This blog is aimed at one person in particular.

And I’ve no doubt that this person will know who he is when he reads this (at least, I hope he will). If you do think this is aimed at you, and it turns out that it isn’t, I hope this blog makes you smile anyway. If you’ve already deduced that it ISN’T aimed at you, feel free to ignore this post. I mean, you can read it if you want, I’m not stopping you, that’s why it’s on my blog, but you don’t have to, and probably won’t see any relevance. I’m taking advantage of the only time I ever feel awake these days – in the middle of the effects of the co-codamol – to write this.

Anyway, to this one particular person. I want you to smile more – when you smile, it makes me smile, and you’re always saying you want me to smile more. Don’t worry about me – I’m ill but I’ll get better, and you ARE helping. The only thing that doesn’t help me, is you worrying that you’re not helping, because I end up feeling like a bad person and I get worried about you. Cheer up and look after yourself a bit – you’ve spent the last month running around after me, taking care of me and everything, and now you need to take care of yourself.

Don’t worry about me going to uni. Maybe we won’t see each other as much, but I’m only half an hour away. I’ll be home most weekends, and when I’m not, you can come up and see me, or we’ll always be chatting on phones/texts/letters (by the way, you owe me a letter, but seeing as you’ve been so lovely to me, we’ll let it slide). And as for me leaving you, give me some credit! I love you, silly, and I’m always going to love you – you and no-one else. No-one else will ever compare to you, and I don’t care what you say about there being people who are more intelligent or better looking or whatever – I don’t want them. I want you to stay with me forever because I love you and always will. You’re my sunshine 🙂

So, stop worrying your lovely little noggin about me, take some time to focus on yourself and remember that I’m always yours!

Now, I can feel a crash approaching so before I start wittering on about llamas (which, by the way, ARE REALLY IN WALES!!!) or something like that, I’m going to say goodbye. I love you 🙂

My Titanic Connection.

It hit me today that I haven’t fully explained my connection to the Titanic, even though I’ve told you all I’ve been on television and radio about it (more on that later). So, with the centenary of the ship setting sail today, and the centenary of the sinking on Sunday, I think it’s time I explained my personal connection to the Titanic.

For most people, their connection begins a hundred years ago, when their ancestors set sail on the Titanic on its fated maiden voyage. For me, it’s slightly different. I don’t have a familial connection to the ship – my story starts over ten years ago at my Nan’s house. She had the James Cameron film “Titanic” on video, and whenever we went to stay at her house, I’d sit and watch it, sometimes twice, at night. The story itself was rather lost on me – I was only six years old and didn’t really understand the romance between Jack and Rose, but the historical side interested me. I’d already decided, by this point, that I wanted to be a historian (of course, that isn’t my aspiration anymore, but I was fairly set on it at the time), so I devoured any information about the Titanic that I could find. I remember badgering my Mom for a book at a school book fair one year, called “My Story: Voyage on the Great Titanic”. She was convinced that I only wanted it for the little blue necklace that came with it, but in all honesty, I wanted to read the book. I absolutely loved it, and I think I only took it off my bookshelf last year, having read it many times.

I noticed, even that first time when I watched the film, that there was a character who did something very brave, and he had a Welsh accent, although I didn’t think much of it at the time. As time progressed, I kept watching it at my Nan’s house, and eventually my curiosity got the better of me, and I went on the internet and looked up the Welshman whom I’d seen rescuing another character in the film. I had no idea of his connection to my local area of Wales, but I was interested nonetheless. Still,  I found that he was Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe, and although he had been born in Eglwys Rhos, he spent some of his childhood in Barmouth, the nearest town to my village, just down the coast. I was only eleven, and although I was very interested, I still didn’t think much of it.

Two years ago, I was in a local cafe when I heard a man talking about the Titanic, and a man from Barmouth who had been on it, with my dad. I joined in the conversation, and we got talking about how it was surprising that there was nothing in Barmouth to commemorate Harold Lowe – so, when I went home, I wrote a letter to a local newspaper and started a facebook campaign, and it all started from there. Two years later, a plaque to him has been unveiled today in Deganwy, the town to which he eventually retired and where his grandson now lives, and a plaque will be unveiled this Sunday, the product of two years of this campaign, at the harbour in Barmouth. I feel immensely proud to have been a part of the campaign, but more than that, I am pleased that he’ll finally be commemorated in Barmouth and people will learn about him for years to come.

So, that’s basically what this campaign has all been about. The newspaper articles, the radio, the television – it’s all been leading up to this Sunday, but it doesn’t end on Sunday – the plaque will mean that, for decades to come, there will be a lasting memorial to the local hero many people didn’t know about until recently. You can find the television programme I filmed for last year, “Titanic With Len Goodman”, on BBC iPlayer, and I am on Episode Two.