Back home again, blogging again

It's been nice to see that one or two people have missed Syniadau while I've taken a break from blogging. I never did give any sort of public explanation for disappearing over the horizon, and I'm sorry about that.

My main reason for not blogging is that I decided, just over a year ago, that it was time to move back to Wales. This is something that I'd always intended to do but, like many other exiles I know, you put down roots in the place you move to and, with each few years that pass, it becomes that much harder to leave.

I realized that it was now or never for me, and I thought it would take a few months. So I put everything on hold to concentrate on the move, including Syniadau. I was wrong about the timescale. It all proved to be far more complicated than I thought it would be, and it took me more than a year to sell up in London and sort everything else out. But in the end everything did get sorted, and I finally made the move about six weeks ago. I'm loving it. It has definitely been the right thing to do, and I really should have done it years ago. Gwell hwyr na hwyrach.

These are some views from my balcony. For those of you who don't recognize the best place in Wales, I'm back in Llanelli, my home town.

     

     

     

I still haven't really settled yet. Most of my stuff is still in boxes, and I reckon that about 3,000 books need to find a space on new shelves, as I wouldn't dream of throwing any of them away.

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Anyway, why am I writing something today? The answer is that I've spent the day at something called a Hackathon organized by Yes Cyrmu in Abertawe. The others (Leia, Sandra, Tricia, Owain and Chris) have been making videos, but I'm nowhere near photogenic enough to believe that I could enhance the cause of Welsh independence by a posting a video of myself ... in fact, it would probably have the opposite effect. So you'll have to make do with words instead.

Although there is a twitter account called @YesLlanelli, I've been told that there isn't actually a Yes Cymru group that meets in Llanelli. As lovable as the Jacs undoubtedly are, I'd like to be a part of a group on this side of the Llwchwr if there are enough other people who'd like the same thing. So please get in touch with me at michaelhaggett@live.com and let's see whether we can make it happen.

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6 comments:

lionel said...

Glad to see you back! I've thoroughly missed your writing. The new targets in the WESPs should provide for a few interesting blogposts going forward hopefully?

Anonymous said...

Croeso yn ol, Mike.
Robert Tyler

glynbeddau said...

I think it's more than one whose missed you Mike. Looking toward to your future contributions.

Owen said...

Welcome back (at long last)!

Efrogwr said...

Pob lwc yn ôl yng Nhgymru Fach. Mae gennyt gyfraniad mawr i'w wneud o hyd. Glad to see you back blogging.

Michael Haggett said...

Thanks for saying such nice things.

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It's hard to know exactly what's happening in Welsh-medium education, Lionel. It's as if the introduction of WESPs has shifted the focus, so that the expansion of WM education is less something in response to parental pressure, and more a matter of politics. It therefore gets buried in the same layers of procedure and bureaucracy as everything else. From my perspective, I can't help but wonder if it's a retrograde step.

In the end, though, all that matters is that more and more of our children become competent in both Welsh and English. That's not just abut what local authorities do, it's also about what the Welsh Government does, particularly in terms of making sure that we train enough teachers who can teach in Welsh. This will require a more radical change of policy than anything that happens at a local level.

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