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May 2008 Archives

Lost in Translation

Posted by David Simister on May 29, 2008 2:26 PM

COVERING the Eisteddfod for this week’s Vale Advertiser (R.I.P) was easily one of the trickiest tasks I’ve had so far.

Why? Not because it’s an especially challenging event to cover, or even one with a mountain of tales to be told, but just because every last crumb of correspondence came in Cymraeg.

Before anyone writes in to point it out, I know it’s meant to be a Welsh language festival. I just wasn’t expecting even the supposedly bilingual bits of press releases to trickle out with about ten words of English and ten paragraphs of the home tongue.

It makes me feel bad, because I love Welsh culture. Some of my best friends are Welsh, I go on holiday in what’s now my extended back garden, and I can even trace some of my own genes back to this green and pleasant land.

But I’m still an English immigrant with little understanding of complicated Welsh phrases and someone who gets mocked at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station. Top marks if you can pronounce it but if not, join the club.

Events like the Eisteddfod end up looking hugely interesting but almost impossible to completely comprehend without the benefits of a whizz Welsh speaker to guide me.

I’m not saying we should shun Cymraeg completely just for the benefit of lazy English people like me, and in fact I admire the Eisteddfod’s efforts to keep the language alive. I just think it needs to be more accessible to everyone, and especially the four fifths of the Welsh population who don't speak it.

The quickest way I’m winning with Welsh is by actually having both languages written alongside each other, a policy which works on road signs, in shops and on websites.

But I reckon the Eisteddfod – by accident or design – risks alienating outside audiences by ignoring that idea at its peril.

Shameless

Posted by David Rutland on May 23, 2008 11:15 AM

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What is it with Denbighshire Council and theatres?

More specifically, what is it with Denbighshire and theatres in Rhyl?

Its only a few months since we started the fight against plans to cut the budget of and eventually close down the Pavilion Theatre.
Common sense and overwhelming public support secured a temporary victory in that fight but now the powers that be have decided to go for another soft target - The Little Theatre.

Officers want it closed down before the end of the year and are using landlord powers to get their way.

It is obvious to anyone walking past the premises in the last few months that volunteers have been hard at work bringing the building up to scratch.
It recently received a new coat of paint and electricians, joiners and carpenters have been giving up their free time to help out.
But that doesn’t seem to be enough for the council, which has decided that as the work is running over the allotted time, they are pulling the plug.

A letter sent to the theatre trustees refuses to even discuss the theatre’s future until a health and safety audit is completed.

And if it passes the health and safety audit, there’s still no guarantee it will stay open.

What are they playing at?

It’s not councillors who are making this decision, it’s the unelected officers.
They are not accountable to you or to me and they seem to be utterly inflexible.


On the eviction notice, four council officers are named: Ian Hearle, Phillipa Earlam, Rebecca Williams and Gerald Lapington.

And while I appreciate they are part of the monstrous machine that is Denbighshire County Council, they still have ability to make individual decisions.
And if their decision is to evict the Little Theatre from its home then they and anyone else involved, should be ashamed of themselves.

Your Vale video: Llangollen Railway through the eyes of guard Doug Wentl

Posted by David Simister on May 20, 2008 3:40 PM


Doug Wentel talks about life on the Llangollen Railway with Vale Advertiser reporter David Simister.

Video of VW All Types Show at Bodelwyddan Castle

Posted by Martin Williams on May 19, 2008 4:15 PM


Vale Reporter goes Top Gun

Posted by David Simister on May 13, 2008 3:25 PM

In an adrenaline-fuelled addition to our new Visitor's Got Talent series, I've been sent up in a glider thousands of feet into the skies above Ruthin.

Thanks to the help of the North Wales Gliding Club, I've been able to film the flight in its entirety for your amusement.

I apologise in advance if some of the camera work is slightly patchy, but then conducting an on-flight interview is never easy when you're being fired hundreds of feet into the air at the same time (it seemed like a brilliant idea in the office at the time).

Read all about it in this week's Vale Advertiser, out on Friday, May 16.

I don't look at all scared, do I?

Mocking the afflicted.

Posted by David Rutland on May 13, 2008 11:08 AM

WE at the Visitor office had a fine time watching street comedy yesterday afternoon.

We all lined up in the window to watch the impromptu performance of a PCSO, a store detective and a drunk as they stumbled down Rhyl High Street together.
To be honest, we couldn’t hear what was happening, but even with just the pictures we were able to waste 15 minutes laughing at their antics.

The drunk was in his 50s and he wasn’t just drunk. He was hammered.
The store detective was bald and holding shopping bags.
The PCSO looked out of his depth.

Oh how we chuckled as the drunk tripped over his own feet and landed on his backside in the middle of the road.
Cars swerved around him, but didn’t stop. People crossed the street to avoid the scene but gawked from the other side of the road.

Eventually, he was pulled onto the pavement by the PCSO and sat propped up against a bin until the ambulance arrived.
The ambulance crew donned rubber gloves before they even touched the guy.

And then something weird happened - he vanished.
Honestly, I was watching the whole time. He didn’t get into the ambulance. He didn’t go round the corner. He just disappeared.

It was ace. A magic show to round off the performance. Entertainment doesn’t get much better.


That boy Giggsy...

Posted by Andy Davies on May 12, 2008 2:45 PM

He won it ten times!
Firstly on behalf of all the players at Prestatyn Town, I'd like to thank the volunteers who gave up so much of their time to help transform our Bastion Road ground into what is now a fantastic stage for our team to play in Wales top division next season.
At presentation night last Friday, it was fantastic to see the club pay tribute to those who helped out as well as praising the efforts of all three teams over the season. If last Friday proved anything, it was that Prestatyn Town are becoming a terrific club with a reserves and youth side pushing for success and developing future players for the first team.

And to United...
I've been a nightmare to be around these past couple of weeks as the league reached its nail biting climax. I've always put the league ahead of Europe and I probably celebrated Tevez's last gasp equaliser more loudly than I did Scholes' superb winner against Barcelona. To be able to clinch the league ahead of Chelsea, outright, is a fantastic boost going into Moscow although Chelsea have proven they can bounce back already this season.
For Cristiano Ronaldo, who came in for criticism in my column during my post City defeat strop, its been a fantastic season filled with unbelievable goals and a presence United supporters haven't seen since Cantona. I still stand by what I said after City in that he can still offer more at times in terms of workrate. In my opinion, where Ronaldo has basked in the praise heaped on him this season, I believe there is another player who is equally important to United's success. He's the man who tore Arsenal to shreds in a cup-tie from which they never recovered from and the man who won the penalty and set up Ryan Giggs despite not being fully fit.
He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney!

It's only rock and roll, and I probably won't like it

Posted by David Simister on May 12, 2008 9:59 AM

Last night I had an awful dream where I’d been drafted in as singer of Eighties icons Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

Perhaps I should lay off the Red Leicester at night, but the prospect of singing Come on Eileen leaves me in a cold sweat. If you actually know ALL the lyrics to 1982’s best-selling single, you’re either Kevin Rowland or a liar.

It’s the only thing I can find more nerve-racking than my challenge next month for our Visitor’s Got Talent series, which last week began with Martin Williams putting his best foot forward as a line dancer.

My contribution was to strap myself into a glider and get fired a thousand feet into the air. You’ll be able to read all about my airborne antics in Friday’s Vale Advertiser, but what I can tell you now is a) I survived, and b) it’s actually jolly good fun.

Yet I’m more terrified by my next feature, where I’ll turn up at a Denbigh gig and show everyone that being in a band is not as easy as Noel Gallagher makes it look.

My sole contribution to rock ‘n’ roll was as frontman for a dreadful college band called Prikembody, and all that involved was hanging around in seedy Southport bars trying to look arty. I’m hardly qualified to take the mic with The Excuse, the brave band who’ll be joining me.

I was almost hoping I’d crash the glider and die, because that would have saved me the scarier scenario of having to show hundreds of gig-goers and thousands of Youtube viewers what a terrible musician I am.

In the office we know how much you love seeing us making complete prats of ourselves in the name of journalism, so if you have any of your own suggestions, please write in and let us know.

Apart from joining Dexy’s Midnight Runners, that is.

Sell, sell, sell

Posted by David Simister on May 7, 2008 9:26 AM

Considering I got mugged last year in one of Bristol's dodgier parts, I'm amazed that I'm still not scared of street gangs.

If anything, I go for a walk around Rhyl almost every night and virtually everyone, no matter how shady they look, is always lovely. The only chap who decided he was going to pick on the fact I was wearing glasses actually took the time to apologise to me for being a bit drunk!

Nope, the only street gangs who terrify me are the ones with leaflets and clipboards, and I doubt I'm alone on this one. OXFAM infamously pulled its street sellers not long ago because - quite rightly - it discovered all their teams did was annoy just about everyone unfortunate enough to want to go shopping in a town centre (perish the thought).

Last night I was pounced on by a healthcare company in the White Rose and was absolutely staggered by their arrogance. Usually when I get grabbed I'll just tell them I'm from locations from the Enid Blyton books to confuse them, but last night I was too tired to say "Kirrin Island" or "Peter's Secret Treehouse".

After the pair of city slickers had told me about how great it is to leave the NHS, they didn't bother asking me if I was interested in joining up. They just took it as read and started to sign me up anyway! I hadn't even told them my name, and already they were hellbent on condemning me to a lifetime of monthly payments and glossy newsletters.

Does anybody else in Denbighshire have this problem? If so, let us know about your experiences, and any suggestions you might have.

My personal solution would be to have them all shipped to the dodgier parts of Bristol and let them pitch their wares to the street gangs...

Visitor video: News and reaction from the Denbighshire County Council elections on Friday

Posted by Martin Williams on May 6, 2008 1:29 PM


See our video from the Denbighshire County Council election count at Ruthin last Friday.
We bring you the news from the election day and some reaction from successful councillors.
Video by Martin Williams.

Vote to nowhere

Posted by Martin Williams on May 5, 2008 3:18 PM

We’ve written several Blog entries about apathy and the general laziness of some people in this region, but Friday’s council elections were a new low for the sleepy souls of Denbighshire.
I arrived at Ruthin Town Hall and found dozens of councillors pacing up and down the street, smoking, biting fingernails and worrying for their futures.
As well they should have been.
Councillors are supposed to be important, they’re the ones who decide planning applications, battle for the rights of constituents and have a say on crucial matters of importance to us all - the setting of council tax, spending on education and highways, safety outside our schools - the list is endless.
So, with pen and paper in hand, I sat down to listen to the results.
And then it happened.
Some members were being elected or re-elected with just a few hundred votes.
People were becoming councillors with the backing of just 150 people. I have more friends than that on Facebook!
This went on for hours, 200 or so here, 400-ish here - it was a joke.
I know low turnouts are nothing new, but I’ve never seen it as bad as this.
Some members received great support, and good luck to them.
There were others I sympathised with, knowing they’d been out canvassing, battling for your support, only to be beaten by less deserving individuals.
Labour took a hammering, the Conservatives were the biggest winners, but out of interest lets take Rhyl as an example of how weird this year’s ballot was.
Rhyl West and South West is still a Labour stronghold, despite almost 70% of the area being on benefits.
The rest of the town - bar Jeanette Chamberlain Jones and Brian Blakeley, is Tory blue.
Rhyl is pretty much 50/50 between the two parties, which I find a tad bizarre.
If anything I’d have thought the Westenders would have joined the rest of the county in the Labour backlash, but instead they got behind them. It is the poorest ward in the county, one of the poorest in Wales and they still took control of it?
There is a lot of redevelopment taking place, so perhaps they’re looking to the future.
Politics is a funny old game.”

What's in a name?

Posted by David Simister on May 1, 2008 10:52 AM

What do you think the most important issue in our office is?

You’d think it’d be the pressing deadlines, getting the good stories and making up snappy headlines. You’d be wrong. It’s my name.

I make no apologies for being called David (it helps my Welsh asylum application anyway) but it means no end of confusion at the news desk. Mr Rutland, my colleague over at The Rhyl and Prestatyn Visitor, is also named after the country’s patron saint, so you can imagine the trouble it causes.

Every day even a slightly oblique reference has both of us wasting valuable time, wondering whether the person on the ‘phone wants the other David.

Not that I’m not used to it. My dad – David Simister senior – says he gave me my name because I popped into the world on St David's Day, 1986. And straight into a lifetime of never knowing whether people were asking for the gawky schoolchild or the civil servant.

They could have just called me Junior, but how stupid would that have sounded?

“Meet Junior. He’s….a junior”. Yeah, right!

So it goes with our office debate as to what my nickname should be, and I don’t care how new I am, I am NOT being called Junior.

One of my friends suggested I revive my nickname from high school, although I don’t think being dubbed “Simmy” would go down very well at council meetings.

I quite like the idea of going all Reservoir Dogs about it, and naming everyone in the office after a colour. Only – being the office’s only committed football non-fan – it’s inevitable I’d only be Mr Pink anyway.

“Mister Simister” sounds equally stupid, if only because having a rhyming nickname is just silly. I already have to suffer this phonetically-challenged tag at airports and dentist’s appointments, so I was rather hoping the office might be a place of refuge.

“Mr S”. That’s much better. Neat, quick, rolls off the tongue nicely. It’s just a shame nobody else in the office will ever use it.

I’ll get back to writing proper stories now…

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to The Day to Day in the May 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.

April 2008 is the previous archive.June 2008 is the next archive.

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