Friday 5 October 2018
Far away a voice is calling
bells of memory chime,
come home again, come home again.
They call through the oceans of time;
we’ll keep a welcome in the hillside,
we’ll keep a welcome in the Vales.
This land you knew will still be singing
when you come home again to Wales.
This land of song will keep a welcome
and with a love that never fails;
we’ll kiss away each hour of hiraeth –
when you come home again to Wales.
We leave Liverpool this morning for the drive to Cardiff, capital of Wales! As soon as we crossed the border many broke into song – singing the words above. The mood in the bus is certainly great and cheery and aided by the fact that Tom is in the mini-bus today so we can sing whatever we like in the bus with no frowns coming from our MD!
We stop however for lunch back in England at a wonderful town called Ludlow, Shropshire. It has a glorious towering church, quaint old shops and a spectacular castle. We are given a couple of hours to savour and soak up the atmosphere. Ayşe of course ends up singing an aria along side a busker!
The drive along the backroads into Wales and on to Cardiff is just breath-takingly beautiful. We arrive at around 5pm at our hotel – The Holiday Inn – opposite Cardiff Castle! Straight in for a rehearsal and then a choir dinner. The hotel is very prepared for us as each table has a list of names of whom is sitting where and what each person ordered (which is good because I can’t remember what I filled in on the form a week ago!)
The weather has turned and is fore-cast to be rainy and cold tomorrow. One can feel it in the air already and after a long day in the coach I decide to hit the sack early. Just on a week to the big concert – we are getting a bit nervous!
Father Shane's Observations and Travels 