Wish Benji a wild and witty Welsh birthday on May 10th!

to all of you for the birthday wishes, they mean so much from my friends here on 43T.

I ran out of cheers, and our internet connection has gone all sucky at home, so I have been AWOL recently, but I have tried to catch up in work.

Thank you all for being so wonderfully wonderful

(((HUGS)))

xx
x

J

I hope you had a spectacularly fun birthday and a Mother’s Day filled with beauty and love! _{Do you celebrate Mother’s Day in Wales?}

Have a hugful year!

I know they are not particularly Welsh, but when I think of you I think of a gypsy soul.

May you dance through this year with flamboyant aplomb!

Enjoy some shortbread and cwrw.

She’s my haiku crush of the week this week, but every week she’s haiku-worthy in my opinion. I still feel honored to know that I was the very first person here that she ever subscribed to. I look forward to the day when she and I will get to meet in person, because I have such admiration and regard for her that I just can’t put it into words. Here are my wishes for her for the coming year:

May you make a positive difference in the lives of those around you, while at the same time learning from your interactions with them. May you have frequent adventures, whether travelling or at home, possibly ones that require use of your myriad minions. And may you always continue to be yourself, not compromising who you are, even for Speedy.

Inside every older person is a younger person – wondering what the hell happened.

Cora Harvey Armstrong

Here’s a witty quote, just for you. I hope you’re having a fabulous day, and that all sorts of good things are in store for you this year – starting with getting together with the delightful Fishboy and his lovely bride, LL.

Hope it’s been a day full of fun, with a night of partying as such a special occasion deserves.

may you kiss away each hour of Hierath.

May your day be full of leeks, daffodils, dragons and a crap great Rugby team.

In honour of your birthday, here is a quiz to test your Welshness.

1. Which country calls Wales ‘the Land of Gentle Folk’ ?
2. Who was the Welshman that Shakespeare called ‘not in the role of common men’?
3. Which person ‘brought English cooking into the twentieth century’ ?
4. Where is the oldest narrow-gauge railway in the world ?
5. In 1998, what three men were voted the most sexy rock musicians in the world by readers of the Melody Maker ?
6. Who was Italy’s ‘Player of the Year’ in soccer in 1958 ?
7. In 1998, which building was voted Wales’ favorite historic house ? (-in the NPI National Heritage Awards).
8. What, according to the ‘Guinness Book of Records’, is the world’s oldest company ?
9. Who and what inspired the formation of The Bible Society ?
10. What is the link between the world’s highest mountain and Wales ?
11. Which Welsh cathedrals predate those of Canterbury, Winchester and Westminster ?
12. Who was called ‘the modern world’s first Socialist ?’
13. Where is the world’s largest camera obscura ?
14. What is the link between Wales and the Boston Tea Party that sparked the American War of Independence ?
15. Which American-Welshman revolutionised cinema techniques ?
16. What is the link between the ‘mini-skirt’ of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and Wales ?
17. What is the origin of the ‘V’-sign ?
18. Who gave the world the Peace Union, the precursor of the United
Nations ?
19. What is the ‘Iron Ring’ ?
20. Who was the most famous buccaneer in history ?
21. What legal precedent did he set ?
22. Who first wrote the phrase ‘for whom the bell tolls’ ?
23. Since 1787, Wales has had the largest ‘Orangery’ in the world – where is it ?
24. Where was the world’s largest nickel works ?
25. What are the Welsh links with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ?
26. Wales had the world’s largest copper mine. Where ?
27. Who invented the ‘pi’ sign, and in which century ?
28. Who invented the = sign, and in which century ?
29. Where was the very first game of lawn tennis ?
30. Who founded ‘classical English’ architecture ?
31. Who was football’s first ‘superstar’ and oldest international player ?
32. Where in Wales is New Year’s Day still celebrated in the middle of January ?
33. Wales had ‘one of the greates shrines in Christendom’. Where ?
34. Why are St. David’s and Santiago de Compostela comparable ?
35. The world’s first passenger railway ran in 1807. Where ?
36. What is the common denominator in Wales, amongst snakes, ants, cattle, pigs, sheep and horses ?
37. Who pioneered cremation in Europe ?
38. What is the link between Wales and Dr. Livingstone ?
39. Who influenced Marx, Engels and world history ?
40. Adolf Hitler said that one man was responsible for Germany losing the First World War. Who ?
41. Which place has claims to the oldest university in Europe ?
42. What is the link between American whiskey production and Wales ?
43. What is the link between Wales and the American Declaration of Independence ?
44. Who was the most important Welsh figure in the American Civil War ?
45. In the second century, Wales had ‘the most technologically advanced mining site in Europe.’ Where ?
46. Whyich Welshmen invented ‘the Carnegie Process’ ?
47. The most successful pirate in history, and most famous, was John Roberts from Pembrokeshire. How is he more familiarly known ?
48. Which man, proud of his Welsh descent was possibly the leading architect of the 20th century ?
49. Who designed Lady Diana Spencer.s wedding dress ?
50. Wales once had the highest literacy rate in the world – in chich decade ?
51. Who is Wales’ only Nobel prize winner ?
52. The dark age illuminated gospel known as ‘the book of St Chad’ is in Lichfield cathedral – what is its connection with Wales ?
53. There are two or three other contenders for the oldest living language in Europe, besides welsh. Can you name one of them ?
54. Where are ?
a. mor hafren
b. pengwern
c. llanandras
d. treffynnon
e. ynys enlli
f. llanbedr-pont-steffan
g. llanymddyfri
h. ynys byr
i. ynys dewi
j. llanfair-ym-muallt
55. In the 19th century, welsh miners preferred to buy Caerffili cheese at 7 pence a pound, rather than American cheese at 3 pence a pound. Why ?
56. What is legend court ?
57. Rhymney breweries (with its famous hobby-horse logo) and evan evans bevan of Neath were taken over by Whitbread in successive years. When ?
58. What is skull attack ?
59. What is the link between the group ‘soft machine’ and the classical music hit ‘Adiemus’ ?
60. There are many descendants of the original welsh settlers in Patagonia. Name three of the most common five welsh surnames in the telephone directory of gaiman, trelew and port madryn.
61. What has been voted Wales’ favourite historic house ?
62. In 1850, Ferdinand Walter of Bonn wrote ‘from this point of view, the welsh outdistance all other people in the middle ages … In Wales justice and right blossomed, founded on – - – - -, into a perfection of beauty unlike anything found among other people in the middle ages.’ fill in the blanks.
63. Who won plaid Cymru’s first parliamentary seat, where and when ?
64. The longest river in Britain is the Severn. Roughly how long ?
65. W. H. Auden called ‘the anathemata ’ ‘very probably the finest long poem written in this century’. T. S. Eliot placed him in the same literary category as Eliot, w. B. Yeats and ezra pound.
66. Which war correspondent, and regular at Haverfordwest’s county hotel, was the first to land on the invasion beaches of Normandy ?
67. Which chancellor of the exchequer introduced national health insurance and old age pensions ?
68. Where were the following roman sites ?
A. bovium
B. alabum
C. luentinum
D. moridunum
E. isca silurum
F. gobannium
G. nidum
H. blestium
I. venta silurum
J. mediomanum
69. Where is Wales’ last working windmill ?
70. Which welsh poet was nominated for the Nobel prize ?
71. What is the second verse of
‘taffy was a Welshman
taffy was a thief
taffy came to our house
and stole a leg of beef’ ?
72. Who said ‘no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical and social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the tory party… So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin’.
73. Owain ap gruffydd ap gwenwynwyn was created a baron by Edward I, and allowed to keep his lands on condition that he changed his name from a welsh one. What was this welsh prince of Powys then called ?
74. In 1919, the ‘Peterloo massacre’ of Manchester weavers hit the headlines and made the history books. In 1831, there were far more serious disturbances with over twenty welsh protesters killed, which received little publicity. Where ?
75. Where was the first official visit by the queen to be officially cancelled following police advice ?
76. ‘King john’ was born at Manselton, Swansea. Who is he ?
77. Which one-legged tramp wrote:
‘What is this life if, full of care,
We have no need to stand and stare ?
78. Name the ‘seven wonders of Wales’
79. Where was the world’s oldest passenger railway, ripped up in 1960 after being bought up by a competitor ?
80. Where is the world’s oldest narrow gauge railway ?
81. Which are the four oldest cathedrals in Britain ?
82. Which famous Welshman was selected as the ‘most promising athlete’ by the welsh games committee in 1964, had a final trial for the welsh youth soccer team, but captained his country in another sport ?
83. What is the maximum height of the Severn bore ?
84. What superb, but sadly neglected poet, who was admired by T. S. Eliot, wrote these lines ?
‘oh what can you give me ?
say the sad bells of Rhymney’
85. The name of the famous welsh singer once married to Roger Moore ?
86. When was plaid Cymru founded ?
87. Who was ‘the most original thinker born in Wales’ ? He died in 1791, and this statistician, preacher and philosopher influenced the American revolution and was officially mourned in France.
88. Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones radically altered the nature of shopping in 1861. How ?
89. In the 18th century, sir John Pryce used to sleep between the embalmed bodies of his first two wives. Where did he live ?
90. Which Welshman became junior Wimbledon tennis champion, and later a first class squash player. He made a record number of appearances for his country in another sport.
91. Name the original ‘thirteen counties’
92. What has been called ‘the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of western Europe’ ?
93. In what decade did the principal garter king of arms state that Wales could never have a national flag because ‘it had never been a kingdom’ ?
94. What was the first piece of land in Britain to be declared ‘an area of outstanding national beauty’ ?
95. In the prestigious ‘q’ awards of November 1998, which was ‘the best band in the world’ ?
96. Pastor Jack Stahl of Sacramento has been voted America’s strangest man. He said ‘i believe – - is a god and i worship him. Seeing him in concert is a very spiritual experience.’ fill in the blanks.
97. Cnapan, played by up to 1500 naked men, is the spiritual ancestor to which sport ?
98. The first recorded locomotive that ran, drew wagons with men at Penydarren, 21 years before George Stephenson’s locomotion. Who designed it, and in what year ?
99. Pistyll Rhaeadr in the Berwyn hills is the highest waterfall in England and Wales – how high ?
100. What is the connection of William Wallace -‘Braveheart’ with Wales ?

I bless your year!! May your marriage be incredible. May your life be filled with more love than ever. May your finances be overflowing. May your joy be a fountain that bursts forth the most amazing delights daily.

Happy Birthday J!!!