Welsh ex pats, Your experiences

What are your experiences of being Welsh and living abroad?

How many times a day do you have to explain that Wales is not part of England?

I find the easiest thing is to mention rugby, or more recently after Wales 2-1 defeat of Italy, football (Soccer for our American friends).

Every town in the world seems to have an Irish bar (or 2 or 20) and many major cities have Scotish bars, who the heck ever heard of a Welsh Bar?

I have!

There used to be at least three Welsh bars on Gibraltar - one called, imaginatively, the Welsh Bar, one called the Dragon (with the Welsh flag as a pub sign! and another called Taffy's Bar...  Yes, I know, every Welshman HATES the 'Taffy' thing....   just like we Scots hate 'Jock' or 'See you, Jimmy'  

By the way, great idea to have a Welsh forum.  I love Wales.  Have a friend with a home in St Davids, which I've visited quite a few times.  Another friend is from a place near Mold.

  Well I have not had to explain about Wales, but growing up in New Mexico, and now living in Michigan, I have had to explain I am an U S citizian, and New Mexico is a state.  I know what you mean; it can be very frustating.

Does moving to England count as being in another country? I moved here almost a year ago and I still miss `home`. Even though its only 169.7 miles (not that I`m counting!!) from where I used to live, its a totally different culture. I didn`t know people could be sooo rude and impatient. Maybe I`m still a bit homesick? I don`t think I`ll ever shake that `You can take the girl out of the Valley but you can`t take the Valley out of the girl` feeling. Not that I`d ever want to. I went to work the other day in my Welsh rugby shirt (I got it as a leaving present from the people back home!!), and somebody said I was brave to wear it in England. Not brave .. just proud!!!!

Hello Mayte2
Welsh Guy, aka Wynn is the moderator here, but he lives in Paris and his business keeps him very busy - and so I try to keep up the Welsh forum in his absence - call it doing another Celt a favour!

My daughter lives in London and wears her Scottish rugby shirt all the time during the winter! So you keep on wearing your Welsh Dragon with pride.

Where do you come from in the Principality?

Hey Hen,

Just 'cos I don't post so much, doesn't mean I'm not keeping an eye on things!

We got 2 kilos of pears off the tree in our new (soon to be) garden and I made pear and tomato chutney yesterday. It was so good I think it might be a business opportunity (There's so much land, we might as well grow pear trees!)

Another glass of Minervois anyone?

Wynn

Oh you 'poser', you.....

'Minervois, anyone?'...... Waitrose sells it at about a fiver a bottle at the mo - make me cry.... how much are you paying per bottle?

Hmmmm, so you're 'keeping an eye on things'.... Yes, but typical male, you obviously see your role as mostly supervisory

The chutney sounds wonderful.

My daughter's sixth form exchange was with a girl from Dijon, whose father owned... TA DAAAAA a mustard factory! They made THE most wonderful Dijon with horseradish. I've never been able to get it over here, except in Harrods..

If you need a food taster, as part of your business, please keep me in mind

We only buy the good stuff ?2.36 a bottle!

Just stop crowing....

I used to live near Pontypridd (South Wales just in case anyone doesn`t know!!), in a place called Beddau (pronounced `Bay ther` locally or Bare - as in naked - and thy - as in Hallowed be `thy` name - Barethy if your `proper` Welsh!!!).

It was a mining community that was dessimated by the Tory government of the 80`s (Boo Hiss). Everyone was friendly and property was quite cheap compared to the surrounding area of Llantrisant and Pontyclun. Now, the prices have risen (due to Beddau only being 10 mins down the motorway from Cardiff - the capital) and there are a lot of people moving into the area out of the city.

I am and always will be Welsh. Thats where my homeland is. Even though its not that far away in terms of travel these days, sometimes it feels like light years away. I miss people chanting and swaying along to Delilah (Tom Jones!) when it comes on the jukebox in a pub. I miss being 20 miles away from the beach (aaaah Southerndown is so beautiful) and the kids crying to their mums "Maaaaaammy I wanna ice creeeam!!!" What do I miss most of all??? Most of all I miss being at home when the rugby lads and the crowd sing their hearts to the National Anthemout when they are playing at the Millenium Stadium. I still cry when I hear it even though we can`t play rugby for toffee these days!!!

Pob hwyl i tim Cymraeg yn y Cwpan Byd!!!!

We're taking over!!!! If you look closely, you'll see the Welsh flag hanging out of this small village's Mairie. (St Fraimbault)

They do rooms at ?20 a night which is why I stayed there for the summer!

Attached Image. (Click thumbnail to expand)

Hehehe .. Keep the Red, White and Green flag flying
I keep meaning to put my Welsh flag on the back shelf of my car, but living in England, I`m afraid I`ll get my car smashed in

Well we certainly can if the toffee is made from Maple syrup!!

Wales 41 - Canada 10

and as for crying to the Anthem, did you hear the arrangement for Hen Wlad?? it was beautiful. C'mon Wales against Tonga next Sunday, I reckon we could come out of the first round quite well.

Well done also the other home nations:

Ireland 45-Romania 17;
Scotland 32-Japan 11 and
England 64 - Georgia 6.

Congrats also to my adopted country France 61 - Fiji 18

Whisper this softly, WG, but if England don't win - I still fancy France to do the business....

I think our nations have a hard row to hoe........

I've moved the Rugby World Cup discussion over the "The Pub" see ya there