Bore da pawb, I’d just like to add my thanks to James for the way he has supported the
Newport group. For a long time it wasn’t so much a group just two birds, The Black
Sparrow and Cuckoo, now sometimes it’s a flock.
Diolch James.
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There was this one time, I blinked, and when I opened my eyes Google hadn’t made a breaking update to Android…
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It was probably the time when I (finally) reported the app didn’t crash when I turned the tablet around. 
And now … to more sirious things - to our Seren yr Wythnos
I know James from the forum and his ex forum name “theblacksparrow” caught my eye probably imagening I’d see Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Carebbians on the picture, however the name probably came from some other occassion - some other “world” then this.
I actually know James only from the forum and happily by his work on (mostly) Android SSi apps although I’ve met him at SSiW gathering last year at the Eisteddfod. We didn’t spoke much but I was happy to see the fellow app developer, for who I happily test(ed) the apps if and when needed, in person.
Thank you James for letting me into the group of your app(s) testers and your “Thank you for testing the app for me.” last year at the Eisteddfod means a lot to me.
So, diolch o galon for everything you’re doing for SSi and for us - learners - with that!
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Seren yr Wythnos #10
Louis van Ekert
As I’ve worked my way through the Ser so far (including, ahem, missing last Friday - because, 5 day intensive!), it’s becoming increasingly worrying for me that people might think they’re being released in some kind of ranking order.
I’ve even toyed with making them all Seren yr Wythnos #1 - but that would get a little confusing, I suspect.
Anyway… ladies and gentlemen, I give you Louis van Ekert.
Louis is a star in every possible sense of the word (except perhaps the one about large incandescent celestial bodies). He’s stuck his hand up enthusiastically every single time we’ve ever asked for any kind of volunteers - time and time again, he’s paid for a round of champagne for everyone at the SSiW Birthday Party - he’s single-handedly brought copious amounts of sunshine to every Bootcamp he’s been on (Louis is a part-time Sun God - I’m still not sure if he’s ever actually seen it rain in Wales) - and when things have been tough, he’s always been there with enthusiasm and support.
As our only current (to the best of my knowledge) Dutch Australian Welsh-speaker, he gets inundated with media requests when he visits the Eisteddfod - I remember one year when he seemed to have a comet-like trail of journalists following him every time I saw him - and he puts up with it all gracefully and good-heartedly, never missing a chance to give SSiW a plug.
When we launched the under-loved ffrinDiaith project, I was lucky enough to get Louis as my ffrinDiaith - truth be told, I can’t remember if he sent me a request, or if I sent him one… Ever since, we’ve had a regular (hiccups aside) weekly chat in Welsh - well, I say chat, but the truth is Louis often gets landed with nothing more than an extended listening exercise - which he puts up with in his usual patient and friendly manner, which is familiar to everyone he helps or chats with on the forum.
Our ffrinDiaith chats have often been incredibly valuable for me - Louis has got serious experience of management, software and academia, and has helped me develop my lines of thinking in lots of different directions.
He’s also been one of our most important testers of the SSiBorg, with the early Dutch material that he put together (with the recording help of Eline) - as a cutting edge tester, he’s often had to put up with me looking slightly embarrassed and telling him that I’d like him to start all over from the beginning again - but while this must often have made him feel like throttling me, the distance from Wales to Australia has been a helpful element. His input has been extremely valuable in developing the SSiBorg, and I’m excited that we’re not all that far away from a new round of testing which will involve more SSiDutch lessons.
I’ve never particularly wanted to learn Dutch, but now I feel as though I have to…
Louis set up an extremely memorable meeting for me with Regina Coeli, the hugely impressive language school (mostly for footballers and politicians!) in the Netherlands - and invited us out to stay with his brother, and put us up in a lovely hotel in Amsterdam - which remains one of the children’s favourite ever holidays (although I suspect that much of what Beuno claims to remember comes mostly from his sister’s stories about it) - and looked after the monsters-I-mean-kids for an afternoon while Catrin and I lazed around Amsterdam, drinking coffee and discussing how odd it felt not to hear children screaming.
In fact, and in summary, Louis embodies a lot of the magic of SSiW for me - we put up some mp3 files on the internet, and now I have a Welsh-speaking spare brother from the Netherlands who lives in the outback(ish) of New South Wales. It’s a surprising, breath-taking old world.
And we WILL make it out there to visit one of these days…
Ladies and gentlefolk, I invite you to remove your headwear, raise a glass of something alcoholic, and nod affectionately in the direction of Mr Van Ekert… 
Iestyn ap Dafydd
Catrin Lliar Jones
Cat Dafydd
Dee McCarney
Spenny
Jeff Lewis
Ifan Baines
Kev Smith
James Mahoney
Louis van Ekert
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My image of Louis is of someone who is always smiling, as that’s how he has been every time I’ve come across him.
I had a go at the early SSiDutch course as it stood a few years back when I was going to the Netherlands for the weekend, and the friends I was visiting were extremely impressed with my “complex sentence structures” and pronunciation - that coming from a secondary school Dutch teacher - and I put that all down to the SSi method and Louis’ efforts. Can’t wait for the rest once that SSiBorg bursts into life!
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Amazing story!!! I’m very jealous you get to be ffrindiaith to one another!
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@louis is one of SSi mysteries to me. I’ve heard a lot but know very little. Brilliant story which discloses some of the things he made for SSi, but I have a strong feeling there are so many more, one post just can’t describe them in full.
When I was at the time of mystery challenges @aran has put infront of me and after that when I needed a conversation partner, Louis voluntered immediatelly to help, however by some strange coincidences the Skype session with him never occured. But even the offer to help itself is a great honour to me.
Thank you for everything you do for SSi Louis. You’re one of those who makes SSi even better as it already is.
Diolch o galon am y popeth!
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Hi Louis, I raise a glass of Prosecco and remember my first Bootcamp. I enjoyed the days I could spent with you. Whenever I want to point out, that SSiW is an international community, you’re my best example: a Dutch, living in Australia and learning Welsh.
Thank you for being always so friendly and helpful, thank you for the Dutch course and for everything you did and are doing for SSi.
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Dank u wel, @louis
I’m fully aware and admiring of much of the work you continue to do, not only for your own mother tongue but for Welsh and the wider work of SSi* so I heartily endorse your nomination.
I have had the pleasure of meeting you and your lovely wife on two occasions. The first was on bootcamp in Tresaith and the second was over lunch in the national Library of Wales in Aber. At bootcamp, I remember asking you what you did for a living and it took me a while clambering over the Tresaith rocks to work out your answer. You told me you worked for “Peiriannau Busnes Rhyngwladol” 
I’ll leave people to work that one out for themselves. I think the whole group were impressed by the fact that you brought your wife to bootcamp on honeymoon 
(although she was not subject to the Welsh Only constraint.) There’s commitment for you.
Diolch yn fawr unwaith eto, cyfaill and I hope to meet you again before too long in one hemisphere or the other.
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Ditto! I still remember our guilty pleasure of speaking German with you on my first Bootcamp - not breaking the ‘No English’ rule 
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Mis Awst, Ynys Mon?
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Here I was feeling sorry for you being addressed in Dutch by the cabin crew on your way over
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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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