General Chat

Well they have a long way to come, and I think they are very brave coming here now - so we should wait for them.
I just hope they don't turn up in their summer clothes :-D

Sue and her OH are going to miss the bus if they are not quick, although we don't have to go far, so we can wait

Hello Amanda ,

Oh jolly good :-D you must be very excited. I expect the boys are making their presence felt :-D
You and Megan can always sleep in shifts :-D

Oh that is good Amanda, I hope you cope with the lack of sleep. While they are beautiful, I really don't envy you looking after them

Yes you are right about the Rhondda - it was indeed a very grim place. I was born overlooking a colliery.
Wasn't supposed to be, but my mother was visiting from her home nr Cowbridge, when I decided to arrive six weeks early, so she was trapped in the Rhondda. She hated it, the wartime blackout, the coal dust, everything.
When you see the colliery sites greened over now, and appreciate the fantastic scenery around the Rhondda, it all looks so different.

Hello folks .

I'm just popping in quickly to say my daughter and her baby boys are home :-D :-D :-D

Now the fun begins .......lol

The article on Well Dressing is interesting.

St. Winifred's Well at Holywell in Flintshire is famous, and attracts many pilgrims each year.

I suppose it is the same for parts of Wales. When people mention the Rhondda valley for example it contours up images of grim collieries. Yes it was a very poor area, but the scenery is totally different to that image

It is strange that someone of your generation still thought that.

That was the impression that I grew up with.
While in junior school, a man turned up occasionally with black and white silent film of the Northern towns.
It featured the mills of Yorkshire, Lancashire. The coal fields, and steel industry around Sheffield.
We just saw nasty factories/mills etc belching smoke, and it always looked so grey and dark.
We were told that the Northern factory's and industry were the powerhouse of the Empire.
I just grew up thinking the Niorth was a dark grey place.

They never showed the beautiful scenery of the North.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_dressing

There you go Tec

When I was at college, I shared a house with a group of girls. Most of us from the north and just one from Bexhill near Hastings.

She came home with me one weekend and was amazed that although I lived in a colliery village that it was surrounded by open green countryside. She thought the North was jus terraced houses as on Coronation Street

I suppose really, apart from London being the capital, there wasn't very much to be said about Southern England.

Bye Sylvia - Enjoy lunch :-)

I don't think I knew about the South Tec. I suppose I just thought it was like central London and everyone some with BBC accents

Hello Sylvia,

I request that you become my human shield when we are abroad in Northern England.
I am confident that no one, even armed with an AK47, would dare to argue with you :-D

I like your avatar, but what is the Dressed Well tradition?

Edit - and what strange Northern habits did you demonstrate to the girl from Esses?

That is very good having the phot Sylvia. As you gave been there before, you can be guide for this section

it's lunchtime :-)


see you later .......... in the bar of the New Inn :-)

When I started at Liverpool University in 959, I was in a room for 3 girls .......... one was a southern, from Essex. She walked into the room and announced that she had chosen to come to the North to "learn all about the strange things in the North"


I and the other girl were both from the Manchester area ......... so we proceeded to demonstrate some of the strange habits




We did all become very good friends, and I was in contact with the girl from Essex until she died 2 years ago.

see my new avatar :-D


I do have a photo of the front of the New Inn in Flash .................. but I think this was the entrance to the old stables!


On the other side of the road (ie, behind my back as I took the photo) was the Dressed Well ....... an old tradition which was revived some years ago.


-----
edited to change "too" to "took" :-)

Bear in mind I was educated (well they did their best) in the South of England in the late 40s - early 50s.

We were, falsely, given a very weird impression of the North. That stayed with me for many years, until I grew to know better. :-D

I have no idea what impression they gave you of the South :-D

but would be interested to know