This morning, my wife pointed out those of our friends who are Welsh-speaking. Poor people; Iāll have fun with them over the next few weeks. 
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We went to two Welsh comedy shows over the weekend at Machynlleth Comedy Festival.
First being a preview of Elis Jamesā new Welsh Language show.
Second a sort of āEvery Welsh language comedian at Machynllethā doing a bit of a 5 mins each session.
Fully understood both of them - and laughed at the right points!!!
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A very good friend who, to be fair, has put a lot of effort into his learning of yr hen Iaith, was delighted to be taken, by first language Welsh speakers, as one who had, like them, learned from infancy, but whose Welsh had become rusty with lack of use, so was being refreshed by a holiday in Gogledd Cymru!!! He was very happy!
Now, clearly that is neither my achievement nor my breakthrough, but is surely worthy of celebration!
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Well I promised you youād get nothing but mundane normality from me.
This afternoon Iāve just been exchanging emails with my local AM (Assembly Member) about arranging a guided tour around the Senedd (Like Westminister) for our local Clwb Clonc (Welsh Chat Club) in the next few weeks in Welsh.
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Well, I do a lot of presentations in my line of work (Technical Architecture in IT, basically designing blueprints for big IT systems/networks) and Iāve been doing one as of late relating to a new thing Microsoft are doing.
I know a couple of people in my company can speak Welsh (and they speak it as a first language) so I decided to run an hour long version of this current presentation in Welsh.
It went surprisingly well to be honest. Some bits were hard because I still havenāt found a good translation for āThe best way to describe a containerized application is one that sits within its own virtual resource spaceā butā¦ I managed to do it all with just the odd āhard to translateā English word here and there.
And just as proof that this actually happened! hahaha
So yeah! 
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I hope they were genuinely appreciative @Nicky. Thatās not something you can do in 5 minutes!
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It got an applause at the end, which - trust me - doesnāt happen much in the world of āContainerized applicationsā presentations 
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Had a pretty successful day today . Got talking to a guy in the post office queue this morning who has moved to my village from Caernarfon . Nice guy with a really strong Cofi accent . He said how nice it was to have found someone who he could speak Welsh with here. I was quite surprised when he told me that he grew up in London and didnāt move to Caernarfon until he was 13 but he became fluent in no time at all due to Welsh being all around him .
Some new people have just taken over the post office and when I got to the front of the queue I noticed the woman was wearing a necklace with "siarad cymraeg"on it , so I managed to pay a couple of bills in Cymraeg 
. Turns out they have just moved here from Pen y Groes . I was surprised when she said she had always lived there as she had no Welsh accent at all ! Iām glad I can now speak Welsh when I go to the post office on a Monday as the village cafe I used to go to and have a chat in Welsh has now been taken over by English speaking people.
I felt I was on a bit of a roll so after getting out of the post office I phoned my mechanic and booked my car in for a service and MOT (in Cymraeg ) with no problem at all. On last yearās MOT I had just started learning Welsh and managed to just speak a couple of sentences with him so hopefully when I drop my car off there tomorrow he will be impressed
After that I went to the next village , Llanfairfechan (where you tend to hear a bit more Welsh than my village ) and managed to have my whole haircut in Welsh !
One more challenge coming up in about an hour where i will pay my daughterās brownies fees in Cymraeg and that should complete a successful day
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Brilliant stuff!!! This is very inspiring!
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Managed to talk with a the man servicing my caravan at the weekend totally in Welsh, including discussing how he was getting on fitting the water heater element. He spoke very quickly and had a strong Caernarfon accent so it was quite challenging. Best compliment though was that he told a friend, whose caravan he was servicing as well, that he was impressed with my Welsh.
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Now that is really something! Complements to your face is lovely, but youāre never quite sure if someone is just being polite, but compliments ābehind your backā as it were, are the real thing.
Having said that, I reached peak impressed at āheā¦ had a strong Caernarfon accentā - I struggle to understand them half the time!
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Thanks Iestyn!
Two days ago I managed to sell my wifeās old car - and then fill out the logbook return in Cymraeg
(as an explanatory note I should add that the guy buying the car was a first language Welsh speaker and he noticed the āCymraegā sticker on my door, so started it - and that a few months ago I set my iPhone to Welsh as a form of immersion. So when I go on certain websites, itāll display in Welsh first - DVLA being one of them).
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I just registered to vote through the medium of Cymraeg
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Well, I was interviewed today - totally in Welsh for Radio Cymru.
Iām going to be on Radio Cymruā¦againā¦ tomorrow on the news, talking about the Welsh Governmentās 1 million Welsh speakers campaign.
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What was the programme today Nicky, or was it the news?
Iām not sure exactly. They came to our Clwb Clonc session to get the opinion of learners, so I thinkā¦
ā¦they are going to use soundbites for the morning news sections.
ā¦then the interviews may be used in full on one of the call-in shows throughout the day.
Apparently a study is going to be released tomorrow as to whether the plan is working at all at the moment.
I donāt listen to Radio Cymru before Taroār post at 1pm, so anything before that is brand new to me 
If I said āPost Cyntafā would that make sense to anyone? Thatās the morning news programme yes?
Yes :-). Will listen out for you!
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Friends,
We are visiting Walesāhiking in the Brecon Beacons in the pouring rain and having a ball! Several times in the last two days I have said the odd thing in Welsh to strangers and been answered in Welsh. Now others in our group have started asking me how to pronounce place-names, and finally, some have said āSince you are from Canada, we didnāt realize you are a Welsh speakerā. Gosh, me, a Welsh speakerāthat has a nice ring to it.
Oh and we just āknocked offā Pen y Fan plus someātime for a celebration.
Tralalalala,
Marilyn
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