Eira/Snow!

Diwrnod Olaf 2008 y golygfa o'r ty yn y bore ond bron dim mewn mannau
eraill o Gwmbran - tywydd rhyfedd.

New Year's Eve saw a sprinkling of snow on our street but almost none
in other parts of Cwmbran.

Priodas Gretna Marriage

Dyma adeilad cyntaf I mewn i'r Alban o Loegr. The first building into
Scotland from England.

Too young to marry?

Sinead in Scotland before we arrive in Center Parcs

Pen-blwydd Tomas - 18

Heddiw mae Tomas yn dathlu ei ben-blwydd yn 18. Wow i ble aeth y
blynyddoedd!

Happy Birthday To Me

Three months late :-) My sis made me some lovely jelly and blamange. Xxx

Llantarnam Arts Centre......Some lovely pics of Sinead and Mary at different art sessions.

Teachers!/ Athrawon!

Sinead has been fairly happy in her new school, although a lot less than she used to be in Primary. There are people there who look out for her and there is some support. However this week there was an incident that defies description, the letter explains. This is the fourth toned down version as well. Obviously all names removed.

Bu Sinead yn ddigon hapus yn yr ysgol newydd ers mis Medi. Weithiau mae pethau anhygoel yn digwydd. 'on i'n methu credu beth digwyddodd dydd Llun yma, cael ei chosbi mor llym am rhywbeth mor fach ac yr un cosb a bechgyn oedd yn ymladd!!!!

We went to Techniquest today. It was a lovely day in Cardiff Bay
today. Sinead was the usual star of the show. Here she is about to add
two chemicals to make, what the presenter said was, a 'dangerous gas'.
In fact harmless carbon dioxide.

Aethon ni i Dechnicwest heddiw. Roedd yn ddiwrnod braf iawn ym Mae Caerdydd. Fel arfer Sinead oedd seren y sioe. Dyma hi ar fin cymysgu dau gemegyn i wneud, yn ol y cyflwynydd, 'nwy peryglus'. Carbon Deuocsid hollol diogel oedd. :-)

Carwyn's Haircut

Carwyn went to the barbers with Geraint, his after school support.
Here's his cool new haircut.

Feeding The Ducks

Every morning this week has been fine so we, Carwyn Sinead and Me,
have walked to town to take Sinead to the art workshop. On the way
we've fed the very hungry ducks.

Feeding Ducks

Such a lovely October morning. We stopped on the way to the town
centre to feed the ducks.

Gwisg Ysgol/School Uniform

Dechreuodd Sinead mewn Ysgol Gyfun heddiw. Sinead started in comp today.

Doggie time

Ben, Sinead and Buster.

Carwyn and his grandad.

Carwyn in his nice orange T-shirt in his granddad's house.

Blackberries

We went picking this morning in tredegar house park. Carwyn loves
doing this even though he rarely eats them.

Robin Hood in Flowers

Early morning in Nottingham Castle on the first full day of our stay.

Nottingham Trams

Here's Carwym and Sinead on the street with one of the cool looking
trams in the background. We had a quick go on one and it was a nice,
smooth ride.

Rugby

Outside Rugby school standing next to statue of the person who was
supposed to have started the game.

Yummy 3

Carwyn's chocolate stirrer and hot chocolate in Rugby.

Sinead's muffin

Costa Coffee in the town of Rugby.

Esporta

Today we visited our third Esporta in as many days. Tomorrow will be
our fourth on our 'road trip'. What strike you is that they are all of
a much higher standard than the ones in Wales. Bigger, better
facilities etc.

We have enjoyed the outdoor pools in all of them evdn though the
weather feels more like Autumn. LOL.

Tuesday Yummy

Costa coffee Cirenchester

Yummy2!

Sinead enjoying her ice cream sundae :-)

Yummy!

Carwyn's 10/10 hot chocolate. Little Chef, Cirenchester.

Esporta Gloucester

We went there this afternoon. The first day of our tour of England via
Travelodge and Esporta. What a place! Everything about it was
enormous and luxurious. We had a fun hour playing in the massive
outdoor heated swimming pool. Might pop in on the way back to see if
Sinead's cozzi is still there, LOL.

Ystafell Carwyn - Carwyn's Room

O'r diwedd rydym wedi llwyddo i roi gwely sengl I Carwyn. Dyma'r
ystafell cyn cael y byncs allan.

At last we have managed to get Carwyn a single bed. Here is his room
before taking the bunks out.

Well what a surprise Sinead turned into a rabbit during our visit to Longleat, after Center Parcs, before coming home yesterday :-)

Wel dyna syndod! Wnaeth Sinead troi i mewn i cwningen cyn inni adael Longleat dooe :-)

Carwyn's hand at Center Parcs

We had a lovely weekend at Center Parcs in Longleat. Here's a picture
of Carwyn and Sinead in the Starbucks cafe there with Carwyn sneaking
a touch of Sinead's hair :-)

Gawsom ni penwythnos hyfryd yn Center Parcs. Dyma Carwyn yn cael hwyl
yn teimlo gwallt Sinead :-)

Tomas a Carwyn

Tomas a Carwyn tua 2 fis yn ol.

About 2 months ago.

Sinead in/mewn Sainsburys

Dyma llun o Sinead tua mis yn ol. Here is a picture of Sinead about a
month ago.

Cwmbran Community Farm

Yn ol i'r Gymraeg

Dw i'di bod yn ddiog gan peidio a diweddaru'r blog yma yn rheolaidd. Cofnod hyfryd o fy nheulu yw e a felly mae angen i fi ail-gydio yn y blogio ac yn mynd yn ol i ddwyweithrwydd. Mwy o hanes y teulu i ddod yn fuan.


Back to Welsh.

I have been lazy not updating this more often. It is such a nice record of the family that I think it's time to start posting more regularly. My family events very soon (like in a few hours)

Sinead won a competition for designing a poster about equal opportunities. It was for all primary schools in Wales.

Here she is on Saturday (12/1) collecting her framed poster from Dr Brian Gibbons, AM, the Minister for Social Justice, with Tanni Grey Thompson, the famous paralympics athlete on stage as well.

UB40, great track, going to see them in 2 weeks!!!

Evening on the beach

Last Tuesday we all, except Tomas, went to the beach, Porthcawl, in the evening. We chose the evening because that was when the tide was going to be out.

Carwyn and Sinead had fun in the sea, and then we had our 'tea' there. It was the first time that Sinead remembered having a meal on the beach. It was really a lovely time.

Here a some photos of the photogenic pair.

You Are You Are 17 Years Old17 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

I took Carwyn and Sinead to Techniquest yesterday. We had a lovely time there, the show on bubbles was fun, although Sinead was for the first time in a while not chosen to go and be a science guinea pig. I think she is getting a bit old to be chosen as they generally like to chose the little cute ones.

It's great to go there once in a while and we have had a family ticket for nearly ten years. As the children have got older they have got more and more out of the exhibits as well.

Afterwards we went to Esporta in Cardiff, it was conveniently on the way home. It's good to do a little exercise a day, better than none at all. Although health/weight wise the gym is better. Carwyn does little exercise otherwise and is getting a bit porky at the moment.

The last place on the way home was a visit to Tesco's nearby where Shotton used to be. We bought some half price crackers, rediculously low priced at 10 for £1.23 (thanks to the expansion of the EU and the low wages in Latvia where they were assembled). It was fun to open them at tea, with just the three of us there. Mary and Tomas are back again later on today, they've been to Plymouth.

Xmas Day

Once again this year we went on our trek to the beach on Xmas say. The weather was a bit grayer than last year, and the wind was fairly bracing, but it was a pleasant half hour and it was amazing the number of surfers enjoying the fairly good surf. See pics below:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38633890@N00/

Work

I've been working at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw for 14 years. Recently, partly for health reasons, I have been working part-time there. It has been pleasant to rest after two days work and take time off to relax and to catch up with housework and other exciting activities like washing clothes. It has also been an opportunity to try other not work related activities like going to the gym, playing music and playing badminton, all of which I have done this year and enjoyed.

Mary has been working full-time at Fairwater Comprehensive in the Language and Communication Base as the Head of the base. She has been finding the stresses of working there full-time really onerous. A few months ago she persuaded the headteacher of the school to advertise to find someone to do a job-share with her, so far this has not been achieved. We are now discussing possibility of me doing the job-share with her. I have the qualifications for it, I recently completed my MA in Autism, so that isn't a barrier. The only uncertainty is whether I will want to work 5 days a work and will be able to cope with the physical demands of doing so.

In the new year we are going to give it a try, I'll go into work with her on the two days when I am not working in Gwynllyw to see how it goes. If it seems like it could work we will make a formal application to the school to do the job-share. If it is too onerous then at least we will have tried it out.

Brownies -Sinead had a show in Brownies last Friday. Mary drew the short straw and had to go to see it. She was disappointed with the standard of presentation of the show, which was about recycling. However Sinead was brill, she made an interesting costume out of bin-bags and plastic food packets (see pic) and presented things in a very clear, easy to understand way. Well done Sinead.

Yr Iaith Gymraeg - Welsh -

When I started this I intended it to be bilingual, as I live in a bilingual family and work in a bilingual environment. The targeted readership are the few friends and family that regularly access the internet. However over the approx 18 months that it has been active I have found making entries bilingual takes more than twice as long as doing it only in one language, this is because that translating from one language to another is not always a simple process. There is often not an absolute equivalent of a phrase in one language to one in another.

Since the majority of the few readers are not bilingual it's time for pragmatism to rule over principle.

Hwyl i'r Gymraeg am y tro!

Damwain - Accident.

Gwnaeth rhywun bwrw i mewn i gefn fy nghar ddoe. Mae'n gymaint o boen pan mae hyn yn digwydd gyda cwmnoiedd ysiwriant ac ati. Lwcus doedd neb wedi ei anafu ac mae'r car dal yn symud er y tolc mawr yn y cefn. Pan mae rhywbeth fel hyn yn digwydd, a digwyddodd popeth mor sydyn 10am y bore yn syth ar ol pasio camera cyflymder, mae'n gwneud i chi sylweddoli pa mor peryglus yw ceir.

Someone bashed into the back of my car yesterday. It is such a pain when this happens with insurance companies etc. Luckily no-one was injured and the car is still moving, despite the huge dent in the back. When something like this happens, and it all happened so quickly at 10am in the morning straight after passing through a speed camera, it makes you realise how dangerous cars are.

Noson Calangaeaf - Halloween

Aeth Carwyn, Sinead a Mary i barti calangaeaf neithiwr yn nhy un o'r bobl sy'n gweithio gyda Mary yn yr uned yn ysgol gyfun 'Fairwater'. Cawson nhw amser da iawn. Enillodd Carwyn cwpan, Dyma lluniau o'r cwpan a dillad Carwyn a Sinead ar gyfer y parti.


Carwyn, Sinead and Mary went to a halloween party last night in the house of one of the people who work with Mary in the unit in Fairwater comprehensive school. They had a great time. Carwyn won a cup. Here are pictures of their costumes and the cup.

Sinead's Tongue - Tafod Sinead

Hen Luniau - Old Photos

Dw i newydd uwchlwytho hen luniau o fi, Mary a'r plant.

I've just uploaded some old pics of me, Mary and the children.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38633890@N00/#photo233052491

Tylwythen deg dant - Tooth Fairy

Dydwedodd Carwyn bod ganddo newyddion da a newyddion drwg. Roedd ei ddant sigledig wedi syrthio allan ond ei fod wedi ei golli. Yn ddiweddar wnaeth e sylweddoli ei fod wedi ei lyncu gyda ei 'cornflakes'. Roedd e'n anhapus iawn am y sefyllfa felly wnaethon ni awgrymu iddo ysgrifennu nodyn. Wedyn roedd rhaid inni esbonio iddo bod gan y tylwythen deg dant llygaid peladar X er mwyn gweld dant Carwyn i mewn iddo er mwyn rhoi'r £1 iddo. Diolch byth roedd popeth yn iawn wedyn. Problem arall plentyn awtistig wedi ei ddatrys.

Carywn said that he had good news and bad news. His wobbly tooth had fallen out but he had lost it. Later on he realised that he had swallowed it with his cornflakes. He was very unhappy about the situation so we suggested that he write a note. Then we had to explain to him that the tooth fairy had X ray eyes to locate Carwyn's tooth inside him in order to give him the £1. Thankfully everything was OK after. Another autistic child's problem solved.

Gorymdaith - Demo

Es i ar yr orymdaith yn Llundain yn galw am gadoediad yn Lebanon ( a chyfiawnder i'r pobl yn Palestein hefyd). Daeth Sinead hefyd. Roedd hi'n boeth iawn ond yn werth i'w wneud. Roedd rhwng 80,000-100,000 yno. Dyma lluniau o'r dechreuad ac hefyd llysgennad yr UDA ble roedd llawer iawn o heddlu yn sicrhau heddwch i eiddo GW, dim ots am fywydau ac eiddo pobl Lebanon a Palestein wrth gwrs. Mwy o fanylion ar y wefan www.stopwar.org.uk.

I went on the demo in London calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon (and justice to the Palestinians). Sinead came too. It was very hot but worth while doing. There were between 80,000-100,000 there. Here are some pictures of the beginning and of the US embassy where there were loads o police to protect GW's property, nobody cares about the lives and property of the people of Lebanon and Palestine of course. More details on the website www.stopwar.org.uk