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The Moon Landing - What Really Happened

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After more than 50yrs of silence the time is now up for the biggest cover-up in human history. Apollo 11 did land on the Moon. However, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were not the two men who walked on its surface for the first time. Instead, this accolade should rightfully go to my Dad and his brother Alan. Not only did they build the Saturn V rocket, command module and lunar entry module and all the other accoutrements to make a successful landing and walk on the Moon, but all the work was carried out in complete secrecy in a council house in Swansea! Allow me to explain. The entire project was constructed in the back garden shed of the house on Geiriol Road using old motorbike parts, lengths of old telephone and electrical cable with the main body of the rocket being made from salvaged phone boxes and bits of air-raid shelter left over from the last war. Its whole construction went unnoticed as the sound of banging, hammering and bad language in that part of Swansea was conside...
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In Remembrance

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Earlier this year my Dad passed away and as I get older I realise how the seemingly insignificant things can evoke a memory and make me smile. One such occasion was the other day when I was at work, and walked past the toolbox of a workman who was doing some maintenance. There, amongst all the tools was a battered Golden Virginia tobacco tin – Dad used to keep various drill-bits in the same sort of tin and all marked up for the type of drill that it contained. It made me smile and for a moment I remembered all those times when I had to help him and be sent to get some tool or other. Usually, I had no idea of what he was talking about or where it was apart from ‘On the left of the vice in the shed!’ This narrowed it down to several square feet and if I hadn’t found it within three minutes he’d come tell me off, pick it up and walk out, with me grudgingly trailing behind him. The thing is that never once did he sit down and explain what exactly all these tools etc did. I was expected t...
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Shepherded or Shepherd-less?

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On the day the Queen passed away my wife made a very pointed observation that evening when we were sitting watching events unfold in front the TV. It was by now late evening and getting dark and we saw the crowds milling around outside Buckingham Palace and Penny turned to me and said, ‘They are wandering around seemingly lost and hopeless like that verse in the Bible.’ It was in verse thirty-six of Matthew chapter nine where it says: When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I imagine a lot of us have seen or even been in that state where we have experienced a loss or ending of something in our lives, and we are left wandering about asking ‘What are we going to do now? What are we going to do now? What are we going to do now?’ For most of us reading this we have known no other monarch other than Elizabeth II and we have now seen that she like the rest of us was mortal after all. The work...
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Monetising All That is Sinful.

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  In the world outside the church of Christ the following verse is possibly the most often misquoted verse of scripture and that is where Paul writes in chapter six of his first letter to Timothy the following words: ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’ What we usually hear quoted is that ‘money is the root of all evil.’ This has really been something I have been reminded of the past few weeks and what really moved me to write this was something I saw in a shop the other day. As I write this we are coming to the end of the August of 2022 and what I saw was a display for Halloween related gifts with the words ‘Happy Halloween.’ Not only is it well over two months away, but also how on earth can you use the word ‘Happy’ in conjunction with what is a satanic festival. If you are one of those people who are going to say that it is a harmless bit of fun fo...
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Hiraeth

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Hiraeth (Here-eyeth) is one of those words in Welsh that doesn’t have a specific equivalent translation into English. The nearest you can get is ‘Longing for ones home’ and frankly ‘Home-sickness’ really doesn’t come up to scratch. An example I remember being told of was an aunty of mine who had married and moved to the outskirts of London in the 1930’s and remained there for the rest of her life. When she was feeling particularly down and missing Wales she used to sit and watch the coaches going between London and Swansea on the off chance of seeing somebody she knew. Funnily enough this was something that I thought I was now immune from having now passed the point in time where I have lived in England longer than I ever lived in Wales. That was however until we went on holiday to South Wales this summer. We stayed on the edge of the Black Mountains and over the space of one week took in some of the most beautiful scenery the UK has to offer. To think this is the same scenery I gr...
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Terminal Damage.

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When I was employed in the building industry, we were made very aware of the dangers of asbestos in buildings. Whenever it was discovered, it had to be removed by licenced contractors using specialist equipment. The alarming thing was that in its day it was hailed as a ‘wonder material’ and can be found in fireproofing, artex, fuse-boards, brake pads and even toilet cisterns. As I said it was hailed as a wonder material from its introduction in the 1870’s and with its dangers being noticed in the early 1900’s but only finally being banned in the UK in 1999. I have heard stories from people who were working on building sites in the 50’s and 60’s of it being sprayed onto steel beams without any protection for anyone on the site and it wasn’t uncommon to see workers throwing it at each other in snowball fights. All the time unaware to the danger of the tiny particles they were breathing in, slowly shredding the inside of their lungs, causing cancer and death by asbestosis many years lat...
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50 Signs You Should Stop Shopping at Waitrose.

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1. Not having aubergines is viewed as a national disaster  2. You believe the Daily Mail. 3. You've given your children stupid names. 4. You've weaponized your trolley. 5. Tapenade isn't overuse of a hammer. 6. You think the product names like Ecuadorian Dodo Fruit are genuine. 7. You voted for Brexit but can't understand why there are less products on the shelves. 8. You think Nigel Farage has integrity. 9. Use the phrase 'You there!' when asking for things. 10. You eat halloumi instead of using it to fix windows in place. 11. You are so permanently full of craft gin that you can't remember your children's name(s) no matter how stupid and have to call them 'Darling' 12. You can't understand why people call you a stuck-up, self-absorbed moron. 13. You are convinced the universe revolves around you. 14. You would buy organic pickled water if there was such a thing. 15. You don't use the handle on the trolley anymo...
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