Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus, pawb!
Mar. 1st, 2008 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
(For the eighty percent of my flist who still go "Buh??", that means "Happy St David's Day, everyone!" *grins*)
There's never been very much done in my family to celebrate St David's Day, but Rowan and I have spent the day proudly wearing our Welsh rugby shirts! *grins* Mam decided to put hers on too, aftr seeing us. I also picked up some daffodils on my way home yesterday - the house smells lovely!
Rowan's school held their Eisteddfod yesterday; this is a sort of a talent competition, where you perform music, sing or recite poetry. There's also baking competitions too. Rowan opted to enter the poetry competition, reciting a poem called 'Doli' about a talking doll called Angharad - and apparently he came first in his year! *proud mam*
I missed out on anything done at work for St David's Day, since I had friday off. Though there was some kind of competition going on, wherein you needed to be wearing red in order to be eligible for a prize. I suspect there were welsh cakes handed round by the Ministry of Fun too - I'll be sorry to have missed out on those. Instead I spent the entire day wandering the shops, having had to call into the council offices to pay my rent and submit more information in order to renew my claim for housing benefit *scowls* I absolutely detest being on benefits; it's hard enough to get them in the first place, but it's an absolute bugger trying to hold on to them once they agree you're eligible! And then it's guaranteed that within six months you'll find yourself in a cycle where they keep reckoning they've overpaid you, and therefore are having to adjust what they give you yet again in order to recoup the overpayment. And they want to know every little detail, down to how many freckles there are on your nose, before they'll agree that yes, you are still eligible. *scowls even more* I think I was better off when I worked full time and didn't qualify. Stresswise, anyway. I spent years hearing my grandparents going on at me about how I should claim for every damn thing I'm entitled to, and in a sense they're right, but oh god. Such a hassle.
Aaaaaanyway! Time for that overdue picspam Ithreatenedpromised!

My boy vacuuming! I wonder how long this'll last? ;-)

Rowan eating ice-cream on the steps of the Senedd (The Torchwood fangirl in me had to get him to emulate that scene near the end of 'Meat'...I am just that sad.) This was taken on the Tuesday of Rowan's half-term holiday, when we went down the Bay for a spot of bowling and a trip to the cinema. We only ended up doing the bowling down there, on discovering that all the kids films at the Odeon (formerly the UCI where I worked - about a decade ago now....) had finished a few hours before. So we went for a walk around the harbour, eating ice cream, before heading back into town to Cineworld, where we saw Underdog! *grins* I loved it, but Rowan wasn't as happy - he's not used to movie conventions regarding a movie's hero in a life-threatening situation, and got a little too emotionally involved, bless.
Naturally, we have Rowan's Video-Blog! *grins* I swear, most of the time, he's asking me to film him - he seems to really like the idea.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v323/gothams3rdrobin/son_of_robin/?action=view¤t=DSCF0129.flv

At the Birmingham Indoor Arena, watching the athletics.

The Long Jump - waaaaay over on the other side of the arena! *grins* The zoom lens on my new camera got quite the workout!

The High Jump - a little too far away from us to see it as clearly as we would have liked.

The Pole Vault - no-one was really on their best form that day, so we didn't see many people actually get over the bar without knocking it off.

The sixty metre sprint - though this one got called back to blocks as someone jumped the gun. *chuckles* That happened several times.

The sixty-metre hurdles. Yes, I am aware that it's normally one hundred metres, but the NIA's just not big enough so they compromised.

This seemingly random pic is actually of two of the BBC's Athletics presentation team; Colin Jackson, one of our best hurdlers (and a Cardiff-iffian!) and a lady whose name escapes me (and also can't locate on the BBC website...)
Here's a quick video I made of Rowan, at the very start of the afternoon, not long after we'd settled into our seats;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v323/gothams3rdrobin/son_of_robin/?action=view¤t=DSCF0130.flv
The whole thing was really good - and Rowan impressed us all by continuing to be absolutely fascinated right up till the last event. Six whole hours later. And he nagged his nan about getting tickets to another event *grins* She's hoping for an outdoor event next time. The only downer for me is that, by going to Birmingham for the day, I was missing out on John Barrowman's booksigning at my local Borders! *grumbles* But for all that, I had an excellent day, even if everyone was grumpy as hell for most of the journey home due to tiredness.
There's never been very much done in my family to celebrate St David's Day, but Rowan and I have spent the day proudly wearing our Welsh rugby shirts! *grins* Mam decided to put hers on too, aftr seeing us. I also picked up some daffodils on my way home yesterday - the house smells lovely!
Rowan's school held their Eisteddfod yesterday; this is a sort of a talent competition, where you perform music, sing or recite poetry. There's also baking competitions too. Rowan opted to enter the poetry competition, reciting a poem called 'Doli' about a talking doll called Angharad - and apparently he came first in his year! *proud mam*
I missed out on anything done at work for St David's Day, since I had friday off. Though there was some kind of competition going on, wherein you needed to be wearing red in order to be eligible for a prize. I suspect there were welsh cakes handed round by the Ministry of Fun too - I'll be sorry to have missed out on those. Instead I spent the entire day wandering the shops, having had to call into the council offices to pay my rent and submit more information in order to renew my claim for housing benefit *scowls* I absolutely detest being on benefits; it's hard enough to get them in the first place, but it's an absolute bugger trying to hold on to them once they agree you're eligible! And then it's guaranteed that within six months you'll find yourself in a cycle where they keep reckoning they've overpaid you, and therefore are having to adjust what they give you yet again in order to recoup the overpayment. And they want to know every little detail, down to how many freckles there are on your nose, before they'll agree that yes, you are still eligible. *scowls even more* I think I was better off when I worked full time and didn't qualify. Stresswise, anyway. I spent years hearing my grandparents going on at me about how I should claim for every damn thing I'm entitled to, and in a sense they're right, but oh god. Such a hassle.
Aaaaaanyway! Time for that overdue picspam I
My boy vacuuming! I wonder how long this'll last? ;-)
Rowan eating ice-cream on the steps of the Senedd (The Torchwood fangirl in me had to get him to emulate that scene near the end of 'Meat'...I am just that sad.) This was taken on the Tuesday of Rowan's half-term holiday, when we went down the Bay for a spot of bowling and a trip to the cinema. We only ended up doing the bowling down there, on discovering that all the kids films at the Odeon (formerly the UCI where I worked - about a decade ago now....) had finished a few hours before. So we went for a walk around the harbour, eating ice cream, before heading back into town to Cineworld, where we saw Underdog! *grins* I loved it, but Rowan wasn't as happy - he's not used to movie conventions regarding a movie's hero in a life-threatening situation, and got a little too emotionally involved, bless.
Naturally, we have Rowan's Video-Blog! *grins* I swear, most of the time, he's asking me to film him - he seems to really like the idea.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v323/gothams3rdrobin/son_of_robin/?action=view¤t=DSCF0129.flv
At the Birmingham Indoor Arena, watching the athletics.
The Long Jump - waaaaay over on the other side of the arena! *grins* The zoom lens on my new camera got quite the workout!
The High Jump - a little too far away from us to see it as clearly as we would have liked.
The Pole Vault - no-one was really on their best form that day, so we didn't see many people actually get over the bar without knocking it off.
The sixty metre sprint - though this one got called back to blocks as someone jumped the gun. *chuckles* That happened several times.
The sixty-metre hurdles. Yes, I am aware that it's normally one hundred metres, but the NIA's just not big enough so they compromised.
This seemingly random pic is actually of two of the BBC's Athletics presentation team; Colin Jackson, one of our best hurdlers (and a Cardiff-iffian!) and a lady whose name escapes me (and also can't locate on the BBC website...)
Here's a quick video I made of Rowan, at the very start of the afternoon, not long after we'd settled into our seats;
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v323/gothams3rdrobin/son_of_robin/?action=view¤t=DSCF0130.flv
The whole thing was really good - and Rowan impressed us all by continuing to be absolutely fascinated right up till the last event. Six whole hours later. And he nagged his nan about getting tickets to another event *grins* She's hoping for an outdoor event next time. The only downer for me is that, by going to Birmingham for the day, I was missing out on John Barrowman's booksigning at my local Borders! *grumbles* But for all that, I had an excellent day, even if everyone was grumpy as hell for most of the journey home due to tiredness.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:06 pm (UTC)Google had both a daffodil and a leek on its main search page today. I wonder if they'll bother with a rose for St George's Day ...?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:15 pm (UTC)Besides, the Scots have Burns Night and Hogmany - what do they need St Andrew's Day for? ;-)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:22 pm (UTC)I don't know if you're around tomorrow, but Ivy and I are planning to watch a couple of SN episodes together at some point. Not sure exactly when yet - sometime in the afternoon, I think. You're probably doing Mum-things at that time of day.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:29 pm (UTC)Hmmm....any other Sunday and there's a good chance I'd be around. Tomorrow the plan is to go see a movie fairly early in the day, and be home in time for my Uncle maybe dropping his old TV off in the early evening. (Mine's alright, but the picture has a habit of going just that little bit out of focus - like I'm watching a film at the cinema without my glasses)
Let me know when you guys get started, and if you're still watching when we get back from town I'll come join you, yeah?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 12:18 am (UTC)Go figure!
*snugs*
no subject
Date: 2008-03-02 04:39 am (UTC)And I forgot to buy leeks. TOMORROW! Leeks and daffodils!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 12:19 am (UTC)