You’re making me blush Aran, all I ever set out to do was learn Welsh, but I sort of ended up as a boiling frog with Stockholm syndrome, if you get my drift. I want to thank everybody in the SSiW family, it is such an unbelievable pleasure to be part of a world-wide group of wonderful people wanting to promote Welsh (and a warble of other languages). Wendy and I will be in Wales in August, a week at the Eisteddfod and then a week with my five brothers in a house in the south somewhere. I look forward to meeting and catching up with some of you then!
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Bang to rights, Mr van E, and very well deserved. Our chats are always a highlight in my week and you do put up gracefully with a lot of my rubbish and continual threats to burn things down. At least I can depend on one conversation a week with a generous, intelligent and thoughtful person. Please note that I take it as read that Mrs Shak provides a similar service. I do not want the ‘thumb in the eye in the night’ treatment. Again.
Has Louis confessed about his eponymous beer? Or that he is the owner of a sied hanesyddol and possibly a gold mine? Truly a man of considerable talent and a great sense of fun!
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Llongyfarchiadau Louis! It has been great to chat on Skype occasionally. We’ll have that Aussie Bootcamp one day!
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My new favourite description of anything anywhere ever. 
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Only one growler left Andy, and I don’t think it will last till August…
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'Fallai. Hala mwy o manylion gan PM. plis (and to comply with forum good practice …)
Perhaps. Send me a PM with more details, please 
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I seem to have developed the bad habit of leaving Seren yr Wythnos until later in the day on Fridays, and then running out of time! I’m going to try and make it my ‘first thing of the day’ from now on…[wish me luck!..;-)]
anyway… for last Friday…
Seren yr Wythnos #11
Rob Bruce
One of the most magical, and most important, things about this community is the way in which so many people stay around and continue to contribute long, long after they have become entirely competent speakers and need no further help at all from us.
Rob is a particularly brilliant example of this - in fact, the first time he came on Bootcamp (optimistically hoping to be able to fit a camper van into the Tresaith shop car park) he already seemed a Welsh speaker to me - I don’t think he ever really needed any more from us than thumbs up and confirmation.
He was one of our very first Angels (forum moderators) and has been a central part of making the forum the welcoming, friendly place it is - and, as you might have noticed, he is our residential expert on all things to do with Welsh music…
In fact, if anyone asks me anything about Welsh bands (unless the answer happens to be Meinir Gwilym, Lleuwen or Bob Delyn) - whether it’s a learner or a speaker asking, whether it’s online or down the pub - I tell them that I know a man who knows, and I come and ask Rob on the forum…
Rob’s been inspirational for us in other ways, too - he was one of the very first SSiWers I knew who was determined to make Welsh part of his family life - his daughter Tegwen was already attending a Welsh medium school, and it was clearly important to Rob to be able to speak Welsh with her. Seeing him succeed in normalising that really made me feel that we were building something that could help bring Welsh back to life in a family setting, which is the most important of all.
And now a slight admission - Rob used to have (maybe still does!) an email address that began killerthewhale - as a result of which (plus a little neurological muddling) I’ve always looked at his forum name and read it as RobtheBruce - even to the extent of needing to untype the ‘the’ sometimes when trying to tag him. It’s always felt nice having such an eminent Scot on the forum, though…
Rob, diolch o galon i ti am dy gwmni, dy gefnogaeth, a’r pleser mawr o weld dy lwyddiannau di a llwyddiannau Tegwen wrth wneud y Gymraeg yn rhan naturiol o’ch bywydau…
And now, if you like the friendly nature of this community, a quick thank you is in order to Rob for helping build it that way…
Iestyn ap Dafydd
Catrin Lliar Jones
Cat Dafydd
Dee McCarney
Spenny
Jeff Lewis
Ifan Baines
Kev Smith
James Mahoney
Louis van Ekert
Rob Bruce
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Congratulations Rob! You were one of the mentors on my first Bootcamp, and to me you were a Cymro Cymraeg from day one - and an inspiration. I remember your beautiful daughter Tegwen being there as well, and to this day I still wonder what she thought of having to put up with us struggling to make ourselves understood.
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Amazing story!! Diolch am bopeth Rob! It’s amazing to hear that you’ve managed to make Welsh a part of your family life. That is where I hope to be one day
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Rob ti’n seren aur! Hoffwn dy weld yn y dyfodol - rwyt ti mewn un o fy ffotos ffefryn, jysd tu allan Y Llong oedd cael ei dynnu yn ystod y Bŵtcamp. Oeddet ti’n chwerthin efo Ifan ag yn y gefndir, roedd yr haul yn machlud - y lliwiau yn rhyfeddol.
Diolch am ddod â rhywbeth arbennig iawn i’r sgwrs!
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Congratulations @robbruce! Always good to read your contributions to the forum, and it’s been a pleasure to see how Tegwen has blossomed into a very confident Welsh speaker with your support and encouragement.
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Diolch Bruce. You were one of the mentors of my first Bootcamp and I always thought of you as a Cymro Cymraeg. And I love your contributions to the forum, not only about music. Yr hen ddyn flin has sometimes a different view of things.
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I know you’re moderator of this forum and you many times write on here to encourage people too but most of all I know you as a real Welsh Music “encyclopedia”. Whatever one asks you just pull out of your sleve immediately. I admire you for that and I love to peer into the Welsh Music thread, which actually wasn’t started by you but you are the leading poster (96 posts) and yor posts are always full of useful informations. I bought quite many albums of Welsh music by your “recommendations” so besides all good you did and are still doing for thsi forum, SSiW and this community, thank you in deed for this musical contribution too.
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Diolch, Rob - I always appreciate your contributions regarding music, and it’s really lovely to hear about your success bringing Welsh into your family life.
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Oh boy. I’m a team player. I don’t like being singled out. 
I believe that everything we achieve as humans is from working together.
That said, I also know that if someone does single you out, you don’t just shrug your shoulders. So many, many thanks for this - it means an enormous amount to know that my efforts to put something back are appreciated.
I’ve said before that this whole thing is a fluke: Me learning Welsh, me being successful leaning Welsh via making an early connection with a culture I didn’t really know existed, me finding out that bonding with my daughter via mutual learning of this language would not only enrich our lives but enrich our lives exponentially, all of it a pure fluke. That’s kind of what makes me want to help out here - to spread the luck around a bit and enable other people to have their own life-changing experiences.
Dal ati, bois. The rewards are endless.
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And that’s about the loveliest possible response to a Seren yr Wythnos…
[Quick, single him out more, see if he can keep it up…;-)]
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Diolch Rob. You have been a part of my Welsh journey for as long as I have known of SSIW ( a length of time I’m not sure of, 5 years maybe?) Always patient with me and other learners at siop Thomas, even if I am looking at you blankly when not understanding. When I had my daughter four and a half years ago you gave me something to aspire to and the knowledge that what I’m attempting is achievable. So I am grateful to your fluke.
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Well said, but, cofiwch! Every member of the team has a special part to play. Aran has merely identified your contribution to team SSiW.
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Dear @robbruce , thank you for everything you have done! Your particular ‘Seren yr Wythnos’ has made me think about the part others’ play in ones life, even when you have never met! I guess it is similar to the ripple effect, you share, and it goes so much further than you ever imagine.
I have often tried to define to friends how important learning Welsh, and belonging to this forum, is to me. It dawned on me that it it is because of people like you, who unselfishly share their own experiences (and time) to help others’, simply because they want to share the joy they felt at mastering this language! Thank you!
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