I awoke again this morning to the sound of the Ashokan Farewell. In Wales. Haha, that just doesn't get boring. :)
I showered, got ready for the day, and went down to make some breakfast. Lydia, Miya, Theresa, and Katy were already down there. It was Abbeys birthday today, so I took my crown down with me for her to wear all day. I whipped up some pancakes for breakfast and packed up a lunch while I ate. Abbey came in within a few minutes, so I gave her a great big hug and we all wished her a very happy birthday. I was about to plop my tiara on her head, but I was surprised to see that she already had one on. I looked over at Miya, who thew me a very sly smile; she had bought each of us tiaras. That cute stinker!
After I had finished packing and sat down to finish breakfast, Tom bustled into the room on his little travel bike. "I have important news for you all," he said. "Hope cottage (the other house) is now the hopeless cottage. The wifi is dead."
Silence. Everyone's eyes grew very wide. What? No more wifi? Well, that's a problem.
"Well, what happens now, Tom?"
"You'll have to get a dongle." Tom then taught us about little personal wifi units, called dongles, could be purchased and set up so that those who wanted to could use a months worth of limited data. I wasn't excited about limited data, Because that usually throws Skype out first, but I was really excited about the idea of having internet access in my own house. Tom said we could get dongles at Tesco, so we would be making an extra stop today for food and dongles.
I polished off my yummy pancakes and loaded up in the van by our assigned departure time of 9:15.
We only had just a few stops today. Our first was to the old coal mine called the Big Pit. While this mine is no longer being drilled, some of it has been left open as a huge museum.
When we arrived and our group was let in, we all had a utility belt strapped on and a headlight hard hat fitted and put on. On our belts were the battery pack for the headlight and a gas mask. When we were all set up, and everything bulky or that used a battery was left in lockers, an ex-miner brought us all into a metal lift and we descended 90 feet below the surface. Cool huh?
Our guide, Byron, was Irish and was very happy, which makes everything a lot more fun. He has worked this mine as an explosives man for 27 years, which spoke novels about his personality, as that many years in coal mine explosions is a rare trophy. He always had a big smile though and just was so excited to tell us about how the coal and mines worked. This was a man who really did enjoy his trade.
The mines were obviously very black, with many little puddles of water reflecting the shine of our headlights. They weren't as cold as I expected them to be, though some little spots were actually really cold. There were timber arches with stacked wood all along the walls, supporting the areas we were in. There were a bunch of places without supports too, but most of it was held up.
One of the first few things Byron showed us were some trams up along some open dig spots. I learned there that it was common for a miners wife and children to work a dig spot with the man. He would carve out he coal, and the others would load it into the trams. They got paid by the tram, so once it was full, it was up to the women to pull and push the one-ton tram back up to the dump site to have it be counted. One ton, that's so crazy!!! They had a few horses down there, but they could only be used for a few trams. Wow, I wonder what it's like to haul a one ton tram of coal all day.
I also thought it was cool that some of the old pick axe marks could be seen in the dig spots. It really made me consider the lives of the men who had been digging right there, as hard and as fast as they could to make all the money they could there. Byron also told us that for a while,the bigger the piece you brought up, the more you got paid. So not only were these men trying to pull up the black rock as quickly as possible, but they were all also trying to take it up as delicately as they could. Crazy.
I was surprised at how many things I already knew about coal mining. Byron was really great about asking us a lot of questions, but every now and then, I found that random tidbits I had stored away would come to mind. I knew that cut coal releases methane gas, that the most common way to die in a mine was through gas explosion ignited by early candle headlamps, that the two best ways to test for gas was with canaries and flame levels, that you had to test for gas along the ceiling of the tunnel, that black lung was the frequent mysterious miner killer, and that a person who mines coal isn't actually called a miner, but a coalier.
I didn't know that horses were kept down in the mines, that lime-wash was a sterilizer, that a flame in methane gas burns blue, that the guaranteed explosion percentage of methane is 9.5%, that two exposed wires were touched together to sound tram direction signals (the sparks from this also caused lots of explosions), that standard miners gas masks could only filter out gas for an hour, that breaking through into someone else's coal mine was extremely dangerous because of the air and gas pressure change, and that 6 and 7 year old children were frequently used to operate mine doors.
It was weird having to duck so often. I'm pretty dang short, so I'm used to walking completely upright in low clearance areas, but I actually hit my hard hat on the tunnel ceiling once going through, despite a lot of strange ducking and dodging.
At one point, Byron tried to get us to imagine what it would have been like for one of the small children working the big doors if their candle went out. Because there were three doors (one of which had to always be shut so that the air pressure wouldn't change too much), Byron had us stand in the short tunnel between two of the closed doors and turn off all the headlamps. I've been in total darkness before in some of the cave tours in Utah, but this was still super cool. Man, that would have been nightmarish though if I was 6 or 7 and all alone in that though. They would have to either stumble through the darkness until they found one of he kids at another door to light their candle from or wait until someone else happened to walk by.
The last thing I learned there in the mines was that the 90 foot shaft up to the surface has incredible acoustics. We split into three harmonies on our way up, singing one of our beautiful Welsh songs. It sounded so amazing! Byron was absolutely baffled by it, hopefully not because he hated it. Just before we reached the top, we sang another rousing chorus of happy birthday to Abbey. It was awesome!
After we returned our gear and picked up all of our things, we briefly toured the rest of the grounds. Tom wanted us to look at the baths, the lockers, and the news areas. I thought the exhibits and pictures of the old coaliers were awesome. I saw an exhibit about one man, affectionately called Slogger Bill, who set three mining records. He would cut out 260 tons of coal in 6 shifts by himself and made an average of £42 a week instead of the average £12. That's an insane amount of work!
After our tours, we went back out to the van and drove a bout a half hour to Blanaifon Steel Works. This is where we learned about how steel was made.
So, here we go. You take trams of Lyme and coal, haul them up into the balancing tower for the two to go through a type of melting and combination process, then that was combined with some crazy hot iron ore and poured by women and children down some steep chimneys into the forge area below. The men down there would set up a cast of the equipment being made in a deep sandy floor and pour out the Pig Iron. After it was left in the cast for a while, it would harden and then be taken out to be trimmed and then sent off to wherever it was needed.
This iron works had been closed down and abandoned for decades, and the surrounding villages decided, for some reason, that it would make for a great dump. So they filled the little valley full of garbage, until it was remembered by the government. All of the trash was removed, which actually preserved a lot of the buildings really well, but it was only recently that new gravel and some asphalt was added to the area. This covered the floor of the iron works, which was a bummer to Katy because she said she liked walking through the rocky ground and finding some cool stuff, like broken china from the trash or some old bits of cast iron shavings.
When we were talking by one of the forges and sand cast sites, I actually happened to find something cool; it was a small dark bit of the casting sand that had turned to glass in the extreme heat of the liquid metal. Way cool!
Every now and then, when we come to these exhibits, we find big metal posts with speakers on them. You wind them up to charge them up and then you can hear a historian tell you about the site you are looking at, what some of the less-know facts are, and sometimes even about specific people.
We found one of these silver posts in front of the huge balancing tower. After we wound it up, we heard a man explain that the heavy trams were lifted by filling another tram on the other end of a pulley so that it was a little heavier than the ore tram, typically about 3 TONS of water per tram.
The voice in the post then proceeded to tell us that it was going to play something very rare for us; somehow, someone had gotten live audio footage of a day on the Iron Works site while a documentary was being made. On this day, a recording was being done of the balancing tower. A 19 year old boy named Thomas Waters was running the tower, sending another huge coal tram up the tower. As he was below having the tram sent up, the chains to the coal tram broke and crushed the boy below. We heard it all. Fortunately, it was pretty quick, but still a very tragic thing to hear.
Part of me was amazed that I had heard another real person as they were killed. As someone considering working with PTSD vets, I think it's kind of important for me to see and hear a bit for myself. Even though killings are so common in movies today, they don't really count in my mind, because those are actually uninsured actors who get to go home every day. The footage that I've seen of real people dying is different. Fortunately, I've only seen a little bit, but I take it very seriously when i do come upon it.
My next thought was how sad I felt for this boy, only a year older than Nick, just at a day of work. But then my thoughts turned to a bit of anger at the people who put that audio clip in the information post. It bugged me that such an event was put there for any and all to evaluate or laugh at at their leisure. As much as I hated that idea, there is really nothing I can do about it, so I quickly let it go. Those were m thoughts, but I really haven't stressed about it.
We walked around the Iron Works a bit longer, taking a picture by a huge rock crusher, and then left.
We stopped at Tesco for only a half hour. While there, Josie, Lydia, and I found a device called a Mifi. It's a wifi hotspot that can support 5 devices at once, is a bit more powerful than individual dongles, and didnt cost too much more. The other fantastic part about the Mifi is that it didnt have to plug into your device through a USB port, like dongles do, which is wonderful because iPads don't have USB ports. Split 5 ways, the Mifi only cost us £10 apiece. It has enough data to see us through another month, but without using Skype or YouTube. I figured it was a good enough, so I was all for it.
While there, I used part of my weekly allowance to grab some fruit and a bike lock for when I have to travel with my violin in the next few weeks.
When we got home, we made some dinner (since we were home early enough for dinner at the house) and got the Mifi set up. Ours works like a charm! I had no idea how wonderful it felt to use wifi in my own house! Oh, it's great to not have the people from the other house looking at you like, 'oh grief, we have more people here than we want again.' Seriously, it was a little uncomfortable. But whatever, never again! Huzzah! :)
I knew that tomorrow is the day we leave to live up in north Wales for like four days, so I decided to wash all my clothes, since i was pretty much out of clothes, while the others went grocery shopping again. While the laundry was going, I went up to my room and practiced for a while. I thought about practicing outside, but I didn't hear my pianist neighbor at all, and it was super hot outside, and there was nothing to use as a stand out there, so I was cool with my room.
While I was hanging my first load of laundry, Tom and Katy came into the kitchen. Tom told me that since it was Monday night, the music group at Cayo Arms pub would probably be meeting tonight, so if I wanted to go play, then tonight would probably be my best shot. I was so excited I started jumping around like a crazy woman! And then I realized that this was the big moment I had been most looking forward to and got nervous. But nervous or not, I had to go do it, at long long last!
The other girls came back just about then and they got super excited when they heard what was going on. They has all told me clear back in class that they wanted to come hear me play, so I ran up and got my gear and the big birthday present I had waited to give Abby when she got home from shopping.
Miya and I taped up the pink bag to make it a little more present-ish, and then handed her our surprise there in the living room. She laughed and said that this would be the first birthday present this year that she didn't pick out for herself. We told her that we hope she would be surprised. She squished the soft bag a little, and then got a really confused expression. Mine and Miya's faces lit up with excitement, she honestly had no idea we had gotten this for her! Hooray! We told her to open it up, which she did slowly, still looking like she was trying to figure out what it could possibly be.
Freeze: I love giving gifts, but only because I LOVE that Very first expression on their face. As one who reads faces all the time, those moments of Authentic glee mean the world to me. Really, it keeps my whole world spinning. Not really just in giving gifts, that's just one of the simplest ways to see it, but in making people really laugh or smile or be excited. Seeing people react and be excited makes me so crazy happy I almost don't know what to do with myself. Seriously, its a breath of fresh air when I get to see it for reals.
Play: she opened up the bag and completely froze when she pulled it halfway from the bag, jaw completely open. Abby is famous in our group for being a pretty loud person, but she didnt make one single sound as she looked up at us. She didnt even move until that bottom lip of hers started quivering a little bit. I could have died I was so happy. Seriously, that face absolutely sent me to heaven, and I was totally fine with that. Oh, I hope to never lose that precious mental photo of that silent joy-ridden face.
Then the noise came, and boy, did it ever come. She laughed, cried, screamed, danced around a lot, and then bolted from the room. She was back in less than two minutes, now wearing her dress for all to see. Miya and I told our tale of how we had snatched that dress without Abby having any idea. That was a moment of pure joy, and I loved every single second of it.
Miya and I just beamed at each other at a job so well done (thanks again People Upstairs!), and then she asked me if I was ready to go. Go? Go where? To play at the pub!
Oh heck! I had almost forgotten! I think I gave a giddy little squeal, to which all the girls stood up and we headed out. Everyone but Miya and I needed to put on shoes though, so the two of went to go wait outside the front door.
On our way out, we noticed our next door neighbor looking in through our open door. I had seen him outside his place a lot the last few weeks, and something about him always put me off for some reason, but I always thought that was just the usual 'you haven't done anything to make me feel like I could comfortably talk to you' stranger mode, which everyone goes though. All the random people I have talked to really do go through this process and check, but all those people passed. This guy wasnt passing for some reason, and it was SUPER weirding me out.
He was just standing there in front of our door, looking down our hallway, carrying a cute little girl, no older than three. As I got looking at her, she had the most adorable little smile. She also had two broken legs, with a pink cast on each from the knee down that were connected by a wood bar so that they couldn't be moved apart, a lot like Brook's when she broke her femur. And the man was smiling at us super creepily.
I now wasnt so keen on waiting outside for the girls any more, but Miya was already out the door, oohing and ahing at the cute little girl in the mans arms. It's super weird I know, but I wanted to pull Miya back inside and close the door so the man couldn't look down into my home any more, but I couldn't really do that. Instead, I went outside and stood right next to her, adjusting my case so that it was more out of my way.
The man was kind of big, in his 40s, and of Indian descent. His English didnt seem to be really good, but he seemed to be trying to start the majority of the conversations. Miya was still pretty much just talking to the toddler, but also answering most the mans questions. Like, "you live here? You like it? How long you stay here for?" To these i gave some all true and unhelpful answers, like "Yup. Yeah, it's alright," and "we've been here a month." He gave me a weird put-out look, which started to confirm my suspicions.
I tried putting in one of my headphones so that I didn't have to pay attention any more but could still be there with Miya, but then I realized that I still probably should hear what he was asking her, so I took it out. Willing the other girls to get out so we could leave, I looked far down the road instead.
Then I heard him say something weird that we couldn't really understand.
"What?" Miya asked him.
I looked back at him and realized he was staring right at me. "You a sexy lady." He said again.
"What?" Miya asked again. My hair stood on end.
"You a very lovely lady. You a very sexy lady." He said again while still staring at me. I was ticked and shot him a look that meant it. I was thinking of what to say, when I heard "What? 'Six later?' I don't understand." Asked Miya.
"I'll tell you later." I quickly told her. Just as I turned back to face this creepy man, the four other girls came out of the front door at once, laughing and giggling like the American high school students they recently were and in many ways still are. I was almost embarrassed to see that two of them were still in dresses in front of this man.
"Great, we need to leave right now. We need to get there soon before the session ends." I told them. Yeah, i lied a little bit there, but I wasn't going to give him time to look at any of my friends the way he had looked at me, so I hurried them right out of the door and down the road.
Gall, I think I threw up inside.
I honestly laughed out loud when the first thing Miya next asked me was what he meant by 'six later.' I told her what he had been saying and then told the other girls that if they noticed him again in the future that they should not be alone and they probably shouldn't talk with him. He's probably harmless, but that's a stupid thing to gamble.
I was very much awake as we walked about 15 minutes to Cayo Arms. When we got to the front door, I think I was a lot more nervous than I was excited. What if I was totally imposing? What if I seemed like some stupid cocky American, and no one wanted to hear me play? Who was I supposed to ask? Crap.
But Miya, my dear friend Miya, told me that I was definitely ready for this and that everything was going to turn out great. Feeling more confident, I walked past everyone who had looked up at us and through the front doors.
I wasn't inside for ten seconds before Marcus found me.
"Are you here for the session? It's going to start in just a few moments." He asked me kindly.
"Um, I think so. Well, what session is this?" I asked, a bit timidly.
"The Welsh music session, of course! Surely that is a violin across your shoulder there, or something else?"
"Yes, it's a violin."
"Wonderful, well, come over here and if you sit near me I'll try to play you in a bit." He said and started moving over to a large table on the main floor.
"That's wonderful! Wait, are you sure you're okay with me just popping in like this?" I asked, kinda doubting again.
"Yes yes, that should be just fine. If you can play alright, then I'll try to play you in if you sit close enough to hear me. Get your things out, quickly." He said to me, still moving over to the table.
Being told by someone to get my violin out, and quickly; ahh, it was a quick and very comforting plunge back into the world of private violin lessons. I had come home. :)
I pulled out my fiddle, my friends gathered at a table just upstairs, and Marcus introduced me to another fiddler there. I am terrible with names, so we'll call him Mr. Pepper, due to his salt and pepper beard. Mr. Pepper seemed very happy to see me with a violin and asked me for my story. I told him my group and I were here studying the Welsh language and history, to which he said that he was very glad to hear it. All the people who gather here are Welsh and speak the language fluently. They were all very proud of their heritage and they only played Welsh music, not Irish or Scottish.
That made me nervous. I wasn't sure I knew the difference between the three. He asked me which style I played, to which I admitted that I didn't really know the difference, but probably a lot of Scottish. He and Marcus chuckled and shook their heads, saying that we'd be following some music tonight, so I shouldn't worry. With that, Mr. Pepper pulled out a black binder with the raw tunes written out, the way I was used to seeing Celtic tunes in their pre-ornament form. I smiled, everything was going to be okay :)
With that, Marcus introduced me to the group as they trickled in one by one. Again, I'll use pseudonames until I get them down later. Mrs. Petal was in the far corner on the pennywhistle, Marcus on the fiddle, Mr. Absent kind of on the fiddle but mostly on his ale, Mr. and Mrs. Austere with stark white hair who each played accordions without moving anything but their arms (seriously, their faces were so set in stone I'm not sure they every blinked), Mr. Shamrock, the happy Irish man who played the Celtic harp, Mr. Still who I think played some sort of flute, Mr. Rodriguez, the Spaniard who played the pipes just to my right, and Mr. Silver who was on the fiddle to my left.
Pause: before I go on, it must be said that my absolute greatest fear as a violinist is that I will act like a horn-tooting fat-head. Seriously, I don't ever want to be thought of as a bragger. So when good things happen to me musically, I actually fight a little battle in my head about what to say. So, here's what I saw and what happened; think what you want from here.
Play. We each took a turn picking a song or reel and playing it through three times. Mr. Silver would flip to each song for me before we played it. They were all written in Welsh, so he and Marcus would take a second and translate the title for me. Marcus told me at the very beginning that we would play all repeats (every song repeats the first half) and every song three full times. I still got lost often, but it really helped me to hear the songs so I could play with the melody. The two fiddlers helping me out told me at the beginning that Welsh music was very much centered on fun harmonies. I smiled and said that I think I knew enough to try some harmonies out. They chuckled and told me to go for it.
Before we started playing, Mrs. Petal asked me to play something 'American style, like an American reel.' Gretch, I wish you were there, but I totally cranked out a bit of Millionaires Hoedown. They laughed and stomped at that, giving me a kind clap when I cut out. The two fiddlers looked at each other and said something about being surprised with how quick I moved through my notes, which surprised me.
Then we got into the music. And it was everything I ever imagined it would be! I would sightread the raw notes the first few times through, depending on the song and then try adding some ornaments just like what the other two were doing.
After the first few songs, I heard something new in the middle of a chorus...something very VERY familiar. I actually paused for a bit and looked around. It was a harmony, but one exactly like I would have imagined to go with this song. It was a series of arpeggios, with a counter rhythm that really made the downs stick out sharper and brighter. When I realized it was Mr. Silver, sawing away at his fiddle with almost the exact same harmony I had constructed in my head, I smiled like a crazy person. Call it what you may, including dramatic, but that was the ultimate sign that I really did belong there. I have never heard anyone else I've played with run through harmony patterns the way I do, until I played with that group. From there on, as soon as I had enough confidence in predicting the chord sequence of our tunes, I started settling into my harmonies more and more frequently. Twice I caught Marcus look over at Mr. Silver when I would work in a harmony sequence, with pleasant surprise on his face. That was a really good feeling.
When it came my turn to play, I got very red in the face. I was sure I mostly just knew Scottish tunes, so I probably wasn't going to play anything Welsh. I admitted this to the group again, but they told me to play on anyway. I weighed three in my mind, then settled for my standard Kirkmount reel. After I had played through it once on my own, everyone picked up their instruments and began to create harmony sequences. After about three more times through, we really had an awesome sound going! When I finished off the song, everyone cheered loud. Marcus once again chuckled and said that it was definitely a Scottish tune, but it was a grand one.
We took a break to grab some drinks. I asked the group what drinks they thought were good here, though I didn't drink alcohol at all. Mrs. Petal jumped up without batting and eye and told me we'd go find something good together. She took me to the bar where she informed me that they had added a lot of things to respect those who didn't drink alcohol. After getting some options from the barkeep, I picked out a fruit drink for a few pounds. It really was good, called J2O. Mr. Shamrock came over and talked with us for a little while, telling us about how he almost couldn't get his harp there that night, but by a fluke, managed to.
After a bit we went back and played a few more songs. I realized it was getting late, and since the other girls had left Miya there, I didn't want her to have to sit by herself. So I had to leave a little bit early to get home and get things ready for our early departure time tomorrow. After my last song with the group, I started packing up. Mrs. Petal and Marcus asked if I would come back on Thrusday for a special pipe session. I told them I would have loved to, but would be staying up in Northern Wales then. They said that they would hope for me to come back next Monday then. I told them that I definitely would if I could, and then left Cayo Arms. I was so happy walking down the street with Miya that I had to prance around a little before I could effectively walk down the street. Oh, it was LITERALLY a dream come true. That jam session made my whole entire trip!! Gah, I felt SO GOOD!!! Thank you, People Upstairs for setting all of that up so absolutely perfectly!!
We had to hop a few fences to get through the park (quickly) and get home. When we got back, I took the remainder of my freshly washed, but wet, clothes outside to hang on the lines to dry in the wind through the night. I then went upstairs, and got the remainder of my things gathered that I would need for the next four days in Northern Wales. I knew that I would need some time the next morning to organize and pack my clothes, so I set my alarm to go off a little early the next morning. It was very late as it was, so I finished off my last few things to end the day and fell right asleep.
What a day!
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