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Pauline
Administrator & Miserable Old Fart !
United Kingdom
2110 Posts |
 Posted - 04 August 2009 : 15:59:59
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That's how long I've been in this house, since August the 4th 1983. I can't really say that's how long I've been living here, because being stuck here isn't exactly what I'd call 'living'. To me this was only ever a stop-gap until I could get to Dinas or Newport, but it's been a b****y long stop-gap  If I can't buy a house up there one of these days I'm considering buying a cemetery plot, at least that way I'll end up there eventually ! 
Today is also the anniversary of the day my Grandmother (the Trecynon one) died. That was August the 4th 1976. I still remember that day, I was the only member of the family who was home in Aberdare, my parents had gone away on a mystery trip and didn't get back until very late, and both my father's brothers and their families were on their holidays and I didn'tknow how to contact them. I eventually found one of my uncle's friends who knew where they were and he managed to get a message to them, and they in turn contacted the other lot, but it seemed like a very long day while I was waiting there all on my own.
1976 is also remembered as the year the Dyffryn Woods caught fire ! We've never had another Summer that hot. Not that I'd ever want it to be THAT hot again, it was a bit too much, but slightly warm would be O.K. Today is more like November than August. If this is Global Warming all I can say is Gawd help us if we ever get Global Cooling Down !
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Fussy
Baileys Benefactor !
4609 Posts |
 Posted - 04 August 2009 : 19:05:59
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26 years is a fair old time to be housed in one little nest, and judging by its spot (as seen on Google Earth) it is in quite a lovely countryfied area. But, for all that you have this craving for the Newport area. What is it then that creates this yearning for the DC district?
Mind, it is a lovely part of Pemb's. I've got a soft spot for Parrog myself, and if circumstances were different we would love to kip anywhere in that area. It is unspoiled,...and not infested by night clubbing noise and the carryings-on of boozy brats causing mayhem.
At least, it was absolutely peaceful when we were there in 2002.
Let's hope Pemb's keeps its lovely parts free from the crazy lifestyles seen in some other parts of the UK. |
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Pauline
Administrator & Miserable Old Fart !
United Kingdom
2110 Posts |
Posted - 04 August 2009 : 20:50:11
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I can't explain it reaaly Fussy, but ever since the very first time we went there (when I was about 4 or 5 years old) it's the one place I've wanted to be. I've got an old postcard here from the mid 1950's and on the back written in pencil and very bad hand-writing (well, I was very young at the time  ) it says 'When I grow up I'm going to come and live here' so as you can see it's been a life-long ambition
I just loved it there and I really hated having to go back to Aberdare, I'd get in a really bad mood towards the end of every holiday because I knew I only had a few more days left. I liked Aberdare well enough, but I'd have been a lot happier if I could have lived in Dinas Cross or Newport and spent my holidays in Aberdare  I spent hours and hours trying to persuade my father to change his job and move there but I don't suppose there was very much going in his line of work back then, and he was definitely not cut out for working on the land, he did all the heavy work such as digging etc. on my grandfather's allotment because my grandfather wasn't in the best of health, but if my grandfather hadn't been there to tell him what to do he'd probably have made a terrible pigs-ear of it. He once decided to do some weeding in our back garden in Little Wind Street and he pulled up all the flowers I'd recently planted and left the weeds behind. I won't tell you what I called him that day, LOL 
Back then maybe around 1959 or 1960 some friends of ours who lived in Dinas offered to sell us a cottage they owned, it was where they'd lived when they were first married and they'd later moved to a bigger place. They were asking £1,000 for it back then and my parents did consider it, my grandfather quite fancied the idea too, but at the time they were still paying for Little Wind Street and decided they couldn't take on more debts. But if they HAD bought it it would have been a good investment because it was sold a few years back for over £150,000 !
When I was looking on the Estate Agents site recently I saw a plot of land for sale which I recognised as once having belonged to the friends I mentioned who owned the cottage, it was just behind their house which had hardly any garden at all and this plot was where thet grew all their vegetables and so on, a sort of allotment, and it's right next to the field where we used to stay in the caravan. You can see the details of it here:- http://www.dezrez.com/Drapp/Search.ASP?WCI=PortalBrochure&WCE=01484991&Template=PortalBrochure&PortalID=72&eaid=512 The actual plot they're selling is behind the garage in the photo you can also see the new caravans in the field where we used to stay, with Dinas Head in the background (the caravan we used to stay in wasn't even half the size of these modern ones) David Protheroe still has a caravan here but you can't see his in the phot it's just out of sight to the left.
The house you can see in the other photo is called Myrtle Hill and is on the road to Pwllgwaelod, and the little piece of white wall just visible in the lower right-hand corner of the photo is the wall of Penrallt which is where our friends who had the ground used to live. The pine-end wall to the left of the photo is the old chapel, which was sold last year for only £50,000. I wouldn't have minded buying that, but it would have cost another fortune to convert it for living accomodation, and besides that it didn't have a proper garden for the Dogs.
Out of sight, next to the chapel and befind where the photographer was standing is another cottage called Rose Villa. A very nice lady called Miss Jones used to live there, she was a retired school-teacher and once taught in Fishguard school, but it wasn't until years later that we found out she'd once taught The Queen and Princess Margaret when they were young. She never once mentioned it or bragged about it and we only learned about it when one of her friends told us about it in the 1980's.
Thinking about the old days has made me feel very sad now, everybody that was living there in those days has gone. There are still a lot of people living up there that I know, but none of the ones that lived in these houses near the caravan are still there.
Oh well, I'd better go back to my clearing now, I've got some bookcases coming soon and if I don't get the room sorted out they're going to have trouble getting it in. It's hard enough fitting stuff into these rooms anyway, they're so blinking small  Every time I open a drawer or a cupboard door it seems to hit another bit of furniture, it feels sometimes as if I'm living in a flipping box not a house ! I'd give my eye-teeth for a house with decent-sized rooms, I'd think I was in Heaven ! |
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Fussy
Baileys Benefactor !
4609 Posts |
Posted - 05 August 2009 : 19:28:21
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Well. I've just read your latest 'novel.'
So you took a fancy to that part of the world when you were a mere 4 or 5 years of age. It is true that when one is around that age early in ones' life it leaves an impression,..never to forget.
I remember well when I was about 6 or 7 I used to spend much of my school holidays on my aunt's farm (two or three weeks) in Capel Iwan, Newcastle Emlyn. My mam was born in a little village called Cilrhedyn, and my dad was born in Drefach, Felindre. So, as you can guess most of our holidays in those days 20s/30s were spent in the vicinity of Newcastle Emlyn.
But, mind I also absolutely loved my childhood in Cwmdare, playing about in the Patches (just above Queen St) and gallavanting down Dare Inn and Pithead and up to Penrhiwllech and The Daran. However, in later years we've motored a lot around Pemb's and Card's, and we simply loved Parrog and all that surrounding area,...it always seemed totally unspoiled whenever we visited that part of Pemb's.
Oooooh! Those morons who charged you that nonsensical amount for doing a little bit of tidying up around your house should be questioned by the Office of Fair Trading.... £500 for non-technical work is surely outrageous. If I were you Pauline I would query that, before paying that amount,...make them realise that you don't intend being taken for a ride, so to speak.
I'd better post now, in case this cuts out again. |
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Bob
Devout Dipsomaniac & Technological TWIT !
1906 Posts |
 Posted - 06 August 2009 : 16:03:32
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Iev lieved im muy huoes fir 35 yaers === teh frist 2%5 if tehm flwew buy qyuiet faasyt / byt teh lats 10 yaers oor swo simce muy mihter=im=lae moeevd im wiht ys haev semmeed more liek 52 yaers Wahts teh naem uf taht huoes yuo leik tahts naer aa pub  Uf yuo cam/t haev ut mauybee Iell byue ut muyslef amd noyt teel teh mihter==im=lwa wheer Iev goen |
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Fussy
Baileys Benefactor !
4609 Posts |
Posted - 07 August 2009 : 10:05:32
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Ho! Ho! Ho! If ever you make that move,...I'll tell her where you've gone to. |
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Larry Lamb
Senior Member
1249 Posts |
 Posted - 09 August 2009 : 16:40:58
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I've never lived anywhere that long  Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a little house somewhere with all mod cons and mains electricity so I could have my own computer but then I think I'd probably get bored of it after a bit, I enjoy a change of scenery now and again and besides we have to go where the work is and there's not so much of that around as there used to be |
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Fussy
Baileys Benefactor !
4609 Posts |
 Posted - 09 August 2009 : 17:04:51
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You like Parrog too, Larry. Yeah, it's a nice little area around Newport Pemb's. I would fancy kipping there myself, it would be a lovely change from wild city life.
Pauline would love to be in Dinas Cross. |
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Larry Lamb
Senior Member
1249 Posts |
Posted - 09 August 2009 : 17:12:01
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| Would'nt mind a spell up that way myself, got some relations in the area. But would there be any work for me up there From what I hear over half the farms in that area are being turned into holiday places and caravan sites, and I do'nt think they'd want my old banger of a caravan parked in their lovely posh sites ruining the reputation of the place |
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Bob
Devout Dipsomaniac & Technological TWIT !
1906 Posts |
Posted - 12 August 2009 : 16:10:38
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Jugdnig buy waht Ii sree im teh feilds wehn Iem tarveelimg aruomd teh cuontruysied Ied sauy yuoed gut reltaoins amlots eevrywheer  HAr==haar |
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Larry Lamb
Senior Member
1249 Posts |
Posted - 16 August 2009 : 17:47:53
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Oh very funny Bob  I have got a helluva lot of relations mind, but not 11,000,000 of them, which is roughly how many sheep are in Wales |
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26 VERY LONG Years !
