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In my life I have worked in many varied jobs. During a short period in the nineteen eighties I worked for the Royal Mail in London as a postman. The office I worked in was called E.C.D.O ( Eastern Central District Office ) located in Newgate Street adjacent to Saint Paul's Cathedral. It had a compliment of four thousand staff and dealt with mail posted in and received by The City of London. This included The Stock Exchange, Bank of England, Hatton Gardens (diamond merchants) and all the other financial institutions one would expect to find in a great metropolis.The building we worked in was extraordinary as it contained a church a mosque, two restaurants, two bars and assorted playgrounds. The work area itself extended from an underground railway system independent of London Transport through six or seven storeys that was the hub of all manner of sorting activities; letters, parcels and packets were processed at a rate of seven million a week on average rising to nineteen million at Christmas. It was often touted that we ran the best postal system in the world - an assertion that had the majority of postal workers laughing like drains. However, the system did work because we were all prepared to help each other so that the Royal Mail was delivered on time.In order to ensure that we were not impeded in our efforts, by some unkind fellows who would often take the time and effort to send letter bombs through our office, security was of a ' high' priority. I myself was instructed to remove a suspect package and take it to a place where it would be safe until the bomb squad arrived. I imagined some high tech isolation unit so you will appreciate my surprise when I and said suspect package had to travel in an elevator up two floors only to find a bucket of water and a bucket of sand in the middle of a large hall. This journey became a fairly regular affair but the office remained open and the sorting unaffected. This was the normal state of affairs until the 'night of the marzipan attack'.To understand how marzipan could disrupt the mail its best to have a picture of the building I worked in in your mind. Imagine, if you will, a large Victorian edifice that had platforms at the east and west sides of the building. These were used to receive and dispose of sack loads of mail brought to and taken away from us by vans. Connecting these two platforms was a conveyor belt that ran through the center of the building. Mail brought to us which was intended for sorting at our office would be taken from the vans and deposited down a chute marked ECDO. The rest would be deposited down a chute that led directly to the conveyor belt. This would take it to the platform at other side of the building where it would be sorted into vans dependent on which district it was headed for. This was an unremarkable process that took place hundreds of times a day. However on a particularly sultry summers night, a combination of heat, gravity, fans and plain bad judgment led to the evacuation of everyone in the building.You see! At around three thirty in the morning the temperature in the main sorting area had rising to stifling levels; body and machinery heat coupled with the outside atmosphere meant that the fans which were always running to reduce the paper dust in the building and cool us were becoming ineffective. So someone had the sensible idea of wedging open the doors on the east and west platforms to create a draught. It helped a great deal until that fateful delivery of a gallon of concentrated marzipan extract. It was delivered to us in a standard post bag so we couldnt see exactly what we were dealing with. It was heavy and was marked for another office and as such was duly dropped onto the conveyor belt some ten feet below the platform. There was a sharp crack as the glass container holding the stuff broke. But off it went through the building to the opposing platform where it hit the ground and spilled its contents.During its short but eventful journey through the sorting area some of the staff started to cough unaccountably and their eyes started to stream. The air was filled with marzipan flavour and many commented that Christmas seemed to have come early. However, the best was yet to come. One of the managers in charge of the platform where the concentrate was now oozing decided that the best course of action would be to turn a hose on it and wash it away. In his defence it must be said that he had no idea that he was dealing with anything other than a wet smelly substance that should be washed away. The result of his actions meant we then had about 80 gallons of concentrated marzipan extract giving of fumes that took full advantage of the draught system created to alleviate our discomfort. It would be hard to say that the effect on the personnel was akin to a mustard gas attack but it wasnt far off. Soon people were making for every available exit. As luck would have it Saint Bartholomews hospital was located further down Newgate Street and a few traipsed there in the hope of succour. Others who had developed a furious thirst in the marzipan cloud decided the best course of action was to wander down to Smithfield Market. The famous London meat emporium worked through the night just like we did and because of this the local pubs opened to cater for the workers hours accordingly. By seven oclock some four hours after the onset of the marzipan attack it was difficult to discern which postal workers were suffering from what. It was generally agreed however that two symptoms brought on by an overflow of marzipan extract was slurred speech and an unsteady gait.I believe the report into the incident was lost.

Go to this blogpost and install the locale switcher and language pack to run a Welsh language version of Firefox:- http://smilingunderbuses.blogspot.com/2007/02/welsh-language-firefox-extensions.html http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/lang-packs/welsh.html I havent tried it yet. Let us know how you get on.There is also this site for a bilingual browser:- http://www.gwelywiwr.org/firefox/bilingual.htm

"Founded in 2001, The Burlington Welsh Male Chorus is a Canadian choir based upon the Welsh Male Choir traditions" Find more photos like this on Americymru Where is the choir based? The Burlington Welsh Male Chorus is based in Burlington Ontario, (just West of Toronto) Who is the choir director? Other officers or positions in the choir? We have a new Choir Music Director, Janice Beninger and are recruiting a new accompanist to join her in a revamped music team! How many members does it have? We have 70 registered members currently. approximately 50% are Welsh or of Welsh descent, then there are the Barbarians - Canadians, Scottish, English, Irish, Zimbabweans, ... What is the history of the choir. When was it formed? BWMC was formed in Sept 2001 when a few members from another choir and some new recruits joined with the famous director and arranger Mr Lyn Harry to recreate a Welsh choir in Ontario. Our 1st rehearsal was 23 potential members, and our 1st concert was March 1st 2002! How would you describe your repertoire? Is it largely traditional? We have a varied repertoire, usual choir line up of Traditional Welsh folk and hymns/spirituals; and opera choruses. We throw in different instruments when we can (guitar; flute; trumpets) to add colour. Are there songs that you frequently perform or are known for? That your audience requests? Gwahoddiad is a favourite of the choir and the audiences, if we dont do it, people always ask why! As a Welsh choir in Canada, people come expecting to hear that Welsh MVC sound and the traditional songs, so we dont disappoint - but we add in different elements as well to make it interesting How much time do you spend in rehearsal? How often do you practice together? We meet once a week on a Friday for 2 hours, then to the pub to welcome the weekend! Where do your members come from? Is there an audition process? There is a strong Welsh presence in the Golden Horseshoe around Hamilton/Burlington/Toronto, so word of mouth has led to significant growth as well as links to the Rugby Clubs and pubs! We are a very welcoming choir, we do not formally audition, but each new member is given a voice test to determine their range and which section they belong in (Tenor 1; Tenor 2; Baritone or Bass). How many performances do you do a year? We do on average 12 events between September and May Where have you performed? All over S. Ontario, Cayman Islands 2003; Wales and Royal Albert Hall London in 2006; Boston; Carnegie Hall New York and Pennsylvania in 2008. What is the largest audience you've performed before? What was your most memorable? As an individual choir we sang 2 songs at Carnegie Hall which was a great experience, as well as being part of the massed choir with Bryn Terfel this year. The Royal Albert Hall in 2006 was very moving as part of an 800 voice choir, ex pats coming home to sing! You have played several gigs with Jon Langford - how did that association come about? How would you describe the shows you do together? Jon and I know each other from our young lives in Newport, Gwent. He went on to great things with The Mekons * etc, our band split up! We meet up whenever he plays in Toronto,so we got talking last year about a project to put a choir vocal behind his band to do the Skull Orchard songs, so I got a subset of the choir engaged. We rehearsed and debuted it in Chicago in 2007 and wherever its been done its very well received. The cross genres of the hard hitting band and the choir harmony just works and strikes a chord . Hear The Burlington Male Voice Choir Performing with Jon Langford here:- Jon Langford & the Burlington Welsh Male Voice Choir on YouTube What other guest artists or other artists have you performed with? Don't tell Langford but we sang with Elvis Costello on his encore song at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco in October this year. Bryn Terfel in New York, Jason Howard and Rebecca Evans in London . You've got a cookbook for sale on your web site - how did that come about? Any favorite recipes in there? We need money! It was a fundraiser for our 2006 UK tour (we are self funding) how many would you like? Best Faggotts recipe known to man (dating back to 1773) . ( Hopefully the ingredient are of more recent vintage...Ed ). Purchase Cookbook HERE Have you released any recordings? Where can people buy them? We recorded our annual concert in the spring of 2006, available at concerts or through the website. We hope to record a new CD this year. Purchase CD HERE Where can people hear the choir online? There are some pieces on the website and some choir/Langford events on youtube . What are your plans for the future? We have just engaged a new music team, so our focus is on solidifying that relationship and growing musically under the new director - she is Canadian , very capable and understands the Welsh culture and loves the sound! We do a major tour every two years, so there is talk of West Coast USA / California in 2010. Where can people catch you live? Any tour dates coming up? Our Website has a calendar with all performances, we aim for 1 concert per month in season and have events in dec and through the spring. In discussions with Jon Langford for more events and eventual world domination. Left Coast Eisteddfod maybe?! Julian Murray Burlington Welsh "For those of you who are not acquainted with the work of the mighty "Mekons....Shame on you! Here are links to two of their classic numbers on You Tube:- "Millionaire" "Cockermouth"

( This is not an official press release but rather the personal observations of a Cymuned supporter )

**Two very important results for our work in law courts during November. You may remember that I told you about Gwyneth Green, from Caernarfon, in a previous email. She was sacked by Siemens after they refused to allow her to speak in Welsh in a disciplinary hearing. Her case was heard in Abergele, and it was found that the company had discriminated against her according to race equality law (which includes language). This is an important result for the Welsh speaking Fro, and congratulations go to her solicitor, Tudor William of Wrexham, for his work on this case.

In another case, the small claims court found against our ex-treasurer, Edward Wynne Jones, who was claiming that he loaned 500 to Cymuned some time ago. The judge agreed that there was no evidence that the money given to us was a loan, especially as Edward Wynne Jones, who was our treasurer at that time, had not noted any loan in the annual accounts. It will be good to be able to concentrate on protecting and promoting the communities of the Fro without having to worry any more about our ex-treasurer's financial accusations.

**Thanks to those who wrote to the Guardian about their forthcoming article "Let's move to...Caernarfon". The article printed on Saturday 29th November, discussed the area's Welshness and the problems of holiday homes. Read the article HERE

**The protest outside the National Trust's AGM was a success for impact and publicity. More importantly, the members who voted showed a majority in favour of the motion to scrap the NT's housing development at Rhostyllen. Despite over 14 000 votes supporting our motion, though, it was overturned by the chairman's proxy vote.

Watch the AGM HERE The debate starts at about 1 hour 41 minutes. Keep an eye on the Chairman, Sir William Proby, as his own arguments are used against the development...

**Congratulation to Wales on beating Denmark and Australia! It was great to see Aaron Ramsey singing the anthem at the start of the Football game. This has become so rare that one of our members has written to the Football Association of Wales asking them to improve the situation. We'll see what reaction comes, but Alun Ffred Jones (Minister for Heritage and Sport) answered straight away to a copy of the letter, voicing his support, and hinting that he might speak with officers of the Association to find a way forward.

**We have had a message from the dotCym campaign:

"dotCym has arrived at an exceedingly important point in its development, and the time has come for everyone who wants to win .cym for Wales to show their support by becoming a member at www.dotCYM.org . The more people who join dotCYm, the more chance we have of winning support from ICANN (who decide who can have which domain names), and practical financial backing from the Assembly. Become a member now for just 2 a month - your support will help us to win an on-line Welsh identity. Come on - join now!"

**And finally, for those who signed the official Assembly on-line petition calling for a Welsh team in the 2012 Olympics, the petition committee have discussed it, and have decided to contact the International Olympic Committee in order to clarify the situation regarding National Teams for non-independent nations. Although campaigning for a Welsh Olympic team is nowhere near to being Cymuned policy, I have decided to follow the process for two reasons. Firstly, that so many of you signed the petition, and secondly in order to show a democratic process which will be useful to us as a movement, and also to you as Welsh voters. I hope that you will bear with me, even if you have no interest!

The Yellow Brick Rd led straight to the Millenium Stadium in Kairdiff yesterday where a wizardly display left OZ looking emerald green by comparison.Warren Gatland was last seen heading for the dressing room after the All Blacks game with his trusty revolver glowing in anticipation of imminent executions. The threat of death or at least loss of earnings seems to have galvanised the Welsh side into producing some fine running rugby.The serious tone was set within the first three minutes when the Oz captain was offered a personal tackle which sent him up a gum tree for the duration. To add insult to injury the Taff scored a runaway try that had grown men crying in their beer wistfully recalling the heady days of the seventies. But to give the Wallabies their due they fought back like good 'uns and had many a Welsh fan changing his shorts just before no side was called.

This is a GREAT/WONDERFUL effort...but why not join forces with the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association and the WELSH FESTIVAL held every Labor Day Weekend for the last 76 years? These two belong together?Don Hughes, Sarasota, Florida donwy@aol.com

We are replacing our usual weekly broadcast message with a special appeal this week. Most of our readers will know about our ambitious plans for a Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland Oregon in August 2009. In order to make this event as big a success as possible and a true showcase for the musical and artistic talent which Wales and the Welsh American community possesses in abundance, we are asking for your help in promoting the event.

The following ideas will only take up a moment of your time and will produce enormously beneficial results. Please consider helping us if you can.

1. If you are a blogger please link to the following page from your blog and we will reciprocate:- http://americymru.blogspot.com/2008/11/left-coast-eisteddfod-starts-here-short.html . If you are registered with Entrecard please drop on us ( once again we will reciprocate )

2. If you are a member of any other social networking or bookmarking sites ( MySpace , Facebook , Stumbleupon , Delicious , Digg , ,Twitter ,etc ) please consider linking to the short story url or favoriting it on your profile:- http://americymru.blogspot.com/2008/11/left-coast-eisteddfod-starts-here-short.html

3. We would also invite you to consider joining Mixx and the "Wales: The Welsh Mixx" group and voting us up on that site. Mixx can be found here:- Mixx.

4. Feel free to use any other means at your disposal to help us publicize this event. If you have any novel ideas or suggestions please post in the comments below.

We have many more exciting plans for the Eisteddfod which will be announced in due course. If anyone has any suggestions or comments or queries please append them to this post. In answer to a few issues already raised via email...YES multiple entries are permitted in both language categories and YES we will be exploring the possibilities of publishing an anthology of the beat entries with one of the various online publishing companies. It will probably be available in both downloadable and hardcopy editions. Watch this space for further developments and announcements.

Left Coast Eistedfod Page On Americymru Ning Left Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Page on Americymru Blogspot Left Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Submission Group on Americymru Ning Diolch!

Regular readers of this site will no doubt have heard about our ambitious plans for a "Left Coast Eisteddfod" in Portland Oregon next year ( 2009 ). Today we would like to announce that we are not waiting until next year to get the ball rolling. We are launching the first of the Eisteddfod competitions online! Others will follow.

The short story competition which starts today is basically a "write in response " exercise. Below you will see a series of photographs. Most of these shots were taken in Wales but they are not particularly iconic and your response need not make reference to Wales in any way, shape or form. You may submit your entry in either Welsh or English. The two language categories will be judged separately and there will be a prize for each. Basically you will need to write a short story between 1000 and 3000 words in length on any ONE of these photographs and submit it in accordance with the rules for site members or non-site members outlined below. Accompanying graphics are not permitted. There is a US100 dollars (approximately 50GBP ) prize for the winners in both categories. The final submission date is July 31st 2009 and the winners will be announced at the Eisteddfod ( August 2009 ). The judges have yet to be selected and a further announcement will be made soon. The judges decisions will, of course, be final. The winners will also be entitled to free admission to some Eisteddfod events. Runners-up prizes will be announced later.

The winner and his/her work will also be featured on this site on what we hope will be a heavily trafficked page.

How To Submit Your Story

Members

1. Simply join the Eisteddfod Short Story Group and post your story (and any links) as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Lorem Ipsum" example on the page).. If you wish to include a link to your website or blog please do so but remember you must link back to us.

2. Post your story on your website or blog and post a link to the relevant url as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Lorem Ipsum" example on the page).. Once again you will need to link back to us.

Non Members

1. Post your submission on your blog and email us with the url ( americymru@gmail.com ). We will include it on the Group page . We would appreciate a link to this page or to the blog home page.

2. Email your submission to us and we will post it on the Group page and credit you as author. ( in this case mutual linking is an option but not required )

By Huw Davies of Hendy Productions By Tam Ryan of Wales DVD By Ian Price of Treorchy.net By Ian Price of Treorchy.net By Brian Y Tarw Llwyd of Americymru .

Happy turkey day all!

Listen to Circles here:- Terry Mostyn

Terry Mostyn on MySpace




I'm still waiting LOL ... being able to write, sing and perform is the big break in my opinion, I get to mingle with the crowd and when someone says " I like a certain song, it makes it all worth while.

You played in a great many bands in the 60's and 70's. Care to tell us about them?

The late 60's thru the 80's rock and roll was the thing to do, traditional music fell off as the loss of elders in the family caused people to stray apart. Bands came and went as did styles of music,Yes , Kansas, Jethro Tull, Beatles, Deep Purple, Zepp all where the whirl and I enjoyed covering these bands but the second I hear pipes or some old traditional tune I"m back at "The Table". Funny how it all comes back to full Circle.

At what point in your career did you decide that your ambition was to become a singer-songwriter?

At a very early age I was writing trying to tell stories, but how I hated English class. I wrote a song in my mid-teens that's on my Circles CD { Remembering, } I forgot about the song till my son Patrick heard it on a terrible cassette tape. I was in my Tull era then and it does have that blend to it.

How important are traditional and contemporary Celtic influences in your music?

For the last 15 years or so I've gone back to more of a folk rock feel to my writing and music. I love the old songs there the stones I walk on to write today.

What inspired the title of "Circles"?

I was playing and writing in a rock band trying to be Celtic and was going nowhere. I started going to Celtic concerts, festivals and realized I should go back to my roots, I like where I am now, it works for me. My Circle!

Who do you like to listen to?

That's a good question: Tull, The McKrells, Dougie, Flogging Molly, Hair of the Dog, The Elders, Donal , I could go on for a bit and yes even opera. An uncle always listened to it and turned me on to some great singers, couldn't understand a damn thing but the power in the vocals blew me away. I saw Mike Bolton sing opera on TV he was great from rock to opera .....whoa!

Where would you most like to perform?

Carnegie Hall , anywhere in Wales, maybe in Mostyn, I played in Ireland last April did a pub gig in Dingle, sat in between sets with Kevin McKrell of the McKrells at Clifton Station,Galway and the Hotel D in Dreagha, my mom's a Brennan there from Galway, so that was pretty special to me.

Any plans to visit the West Coast?

Yes, I 'd love to play at the 2009 Left Coast Eisteddfod in August .

Is there any particular song or performance or piece of art that you're most proud of?

Yes," Way Of The World " the words to this song came very easy, it tells of world problems and an easy solution This song is close to my heart and I have an acoustic version I play live that might go on my second CD even thought my 1st cd has a big production style to it of the song, we'll see.

Do you have any particular musical or artistic goals or creations that you really want to achieve in your life?

Waking up and playing music everyday is my goal, there were some good players and singers I knew that have passed before there time, to me each day is another blessing.

What's next for you?

To record my next CD with my youngest son Patrick at his new studio in Pittsburgh Pa Mostyn Studios He'll engineer... we'll both produce, we worked together on my 1st CD and I enjoyed it . Being told cut let's take that over or "You can do that better, Dad" kinda makes me think back to how many times I've told him that (100's ). We work well together and I look forward to working with him. We might even take in a hockey game and a few pints.

Iechyd Da!!!