CASTLE(?)HUNTING 21 - MARGAM STONES MUSEUM

 

Margam Stones Museum | Cadw 

There is also a Wiki of this place
From Cadw:-

Not only water from his butt, but a full on Meat & 2 veg, too

Lovely little old schoolhouse that now houses the collection

you can just make out the Ogham on the right edge

Really cross

Apparently that's a Dragon....

Stoned again

What a fab  little Museum! only open at specific rare times, but well worth a visit. The Interp panels were legion & excellent. I must revisit with Mrs. H

REVOLVING AROUND RESOLVEN

Did it. Resolven & back. 

27 miles, 2,hrs 40 1000' climbing

51 miles this week

Go me! Still far too slow, tho

Stopped for brunch @ The Ranch, Resolven. Real full on "Tonto Evans". Bizzare how there is a Welsh/Cowboy thing. A Texas ranch themed diner up a Welsh valley. 

Oh, and here's some Swans on the Neath canal:-

2 WHEELS, 2 MOTORS, 2 LEGS, 2 FEET & 73 HORSES

Monday, 2 wheels, 2 leg power (& a little help from my lecy friend), Tuesday 2 feet power, Wednesday, 2 wheels, 73 horses and many miles. Including a Castlehunt, a bikecafe scopeout, The Bwlch, a Pitstop, an Onllwyn (no, not Brace), and Seven Sisters. Gosh what a busy week! The plan for tomorrow is 2 wheels & 2 leg power again, I'm Resolven to do this. 

The Margam Stones Museum

Afan Valley for scran

Over the Bwlch

BlaenGwynfi

Cwm Rhondda

View to the Beacons & beyond

The Pits Cafe

& home!

 

KNEECAP & (Film review - spoilers)

I've just bought tickets to see Kneecap when they play Swansea Arena on their World tour. they are an unlikely, and sometimes controversial Hip-Hop trio, who rap in Gaelic and English. they consist of Mo Chara ("My Friend" in Irish), Naoise Iarla Ó Cairealláin, better known by his stage name Móglaí Bap, (He had a haircut like a bread roll crossed with Mowgli from the jungle book) and James John "JJ" Ó Dochartaigh, ( O'Docherty to you) known by his stage name DJ Próvaí, an ironic reference to the Provisional IRA. They made headlines recently by waving a palestinian flag at Glasto. Also:-

e,g. During their performance at Coachella, the Irish rap trio displayed screens reading "Israel is committing genocide" and led crowds in "Free Palestine" chants. This drew severe backlash and calls from figures like Sharon Osbourne to revoke their US visas. 

Chatting to Stu H, my gig buddy with immaculate taste, he mentioned that they were featured in a film about their genesis, so, I had a look. 

It's a funny, crazy, and sometimes touching story of 3 guys finding purpose in the Gaeltacht of Belfast. There is a fair bit of bad language, a bit of sex, & lots of drug use, but I guess that's how it was. I'm sure it's a dramatisation of the events, but the bones of the story is true. It turns out that the balaclava was a way of disguising JJ, as he was working as a music teacher at the time - he was of course, sacked. 

There is a few similarities to another good film chronicling life in Belfast - Good Vibrations. I thouroughly enjoyed it, and laughed out loud several times. 8/10

I'll let you know how the gig goes.

U3A RIDES AGAIN

 

Today's U3A bike ride. Great fun

Tell Tonna I love her

Red roast beef & pepper dipping sauce baguette

there

Back

PS - I've given up on Strava - don't think it's for me

LEAVE IT! IT'S NOT WORTH IT!

Why are there no town walls around Mumbles, but there is still a big F-off Castle? 

Tenby has walls, Conwy has walls, even Laughne has walls, yet Mumbles has none. Apparently, its because it was a pokey little hole not worth defending! 

From Gemini:-

There are no town walls around Mumbles because it was historically a small, rural fishing and farming village rather than a fortified medieval borough.

Historical Status:- Village, Not a Borough

During the Middle Ages, nearby Swansea grew into a planned, prosperous trading town that successfully petitioned for and built defensive town walls. Mumbles (historically centered around the village of Oystermouth) never received a charter or status as an urban trading borough that warranted extensive civic fortifications. 

The Role of the Castle: Instead of a walled town, the community relied on Oystermouth Castle for defense. Built in the 12th century, the castle sat on an elevated limestone ridge to project military power and protect the local lords of Gower, rather than enclosing the civilian cluster of houses below with a continuous perimeter wall.

Geographic Isolation: For centuries, Mumbles was physically separated from Swansea by marshland and sand burrows. It did not develop into a populated, connected residential and commercial hub until the 19th-century growth of the Oystermouth Railway and the booming local oyster industry, long after the era of town wall construction had passed.

So there! Now you know. 

CWRW'R WYTHNOS CHWE DEG UN

 

THE WOMAN KING (Film review - spoilers)

The Woman King imdb  6.9

On the back of a 94% rotten tomatoes score & a great review somewhere I've forgotten, I watched this the other night. 

It was great. Good to see a non-euro/us centric story for a change, based on a true tale of derring do by an African kingdom fighting the slave trade with a legion of female warriors in their army. The acting was good, the battle scenes well done, and the story worked. 

It was fascinating to see how african armies fought in the early 1700's compared to europeans. Unarmoured, unshielded, and weilding machete like swords. Compare this to the American war of independence. 

The female warriors were called 

The adojie. The kingdom was dahomey, similar to modern day Benin (home of the famous brasses)

From google:-

 The Agojie (also spelled Agoji, Mino, or labeled the "Dahomey Amazons" by Europeans) were an all-female elite military regiment in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, which exists today as the modern-day Republic of Benin. 

Operating from the 17th century until 1894, they are renowned as the only fully documented all-female front-line army in modern history. 

History and Origins:- 

Early Beginnings: Their origins date back to the late 1600s, initially serving either as a royal bodyguard or an elite band of female elephant hunters under early rulers like King Houegbadja or Queen Tassi Hangbe.

The Standing Army: During the 19th-century reign of King Ghezo, the regiment was formally expanded into a massive standing army, reaching between 1,000 and 6,000 warriors at its peak.

Demographics: The ranks were filled by volunteers, forced conscripts, captives from regional conflicts, and even children as young as eight years old.

Life, Status, and Training: The Agojie held an incredibly high and semi-sacred social status within Dahomean society. They resided directly within the royal palace and were legally considered ahosi (wives of the king), which afforded them great political influence, wealth, and authority.

Sacrifice: They swore an oath of cellibacy and were forbidden from marrying or having children while serving.

Specialized Regiments: The army was divided into distinct, structured wings, including huntresses, riflewomen/musketeers, archers, artillery gunners, and the terrifying reapers (razor women) who charged headfirst into battles equipped with massive three-foot machetes.

 Last Survivor: The last verified surviving veteran of the original army, a woman named Nawi, passed away in 1979.

I had no idea.

My rating 7.5/10

NOBODY KNOWS!

 

I've had a long & sometimes heated debate with my peers about whether an independent Wales is economically viable. Today I found a fair & balanced view of this debate here:-

https://nation.cymru/feature/draft-is-an-independent-wales-economically-viable/

Granted, the site is a news site devoted to Wales, but I still think it's published a pretty balanced review of the data. It seema that Wales could survive as an independant state, with no more financial pressure than many other world states. 

Some key points from the article:-

For as long as Welsh independence has been a serious political proposition, it has come attached to a number. Sometimes that number is £14 billion.

Sometimes it’s £21 billion. Sometimes, if you’re talking to the right economist, it drops all the way down to £2.6 billion.

Depending on who does the counting, Wales is either sitting on a fiscal black hole that makes independence a fantasy, or nursing a deficit no worse than most small European countries run every year without anyone questioning their right to exist.

Professor John Doyle of Dublin City University to re-run the numbers using accounting methods that actually reflect how two independent countries would trade with each other, rather than treating Wales as a UK region.

Doyle’s conclusion: a fiscal gap of around £2.6 billion in an independent Wales’s opening years, or 3.4% of GDP, is close to the OECD average.

It also means the two headline numbers that have defined this argument for a decade (a deficit that might be £2.6 billion, or might be £21.5 billion, depending entirely on whose model you trust) will keep getting thrown at each other largely untested, because there’s no live campaign forcing either side to prove its working in public.

Ask the average voter in Wales whether independence is affordable, and the honest answer right now isn’t yes or no. It’s:nobody has built a version of Wales’s public finances solid enough for both sides to agree on, and until someone does, or until a referendum forces the question, that isn’t likely to change.

Interesting. However, I don't think anything will change in the next 4 years. Perhaps after that, if Plaid do a good job, there may be more of a desire to test this, & look seriously at independence.

STILL BOUNCING?

 

Pity about Cardiff, tho:-

Or The United States of Wrexham:-

THERE'S A POT OF GOLD IN OUR LOCAL CHINESE TAKEAWAY

 

An 18, a 7, a 54 & a pot of gold, please?

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

I had a little tootle a velo to Clydach today, between the rain showers. Glad I went, as it stayed dry for the duration.

Nice to see that it's quicker by bike than pubic transport. 

On the way, I discovered a tree down on National Cycle Network route 43, alongside the Tawe @ Landore. 

The process of reporting this was easy, with a quick form on the CCS Website allowing you to post a map link, or use What 3 Words to pinpoint the issue. Well done City & County of Swansea! (Perhaps I should reserve judgement until it's been cleared). ///rival.acted.case will take you there.... Probably..

Bloody Strava glitched again, & I may just resort to manual input from now, as I'm too poor to buy a Garmin. 

The alternative route says "Fewer hills". In the words of Jim Royle, my arse!

Snaps I hear you ask? Oh all right, then:-

NCN PATH 43

Reward 

Uptown Clydach

Tucker stop

Ricky Tomlinson 

MOMENT OF TRUTH COMING?

 From:-

Welsh rugby has reached another extraordinary crossroads.

An attempt to force an EGM and oust the entire WRU board is gathering momentum, with those behind the move confident they already have enough support from club members to trigger the process.

It comes at a pivotal moment for the game in Wales, with the WRU facing huge decisions over the future structure of professional rugby, the number of teams and the direction of the organisation.

The dispute is no longer simply about personalities or individual decisions. It is a much bigger battle over who should lead Welsh rugby — and what its future should look like.

With a proposed EGM potentially only weeks away from being called, the coming period could prove defining for the WRU and the entire Welsh game.

Would enough Welsh clubs really want rid of the current board? Would the chaos be worth it? Or is it time for change, no matter what?

The 282 Welsh clubs who make up the Welsh Rugby Union could soon be tasked with making one of the most seismic decisions the game has ever known. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

We really do need to fix this mess. One way or another.