Showing posts with label Carmarthen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carmarthen. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Local Christmas Events

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Courtesy of Ava McGill (Pembrey & Burry Port Community forum (Facebook)


Without wanting to sound all "Bah Humbug" I was beginning to think that the Christmas spirit had been lost (reading too many Daily Mail stories about the PC brigade banning Christmas trees or hooligans thieving from charity buckets will do that to you). But Facebook of all things has restored my faith in the silly season. There are some wonderful events happening all over Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire over the next few weeks, and seeing photos of the Burry Port Christmas market yesterday on the old chopsbook (that could be a Welsh version of Facebook) was great.

Fancy experiencing some local festive fun? Visiting west Wales and want to see how locals roll? (I believe that's what hip Americans say). Allow Mr Jakes to point you in the right direction (and the following events are just a handful of whats going down, there is much much more (check local event listings such as our friends Best of Carmarthenshire website).


11 December: Christmas fayre at Picton Centre (Picton centre, Haverfordwest)

14 December: Narberth winter carnival

14 December: Christmas Fayre Llandovery

16 December: Christmas Fair - Mynydd y Garreg (lifelong home of rugby legend Ray Gravelle)

18 December: Christmas Concert in Nantgaredig

18 December: Christmas Concert in Glangwili (to raise funds for the neonatal unit at hospital)

Saturday, 23 March 2013

When Sky Lights Scramble A Wired Brain

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UFO? What I saw.

I am no fan of Star Trek and space capers so im not one quick to subscribe to stories of UFOs and alien abduction. Indeed much of it I look at as the crazy ramblings of drunkards and attention seekers, eager to find their way into those late night news slots after the important events have been covered and they're looking for light entertainment. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean I discard tales of "little green men" completely. In fact I honestly-to-my-bones don't believe we are alone in this universe, of course I don't, afterall the universe is a pretty vast place and there must be SOMETHING else out there, even its just different coloured grass. These has to be life elsewhere.
But I don't go around (like some do) believing that every strange light the the nighttime sky is down to E.T. Remember, the military have some pretty neat looking pieces of flying kit which can seem very alien to the civilian eye. Especially a civilian brought up on Star Wars and Dr Who. Imagination is a powerful thing, with no limit to the amount of weird images that can be conjured up. When the sun goes down, a science fiction fan can easily transform a Chinook helicopter into the Millenium Falcon. My minds eye is not as easily fooled.
However on the evening of November 17th, 2009 at around 11pm, I DID witness something strange in the sky. Admittedly one might put it down to the fact I had been at the scotch but I was not falling down drunk and seeing things. Also my wife was at my side and she rarely drinks. No this was something....different. If it convinced me it must have been because even when merry on whisky im not one to be persuaded by unicorns and yetis. As we both stood shocked, I couldn't quite orchestrate my thoughts. There was no fear (probably the booze helped there) and no instant panic. Just silence as we watched this craft hover for around two or three minutes. It was made all the more intense because we live on a hill in a very rural area so the only light came from this glassy looking beast, there are no other house lights, streetlights or traffic to catch and maybe confuse the eye.
Other people who have witnessed UFOs have reported hearing low humming sounds but there was no sound to this curious sight on a usually very uneventful Carmarthenshire hillside.
As for colours, I have always imagined UFOs to be neon green and red thanks to a spinning toy I had as a boy but as you can see in my shabbily drawn sketch (made on my computers painting programme) this one was mainly orange and yellow with streaks of light blue. The orange was most vivid and is most 'alive' im my mind when I picture it.
It disappeared as quickly as it arrived and left me, the cynic supreme, with a new appreciation of just how wild and wonderful this life, this universe is.

Saturday, 10 September 2011

The Quiet Building

No too far from me in Carmarthen town there is a building with the word Freemasons carved into the stone above the door. I have never seen anyone go in or come out of it. The pub nextdoor is always full of life but this building just stands next to it, eerily quiet.
Everytime I pass I imagine shadowy people inside holding seances and designing UFOs, or plotting something sinster to unleash on the land. Nonsense of course but a terrifying reality in my over active mind where nothing is as it seems. And the complete differences between the pub and the Freemasons helps to enforce the belief that some kind of supernatural machinery is going on behind the doors of the Masons; the tavern filled with beer bellied drinkers and live sports on the big screen, laughter and shouts of joy or frustration bouncing off the walls. While nextdoor the Freemasons buildings sits in perfect silence like it is waiting for something unknown to mortal man.