Cymru Am Byth

A man, a woman, and a small young boy entered the carriage, videlicet they are a family boarding the train at King's Cross Station London. I just comfortably sat down on my seat and I was fashionably early. There were only the family and I on the train and the their seats were just across the aisle to my left. I started to search for my magazine to kill off the time en route to Nottingham when I realised that the man was not going to travel with the woman and the small young boy. Curiosity arose, I looked at the man's face through the corner of my eyes, pretending like I am the statue of liberty sitting down with no particular interest in what was happening around me. The face of the man showed a glimpse of sadness, maybe because he had to stay in London for some work I supposed. Then he came in, with the angelic voice he could made he told his boy to come again next week. He asked whether the boy enjoyed the football match at Upton Park, and he nodded in silence with an air of innocence. The woman just ignored the man. I assumed both of them were divorced and now living separately, taking turns out of each other to show their hopeless love due to their negligence to smell the roses of marriage. Few minutes had passed by and it was about time for the train to rattle its way up north to the midlands. Who loves sayonara? However, everyone at least once in the phase of this life cannot run away from saying goodbye and refrain from the tears if not in the eyes deep in the heart of missing or not seeing someone for a long period of time. However, what was happening was the most cruel moments I could never want to swallow, as the woman deliberately attracting the boy's intention by asking him random questions in order not to let the boy fathom how much does his father love him as he waved endlessly towards the young face that would never at least turned and waved back at him. Oh how the illusion and ignorance of adulthood tainted the innocence, leaving the boy hanging for a split second to witness his father's love.

Maybe I am too observant.
Maybe I am thinking too much by observing every moment, every movement all around me.
Inter alia, perhaps I have to be ignorant?

Yesterday, I made my way towards Caerdydd, Cymru (Cardiff, Wales). Vis-a-vis the previous experience, on the train to Cardiff I observed the example of a joie de vivre. A lovely old couple sat beside me. How the old woman treated her husband, serving him sandwiches and politely conversing with him really flattered the inner of me as I was reading along the lines of my lecture notes on Industrial Economics A. How both of them exchanging ideas and appreciation about the scenery painted on the windows as Central Train made its way across the countryside towards Gloucester.

Maybe their appreciation on memento mori make them to really appreciate each other and the smallest of small things perhaps? How the fact that death is just around the corner makes them to capture every second in carpe diem perhaps?

Life.

Croeso (welcome!) to Caerdyyd, Cymru (Cardiff, Wales). Due to the recent fatal train crash in Cumbria en route to Glasgow which killed an old woman and severely injured 11 people there were intensive maintenance and 'Kilroy wuz ere' work on the signals along the tracks all over Great Britain. I arrived about one and a half hour late and after filling up the complaint form (the passengers are entitled to get the money back if the train arrived late more than an hour) I ran into Millennium Stadium to be part of the blues in the Carling Cup Final 2007.

And 'she' made her own way ;)


[The Kooks - She Makes Her Own Way]

I had nasi lemak at Bali restaurant in the city centre. There were lots of English people started to coming into the restaurant to satisfy their exotic hunger and taste. After explaining what is nasi lemak to the two men beside my table, he asked me whether I am from Malaysia. I said yes. When I was about to leave, the big man who was eating satay and could not resist to tell his friend "this is delicious" asked me did I come all the way from Malaysia to watch Chelsea in the final? Laziness crept in and I just said yes. Out of the blue he told all the Chelsea fans in the restaurtant;

"This chap came from Malaysia to watch Chelsea in the final!!!"

Haha. I was speechless and to share his delight I showed him the spirit of Chelsea as I walked out of the restaurant with exchanged of smiles between us. How great it is to know how the foreign people know the existence of my country and I am proud of the soil.

I boarded Arriva (Welsh train) and made changes in Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa and stranded for an hour at Birmingham New Street. The thought of being the only Malaysian on the trains full of the real 'English' people really made me cold in the feet and at times it made me smile to my own reflection on the window door as I sat down on the floor, listening to various English slang I have not heard of before.

And I smiled, how Chelsea and Arsenal shirts were mixed together throughout the carriages from Cardiff, that couldn't have happened 10 years ago.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, also spelt Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll and commonly known as Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll, is a village and community on the island of Anglesey in Wales, situated on the Menai Strait next to Menai Bridge and across the strait from Bangor. It is the longest place name in the UK. A translation into English would yield "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave".

The English name for Wales originates from the Germanic word Walha, meaning "stranger" or "foreigner", probably derived from the name Volcae. The term also appears in the "-wall" of Cornwall. The Welsh themselves called themselves Cymry, "compatriots", and named their country Cymru, which is thought to have meant "Land of the Compatriots" in Old Welsh; this has reference to their awareness that they were the original countrymen of Wales, and indeed Britain by virtue of their ancestors the Brythoniaid (Brythons), and also in order to distinguish themselves from the foreign invaders of Britain, the Saeson (English) and the Gaels (Irish). There is also a mediaeval legend found in the Historia Regum Britanniae of Sieffre o Fynwy (Geoffrey of Monmouth) that derives it from the name Camber, son of Brutus and, according to the legend, the eponymous King of Cymru (Cambria in Latin); this however was largely the fruit of Geoffrey's vivid imagination. Cumberland and Cumbria in the north of England derive their names from the same Old Welsh word.

ps: Cymru Am Byth = Wales Forever.

and merci beacoup to Apu, the dearest friend I ever had.