Blogs
Actual conversation at in-laws this Christmas:
Me: I like rugby better than football.
Brother-in-law: I saw New Zealand play--those guys are good.
Me: The All Blacks?
BIL: No, there were some white guys, too.
Me: (dead silence)
On 28 December 1910 Cardiff's aviation pioneer and self taught engineer, Ernest Willows, arrived in Paris aboard his airship, The City of Cardiff. He was the first Welshman (and Briton) to arrive in the city by powered flight and he would spend New Year's Eve 1910 flying around the the Eiffel Tower.
1910 was quite a year for Willows and probably the peak of his career. He had been designing and building airships at his Splott workshop for a couple of years and made the news on the 4th of June when he flew across Cardiff and landed in front of City Hall. He repeated the stunt on June 7 and this time he landed in front of a crowd of 40,000. On the 6th of August he became the first man to cross the Bristol Channel by powered flight as he headed to London at night following the headlights of his father's car. He left London for France on the 4th of November and was seen off by Lord Asquith, the Prime Minister, along with David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. He was the first person to make a night crossing of the English Channel.
Sadly, Willows efforts came to little. Whilst Germany developed a very successfully military and civilian airship industry there was little interest in Britain. Both Willows and his main backer, his father, went bankrupt. Willows died in 1926 in a ballooning accident.
So when you wish your loved ones blwyddyn newydd dda this New Year's Eve, raise a glass to the memory of a young Ernest Willows flying his City of Cardiff airship around the Eiffel Tower.
Blwyddyn newydd dda pawb and a happy new year to all from www.cardiffonfoot.com
If so why not check out our new music video pages on AmeriCymru 
Basically we have arranged our library of music videos into three categories. Have fun browsing our video back numbers and rediscovering old favourites:-
Check out our category pages and let us know if there are any tags we've missed or got wrong. Please feel free to upload any videos you think we should have but which are missing. Above all Blwyddyn Newydd Dda to all our members and readers.
The Pick - publishes my memoire story about my first Welsh Christmas (well, sort of ….)
By Peter D Cox, 2012-12-27
Done as part of my Cardiff University Creative Writing programme, this piece recalls an incident that is straight our of Dylan Thomas's A ChildsChristmas in Wales . Like all memoire writing it is based on truth - but some dates/people/actions may be changed/confused/obfuscated to protect the innocent and failing memory ....
In an effort to make content more easily searchable and navigable we are introducing a series of new categories in the main nav bar with dropdowns . These new menu items will lead to search result pages based on tags. Yes I know we should have done this years ago but at last we are finally getting round to it. So far we have started grouping and tagging content in the following categories:-
Contemporary Music
Contemporary Music Videos
Choral Music
Choral Music Videos
Traditional Music
Traditional Music Videos
You'll find these categories on the nav bar dropdowns above. We havent finished yet so if you can think of any posts that should be included in these categories please let us know. ALSO please feel free to suggest any new categories and sub categories for inclusion in the menu....diolch
Please post suggestions and comments below.
Howardian Local Nature Reserve is only a mile from the city centre. Countryside in the city a true urban nature reserve much of which was a council rubbish dump until 1973. On the reserve we have the Hazel Dormouse which has European wide protection.
The website has over 400 species of flora and fauna recorded, photographed and on the website.
Amid great security HRH PrInce Charles - the Prince of Wales - becamethe first Royal visitor to The Dylan Thomas Birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands, Swansea earlier this month.
The Prince proved to be a charming guest and took tea in the lounge with house restorers Geoff and Anne Haden, Dylan's granddaughter Hannah Ellis, Welsh Tourism Minister Edwina Hart, poet Peter Thabit Jones and artist Gordon Stuart who painted the last portrait of Dylan which hangs now in the National Gallery in London.
After touring the house (an overstaying his schedule by 20 minutes!) he met John Rhys Thomas and Jeff Towns - past and present chairs of the Dylan Thomas Society - Sian Newman from the Dylan Thomas Prize and Jean Lannigan whose mother Emily Simpson was a maid in the house for five years when she was 15 and Dylan was 16.
The visitor book and commemorative engraved glass plaque are on display in the house.
During the visit it was announced that the Prince will be the Royal patron of DT100 the year long festival in 2014 to celebrate Dylan's birth in 1914 in the front bedroom of the house. Other patrons include Bryn Terfel and Cerys Matthews
Links to news items and photos are on the website
Greetings from the house made famous in Dylan's story A Child's Christmas in Wales and the place where uncles snored, aunts got drunk on parsnip wine and there were useful presents...and useless presents - sounds pretty normal to me!
Unfortunately this will not be one of the white Christmases that Dylan remembered but a very wet one with floods, landslides and train cancellations
Over the festive season check opening times by telephone 01792 403333 (add UK code if from abroad). More details on website
