It's all over bar the shouting (and we intend to shout)

The great adventure is over - and it only involved walking a few hundred yards down the road every day ! The Keys to the National Eisteddfod of Wales have been handed over to Wrexham and the great pink pavilion, so visible from our house, will very soon disappear - for good. There won't be another National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale in my lifetime - there's simply no space. The 185 acres available for the Eisteddfod was part of the site of the former steelworks, and it's all about to be built on.

It was one of the most exciting weeks of my life and the sense of loss now that it's gone is driving us to think in terms of how we can build on the jolt that the great event has given the area. A welcome surge in the number of people joining Welsh language clases is expected, but we are thinking more in terms of visual art. A reunion of the Eisteddfod Visual Arts Committee members has been proposed, and my secret agenda is to try to steer that in the direction of the formation of a permanent group whose aim will be to encourage and even initiate visual arts projects in Blaenau Gwent. Did you visit our Lle Celf? If so, what did you think of it? It certainly generated some debate, as expected!

The Great Week

In the week leading up to the start of the Eisteddfod Angela and I were kept pretty busy with preview tours of the Maes, and receptions, at which the wine flowed freely. I opened my part of the it all, Y Lle Celf ('The Art Place') officially on Saturday evening, having been to a gathering of the mayors of all or most of the local authorities of Wales at lunch time. The mayors were very keen to chat to us about their mayoral chains - a fascinating field of study and something I intend to find out more about.

The only snag was that there was yet more free-flowing wine, so by the time I had to open Y Lle Celf in the evening, I was feeling a little dopey. It was the first time I'd ever made an amplified speech in Welsh to a large crowd of people, and I sound (and look) half asleep in the film of the event. However, I was astounded to be congratulated afterwards by none other than the Arch-druid ! Afterwards, more wine. Whatever happened to the temperance principles of the Eisteddfod?

Since then, I have done some stewarding in Y Lle Celf, but have spent most of the time enjoying the Eisteddfod in general, including the Crowning of the Bard in the Main Pavilion. Sunday was strange, as that was the day of the 25,000 free tickets distributed to the people of this non-Welsh-speaking area to entice them to come. At least 10,000 of them turned up, plus 15,000 from outside the area. The result was that it was a rather strange day, with a lot of English to be heard, but things were back to normal on Monday. The weather has been fine so far, but there's a drawback in that - the dust. The Maes is on part of the former steel works and attempts to grass the land over earlier in the year failed miserably. The surface consists only of bare concrete chips (from the demolition) and dust. It plays havoc with your ears, nose and throat.

Anyway, I'll be back there today. I've bumped into dozens of people - tutors, students and college staff- that I've met over the past seven years of learning Welsh and that, combined with dealing with the public in Y Lle Celf, has provided an almost non-stop opportunity of speaking Welsh.