.............because my Great Uncle Dai played for Wales. This is his first cap which he left for me when he died, and it's one of my prize posessions. Sewn inside is his nametape, 'DB Davies' I later found out the B stands for 'Brecon Road' to distinguish him from all the other Dai Davies's in the team. Brecon Road in Merthyr is where he was born, and I can remember staying there when I was a kid.

Recent research shows that this cap was for a game played against the the first New Zealand Rugby League (Northern Union as it was known in those days) touring team to visit Wales. You can read a match report here on the Welsh RL website

An extract from 'The History of Merthyr Rugby: '....In the same 1908-09 season there was a touring Australian Kangaroos Northern Union team. They played two games at the College Field, losing 5-6 to a Welsh team which contained eight Merthyr players'

Uncle Dai is on the front row (both in the photograph and on the team*), first on the left.
*He was a hooker ~ now I know why I became a prop forward in my playing days.

Thanks to Carolyn in the History Section of Merthyr Library for her invaluable help & assistance.

 

Our best friends John & Helena held their Ruby Wedding Celebration on 31st August 2008 at our house. In spite of the rain, a great time was had by all. I have made a slide show of some of my photographs ~ they are only snapshots as I was busy eating my lunch, keeping the rain out and changing my shirt as well as taking pictures, but I hope you like them and that you think they capture the spirit of the day.

If you send me some of your pictures I will add them to the slideshow so that we can build up to produce a memento for John & Helena to look back on ~ either email them to me or send me a CD. My email address is at the bottom of this page. Feel free to browse the rest of the site ~ although some of it is horribly out of date.

To view the slideshow, click the ruby wedding rose image below.
It will run automatically, or you can use the controls below the picture to go through the show manually

This is Jean & I in Thailand a few years ago. We visit there as part of our work for The Anglo Thai Foundation, a charity which was set up by the head monk at our Temple, originally to help children in his home village. The little girl is Suphara, one of the children that we support through the charity. She is an orphan, and lives in a tiny village with her aunt. When this photograph was taken she had just had a shower as she had been looking after the cows, her daily job after school. You can read about our adventures in Thailand, and how we came to meet Suphara, by downloading my diary 'A Journey To Thailand' (Updated March 2004)

Although we haven't been to Thailand for a couple of years because of health problems, somebody sent us this picture of Suphara taken in January 2007 ~ she is now 15 Thanks to her grant (actually paid by Sarah) she has thrived. She now lives alone, but is well supported by the village, and judging by this photograph she is very well. The last time we spoke to her she wanted to join the Thai army as a cadet. Assuming she gets into cadet school she will begin to get an army salary, and her future is ensured......... ...............thanks to the ATF

Click here for the download as a zipped word file (about 30KB)
Click here for the download as a PDF Acrobat file (about 250 Kb)
Click here If you haven't got Winzip or Acrobat to read these files

Leading on from this: I am quite potty about Thai food and have made a cookery page with some of my favourite recipes.
If you like Thai food - click here

It's a long story, but both Jean and I are Buddhists. We belong to a Thai Temple in Staffordshire, where I am Secretary.
Visit the Buddhavhihara Temple at: www.watthaiuk.com

Jean & I were asked to represent Buddhism at the 2004 Essex International Scout Jamboree
The Jamboree God Squad		The monks from Birmingham visited one day
The young man in the green shirt became an expert at walking meditation		Jean & myself with the Chief Scout

 

Andy used to make websites, CD-ROMs etc, on which he sometimes put this logo, along with the caption 'Made by Big Andy at The Potting Shed' The shed in question is a photograph of the garden shed at our previous home, which he modified (the photograph that is, not the shed: although he was quite destructive sometimes) I think I may start using it myself: he would like that