wales and the leadership of the country. I wish I could get to the Gogledd more often than I do, as I imagine we’d put the world to rights very often!
Aran, Catrin, Iestyn and Cat have all taught me that I can speak Welsh, and subsequently I really feel that Wales is my home.
Thank you for creating this community and this programme!
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I’m a bit late to the party here, wps.
Iestyn has been the voice by which I’ve tried to learn Welsh, for which I’m very grateful, and also (possibly more importantly) responsible for what ended up being the most amusing resolution to a techsupport call I can imagine (ask him about it over a pint sometime).
So cheers for Iestyn
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I haven’t met Iestyn personally, but I’d just like to say how much I’ve appreciated his warm, friendly voice and gentle, wry sense of humour in Course One Southern (which I’ve completed) and Level One Southern (which I’m tackling).
Diolch yn fawr, Iestyn!
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Nice try at a thread-hijack, Huw, but no dice - Seren yr Wythnos #2 is already planned, and being announced on Friday, which is the official Seren yr Wythnos day…
[But: diolch o waelod calon, gyfaill. Mae dy eiriau caredig iawn yn meddwl y byd i mi… 
]
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A fi!!
O sori, ychan. No hijack intended.
I didn’t pick up that there was a planned programme of stellar births although, on re-reading your first post, I admit it was clear.
I also apologise to @Iestyn for depriving him of his full week of well-deserved exposure.
I suspect your planned programme may not include @aran jones so I’m quite glad of my accidental hijack.
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My addition to the hijack … @aran’s sense of humour. The first time we met I accused him of staring at my wife’s boobs - he saw the funny side and all was good. 
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Yes this!
I won’t be good girl this time and will add to that hijack later when I come home. (I could do that now, but it’s too much (as always) to write so I need more time then just “meal time” at my work. )
Just don’t ban me before I do that. - haha
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Deall yn iawn…
Yes, about five years later.
Oh no you won’t - you’ll read this and grudgingly accept that I’m asking you politely not to take the focus off Iestyn in this thread…
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@aran One of the things a good boss, teacher, convenor, moderator etc. does not do is stop everyone else from saying nice things about him/her!! I bet @CatrinLliarJones will agree that if we want to give you a gold star then we damned well should be able to without setting up a whole new thread. Mind, this lady thinks the gentleman doth protest too much as, by nominating @Iestyn you surely must have realised that you or your long-suffering Mrs. would be next!! Mmm…wythnos nesa, Catrin pawb??
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