It promises to be just what you need to get into the Christmas spirit.

Burry Post businessman Gareth Isaac is a prime example of how hard work can help you beat the recession.

Mr Isaac set up his GI Carpets and Rugs business exactly three years ago just as the economy started to nosedive.

People looked at me as if I was daft trying to set up a new business, said Mr Isaac.

But Im now celebrating the third birthday of the business. Im still here and proof that you can make a go of things in even the toughest economic climate.

You just have to make sure that you are providing a quality service and giving the customer what they want.

Mr Isaac, 43, had been working for another carpet retailer before deciding to go it alone.

I spotted something of a gap in the market. There wasnt a carpet shop in Burry Port and I recognised the fact that it is one of the biggest towns in Carmarthenshire, he said.

We run a very different operation to the big supermarket-style carpet warehouses.

I have a great small team of three part-time carpet fitters and we pride ourselves on providing a friendly and professional service.

Providing a quality service is key to us and we like to think we know the carpet and flooring business from top to bottom.

For example, Ive been away on training courses to many of the big carpet manufacturing factories so I know exactly how they are made.

Mr Isaac added that the business was now expanding.

We are in the process of doubling the size of our storage space in a warehouse on the Trostre Industrial Estate and that will allow us to carry more stock and continue to provide a speedy and efficient service to our clients.

Carmarthenshire Council has been particularly supportive with negotiations for more storage space and it is good to see the local authority supporting and encouraging smaller independent businesses.

It is also hugely encouraging to see the support of the people of Burry Port. They have been great and have played a huge part in the success of the last three years.

Mr Isaacs GI Carpets and Rugs business is based in Station Road, Burry Port, opposite the railway station.

Weblink -

www.gicarpetsandflooring.co.uk

Photos of Gareth Isaac at GI Carpets and Rugs in Burry Port.

More photos available at

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I've been wallowing in nostalgia,flicking through Nita Sybil Evans'shandwritten cookery book. At one time, Nita lived in Llangendeirne, Carmarthenshire. Later, the familymoved a few miles toCarmarthen, where her fatherwas a chapel minister.

Llangendeirne lies cradled in the folds of the Gwendraeth Fach Valley. The 1676 Hearth Returns show there were one hundred and two households in the area.

Iolo Morgannwg, writing in 1796, called it: 'the best village that I have ever seen in this county'.

The 1851 Census Return shows that the rural population was heavily dependent on agriculture.

Three annual cattle and pig fairs enlivened the year, untilthey ceased during the nineteenth century.

Even into the twentieth century, Llangendeirne remained an isolated community. Cooks kept a well-stocked larderand relied on their skills to produce good food. Cookery recipes were highly prized.

Nita's Christmas cake recipes begin in 1927, enriched with butter and eggs and fortified with brandy or wine.

In 1946, the year following World War 11, she hasgleaned a recipe froma newspaper. Containingmore dried fruit than her previous cakes, it lacks alcohol. Such a shame!

I lived in Carmarthen in the late 1940's and we ordered our cake in the 'Cunliffe Bakery'in Water Street.

It was magicallookingat therows of pristine white cakes, decorated with fierce robin redbreasts, bottle-brush trees and silver bells, the cake boundand circled with scarlet ribbons. A gold foil 'Nadolig Llawen' gleamedfrom the centre of eachcake.

I lived three miles from Llangendeirne, at one time, and my mind often strays that way at Christmas time.

Llangendeirne Church has three bells dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. On Christmas morning they ring a joy-peal that floats across the valley.One of the bells has an inscription carrying the true message of Christmas-time: 'Peace and good neighbourhood'.

I've been allowed to quote from the 1856 diary of Agnes Griffiths, a farmer's wife from South Pembrokeshire. I've said before I finddiaries very revealing.

If mydairies were ever to be published, I would be mortified. I often speak to myself in my diaryand I want to keep my thoughts private (some of them, anyway. Can't remember who said 'If everyman's thoughts were known, we'd all be hanged'). My sentiments exactly.

Major purchases, placesI went during the day are duly recorded.I never writeabout world events or what work I've done on the novel, butI often write aboutwhat my grandchildren do and say.

(I asked Oliver to sit on my knee when he was six years old and he told me I should have a baby because I like hugging people. I was fifty something then, so it would have been a miracle.

He was three whena chocolate melted in the sunand thoughta bee had licked it.

WhenHarrywas ten he told Oliver to 'go to see' to me on the computer.)

And so on. Of no interest to anyone outside the family, at all.

Peter's diaries are in his small, neat hand. (He wouldn't find it too difficult towritehislife-story on the back of a postage stamp, in much the same way as a Chinese calligraphercopied the Bible onto a grain of rice).

Hewrites the dates down in advance for dental and doctor appointments, car servicing, letters he sent and their content.Thirty years of his diaries are stacked neatly in a drawer.The family often ask him to check back to see when they did something or other.The diaries are meticulousand a true record of what has happened.

Agnes Griffiths's dairy reveal a hard-working life. Each week,she bakedfifteen loaves. On Thursday, September 14, 1856,her Christmas preparations began. She made a plum pudding, using sixteen eggs, whichcost two pence each and were 'very dear'.Two geese were killed for market, tocompensate for the money she would have made selling the eggs. All this and looking after 'darling baby Gladys', who was just a few months old.

I love Agnes's diary, for its honesty and for allowing me a glimpse of household life all those years ago.

However, there are certain pompous so-called 'diaries' thatI can't abide. These are not truediaries, but concocted fiction,written for the sake of publishing a book and it shows, of course it does.The fictitious 'diary' becomes a hookto hang a book on.

Irecommend'Lord Hervey's Memoirs', now out of print but you might find a second hand copy. Spiteful, foppish, malicious, keenly intelligent, it is an undoubted treat.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2072836/Swansea-goalkeeper-Michel-Vorm-reveals-penalty-saving-secrets.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

When I was in Cannes in August, I came across an old woman begging on the street. She'd been doing the same thingthe year before. A man, walking ahead of me stopped, took our his wallet and gave her some euro notes. I could see, throughthe loose layers of clothing,thather health had deteriorated.

Afriend's reaction, when I told heraboutit was thatthe poor are always with us, so forget them.

Recently, Emma gave me a Christmas pudding with a crystallised clementine in the middle. When she and Kate came for a mealthe four of us ate it in one go. I liked thesurprise in the middle and the pudding was definitely good,fruity and moist, worth the money.

These puddings are flying off the shelves, though they are not for sale in Haverfordwest, and they cost13.99. Stores that stock them are limitingsales to one per household but, as always, there are ways ofwriggling around this.

'Did you say you're holding a party?Then in that case you can have thirty. Enjoy!'

So, you've run home with your puddings, beaming like a Cheshire cat. Want to makea quick buck? Sell them on the internet for 200 each. It's not illegal, after all. It's called entrepreneurship. The laws of supply and demand prevail and, he who dares, wins, Rodney. Makes an easy profit, too.

I think it was Malcolm Bradbury (of 'The History Man' fame, which I greatly enjoyed many years ago) who said sociology shows the strongwillprey on the weak. On thegullible, too. If I was desperate for a pudding with an orange but couldn't buy one,I'd simmer an orange in syrup, cut the pudding in half et voici et voila.

Oliver and Harrysmiled indulgently and shook their heads ruefully when I told them this.

'It's not the same', they said. No,and it's a lot lessthan200, too.

Authenticity and provenance count, in the boys' eyes:(250 skis 'and that's cheap', goggles 99 'a bargain'). Yes, yes, I know. But, I stillpose the question: '200' for a smallish pudding? Bah! Humbug!'

Not wishingto beScrooge's best friend,I realise people are entitled to spendor waste their money as they like. A recent survey showed that lower and moderate income households give more to charity than higher earners. Is this because the rich are cushioned from the reality of poverty?

Extreme poverty and conspicuous spendingmakefor bad bedfellows, providingpause for thought at this time of year.

Bruce was the Norman de Braose; The Stuarts were originally Bretons, which got me thinking, if the Norman/Breton Marcher lords had taken over the Principality as well, our native lordships would possibly have continued living in a Welsh cultural environment under Welsh law, as they were allowed to do for a long time in the uplands of Glamorgan & Gwent; the King's writ could not have been be served (the Marcher lords had their own laws), one of them could perhaps have been elected leader/king of a united Cymru, we would have been living a life similar to that of the Scots with whom we could have allied ourselves, it's then possible that Edward wouldn't have succeeded, or even dared to go against either of the united kingdoms, there wouldn't have been the 'Laws of Wales Act' nor the Act of Union with Scotland, England wouldn't have had the Tudors nor the Stuarts, but it's possible that the 3 countries would have each signed a treaty of co-operation or concordat leading to a loose union of interdependent sovereign countries, the integrity of Ireland would have stayed untouched, perhaps joining with us as the fourth equal partner, fifth if we count Kernow. If someone writes this book or makes a film I claim it as my intellectual property, the rights that go with it, and I want a share of the profits.

http://www.hopehouse.org.uk/

All the best toall the Santas running today at Llandudno and Wrexham. Hope you raise loads of money for the lovelychildren of Hope House.