Of Wales... and beyond

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Scimitar said:
Travelling in to Wales along the m4, there's that wonderfully long bridge that goes over the river Severn (most like called Severn Bridge) and it's EPIC. Wasn't last year it's 50th year in operation?

Scimi
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I think you're right. The first of the two bridges is the one furthest upriver. I remember longing for it to be completed. I used to hitch-hike from Oxfordshire to South Wales every Friday, and had to go via Gloucester. I once hitched with a veg lorry, and had to help unload boxes of cabbages in Chester to 'pay my way'! No more of this nonsense once the BRIDGE was opened.

The newer bridge is probably used the more nowadays. The one (HUGE) downside is that it's a toll-bridge. This means I HAVE TO PAY TO GET INTO MY OWN COUNTRY!!!!!
 
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Niblo said:
I think you're right. The first of the two bridges is the one furthest upriver. I remember longing for it to be completed. I used to hitch-hike from Oxfordshire to South Wales every Friday, and had to go via Gloucester. I once hitched with a veg lorry, and had to help unload boxes of cabbages in Chester to 'pay my way'! No more of this nonsense once the BRIDGE was opened.

The newer bridge is probably used the more nowadays. The one (HUGE) downside is that it's a toll-bridge. This means I HAVE TO PAY TO GET INTO MY OWN COUNTRY!!!!!
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And who in their right mind would pay get INTO Wales??!!
 
Aryeh Jay said:
£6.70 toll!! That is highway robbery!
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It certainly is, for a Taffy. Of course, the way out of Wales is free....compensation for the sorrow of leaving; and for the hardship of having to return to the Land of the Saxons.

Allow ants to experience the joys of alien abduction by first shining a bright light on them; then sucking them up with a hoover.
 
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:D wahahahaaa, if I'm ever in Wales, I'm gonna PM you to let you know I'm popping over for tea :D

Scimi
 
Aryeh Jay said:
Better bring your own tea and bottled water, it is Wales after all.
;D
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When in Rome, I roam :D

And any water tastes better than London tap water. SO yeah - I'll deffo be drinking Welsh water. Also, tea is pretty much the same in Cwmru ;) Just made with better water.

Scimi
 
Scimitar said:
When in Rome, I roam :D

And any water tastes better than London tap water. SO yeah - I'll deffo be drinking Welsh water. Also, tea is pretty much the same in Cwmru ;) Just made with better water.

Scimi
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I was in London a few years ago and having tea and I said “I didn’t know you boiled the tea with the water” they said, “No mate, that is the colour of the water, teas over there”.
 
Aryeh Jay said:
Better bring your own tea and bottled water, it is Wales after all.
;D
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Mmmmmm......trouble maker, I see! When I was a kid (and teenager) my mother, grans and aunts used to keep a pot of tea brewing all day...with top-ups, of course. It looked just like soy sauce.
 
Scimitar said:
It aint that bad :D

Scimi
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First time I saw the inside of a London kettle I almost threw up. So much limescale; a drinker could be petrified from the inside out. And as for trying to get soap to lather....forget it. Us boys were heartbroken at not being able to get a good wash.
 
Increasingly, households in London are fitting Reverse Osmosis filters in their tap water, to filter out the limescale and other weird stuff.

We had one, but it broke - so now I'm on a Britta filtered kettle, and those filters are expensive lol.

Scimi
 
Scimitar said:
Increasingly, households in London are fitting Reverse Osmosis filters in their tap water, to filter out the limescale and other weird stuff.

We had one, but it broke - so now I'm on a Britta filtered kettle, and those filters are expensive lol.

Scimi
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And I just have to turn the tap on........well worth the Severn Bridge toll, eh? :Emoji51:
 
The tap water in my part of England is okay, I've been drinking from that for most of my life and I haven't noticed any side effects - yet.

And a kettle, do people actually use them? We have a nice red kettle but it sits on the windowsill as a decoration. My parents only drink the type of tea where the tea bags and milk (no water) is boiled and boiled in a milkpan with some sugar.

Altho I don't really like tea, or coffee, lol.
 
During the height of the cold war a KGB Colonel was sent to the Rhondda to brief one of their key agents.

When the Colonel arrived at Treherbert railway station there was nobody around, except a porter. The Colonel approached him and said: ‘I AM LOOKING FOR A MISTER JONES.’ (By the way, did you know that KGB officers spoke in capital letters? Yes. My Mam told me this, years ago, and there’s no disputing a source like that).

‘Well, you’re going to have a bit of bother there,’ says the porter. ‘Jones do be a very common name ‘round yer. We do ‘ave Jones the Baker, Jones the Butcher, Jones Bull’s Row, Jones Three Blows, Jones Glassback, Jones Soi Sauce, Jones Hard Water and Jones the Toll. I’m a Jones myself, see.’

Hearing that, the Colonel moves closer and whispers: ‘THE BLACK BEARS ARE RESTLESS IN THE DARK FORESTS OF GHILOOLI.’

‘Ahhh’ says the porter. ‘You’ll be wanting Jones the Spy!’

Have a great weekend, and very best regards.

Paul
 
noraina said:
The tap water in my part of England is okay, I've been drinking from that for most of my life and I haven't noticed any side effects - yet.

And a kettle, do people actually use them? We have a nice red kettle but it sits on the windowsill as a decoration. My parents only drink the type of tea where the tea bags and milk (no water) is boiled and boiled in a milkpan with some sugar.

Altho I don't really like tea, or coffee, lol.
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We use a cauldron! (shhhhhh....nah).

On another subject:

‘Then strove the judge with main and might
The sounding consonants to write;
But when the day was almost gone
He found his work not nearly done,
His ears assailed most woefully
With names like Rhys ap Gruffydd Ddu,
Aneurin, Iorwerth, Ieuan Goch,
And Llywarch Hen o Abersoch,
Taliesin ap Llewellyn Fawr
And Llun ap Arthur bach y Cawr.

‘Until at length, in sheer despair,
He doffed his wig and tore his hair,
And said he would no longer stand
The surnames of our native land.
Take ten, he said, and call them Rice;
Another ten and call them Price;
Take fifty others, call them Pughs';
A hundred more, I'll call them Hughes;
Now Roberts name some hundred score;
And Williams, name a legion more.
And call, he moaned in languid tones,
Call all the other thousands – Jones.’

A 19th Century verse that illustrates the problem English bureaucrats faced when confronted by Wales names.
 
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Niblo said:
A 19th Century verse that illustrates the problem English bureaucrats faced when confronted by Wales names.
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Very interesting piece of trivia. Nice one for the share bro Niblo :)

Scimi
 

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