Friday 15 September 2023

A goodly number of members and their guests attended our usual Croeso evening at the Mortonhall Golf Club. We welcomed a number of new members and gave a very special welcome to Bryan and Pat Watts, President and First Lady of the Wellington Welsh Society, New Zealand, seen below with our own Presidential couple and Secretary:

At the Croeso, our generous buffet supper was followed by a competition to match those present with photos of themselves as youngsters. Some were easier than others! A chance was given to each subject to say a few words about the date and location of the snap as each picture was retrieved from the display.

We were then entertained by a short quiz featuring Wales, Scotland and New Zealand, devised by David Hughes, and we finished in proper EWS fashion with a few songs and our national anthem.

Sunday 5 March 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Our festival of hymns rounded off our patron saint’s day celebrations. Margaret Brandie introduced the hymns and Myra Tarr accompanied our singing on the piano. Lilian John treated us to her always welcome bara brith and made the tea. Many thanks to all three.”

If you didn’t come, you missed singing:

#474 Tyred, Arglwydd, i’r anialwch (Blaenwern)

#413 Rho im yr hedd, na ŵyr y byd amdano (Rhys)

#829 Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus (Calon lân)

#635 Rhagluniaeth fawr y nef (Builth)

#830 I bob un sydd ffyddlon (Rachie)

#429 Glân geriwbiaid a seraffiaid (Sanctus)

#838 O! Fy Iesu bendigedig (Dim ond Iesu)

#476 Mewn anialwch ’r wyf yn trigo (Hyfrydol)

#411 Arglwydd, dyro yr eneiniad (Edinburgh)

#837 O! na bawn yn fwy tebyg (O! na bawn i fel efe)

Friday 3 March 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Our annual St David’s Day dinner was a great success. The six tables were laid out beautifully and Ruby and staff of Mortonhall GC were welcoming and the meal delicious. Our Gwr Gwadd, Paul Lunn, gave us an insight into his friendship with our President, David, from student high jinx to the present day. He spoke of the lighter side of life as a vet, and touched on more serious issues too.

“David called upon Huw John to give the vote of thanks to our guest.

“David then thanked the staff of Mortonhall GC, the committee members and many others who have contributed to the success of the society. He thanked Margaret Brandie for hosting the Zoom meetings, and a special thank you to Martin Tarr for all his work distributing the EWSNEWS and keeping the society webpage to such a very high standard. Please remember to look at it from time to time.

“He went on to make a presentation of flowers, champagne, and exquisite gifts (a dragon brooch and celtic necklace from the Committee), and a card signed by all those present – to yours truly. It was a complete surprise, quite overwhelming, and I am everso grateful. And no – it was made very clear it was not to mark my retirement as Hon. Sec. – so here I am hugely honoured and typing on …

“Our evening was rounded off with community singing ably led by Jim Hughes.”

Friday 27 January 2023

Our Secretary writes:

“Lilian and Huw once again came up trumps with a scrumptious Chinese banquet. This was followed by a very interesting quiz, devised by Pamela Williams, with Hywel officiating as quizmaster. There were four teams of six and the results were close. I can’t quite remember which table won (it wasn’t mine, hence the memory fade) but it was jolly good fun. We rounded off the evening with community singing led ably by Huw Thomas. Thanks to Janet for producing new song sheets. A splendid evening, much enjoyed by all.”

Friday 25 November 2022

We met for a St Andrew’s Evening in the wonderfully warm surroundings of Priestfield Parish Hall, and enjoyed tucking in to haggis, neeps and tatties, followed by cranachan – many even managed seconds!

After what seemed all too short a time chatting over the coffee, we turned our attention to a session of “Call My Bluff”, which many of those present remembered watching in their youth! Our President was the “electronic display”, and our indefatigable secretary had picked out three of our number to be the celebrity panel – Cledwyn Thomas, Janet Thomas and Walter Whitelaw – and we were delighted with the performances of her “victims”. Helped in some cases by the BYOB we all joined in enthusiastically, and are pleased to report that we weren’t fooled all the time by Jennifer’s alternative definitions.

Then it was time for Jim Hughes to lead a spot of community singing to round off the evening, with a selection of mostly secular songs that were partly remembered by many, but proved a bit of a challenge to sing, before we reached the safer ground of Rachie, Calon lân and “Mae hen wlad fy nhadau”.

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for organising the evening, and thanks to all who contributed to its success, especially our catering team.