Annie Rhiannon

Monday, May 14, 2007

Sosban Fach

Every day, when I wake up, I thank the lord I’m Welsh.
— Cerys Matthews, Catatonia

I’m not very patriotic. In fact, I’m the only person I know who’s never visited the capital city of their own country. Being from the proper part of Wales (the north part, I mean) Cardiff never interested me much, and if I wanted to go to a city then it’d be somewhere closer, like Dublin, or somewhere worth it, like London. It wasn’t until I moved to Iceland that I took any notice of my nationality at all — there were no Welsh people over there whatsoever, y'see, and so I decided I must be a bit special after all.

Some people would give their right arm to be Welsh. But only the Yanks of course, who, having only 400 years of history themselves, jump at the chance of inheriting a bit of culture — despite “history” being our standard English oppression and “culture” being our back-catalogue of Tom Jones records.

My blogchum Chris Cope is the ultimate wannabe, having said to his wife one Sunday afternoon in Minnesota, “I think I want to be Welsh”. So he quickly learnt the language online and off they went to Cardiff, leaving their families and careers behind them in exchange for a lifetime of rugby and The Charlotte Church Show. Why did he fall for Wales when he could have had either of the two more popular Celtic countries? He obviously hadn’t taken any notice of the Anglo-Celtic pecking-order: the Scots are happy to be Scottish, everybody else wants to be Irish, not even the English want to be English, and nobody could give a toss about the Welsh.

A couple of real-life friends of mine also moved to Cardiff recently, facing me with one of life's tougher decisions. If I go to visit them, then, despite a top weekend of eating crisps and drinking lager, I’d never be able to use my vaguely amusing only-person-I-know-who’s-never-visited-the-capital-city-of-their-own-country anecdote again. Which, at this stage, would be a bit of a shame I think.

More on Chris’s sordid affair with Wales tomorrow night at 9 on S4C

20 comments:

  1. Ah..he was the fella on the radio show with you right?
    I dunno.You could always go to Cardiff incognoto thereby making it an "unofficial" visit.
    A stick on moustache and Tom Jones wig would be just the job.

    ReplyDelete

  2. Yes, same guy, the famous Welsh-learner. Damn, why didn't I get hold of a television crew when I moved to Iceland? I want my own documentary too. Oh, maybe because I didn't really get very far with the language, whereas Chris learnt it before he even left the States...

    ReplyDelete

  3. Of course you can still say it! Why has lying got such a bad name for itself when it is so useful?

    ReplyDelete

  4. What you can do is come down and stay just outside the Cardiff city boundaries, in St. Fagan's or some such thing. Then insist on having those of us who would buy you booze come to you. That way you get to see Cardiff friends and still claim the never-been-to-Cardiff title.

    Reportedly the documentary will be available online via the S4C website: http://www.s4c.co.uk/e_watch.shtml -- the name of the programme is "O Flaen Dy Lygaid."

    And don't tell anyone, but I'll be learning Irish in the autumn.

    ReplyDelete

  5. Why does that not surprise me? Still, I'm glad you chose Wales first. Are you going to move to Ireland next then? I suppose they don't have a Gaelic evening class in Cardiff.

    I'll be able to see the program on S4C tomorrow night, on the real telly, as I'm back in Wales for a week or so. Both my mother and I are very much looking forward to it.

    ReplyDelete

  6. don't go. this anecdote is too good.

    ReplyDelete

  7. Great castles in Wales, though. Not to mention that funky language!

    Which reminds me.. I've been trying to Google this for so long but am having no luck. What is that place in Wales who's name has 85 cyllables in it? Translated as 'The little town on the corner of the babbling brook with pretty trees and flowers that come out in May and stay until August unless there was a heavy frost that spring' or something like that? Starts with 'Clan', finishes with 'ogog'?

    Dying to know so I can learn it and have people think I'm a weirdo. Could also be useful in pub quizzes.

    ReplyDelete

  8. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

    It's ridick.

    ReplyDelete

  9. I quite like being English. You may have Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, but we've got Slough.

    ReplyDelete

  10. Really? It was actually you I was thinking of when I wrote that bit, after you once said to me, "being English is shit, I wish I was Welsh like you."

    Although that does sound like you may have been being sarcastic, in hindsight.

    ReplyDelete

  11. I know loads of Canadians who've never been to the capital, Ottawa. For one thing, Canada is very big, and if you live in, say, Vancouver, you're actually closer to Mexico than you are to Ottawa. And the other factor is that Ottawa is the sort of place you only go to on a school history trip.

    Anyway, Cardiff's full of space demons and bisexual, immortal RAF officers now. Not to mention a bloody great crack in the space-time continuum. What's Dublin got to beat that, eh?

    ReplyDelete

  12. Fair play to Chris, I don't think I'd be up to learning Welsh. Manx maybe - it's closer to Irish.

    Annie, have a quick look at my blog chum, Michal's site. Click on the Irština tab, then the Irsko-český slovníček link, to see a coupling of languages I thought I'd never see.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sid Trotter15.5.07

    Annie, is the welsh word for car - Cardiff? I know you lot like your daffodils and it is true they are very pretty and probably the only things that grow in the dank dark soil, but I think it is a little much naming your capital after a vehicle and a flower - though Like the Welsh, it is original I guess.

    ReplyDelete

  14. I see your dilemna. Wales is such a small place it's quite an accomplishment not to go to Cardiff. It would be bad to spoil that. I agree with Chris. Meet halfway or something! It's only fair.

    ReplyDelete

  15. I don't think I visited Cardiff until I was about 18, we did actually visit Techniquest on school trips - but everybody knows that that was another planet where magical things happened.

    Meeting other Welsh people abroad usually makes you instant friends. It can't be the same being English and meeting more English people...

    "No WAY!! I'm from London too" etc

    ReplyDelete

  16. You could always say you didn't go to Cardiff till you were x years old.

    Yeah, ok. I see the problem.

    ReplyDelete

  17. You may have that town that's too much effort to even copy and paste, and the English may well have Slough but I like being Irish.

    We have Muff.

    ReplyDelete

  19. The opportunity to live in the same country as Gavin Henson may have swung it for Chris. Or perhaps the tantalising thought of maybe bumping into Catherine Zeta Jones on the golf course?

    The rain's also reputed to be terribly good for the skin.

    ReplyDelete

  20. Always knew Chris was a bit odd! How nice to be able to up and move to another country!

    Oh wait.. I guess I did that as well.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)