Hi, Coventry people please note that we have changed the monthly evening meeting date from the first Wednesday to the second Wednesday every month including this month. We meet at the Litten Tree pub, Warwick Road, in the city centre, at 6.30 pm. The next meetings will be: Wednesday May 9th, Wednesday June 13th, Wednesday July 11th and Wednesday August 15th (not 8th because of the National Eisteddfod). Everyone welcome.
Thanks
Andy
Diolch yn fawr iawn eto, Andy (a Mark). Ges i amser da iawn neithiwr achos roedd y āCroesoā truly, warmly derbyniolā¦
What a fantastic venue, Andy! Getting to Coventry on an āafter 9.30am all day off-peak bus/train daytripperā was easy from the West Midlands and relatively cheap and flexible. Train and bus got me home within an hour. I would recommend
The Litten Tree venue was easy to find, and sitting outside was pleasant, but you could do with wearing your t-shirt on top of your jumper, or asking the bartender if she could point you out to newcomers in future. She had told me sheād seen someone with a Welsh t-shirt, but did not know where you were. I think she and her colleague have clocked us now though.
Excuse me if my enthusiastic chatter was English-heavy at times, and Iāll need to test whether my ability to listen really does improve with cwrw consunption.
Hwyl am y tro!
Easy to find
Shwmae pawb. Dw iān edrych ymlaen iār cyntaf cyfarfod gyda chi.
I hoped to make it on Wednesday 9th but was working in Birmingham for the day, and couldnāt get away early enough - in the end I decided to stay late, to wait for the Aston Expressway/distressway to clear 8-(
I will plan to work closer to Cov for the next meetings, so look forward to meeting you all on June 13th. For the moment, Iāll continue to work to build my vocab (including school vocab Iād forgotten!) and watching every episode (subtitled) of Pobl y Cwm.
Dave
Oooh, competitive, eh, Dave?! Well, that is setting the bar higher than the low bar I set for myself in Mayā¦ Youāre on for this one, but youāll definitely āwinā in some sense or other, as I have no school Welsh, and have not yet seen Pobol y Cwmā¦ Luckily your hard work and challenge will pay off for me, so iās win-winā¦!
Great 
Looking forward to meeting you in June.
Andy
Hi Lorna,
Sorry I didnāt mean to be competitive, I was just getting over-excited.
Pobl y Cwm is worth a watch - itās on BBC iPlayer and has subtitles (Iād be lost without the subtitles). As itās a soap opera itās full of day to day conversations and helps to tune in to pronunciation.
Dave.
Exactly what I use it for ā¦ well, itās my excuse anyway 
Hi Dave!
My turn to apologiseā¦ It is hard to convey a leg-pulling voice!
I am really looking forward to your joining the group, and I am delighted you have schoolboy Welsh vocab to revise! I brought a couple of freshly-bought pocket dictionaries with me for my ever first visit an SSiW meet-up, and my first trip to Coventry in a couple of decades. You wonāt need those!
I find it wonderful that meeting people in the flesh makes the language learning leap into life, including anything youāve ever known, however long back. I remembered lots ar y trĆŖn going home, but Andy, and Mark who also attended the May session made it very easy even for a beginner.
A little rivalry never did me any harmā¦ I am still mostly addicted to Sam TĆ¢n and Guto Gwningen, but shall be raising my gameā¦ Y Detectif, and Codi Pac may have to move over even though Iām not good at remembering Soap storylines, so if I do admit to watching some, please do not test meā¦ There will probably be a website to put me in the picture!
Hwyl am y tro,
Lorna
Hi Lorna!
Sorry for my delay Iāve finally got properly started with SSiW and have just read your message. No worries at all - I wasnāt sure if you were joking so thought Iād best play it safe! Iāve only just joined up to the six month SSiW course on Monday, and have got around to reading the Forum tonight after sorting out my Slack logon and doing challenge 1 and 2 earlier this week. I didnāt realise SSiW existed when I got in touch with Andy in April, so itās great that thereās something so organised and motivated. When I realised I had to pay it took me several weeks to prise my clutching fingers off my wallet! There we go, Iāve got over that now 
Thanks for welcoming me, I was really pleased to hear that youāre another learner in the group as it makes it easier to join (plus good that thereās more of us). Youāre right, no harm in friendly rivalry to keep us both going. Iām putting time aside every day but at the same time am trying to avoid stressing about it, thinking āI have made the decision to become a Welsh speaker and that will happenā, just as it will happen to you too.
Are you using phone apps to help? Iāve found Ap Geiriaduron (Uni of Bangor) is a great fast dictionary which I prefer over Google translate. I donāt do soaps normally but Iām using Pobl as a regular fix of hearing southern Welsh. Iām trying Rownd a Rownd as well (a soap set in North Wales on iPlayer) to get my head rownd the Northern Welsh accent a bit. I must admit at first the character Meical completely did my head in when he spoke - when I first listened to him I couldnāt work out where words started and ended! I think Iām slowly getting there.
Wela i ti, a pob hwyl,
Dave
Hi Andy,
See you there,
Mal Leyshon
Great! See you later
Andy
Shwmae Pawb,
A great evening out having a go in Welsh. Thanks Andy, Mark, Mal and Trevor. It would be lovely to meet Lorna next time.
I made it to the train station platform 20 seconds before my train arrived. Phew - cutting it fine as the next one was 50 minutes later 
Everything under control!
Nice evening and really great to meet everyone
Andy
Yes, splendid evening! Canāt say I understood absolutely everything everyone said, but enjoyed ātuning inā to Welsh conversationā¦even though I was the only āGogā
Trevor
Iām a Gog too
Sorry Andy, I didnāt pick that up. Not just me then? Phew!
Trevor
Gogs and Hwntws speaking Welsh round a table together in Coventry, and Donald Trump meeting Kim-Jong Un in Singapore the same week. Whatever next? 
Itās good we can learn each otherās dialect words and tune into accents, apart from enjoying a pint in pleasant company.
Also are you there Mal? It looked like you were trying to join the hangout with Nia this evening (your name and photo popped up but there was no sound or motion). Did you have technical problems?
Sāmae pawb, and profoundest apologies for failing to get to Coventry or give @andyjone Andy - or anyone else - an apology in advance - indeed, not until now. It was virtually the next day (i.e. Thursday a.m.) actually before it flickered into my consciousness that I had managed to miss what I had been looking forward to attending had a slew of minor factors/events not completely distracted me.
In the end (metaphorical) firefighting on several fronts meant I put everything aside (except getting stuff done before the hoped for bwtcamp) just to get myself through. Slack & the 6mws, this forum etc all bit the dust for over 10 days, and actually I have not made it to the bwtcamp either. So, I shall hope, but make no promises, to turn up at the next Coventry meeting as a personal priority.
No problem Lorna and no need to apologise! We had five of us this time so thereās a nice little group going now Sorry to hear about the bwtcamp but anyway we look forward to seeing you when you can make it.
Andy
Hi Everybody, firstly thank you all for a great meeting and the opportunity to chat with such nice people. I hope by the next meeting I will have been fitted with an hearing aid as I really struggled to hear you all with the ambient noise.
Yes I have been having a few problems with good old windows 10 so I have switched over to windows 7 for SSIW etc.
Looking forward to meeting you all again now I have had my first meeting!
warmest,
Mal