186th Post

This is my 186th post! I want you to cast your mind back to one of my earlier posts, before I got distracted
http://sharkfishinginwales.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/bridge-building-at-builth.html
 They say a week is a long time in Politics, well it has taken a year and a half to get to the next part of my autobiographical blog. So from Bridge Building at Builth Wells, I went to work for an organisation called Voluntary Arts Wales with their headquarters in Welshpool, Powys so I moved from South Powys to North Powys but I was not to last in this post long. The remit was to help voluntary arts organisations to access sources of funding. I had even moved this time into a converted Mill House in the village of Meifod. I had started coughing quite badly and was feeling pain in my shoulder and out of breath. I was keeping myself so busy that I wasn't allowing myself to stop and reflect on my subconscious. What I remember about Welshpool and the area surrounding it especially to the hinterland was that it felt lovely, warm and welcoming. I have been there today. Travelling up from Aberystwyth to Machynlleth and then to Glantwymyn/Cemaes Rd up to Brigand's Inn and then on to Trallwng/Welshpool via Cann Office and Llanfair Caereinion. 

It was all change in Welshpool and not for the best, half the high street had been made one way and there was now a Tesco and a Sainsburys. We wanted to try the wonderful food at the Corn Store Restaurant and were now only able to cross the road as pedestrians if the road traffic had stopped at the Red Light. We managed it and it was well worth the effort but again towns and cities of the UK are set up for fast paced movement. Welshpool used to be a market town that you could saunter around with a straw in your mouth. Not any more! The town brought back memories of good food and friendly people 'Mwynder Maldwyn'. A whistle stop visit to the Mid Wales institution of Charlies and then stuck in Newtown traffic on the way home. We came back through Caersws, Llanbrymair and Carno. The empty Laura Ashley factory now casting a historical shadow over the village. My nostrils widened along this road because I knew from memory that it was along here somewhere that the leader of the BNP lived, Nick Griffin. I used to pass it on my journeys North as there was a Panzer Kampfwagen on his drive. It was here that he hosted Jean Marie Le Pen in a Marquee in a Field across the road to his home. The Farmers of Montgomeryshire are conservative with a small c as witnessed by their MP Glyn Davies. Previously they had been represented by the the Ego maniac Lembit Opik, the lover of weather girls and cheeky girls in that order. So a round robin journey today that reminded me of April 1999 when on a visit to Cardiff from Welshpool I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. My workaholic lifestyle had taken its toll.    
It would be wrong to call Voluntary Arts Wales sharks.....but I will. I worked for them or shall I say bled for them from January till April 1999 when a fast thinking and acting GP in Cardiff sent me straight up to Llandough Hospital for X Ray. The scar still visible now where the Biopsy was done and the diagnosis of blood cancer was given. They were more concerned about when I would return to work. They stopped paying me. I wouldn't be returning to that work. Instead of bullshitting my way through funding applications I endured a course of six doses of chemotherapy with me thinking "What the Fuck have I done to deserve this?" before my hair fell out. The National Health Service looked after me which is more than can be said for Voluntary Arts Wales but it was a long time ago.