Room 101 - what single aspect of modern life should be consigned to oblivion?

[Richard Tarleton]

I often get the Swansea to Manchester train, it's funny to see the reaction of English passengers who try to eavesdrop on conversations conducted in Welsh!

Anna, I don't know if you're a Welsh speaker....but I've noticed, on forays into Welsh-speaking areas, that (for example) Welsh farmers may jabber away in Welsh but that the frequent interjected swear-words are in English (numbers too). Are there any Welsh swear words ?

[mangerton]

I reckon it was a shot of Penderyn Welsh whisky but he dare not admit!

Absolutely not! I'm far too mean to buy spirits in the thimblesful they use to sell it in pubs.

[Anna]

I've read about this. How is it? I see there is also now a Brecon gin. As the name suggests, Thropplenoggin's like gin. My favourite to date is Tanqueray 10. (http://www.theginblog.co.uk/home/tag/tanqueray-10/)

I would advise imbibing of all Welsh beverages. By purchasing you are not only keeping a small country who relies upon books about Merlin and Morgana and Dragons breathing fire reliant for its income.
Live the fantasy!! Arthur Pendragon, the once and only king!

[eighthobstruction]

Trousers....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Anna, I don't know if you're a Welsh speaker....but I've noticed, on forays into Welsh-speaking areas, that (for example) Welsh farmers may jabber away in Welsh but that the frequent interjected swear-words are in English (numbers too). Are there any Welsh swear words ?

One of my favourite memories of Pobol y Cwm involved someone driving into a parked car, the owner of which cried as he watched his car getting mangled:

"Beth the f*ck!"

Racy teatime viewing in Wales!

[scottycelt]

When I visited Porthmadog a few years ago, I found it rather un-nerving to sit in the hotel bar with my small lime-juice and hear Welsh being spoken all around.

I had much the same horrific experience in Skye when I was downing a pint of Tennents in the hotel bar, mangerton.

Everyone around me was conversing in what I assume was Gaelic unless they (including the bar staff) were all Danes or something.

I think that was very rude and have never forgotten the insult ...

[mangerton]

I had much the same horrific experience in Skye when I was downing a pint of Tennents in the hotel bar, mangerton.

Everyone around me was conversing in what I assume was Gaelic unless they (including the bar staff) were all Danes or something.

I think that was very rude and have never forgotten the insult ...

You might have been lucky, scotty, not to know what they were saying. They're strange people. I've only been to Skye twice. First time was an extremely wet August in 1979. We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday, to see many men, all formally dressed in white shirts, black suits and ties, leaving Portree church. We thought it was a funeral, but it was Communion. It's a three day event there, apparently (no horses, though!) and Sat was day two. It rained the whole weekend - and I mean bucketed. Not a thing to do, no shops open at all. Sunday papers were sold in a furtive kind of way from the back of an estate car mid-afternoon.

[Thropplenoggin]

I had much the same horrific experience in Skye when I was downing a pint of Tennents in the hotel bar, mangerton.

Classy guy. You weren't drinking with Rab C Nesbitt, were you?

[Serial_Apologist]

I had much the same horrific experience in Skye when I was downing a pint of Tennents in the hotel bar, mangerton.

Everyone around me was conversing in what I assume was Gaelic unless they (including the bar staff) were all Danes or something.

I think that was very rude and have never forgotten the insult ...

Most of the small grocery shopkeepers in this part of London speak to one-another in one or another of the languages of the Indian sub-continent, most of the time. I get much comfort from the thought that they are probably talking about me, because, in that alternative-to-the-English way they have of not communicating directly, they never look me in the eye. And never laugh.

[MrGongGong]

When I visited Porthmadog a few years ago, I found it rather un-nerving to sit in the hotel bar with my small lime-juice and hear Welsh being spoken all around.

They were obviously only speaking Welsh to make you feel an outsider

(other myths are available)

[mangerton]

They were obviously only speaking Welsh to make you feel an outsider

(other myths are available)

[scottycelt]

Sunday papers were sold in a furtive kind of way from the back of an estate car mid-afternoon.

I encountered that too, mangerton, and the strong belief on the island is that wicked, clandestine Jesuits from Barra were very likely responsible as the biggest pile always consisted of The News of the World and not The Sunday Post ...

[scottycelt]

Classy guy. You weren't drinking with Rab C Nesbitt, were you?

Well, Throppers, I certainly wasn't bestraddling my chaise longue sipping socialist champagne ...

[Thropplenoggin]

Well, Throppers, I certainly wasn't bestraddling my chaise longue sipping socialist champagne ...

Le pauvre!

[Flosshilde]

Everyone around me was conversing in what I assume was Gaelic unless they (including the bar staff) were all Danes or something.

Unless it was several decades ago they were probably English incomers (ahem) learning Gaelic at the Gaelic College

I had much the same horrific experience in Skye when I was downing a pint of Tennents in the hotel bar

Which was the most horrific - drinking Tennent's or being in a Skye hotel?