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hip hop

hip hop
Originally uploaded by custardmonkeys

I went with Tony Burton (Dad) to the Hay on Wye music festival on Saturday. Tony had a spare ticket and I thought it would be good for taking photos. As I was the only photographer there the festival organizer asked me to send him some shots of the festival and I got permission to photograph any band. I had a great time. I Photographed the bands, danced with a very polite but very drunk man and had a smoothie made for me by a guy who rides his bike to work the mixer. It was a great day and when i got home I showed the kids some of the bands on youtube, including "the anomalies". Caleb dressed up and did some hip hop for us, John did record it on video, perhaps I will get that on here if I can work out how to do it.

americans v canadians

The Dragon Festival

This weekend we attended the dragon festival. The children had a fab time. There was a reenactment of the taking of Newcastle Emlyn castle by the welsh from the english. There were crafts and story telling and plays. They had a giant dragon's egg that hatched. The festival was put on to encourage tourism in Newcastle Emlyn. They had over 1,500 people attend on the Saturday so perhaps it will be a yearly thing. Our kids had their faces painted like dragons and there were different stalls where they could make masks and tabards for the parade. Our younger children were all in a chinese dragon shown above and really enjoyed the whole day. As for me, I was a wreck from trying to keep an eye on 10 kids (Caitlin was at a beach party) all I did all day was look for one child after another as they wandered off to look at all the attractions, I'm glad they had a great day and I am even more glad we all made it home safe and sound :)

Welsh Not

Last night John and I attended a play at our children's primary school. Our children attend a welsh speaking school so that they can speak both Welsh and English. This week their school is celebrating their 100 yrs since the school first opened. They have a log book which each of the headmasters have kept for the whole 100yrs, documenting war, prisoners of war, changes in politics and schooling techniques, illnesses and epidemics. The teachers of the school demonstrated the fact that 100 yrs ago it was against school policy to speak English in school, even though all the children and the teachers were all welsh speaking. The children were taught that English was the language of communication even though many children were raised in a welsh community and stayed in it when they were adults. If a child was caught speaking welsh in school they had to wear a "welsh not" sign around their necks and were often caned. Unfortunately this did not shock me as the same ignorance and intolerance still surrounds us even if it rears it's ugly head in different ways, like bullying or through extremist religious groups. John and I discussed afterwards why the play had been a little uncomfortable (except for the obvious of having a teacher parade up and down the isle pointing a stick at us telling us to sit with a straight back and have our heads held high chanting 'cleanliness is next to godliness') We came up with many conclusions, but the most important one was that we are glad we feel uncomfortable when ever faced with discrimination - in what ever form.
The children did a wonderful job, I always feel at these plays that we sometimes sell our children short, as they show themselves capable of remembering long complicated lines and songs in welsh. We were very proud of them.