General Chat

Oh Muffs,

You have just got to go its breathtakingly beautiful. and the fold aint half bad either.)) the few oddities are few and far between,,,,,,its not so much the holidaymakers that are hissed at,its the ones that want to take root there and want a English life.

The old codger wont be sightseeing anyway.

dont go to north Wales unless you want a Skeggy atmosphere...


How can you be half of anything.........you are either one or the other..

you can be of -------parentage......but not half born anywhere....

Johns English............isnt he.........but taken to be a full born again Welshman........

:-D :-D :-D.

Oh Mr Daff its at times like this I dearly miss that wonderful woman........with her bum smacking answers. ;-) :-D

Well, what an interesting thread this has been !!
Guess none of you thought you'd get to learn so much about Herr Lewis when it started, or about different shops and shop keepers, of house prices, and Druids !!

Regarding the OP, any normal customer experiencing a perceived (or real) problem whilst shopping would, I hope, request to see the manager and not continuously embarrass an assistant instead.

I'm a 'Valley's boy', somewhat further North than PontyP', and my town has been the venue for the Eisteddfod, indicating at least a degree of 'Welshness' is present in said locale.....but I admit that I have also experienced the switching from English to Welsh when, as a stranger, I've entered establishments in West and, particularly, North Wales.

However, being Teflon-coated, it really doesn't bother me, but can certainly appreciate how others may feel when experiencing the same.

As for the influx, the 'colonisation', by the English (Dr L), and associated comments - utter balderdash. Overall, I find Dr L to be a left-wing Nationalist, possibly with fascist leanings. I reiterate, this is my opinion.

Mention was made of Welsh phrase-books for visitors - why not? They are readily available, after all. Personally I use them all the time when travelling overseas, and have well-thumbed copies in Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and German, not so well thumbed in Dutch :o( , and an American one that I got fed up with, having to regularly correct the spelling... ;o). Phrase books can be the avenue to further language study, after all.

My OH and I were bilingual - English and 'edgewise', I never did get the hang of the latter.....

The Gorsedd - Prince of Wales is an honorary member (in response to earlier post), same as QEII.

Ok, what's next Sue ????
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Totally agree with supercrutch.

We have at least one holiday a year in Wales (usually west Wales) and have done for the last 30 years and only twice have encountered the sort of ignorance described here. Once was on Anglesey and once in Aberyswyth.

Half my family still live in Wales, although most of them are non Welsh speaking, when we visit them and go to pubs or for meals we never have any problems.

There are pubs here in Warwickshire I won't go in because the locals are hostile to anyone new. It's the same everywhere, I think. A few ignorant people get a place a bad reputation.

Considering John is only Half Welsh not a full blooded Welshman,what is he trying to proove? That he,s more Welsh than anyone? or Meybe he,s trying to convince himself he is.Regarding changing from English to Welsh in Pubs Etc. He should have gone into the Pub/Hotel at the top of Sea View Rd. in Colwyn Bay,it happened there quite often to me when visiting my Mother when on leave from the Army, untill I told them where to go in Arabic and my Step Father did the same in Irish.Its sheer B ignorance by a few People of the same ilk as John and his Cronies, Most True Welsh People are Kind and Welcoming to all.**M**.

Nooooooooooooooo come and stay with me (with your paint brush) :-D

There ARE some areas which are still living in the dark ages, thankfully, few and far between and these are in the more rural areas. There is little comparison between now and a few decades ago.

If you google you can find complaints about pubs/restaurants/shops etc., as well as recommendations.

I can cite a lot of places to visit where you would be welcomed :-D but I can also tell you of half a dozen places to avoid :-(

It's the few that give a bad experience to visitors that leave an impression which is mostly discussed not the many who have had a great time.

The letters section in our local paper does publish both good and bad comments from visitors and I can assure you that if your business is named as a 'no go' their income will suffer and they will have to adopt an attitude adjustment or lose revenue. It will take time but Wales relies on tourism in some areas for their annual income.

Oh and I could do with a plumber ;-)

@ Muffy, I do agree with you, having read through this thread it seems that SOME people have an obsession with "Welshness" ( is that a word)? I have several close relatives who were born and have lived most of their lives there, and I have never heard some of the comments made on here. How sad that people feel so strongly about their ethnic roots that it can cloud their judgement, but as in all of life I don't confuse their "opinions" as actual "facts". :-D :-D

I genuinely would think twice about holidaying in Wales after reading some of this thread....and yet it's always been somewhere i would just love to visit....shame.

Well you haven't come back with sparkle have you...I'm quite disappointed to read "same old".
I wonder if maybe the checkout lady had been told if faced with foul mouthed male customers to buzz for the Manager (another male) to deal with them? Or maybe his reputation goes before him & he habitually berates people...because he can? Who knows?
He has succeeded in one thing though-he's given himself a bad name & I can't imagine the Druids will be happy even though he's the "Former" Archdruid.

IMHO writing a book doesn't give you the right to dictate how people should speak to you or anything else, at the least he's a bully.

Contraception????


(Susan10146857...rollers are a type of pigeon :-D )

Yes he puts a condom over his head. :-D

thanks Sue :-D :-D :-D :-D

:-D @ Ann

accused of contraception!!!!!!! :-S :-S :-S

a good idea though :-D

"The Gorsedd are community of bards which promote Welsh language literature"

Have copied this from OP!!! From Cambrian News, I expect. No they are not that. That is the role of the Welsh Language Board. The ovates, bards and druids are a group of distinguished people in Wales bards, singers, writers, politicians, businessmen and women, the Queen.. Several are not natural Welsh speakers but usually are learning and have a level of competence to speak a little Welsh when interviewd by S4C at the Eisteddfod.

There are longstanding links with international bodies that encourage Welsh culture, anguage and literature in Australia, Patagonia, USA, Canada, NZ. Loads of Welsh diaspora enjoy "coming home" during Eisteddfod week.

And links with other Celtic countries. Irish, Breton, Cornish, Scots and Manx are all spoken on the stage and huge encouragement is given to the nurturing of those languages

BK and others. I can see how you think I am changing my position about Dr Lewis.

The OP blamed Dr Lewis for this incident. And others piled in. Silly old fool etc.

I have never said that he was in the right. But neither do I believe he went there to do more than do quite a large shop and probably try to buy local produce which would not be so available from one of the superstores nearby.

I am allowed to adjust my position during a thread. Hopefully without being accused of contraception. Tecwyn in particular added information to the debate that I was unaware of.

My position is still that I rather think it was six of the cashier, half a dozen of Dr Lewis and that the Store Manager should have been well able to throw a bucket of water over the pair of them and make them both feel they had won. Managers can defend their staff and, at the same time, allow most customers to leave feeling satisfied and not shooting off to the local paper.

But I do not feel we know enough about why Dr Lewis was so upset or why the girl refused what seems to me a simple customer request. I have been to the tills so many times as a manager to resolve something an assistant cannot resolve. Things like "she called me duck. I want to be called madam". "she won't smile at me". And it is a Muslim cashier who is told by her religion not to smile at male customers. If Managers are not good at resolving those type of situations and using humour to diffuse same, they will lose customers.

As Gordon Selfridge said, "we are entertainers in retail. They come in to our theatre with all the world's problems on their shoulders. We put on a show and they leave with a smile" Difficult to achieve in a grocery shop, but still usually possible to a high degree.

It looks like Conrad Davies needs a bit less Jack Dee and a bit more Michael McIntyre or Jack Whitehall. But, I repeat, I may be wrong. And so may all of you as well ;-)

Pigeons?......eh?......sorry BK.....you have lost me :-(

Mersey, don't be a silly billy. All comments are welcome :-D

Lots of people have experience of living or visiting Wales and it's always good to hear new views. Those together with how families where one partner is not bilingual is interesting too.

When grandson was born my OH's worry was he wouldn't be able to pronouce his name properly...lolol fortunately it's short and we had a friend with the same name so he was used to it.

He had enough trouble with the name of our second house, full of wlch and ll.

Please continue adding.

Sue x

Sue can i firstly apologise I only wanted to comment on your thread as I really did find it interesting reading everyones point of view.....including Johns!!!

I will leave the thread alone from now on which is a shame but John Cocopops really gets on my marackass......I will continue to read the thread but unfortunatley wont participate.......My words come from me not google, not Ask Jeeves, or any other site !!!..... riled but still smiling TTFN

Doesnt mean I havent read anything else...

I'm intrigued by your love/hate relationship with the ex-archdruid, in awe one post, silly so 'n so the next.

Crowd pleasing doesn't score points in debates John.

Off to bed to get my sparkle back. Nite all. Nos da :-D :-D

Susan10146857...you should make it clear to John you're not talking about pigeons