A surfeit of mutations

Where have I been this last week and a half? Shame on me for neglecting the blog and actually, I have no excuses at all really. I could say that I have had a bad back and so everything has been taking longer than usual, I have been dealing with carpet fitters, mowing the lawn, practising my welsh, all of which would be true but none of which would be a good enough reason for not blogging so maybe the true reason is that I didn't feel inspired enough to write anything. It happens! Ask Jane Austen!

Welsh classes have become a little more challenging as we have been doing battle in a big way with mutations or 'treiglads' as the Welsh have it. As the language has evolved, someone evidently decided that it was a bit too easy in its original form and they should do something to make it more complicated and I have to acknowledge, they did a pretty good job.

So, depending on which verbs, nouns, adverbs etc you are using, you have to think about whether the noun is masculine or feminine, which bit of the sentence is going to determine which 'treiglad' you use, if any and then string the sentence together, remembering that the Welsh have obviously had an operation on their throats which enables them to pronounce the sound 'ch' so much better than you could ever do. You must do all this within a second or two because, if you take as long as I currently do, the person you are speaking to will be halfway to Chester before you've said anything beyond ' Er...'.

However, it's all great fun and keeps the grey cells in tip top condition - at least I hope it does.

In my group, three of us are not Welsh but it seems that the Welsh have a great line in excuses for non-production/questionable condition of homework. Forget 'The dog ate my homework, Miss.' Yesterday, one of my co-learners handed a slightly muddy sheet to the tutor with the unforgettable sentence,

"Sorry about the mud but I had it on the table and one of my hens stood on it." 

Beat that!