The altar in St Beuno's chapel

St Beuno's and Rupert Davies

We had a very interesting find on our travels today. We set off towards the Lleyn Peninsular, going over the mountain from Bala to Trawsfynydd and somewhere en route, we came across a little village called Pistyll and a tiny chapel, whose sign proclaimed that it was called St Beuno's. I was aware of the Jesuit church and retreat centre of the same name near St Asaph, so I was curious to see this one, not Catholic but Church in Wales. We got out of the car, wandered through the little cemetery, where many of the gravestones were inscribed in welsh, and found the door of the chapel. I tried the handle, fully expecting it to be either locked or to open onto a derelict building but what a surprise! Inside was a fully furnished chapel, complete with a dressed altar, pews, font and even a visitor's book. As you can see from the weblink, it is kept decorated with herbs etc throughout the year, so the last time it was decorated would have been early August. Stepping into the chapel was like stepping into a moment frozen in time; it reminded me of Miss Haversham's house in 'Great Expectations' yet it seemed well cared for and not a bit neglected. Unfortunately, there was no-one around to talk to about it so we had to wait until
Outside in the cemetery, another surprise awaited us. We looked at some of the more recent gravestones and suddenly discovered Rupert Davies' grave. If you were born since the 1960's his name may not mean much to you, but for us, he symbolises the 60's TV series of Maigret in which he played the title role. Looking on the internet this evening, we discovered that he was also one of the voices on the puppet series 'Joe 90' which I didn't know before.
So, all in all, an interesting day out and to finish it off, there was a lovely rainbow on the way home.
To see today's photos, look at my Webshots album, Bala and Black Rock. There are a few photos of the chapel and cemetery there too.

Computer whizz kid!

In my other life of teaching, we did a qualification similar to the ECDL but geared to the needs of the classroom. I even have the certificate to prove it! The problem is that when you are not doing something regularly, you inevitably forget how to do it, so Excel remains pretty much a closed book to me these days, although I did have a nodding acquaintance with it at that time.
Today, I was compiling a list of addresses to use for a new mailshot but, of course, I needed to put them on labels for the envelopes. I vaguely remembered doing something similar last year for the children's name labels on their exercise books.
"Nothing to it," I thought. "I should be able to remember how to do that."
After some hours of looking up reference notes, retyping the addresses into Excel from Word, etc. because I'd forgotten that's where they needed to be, I was successful!
It did occur to me that during the time spent completing this little exercise, I could have hand-written the envelopes at least 10 times over! A steep leaning curve! :)

Customers!

There are good days and bad days in any job, and a computer shop is no exception. We have our fair share of customers who think they are experts and show themselves to be anything but as soon as they open their mouths, although, to be fair, 99% of them are very nice people and a pleasure to do business with.
Yesterday, however, we had a double wammmy:
First a phone call from an irate young lady wanting to speak to the manager, (Keith) who wasn't available, about her mother's computer, bought from the shop two months ago and which now had 'major problems.' My mind trawled through processor/memory problems plus a faulty hard drive all in one from her attitude of barely concealed fury. It turned out that she was blaming the shop for loading pornographic diallers onto the computer, which, however, had only just made their presence known. Anyone who surfs the internet knows how one gets pornographic diallers on their system - and it ain't from the people who built the computer!

Second was a customer who had acquired the Trojan worm on his computer and harassed us with phone calls all day because he wanted it fixed yesterday. His wife came to collect it at the end of the day, furiously protesting because we had had the audacity to charge for removing the worm, which also entailed rebooting the system. "It's still under guarantee!" she proclaimed. "That covers hardware only," we said, "no computer supplier anywhere covers software too."
To cut a long story short, she claimed to have no credit cards and no money except a £10 note, which she grudgingly gave us, maintaining that she had to have the computer that night for her daughter to do her homework on. Husband was suppose to pay the balance today.......We're still waiting!

Shall I or shan't I?

I noticed the item on Blogger dashboard about National Novel Blogging Month. Seems like a very interesting idea and I am very tempted to sign up. But then, I wonder if I would have the time to devote to it. 50,000 words in a month! That's a lot of words! Keith thought it would be easy. He would have no trouble writing 50,000 words, as long as they were 3 letter words. He was quite crestfallen when I explained that, not only could they not only be 3 letter words but they also had to make sense - i.e. be in sentences!
(Oh well, back to the drawing board :0)
So, working full time in the shop, doing my counselling course, which includes homework, ordinary blogging and reading other people's blogs, of course, a few moments each week devoted to housework - would I also have time to write a novel? Decisions, decisions!

Oh, and........do I have anything to write about?

To make you smile

These little gems should put a smile on your face! :)

Subject: FW: The Sea


:o) some of these are good

A number of Primary Schools were doing a project on "The Sea". Kids
were asked to draw pictures, or write about their experiences.

Teachers got together to compare the results, and put together some
of the comments that were funny, and some that were sad. Here are
some of them. The kids were all aged between 5 and 8 years.

This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly age
6)

Whales are animals, not fish. If they don't get air they can drown,
like my brother did last summer. (David age 7)

Oysters balls are called pearls. (James age 6)

I don't like the sea. It makes me sick on the ferry. (Peter age 6)

My goldfish died. Why? (Katie age 5)

If you are surrounded by sea you are an Island. If you don't have
sea all round you, you are in continent. (Wayne age 7)

I think sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily
Richardson. She's not my friend no more. (Kylie age 6)

A dolphin breaths through an arsehole on the top of it's head. (Billy
age 8)

My uncle goes out in his boat with pots, and comes back with crabs.
(Millie age 6)

When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the
ocean. Sometimes, when the wind didn't blow, the sailors would
whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would be better
off eating beans. (William age 7)

I like mermaids. They are beautiful, and I like their shiny tails.
How do mermaids get pregnant? (Helen age 6)

I'm not going to write about the sea. My baby brother is always
screaming and being sick, my Dad keeps shouting at my Mum, and my big
sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to
write.(Amy
age 6)

Some fish are dangerous. Jelly fish can sting. Electric eels can
give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I
think they have to plug themselves into chargers. (Christopher age 7)

My mum has fish nets, but doesn't catch any fish. (Laura age 5)

When you go swimming in the sea, it is very cold, and it makes my
willy small. (Kevin age 6)

When me and Sarah went to the sea side in the summer holidays, we hid
in the sand dunes and watched my big sister doing it with her
boy
friend. It was fun. (Lauren age 7)

When I grow up, I want to be captain of a big ship, and have lots of
sailors (Valerie age 6)

On holiday my Mum went water ski-ing. She fell off when she was
going very fast. She says she won't do it again because water shot
up her fanny. (Julie age 7)

End of story

Anyone still perched on the edge of their seat eagerly awaiting the end of our furniture saga may now relax, sink back into the cushions and heave a sigh of relief. We have received the refund cheque - without a hint of apology and made out to Keith, although the money came from my account, but a cheque, nonetheless.
Once it is safely deposited in the bank, I shall feel free to let fly with a letter of vitriolic abuse to the powers that be. Or maybe I'll just write them a letter of complaint, threaten them with Watchdog and inform them that all the details are on my blog and freely available to the internet universe! Now THAT should REALLY shake them up!!