What are /r/Wales' favorite Products & Services?

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My mate just sent this to me. George Thomas Avenue, in Brynmenyn. I also like how they've done it in green. It de-politicises it.

For those on here who aren't aware - and there probably aren't many - George Thomas MP (later Viscount Tonypandy) was the Secretary of State for Wales (or Minister of State, as it was back then) who presided over the Government's decision to part-pay for removal of the slag heaps above Aberfan out of the disaster fund. During the protests, he was quite literally chased out of his office.

It remains, in my view, the singlemost shameful act ever committed upon its mainland subjects by a British Government in the twentieth century, and a permanent stain on the history of the Labour Party (of which I was a member for 20 years), despite Ron Davies' admirable attempts at reparation in the 90s.

It's not just about Aberfan though. George Thomas was a slimy sycophant who (rumours about his preponderance for young boys aside) sold his republican credentials down the river, hated the idea of a National Assembly for Wales and just generally came to resent the country that had given him everything, so much so that Wilson got shot of him in '75 in the understanding that he was privately despised by his colleagues in Wales.

I would personally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leanne Wood on her crusade to eradicate him from street names and pubs throughout Wales.

Edit: If anyone is interested in further reading, I highly recommend Martin Shipton's biography <em>Political Chameleon: In Search of George Thomas</em>. Fortunately, Shipton is a better biographer than he is a journalist, and like all good biographies it portrays the perception of Thomas alongside his actions, within the party and out in the electorate.

A History of Wales by John Davies is a great general history, if a little heavy going. It covers everything from prehistoric Wales to the present day

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/thrones-britannia-faq

The FAQ doesn't look promising re: availability of Briton factions:

>We’ll be confirming all ten of the playable factions over the coming months but for now we can tell you that you’ll be able to play as Anglo-Saxons, Viking settlers and certain Gaelic clans.

Hopefully a Welsh kingdom will make its way in!

If you're looking for Welsh language poetry, my favourite poet by far is Hedd Wyn. He was a poet during the First World War, which was naturally a big inspiration behind his work.

He's one of the most (if not the most) famous poets in the Welsh language, so I'm sure your partner will have come across his work if they have any anthologies or collections of Welsh poetry. His entire output was apparently published into a book entitled 'Hedd Wyn: Ei Farddoniaeth' (Hedd Wyn: His Poetry) in 2012, which I can't find in stock anywhere online but there's an amazon page here if you're interested. Otherwise I have a copy of a collection of his called 'Cerddi'r Bugail' (Songs of the Shepherd) which, while it's not this exact edition, I can wholeheartedly recommend!

His work is extremely emotional - as a Christian he was a conscientious objector in the war, but was conscripted against his will and killed in service at the Battle of Ypres. All of his writing is beautiful, but one of his most famous poems is 'Rhyfel' ('War'), which opens Cerddi'r Bugail with a haunting portrayal of the horrors he experienced. If your partner is into Welsh poetry I'm sure they'll have (or will soon!) come across him at some point; he's an amazing figure in Welsh history as well as an incredibly talented poet who's definitely worth getting into!

Duolingo has a translator that is pretty good and offers examples:
https://www.duolingo.com/dictionary/Welsh/gwlad/d937458232e8b900a4b8451f3b88d524

This online welsh dictionary is very good although I’ve found it is missing the occasional word:
https://geiriadur.uwtsd.ac.uk

Google translate is ok for words and small phrases, but both of these links do the same job but better.
If you do use google translate one tip that can make it easier is to avoid homonyms, English has loads of homonyms and most of the time they translate into separate Welsh words, e.g. “free” in English could mean independent, free-of-charge, available. While in Welsh these are all separate words.

Wales gets a paragraph in the first dev blog by the lead developer when he's setting the scene for the campaign:

"In Wales, king Rhodri the Great has died after uniting the lands, his territory divided amongst his sons who each look to follow in the footsteps of their father and rule as King of the Britons, but also deal with a resurgent Wessex."

It also features as a playable faction in the spiritual predecessor to the game, the expansion pack for Medieval Total War, Viking Invasion.

So I'm fairly confident there will be one playable Welsh faction in the base game, probably either Gwynedd or Deheubarth. There is always the chance it gets cut for later DLC though which would seriously piss me off.

It's the best one I've found. It's quite intuitive and you can progress quite quickly. I've also tried the BBC's Big Welsh Challenge course, which is quite good. Also the Android Welsh-English app is useful for looking up words - it uses Google translate and is available for multiple languages.

Fair play to you for coming to that conclusion, as /u/andyrobnev says when you are met with hostility and personal attacks its very natural for the walls to go up.

Honestly I know it can seem intimidating but there are some easy ways to learn the Welsh language online now. I'm from Cardiff and I'm Welsh myself but unfortunately can hardly speak any. A little while ago I tried the Duolingo welsh course and it's really good and really well presented and easy to get into (also it's free), I reckon if you dipped your toes in and learned some of the basics your wife and daughter would love it!

Take care and best of luck going forward, and I understand a lot of anger was directed at you in the main thread and everyone called you an asshole but at the end of the day we're all human and it's all issues with communication and perspective rather than you being full of hatred and spite so don't beat yourself up over it.

All the best mate, Hwyl fawr (Good bye)

Tried my best. Hope it works for you.

You can use Audacity to chop this up, slow it down etc. It's what I used for recording it and very easy to use.

EDIT: fixed the link

> I don't speak Welsh

I'm not fluent in Welsh myself (yet!) but I strongly recommend checking out the Duolingo course if you're interested in the language. It's currently in beta and seems very promising so far. In the meantime, you might want to look into finding some Welsh-speaking writers for the site!

From post on r/bitcoin -

"I asked a friend of mine who translates English to Welsh to translate the text on the bitcoinpaperwallet.com template so that Welsh could be a dropdown option.

Here's the finished result, changes are being sent to Canton so hopefully this will be publically available soon.

My friend is also getting married so I thought I'd give her a paper wallet with some bitcoin as a wedding present, concealed in a wallet with strict instructions that it is not opened or cashed in until their 10th Aniversary ( To the Moon! ) :-)"

For those of you who are unaware of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, have a look at https://bitcoin.org/en/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Possibly, Liverpool and Manchester are quite close.

Check out http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ and https://www.thetrainline.com/ they're good for planning your journey and you can buy tickets in advance for cheaper. The Train Line also has an app so you can see what stops your train goes through and if its delayed/cancelled etc

I don't work for train companies I just travel about on them a lot :)

Just realised it's been well over a month since I last posted. University has been a bastard in recent weeks so apologies for that, I'll try get to posting a bit more regularly.

In the mean time there's a 3min survey for my dissertation I would appreciate if some people could fill in. Diolch x

https://forms.office.com/r/qpZdqZjMqv

Hi! I've had a look and stupidly had the wrong settings 😂 hopefully this one works now: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=kWKY0wlzXkmkhF_27zTGWZEEPWkiM-tFvzn6Vvpe8F1URExLTDJEOVpBUDc4MUhONDRWNDFKSFpEMi4u

Thank you for taking your time to help me out :)

It's important to remember that a lot of the people who make these seemingly fatuous 999-calls are extremely vulnerable and commonly have mental illnesses of varying degrees. This is something which, if I remember correctly, the writer of Blood, Sweat and Tea talks about at length.

http://www.forvo.com/word/rhyd/#cy

There's how to pronounce Rhyd.

http://www.forvo.com/word/gilfach_ddu/#cy

Second word in that would be Ddu. It sounds pretty much like "the" in English really.

i'm using nordvpn from australia, and i generally download with get_iplayer.exe. nothing else at all. i've never had any trouble (apart from get_iplayer being painfully slow at times...)

I would strongly recommend St Fagans while you're around the Cardiff area. It's beautiful with free entry (fiver parking). You seem to be interested in Welsh architecture and heritage and it has some examples of old mining houses as well as a water station, some reconstructed iron age roundhouses, a lovely chapel, a Tudor merchant's house, loads more. Also a lovely park next to it with a manor house (St Fagans castle) and some gardens with a lake.

As for neolithic sites, there are a few standing stones by the Dan Yr Ogof showcaves, which is also worth a look. I would recommend you get a copy of The Old Stones - A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland to see some more sites in Wales.

I got mine from Leekes a good few years ago, just had a look now they have one on the website It looks like it not sure If exactly the same but goodgle search they have the same make on Amazon a few £ cheaper https://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-NonStick-Cooking-Pancakes-Included/dp/B0001IWYFA/ref=asc_df_B0001IWYFA/?tag=googshopuk-21&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=231973737976&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6634947174228084787&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=...

I found this book a little while ago, but haven't got around to reading it yet. It sounds interesting, and I've just seen that the author has other books too.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00723672S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CFDYVH3CT3J7PCYV1HNY

I have this on the wall in my hallway! You can get a poster or canvas on Amazon

This would help I think
https://www.amazon.com/Geiriadur-Mawr-Welsh-English-English-Welsh-Dictionary/dp/0850884624

Well here's one of my films from last year https://vimeo.com/66609605 but I'm just finishing up on an animated documentary about James Howells (the guy who lost £4.5 mil in Bitcoins recently in Newport), other than that, I mostly work with After Effects and Maya now. No probs anywho :)

u/darling-Cassidy - you’d be best off getting hold of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Access-Accents-training-resource-Performance/dp/0713685174

^ it’s a CD Course in South Walean accents specifically designed for actor training.

You should be able to find versions of Scottish as well from the same company.

There are so many particular Welsh accents that it’s difficult to hear the ‘general themes’ of the sounds when you’re listening to lots of different native accents from all over Wales at once.

You will for instance sound quite odd if you end up mixing a Carmarthenshire twang with a Port Talbot accent - even though the drive between the two is less than 30/40 minutes.

That’s why it’s better to use a professional resource to get yourself a more ‘non specific’ accent across the basic sounds.

Not as entertaining a way to learn, granted, but not as painful for any natives who hear you either.

Thanks for the info! I found a book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aircraft-Crash-Sites-Brecon-Beacons/dp/1905795793 that I have picked up - hopefully will have more detailed info on it.

I am planning on a three day hike, covering much of the Beacons, so am hoping to visit as many as possible. But yea, odd that the coordinates aren't too well documented.

Thanks

I like the simple-yet-complex geometric symmetry of the Union Jack, but there are ways to preserve it, eg here

Here you go!

Should help with all the reaching you’re doing

Then you have the 'atlantis stuff' read a book on it I am surprised Wales just not the tip of snowdonia lol

The Celtic Atlantis Flooded and Magical Kingdoms of the Celts https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01G0LV86W/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_JG3QDR0ZZWJWWJV7EFWX

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mabinogion-Forgotten-Tales/dp/1728624975/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=VSQNHNAL9UAK&amp;keywords=9783743100473&amp;qid=1640802863&amp;sprefix=9783743100473%2Caps%2C126&amp;sr=8-1

This was free when I got it, it's 2 pound something on kindle now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pedair-Cainc-Mabinogi-Sian-Lewis/dp/1849670234/ref=asc_df_1849670234/?tag=googshopuk-21&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=310977284312&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=4345762746365748328&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp...

I would also love for some documentaries on these topics. Unfortunately, Wales is so poorly served by its broadcasters that we barely have any documentaries on Welsh history full stop.

There's The Story of Wales, made by the BBC back in 2012 and available on iPlayer if you're a licence fee payer. At only six parts long, it's well-made but very superficial. Only the first episode, The Makings of Wales, is relevant to the time period you're interested in, and that covers everything from the Ice Age to Saint David, so you may be disappointed with what it has to offer.

A better attempt was made by HTV in the 1980s with The Dragon Has Two Tongues, an extremely well-made and engaging documentary which presents Welsh history in the form of a debate between the well-spoken establishment gentleman, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, and the firebrand marxist professor, Gwyn Alf Williams. It's kept under lock and key by the rights holders, ITV and the National Library, but you might be able to find it on Vimeo (hint, hint). You will find episodes 2 & 3 of particular interest, but honestly just watch the whole thing - it's worth it.

You might have more success looking for podcasts on the topics which interest you.

I'm just considering your travel times.

If you are travelling by train it would be well worth it to consider checking out the connections and timings.

The train does go through some very pretty places.

https://www.thetrainline.com/train-times/edinburgh-to-bangor-gwynedd

If you can plan well in advance, train tickets are available for as little as £22 each way. Add a railcard to bring that down to £14.50

Make sure you are aware of the limitations of advance tickets (must travel on booked train.)

Advance tickets are usually made available 12 weeks in advance. Use a service like https://www.thetrainline.com/ticketalert to alert you.

That sounds like it has potential. Maybe someone should do a hack on Google Earth, so you can make an instance of grand theft wherever.

As for what I'm doing:

http://tmblr.co/ZzzqIt1HdlvzG

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7842008

Just added it to Deezer too!
https://www.deezer.com/playlist/6763389004

Just added it to Deezer too!
https://www.deezer.com/playlist/6763389004

If want a good starting guide, this book is excellent!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Talk-Tidy-Art-Speaking-Wenglish/dp/0954665902

My favourite Wenglish word is scram. It has a different meaning to us than the English - cat (or similar style) scratch - "the cat just scrammed me"

I'm pretty sure a book is a source and generally a highly regarded source in both media and academia.

Not obscure - The BBC: Myth of a Public Service https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784784826/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5OAPDbFGME8F6

Amazon have it good to go for your kindle or soft and hardback books are available.

If you think I'm going to disseminate a 288 page book on the subject for you, I don't think you've got much chance.

I got mine on amazon

I really feel like more people should read this book by Martin Johnes, Wales: England’s Colony?.

Despite the slightly inflammatory title it’s a very balanced book by a brilliant historian. It’s a short but great overview of how Wales developed as a nation over the past 2000 years and how the relationship with England both created and affected it.

I'm no Medievalist/Early Modernist (my MA is in Modern History) but as someone with two history degrees who teaches this stuff every term, I honestly don't know where to start with your reasonings, so I'll just leave you to it.

If you're genuinely interested in the history of the Reformation in Europe and Britain, get a copy of Peter Wallace's The Long European Reformation. It's starts in the mid-14th century and is a bit heavy in parts, but it'll help you to put some of what you're saying into a wider context and realise that it really wasn't brought about because of the reasons you give.

I actually envy people who are just starting out with Reformation scholarship. The singlemost fascinating, tragic, bountiful and misunderstood period of human history.

Property price is a reflection of the earning potential and opportunities in London. It’s a result of that.

I take an amateur interest in cities and urban development. You might be interested in reading Triumph of the City. It goes into a lot of detail about how cities become successful and why.

I just bought this for my daughter. It won't teach you much in the way of grammar but it will build your vocabulary in terms of every day things.

We learn our first language through the means of key words and learn to string together sentences later. I'll happily take your 100 broken sentences over 5 perfectly constructed sentences.

You could look at welsh audio books, there's lots of conversational audio lessons.

On top of that, you likely have access to S4C online. Instead of diving straight in, you can look at children's programmes and cartoons. I'm not joking, as silly as it sounds, they speak a lot slower and are easier to understand for a beginner and put on context on just about everything.

I like the story of Hywel Dda ("the Good") who gave property rights to women more than a hundred years before the ~~English~~ French arrived and rolled back his laws. It's vaguely reminiscent of Prasutagus (or whatever his real name was), who tried to challenge Roman inheritance law only for his wife to be beaten and his daughters raped as a result of his progressive thinking.

Source

Llywelyn ab iorwerth, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn Fawr, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, his problems with his brothers dafydd, rhodri and owain his problems with the other welsh princes like maredudd ...Gwenillan....

My family has consistently told those tales...since the 1300's. I am now in america...Sadly without an easy way to gain citizenship to return to live in Wales, which I sorely want to do.

It is sad to know I as an American know the old histories better than most of the Welsh I have encountered in America. This article really dealt a blow to me.

I would recommend a book series to you: http://www.amazon.com/Here-Dragons-Welsh-Princes-Trilogy/dp/0312382456 While a lot of the personal interactions are fiction and highly open to interpretation, the history is there and I feel it should almost be required reading.