Nellie Knows : Wales : May 2019

Aren’t subtitles brilliant?  Well they are on a Sunday evening on S4C now that Series 2 of Un Bore Mercher has got underway and fans of Keeping Faith are happy to be reunited with Faith, Evan and Baldini. Oh it’s going to be good, great cast, characters, scenery, wardrobe and music sung by Ela Hughes. It’s got everything. I interviewed Aneirin Hughes who plays Tom, Alex Harries who plays Arthur and Matthew Hall the scriptwriter last year at Crickhowell Literary Festival and had a blast. During my research I learnt that Aneirin and Matthew started Monmouth Male Voice Choir and Ela is Aneirin’s daughter. Small world.  Walking into a room full of men singing rum and huh was just the start of the rehearsal and for an hour I was mesmerised by a group of men of all ages, shapes and sizes as they sang their parts in isolation, as a choir, loudly, softly and with a passion so immense that I held my breath and wiped away the tears, appreciating quite how powerful a Male Voice Choir is. And it is, it really is. There is something very special about a Male Voice Choir. Treorchy Male Voice Choir released an album of Queen songs, Beaufort Male Voice Choir performed with Public Service Broadcast at Green Man Festival and this Sunday I’m going back stage with Monmouth Male Voice Choir in Crickhowell.  The most common thing that people say about Wales is it always rains. It doesn’t. It does rain there but it also rains in a lot of places. Our gardens love the rain, the lakes and reservoirs need the rain and I don’t know about you but I would rather see a body of water rather than a dry cracked river bed. Having given up caffeine and alcohol, water is all I drink and now 37 weeks after giving up sugar I can truly appreciate the benefits of water.  I’ve made no secret of the fact I gave up sugar 37 weeks ago, not only that but for 7 weeks I also gave up yeast, wheat, dairy, carbs, caffeine, alcohol, salt, fruit and gluten, getting well and losing the equivalent of 2 koalas, 1 mountain hare, 1 royal antelope, 1 golden bamboo mongoose, 1 pine marten, 1 hooded skunk, 1 noisy night monkey and 2 mongoose. When asked what diet I’m following I say it’s not a diet it’s a lifestyle change oh and a bit of animal mathematics.