Wonderful Wales: Fishguard's Last Invasion Tapestry, Elizabeth Taylor's Hotel, Honey, bugs and more

Welsh Dragon

Fishguard
The two big attractions, outdoors and indoors.

Indoors
The Last Invasion Embroidery
On the main square in Fishgaurd is the Town Hall contianing the tourist office with leflats and souvenirs on the ground floor, and the library with the gallery displaying the embrodiery, Wales' answer to the Bayeux tapestry.

The Last Invasion, written in text and pcitures on a long cloth like a cartoon, with colour and humour, tells the local story of how the women in red and black outfits and high hats, scared off the invading French and captured them. (Sort of reverse Bayeux tapestry, because in the Bayeux tapestry the invading French won, under William the Conqueror. He told his story, and gave us the valuable historic Domesday book, but is still remembered as the anti-hero in Hastings.

The Under Milk Wood Trail
Dylan Thomes wrote Under Milk Wood based on two places in Wales you can visit. However, many people are equally or more familiar with the places in Fishguard shown in the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. You can walk around the upper town, near the Town Hall and Embrodiery, then walk down or bus down to Lower Fishguard, walk along past the boats and tiny hosues, admiring the sculptures.

Sit by the sea on the benches and shelter your sandwiches from marauding seagulls which hop hopefull towards your feet, hoping from crumbs or donations. Then pop into the pub for a drink and read the cuttings and pictures and posters on the walls.  Plenty of photo opportunities, you against the sea, or the parked boats, or the wave of boats as a backdrop.

Other Wishlist Places Around Wales
Bug Farm
Has a Grub Kitchen, tel 07986 698169.
14.5 miles from Fishguard and 17 miles from Haverfordwest.
Glass
Honey
Winery

Fishguard Bay Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Up on the clifftop above the Fishguard and Goodwyck station is the Fishguard Bay Hotel where Liz and Richard stayed whilst filming. Enjoy the fine view.

One of the bedrooms was where they stayed. The hotel has a honeymoon suite.

Much of the building is, by accident rather than design, stuck in a time warp. All the more delightful.

This is the real thing. Old Wales. It's windy, wet and miles away. (From London.)  Love it or hate it. I love it.

Useful Websites
facebook.com.GWRUK
www.thebugfarm.co.uk

More later.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Who Loves The Seagulls At Fishguard Bay Hotel?

A front room gives you a view of the bay and a seagull. Not a private seagull. The seagull is shared. It visits all the windows.

"Well, I must be off now, since you are not doing anything for me except taking photos.  The woman by the window at the other end usually saves me bread or sausages from breakfast. But I'll be back. Live in hope."

Visitors love the seagulls. Locals are fed up with them, the seagulls, not the visitors. Hoteliers want more visitors and fewer seagulls.

The hotel tells you to keep the windows shut. 

Gerry, who runs Writers' Holiday in February, is warm and friendly, like his son, Richard, and wife Anne, and all the family, but Gerry tells it like it is. He says, "Birds are a nuisance. One got in here once, and we were chasing it all around, weren't we, Richard? They make mess which somebody has to clean up. You aren't feeding them, are you, Angela?"

I protest, "No, no, no. Not me!"

Fishguard Bay Hotel
Fishguard
Wales

Useful Websites
www.writersholiday.net

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. For more about the Fishguard Bay Hotel, see previous posts. For more about Fishguard and the Welsh tapestry, see other posts. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Mystery Noises Night and Day In Hotels, Homes, Buildings At Home, On Holiday, On Business

Problem
What's that noise?
Should I check or stay safe in bed or my chair?
Does it need attention?

Answers
Mobile Phones
Incoming calls on what's up or mails can trigger sounds or even vibrations which wake you. Solutions: Turn off sound to vibrate, leave mobile phone on the breakfast table. Leave phone on the laptop. Keep in room for emergency but on the other side of the room.
Fax machines can print out long messages, orders from China sent to wrong numbers, during their working day which could be at night where you are.
Wear ear plugs.
Set clock alarm and leave phone in another room.
Set clock alarm and have bedside landline for emergencies.
Ask family and fiends not to send texts or messages to landlines - especially when travelling to foreign time zones.


Animals and birds, domestic or wildlife:
Cats, dogs, squirrels running along a fence, birds, pigeons, foxes mating at night (screaching in your garden or the road outside), spiders cockroaches, insects in a plastic bag left on the floor, insects in a chocolate wrapper. Monkeys on the loose can climb up to higher floors of apartment blocks, onto balconies, into flats if windows and doors are left open.
Bears foraging fro food in bins or smelling sandwiches and food wrappers left in cars outside house or in the garage.

Birds such as kids in New Zealand jump all over cars in car parks by and eat the windscreen wipers.
Crickets.
Bird calls.
Birds hopping along balconies, perched on railings, perched on a plant singing or calling to other birds, sitting on a fridge on the balcony. (Singapore.)
Dawn chorus of birds.
Pigeon or sea gull perching on windowsill of hotel. (Fishguard, Wales.)
Dogs barking in distance.
Cows outside window in rural areas.
Cocks crowing.

Weather
Rain on windows and rooftops.
Thunder - you were woken by the lightning despite curtains being closed.
Dustbin lids and loose items being blown about.
Hailstones on roof.

Electrical and Mechanical
Door opens and shuts in the wind caused by draughts from open windows in bathroom.
Fridge door left ajar makes a beep.
Oven timer accidentally set beeps when the hour or 24 hours is up.
Timer on phone not cancelled.
Watch in bedside drawer bleeps every hour, not normally heard, but heard if drawer is open or contents are moved.
Air conditioning turns on and off with temperature changes at intervals throughout the night.
Lights in hall activated by late night or early morning neighbours or cleaners.

Cars, Vehicles, Accidents
Cars starting up nearby.
Car doors slamming as diners from restaurants go home at midnight or 1 am after you've gone to bed; then half an hour later, staff having locked up the restaurant will pick up their cars from side streets where they can park all day for free.
Electrical whine from milk floats doing dawn deliveries before rush hour.
Grinding noise from trucks / lorries collecting wheelie bins, lifting bins, shouts from the man at the back to the driver.
Bang of cards colliding at traffic lights.
Bang of moving car hitting stationery car.
Repeated bangs of aggrieved spouse damaging car of spouse or rival.

Story
Bumps In The Night
Floor shaking from earthquake - over my bed int he UK. I woke thinking it was a burglar. Nobody there. Decided it must be underground or overground trains. Read in the newspaper next day that there had been a minor earthquake tremor felt in London, England.

Plumbing
Noise when somebody else in building uses shower, toilet, or even washes hands during the night. Caused by air lock?
Nose from people throwing rubbish down internal chutes on back balconies. (Singapore condo.)

Tapping, Banging and Booms
Tapping - could be dripping tap.
Dripping from blocked gutter during or after rain. (Check gutter in daylight with ladder and torch and get it fixed.)
Window open causes curtain to blow about so that the curtain puller, a metal or wood or porcelain pull cord handle strikes wall or glass.

Thunder.
Overhead passenger planes.
Military planes on an air force or army exercise. (Singapore.)
Helicopters seeking criminals.
Planes spraying crops, detecting haze, routine patrols.

Sirens
Fire alarm.
Emergency.
Exercise for emergency.

Voices on Loudspeakers
Emergency.
Call to prayer during the night and at dawn in Muslim areas and Arabic countries (woke us during our honeymoon in Morocco.)

Reflected Noise
Sounds of people in gardens or garages next door or street outside sound as if they are in your home.
Noise on staircase outside your bedroom in hotel, or alongside your flat.
Noise of lift on your floor in hotel.
Clattering of staff serving early morning breakfasts in hotel.
Slamming of nearby hotel bedroom doors of guests leaving early for work to beat rush hour or for early flights.
Doors linking bedrooms in hotels although locked shut can give the impression that people talking next door or playing TVs are in the same room or your sitting room area.

Tips - Phone A Friend
When I was living alone, before going to investigate a noise I would alert somebody else. In the daytime I would call a neighbour or family member, or carry my mobile speaking to them as I walked.

At night I would leave a message on their answering machine asking them to call me back next day to check I was OK. I had one friend who also lived alone and told me: "If ever you are in trouble, call me any time, day or night."

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Writing poetry and songs at Writers' Holiday in Wales

How did I come to write poems on seagulls and the invention of the pop up toaster at Writers' Holiday in Wales? Poetry was the subject of one of the after tea talks at Writers' Holiday held in Fishguard Wales in July 2016. Course leader Alison Chisholm always comes up with amusing ideas. And usually a tiny free gift.

The Poetry Homework Challenge
This year those planning to perform at the performance night were given two pieces to write. One was inspired by what was written on a piece of folded paper pulled from a box. I pulled out the word toast.

The other was a tiny frame you can use to frame a picture or item seen in a room. Hold it close to you and your body or book and it can frame an object such as the watch on your wrist. Look through it and depending on the distance you hold it, you can see an entire room or one small item in the distance.

Writer's Ambition
I am tired of writing poetry. In another class by Steve Wade we were asked to write Poetics, a cross between a mission statement and a cv and a marketing description and an ambition. We were asked to write about our past successes at writing and being published, our current projects and our future plans or hopes.

Songs
One of my hopes is to write songs. I try to write a song each day.

A Round
Therefore for Alison I chose to write a verse which could also be a round. I was surprised to find that the construction of a round song is no different. All you do is have different groups of people singing different lines or who verses in succession.

The text (lyrics) for a group of singers, musicians playing the tune and a conductor, would have to be written showing where the voices overlap, with two three, four or more lines of lyrics staggered on different lines under the music staves.

If I am the only performer, I don't need any directions.

If I direct the audience or a group of singers to sing with me, I have to provide them with photocopies or prints of the lyrics, or to print them out three or four times.

All the performers do a rehearsal. Therefore, prior to the performance I have to show my verses to Alison, as she requested, to get her approval of the performance and check the rhyme, rhythm and sense. She might wish to make additions to make it more original or interesting.

I picked two traditional round because I wanted to check the syllable count, rhythm and rhyming scheme. The first song I chose was the traditional Frère Jacques. I wrote the syllable count at the end of each verse

Song 1
The original goes:

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques (4)
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? (4)
Sonnez la matina, Sonnez la matina (6) (6)
Ding, dang, dong, Ding, dang, dong. (3) (3)

The words mean: Brother Jack, Brother Jack, are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Ring (the bells) for  morning (prayers), ring the bells for morning prayers, ding dang dong. The last three words are onomatopeic (sound like what the word is describing).

I seem to remember that when I looked up the words, it was not le matina as I remembered, but La matina which would be Latin rather than French. The Matina or Matins being morning prayer(s).

Here is my song, sung to the same tune:

T for Toast and Toast for Tea
Song by Angela Lansbury

Let's toast seed bread, let's toast seed bread
Don't let's wait, don't let's wait
Put it in the toaster, put it in the toaster
For our tea, for our tea.

Alternatively
Come and toast my seed bread

Here's a version about the person who invented the toaster:

The toaster was invented in Scotland in 1893 but the pop up toaster was invented by Charles Strite in 1919.
The Invention of The Pop Up Toaster
by Angela Lansbury

For centuries the world would bake
Toasted teacakes were loved by most
After King Alfred burned the cakes
Cooks could admit they burned the toast
It wasted money, wasted time
And made the cook feel such a fool
And everyone hoped someone else
Would make a smart new toasting tool

A toaster was invented
Transforming every tea
In Scotland after porridge
In 1893
In 1918 pop up toast
Was patented by one Charles Strite
Now his invention pops up toast
For breakfast worldwide day and night.

Song 2
To the tune of Sur le Pont d'Avignon (unless somebody can write a better tune)

By the Bay of Fishguard
Song by Angela Lansbury

By the bay of Fishguard
See the ferries, see the ferries
On the bay of Fishguard
See the ferries brave the waves.

In the bar, writers sit
Scribbling stories, scribbling stories
In the bar, writers sit
Writing novels full of wit.

In the bar, writers sit
Writing songs and writing poems
In the bar, writers sit
Writing novels full of wit.

Song 3
Here's another round song, Kookaburra.
My friend Sally told me that at Guides camp the girls used to sing the Kookaburra song.

Here are the words with the syllable count after each line for the creation of a parody sung to the rhythm and the same or a similar tune:

Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree (10)
Merry, merry king of the bush is he (10)
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra (10)
Gay your life must be. (5)

I wanted an English bird instead of the Australian bird. A seagull was most appropriate.

Seagull Song
by Angela Lansbury

My seagull sits on the balcony
Looking up and watching me
Fly, pretty seagull, fly, pretty seagull
Fly away to sea.

Copyright 2016
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author, poet, songwriter.
More about Fishguard Bay Hotel in previous posts. More about author Angela Lansbury in Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Lulu.com, amazon com, and other blogs.

Fun in Fishguard, Wales, With Memories of Under Milk Wood and Moby Dick

Fishguard guards the Western end of Wales. Trains arrive from the London direction in time to co-ordinate with the ferries sailing to Ireland. Early in the 1900s Fishguard was planned to be the main port for ships to sail to America. WWI put paid to that idea. Now ships sail from Southampton in England. But the ferries to Ireland are still running regularly. The Bay itself has been the setting for two major films, Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood.

Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, wrote Under Milk Wood. It was read by Richard Burton who stayed at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. Read all about the films in cuttings by the bar of the hotel.

The Fishguard By hotel on the headland looks over the bay. The dining room and most of the front bedrooms enjoy views over the sea. If you don't get a bedroom with a view you can sit outside on the front terrace. It's a popular spot for weddings.

I was woken at 5.30 a. m  by what I thought was an alarm clock. It wasn't mine. Nobody turned it off. I wondered if it was a fire alarm.

When I got up and looked out of the window to try to track down the source of the noise, I realise it came from birds, seagulls.The big birds perch on top of the building and on the window ledges. You are warned not to go out leaving windows open. The black cat which tries to walk into the hotel's ground floor public rooms does not frighten off the seagulls. The birds are big and bold. So is the cat.

Other visitors recommended taking the walk along the cliffs. Up a staircase to the left of the hotel.  You can also walk from the hotel downhill to a fish and chip the away shop. Drive or take a bus to the ton hall in Fishguard shopping area (very small) to see the 'Bayeux tapestry which celebrates the local visitors by aides in national dress who fooled invading sailors into thinking the Welsh women were soldiers. Watch the video first. The town hall exhibition is open to the public Monday to Thursday.

Food
The dining room food organised for our conference was copious. Although we had two course meals, we were never hungry. At dinner we enjoyed salmon, chicken with mustard, pork and apple, traditional vegetables and potatoes. A vegetarian option is available. For desserts, on one occasion I chose apple pie and custard - and cream; on another occasion I had cheesecake with fruit topping.

Breakfast included porridge, two sorts of eggs and sausages and grilled tomatoes and bacon and baked beans. Plus brown and white hot toast with butter and apricot jam, strawberry jam or marmalade.

Staff are very obliging and the women wear pretty blouses, especially when there's a wedding.

The wifi hotspots are near the receiving centre which is in reception. So in the seats opposite reception, on the landings up the stairs - quite usable if three or four of you are there, and in bedrooms at the reception end of the corridor.

Fishguard Bay Hotel
Quay Road
Fishguard
Pembrokeshire
Wales
www.fishguardbayhotel.co.uk
You can also read about the hotel on TripAdvisor and booking websites.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.