I LOVE THIS WEATHER!

At the moment, much of Britain is having a heatwave – well, what Britons would describe as a heatwave, whereas many other countries would see it as a chilly day. To be fair, it has been lovely and warm, I’ve been out in my training vest and shorts, getting some walking and jogging done ready for the half marathon in October (www.justgiving.com/madison-matthews), we’ve been out in the garden today and I’d imagine the beach has been packed. I didn’t dare venture down; the sight of tourist flesh overhanging too-tight budgie smugglers is vomit-inducing at the best of times, and I knew that the beach would be full of it today. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be going for another beach jog with my fiance (www.justgiving.com/dafydd-williams09), I’m really desperate to get this training going well because it’s a big thing now – information on the run and our fundraising is in the local newspaper, so people know about it and I have no excuse not to train! Fundraising is going well but we’re still shy of our target, so if anyone can donate, please do!

On another, slightly-related note to the fundraising, I’ve finally decided on my tattoo. It’s the logo of Birmingham Children’s Hospital. I know where I want it done (as in, on my body), just got to decide what shop to get it done at! I’m thinking probably a local one because I don’t fancy a long car ride back from the nearest city, seeing as the area I’m getting done is where the seatbelt strap goes in a car!

I haven’t gotten much writing done because it’s been so lovely outside, but I’m going to try and get a bit more done over the next few days. I don’t want to lose interest in this new project – ideally I’d love to get back to the old one and do some work on that, but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. I’m considering starting over with this current one – the same basic plot, same characters, but a different format and just doing things a little bit differently. Stay tuned for more updates!

Also, you can buy Christopher Maine’s two books, Dragon Flight Renegade and Dragon Flight Wrath at amazon now, just search for the book titles and you’ll find them! You can also follow his blog at www.christophermaine.wordpress.com .

Last-Minute Nerves!

The memorial to Harold Lowe will be unveiled on Sunday, and I’m getting quite nervous. I don’t know why – it’s not as if I even have to do anything, I’m just going to stand there and watch them unveil it – but it’s like, this is the product of almost two years of campaigning and work on and off, and it’s taken off in a way I never could have imagined. When I started it, I hoped that a letter to the newspaper and a facebook group might warrant, at best, a letter from the council saying they’d erect a memorial, which was all I really wanted – that’s the whole reason why I started the campaign. It was hard at times, especially when people used to ask me why I wasn’t campaigning for something “a little more worthwhile” (kind of ignoring the fact that I’ve been too busy with this for two years but once it’s done I’m going to work on fundraising for charities that are close to my heart if I can squish it in around university and stuff), but I stuck with it because I think that it is a worthwhile cause – it will be worth it for his family, who have waited for generations to see him remembered, and for people who will go to Barmouth and learn about him.

But back to the reason why I’m nervous. It seems to have grown into a big thing – people are travelling a fair distance to come and see it unveiled, including members of his family, and there’s going to be a samba band, the air cadets doing a guard, the lifeboat crew and a choir there. There’s nothing really for me to be nervous about – I know what I’m wearing, how I’m going to have my hair and everything, so there’s nothing about me that I’m worried about – I just really hope it goes well! I want the weather to be great, I want people to be there, I want people to be happy that it’s there and I want it to be something that Barmouth can be proud of.

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.