6th June 2014 - Ready for travels ... And Reflections

Thought for the day: "There's a band called 1023MB - they haven't had any gigs yet.."

Friday.Not sure where the days are going....  Have to load the Bothy and get ready to travel to Wigan for the Curious Pastimes LARP event there. Forecast not looking good. But then I can stay in the Bothy if required. Won't take the Volls wagen for this one - needs some more work on it and some padding for the guitars - will travel light - maybe one guitar and the autoharp..

Have to travel via Aberaeron for a meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees - big ceremony, so got the book out learning  my stuff and trying to get the birthdays and blogs done at the same time ...
Enjoyed today's birthday card - sums up much of what I feel regarding my LARP ..

But the sun is trying to peep through the clouds and Delft is getting annoyed that she is not allowed out for a walk with the other dogs. She was found collapsed in her basket this morning and her lungs are full of water most days, but she has lasted almost a year after her first attacks and is in good fettle, though deaf and pretty well blind I think...

Susie managed to use her new toy yesterday and cleared the long grass in the plotment ..

 It is petrol driven and fairly noisy, but very effective. Five tools in one says the box.. It has the chain saw attachment which should be useful to remove a couple of branches that are overhanging the path... 

The ground is cleared and everything is growing....

On another note entirely, I saw the following anecdote from a friend called Bob Williams. Now this was the guy who claims to be the last "Broom Jumping" official in wales. I do not know what his claim to fame is really, but I have seen him at two weddings officiating, with his fancy clothing and his broom. He did the wedding for Ant & Jude in Llanthony....

But everybody has a story - and I rather liked this one from Bob...
Bob Williams...  an anecdote:
I attended a funeral today. After we left, the Boss told me that I had to mow the lawn. Of course because I am a man with a mind of my own I got the mower out.
It’s strange how your mind works. Obviously I was thinking about the funeral and as walking up and down with an electric mower does not take much mind power, my mind went back to another funeral about forty years ago.
My grandfather, my mother’s father arrived in Swansea in 1890 something from Mountain Ash, turning his back on coal and turning his hand to steel (now, how about that for a mixed metaphor?). He married. My mother being the youngest of his brood.

Two of his daughters never married and lived out their lives in the house in which they had been born. Auntie Mabel was the oldest of the siblings, and her next-but-one sister was the other spinster. Not a word we use now, but I think they were actually quite proud of it.
The younger aunt had been adorned with the name Lavinia Maud, Lewis being the surname. Her brother and sister’s children couldn’t get their tongues around that, so by the time I arrived, I am the youngest, she was Auntie Ena.
Now to the funeral story. When I was about 28, Mabel died. It being Wales, men-only funerals, the women boiled the ham and made the tea, and the fact that I was the only male relative in Swansea, it fell to me to organise things, be chief mourner and generally be the Man.
All went well, and after the funeral I found myself in the family house with Auntie Ena and at least half-a-dozen assorted female cousins from Mountain Ash who I had never seen before nor indeed have since.
At this point you need to picture the scene. I was sitting with a cup of tea in the “parlour” with Ena and the cousins. The event was as dry as a Salvation Army outing to the Sahara. Now please, I need to say that I am about to give you three names. You wouldn’t expect me to remember the real ones after 40 years, so I won’t insult your intelligence and ask you to believe I have got them right so I won’t make any up.
One of the cousins, a lady probably in her 70s, quite... um... large, was telling her story. Auntie Ena had been outstanding all day. She was a single lady, in her late 60s and we had just buried her lifelong companion. She had shed a tear of course, but had been very brave. The cousin started. “Well. First I was married to Tom. He was cremated in 1925. Then I got married to Dick. He was cremated in 1946. Then I was married to ‘Arry. And he was cremated in 1963”.
As she said this I took a mouthful of tea, and Ena said, “Isn’t it wonderful? I have been on my own all these years, and she’s got husbands to burn!”.
Splutter! Tea all over the wall. I had to re-paper the room.
The story is absolutely true. I remember it with much affection of a brave old lady. She ended her days with dementia in Cefn Coed. I don’t like to think of those days, I just try to remember her sense of humour.

And so I shall start the Bothy Loading ...
No Blog tomorrow - I shall be in Wigan - dodging the rainstorms....

But day 6 of the funny places...