Norwegian Christmas trees

Tonight was my presentation to my own Rotary club -- Llandaff.

To pronounce this:
1. say the word, "antler".
2. drop off the "an" (leaving "-tler").
3. drop off the "er" (leaving "-tl-").
4. Use that "tl" sound for the "Ll" sound and say the whole word.

VERY GOOD!!

(this is the only picture; Graham isn't a big technology fan and he likes my camera even less, because I am always clicking away!)

Played some '30s red-light songs to the club, since I mention St. Paul's Bottoms in my talk, and they LOVED it :) Graham said my delivery was smoother tonight, too.

We had lamb for dinner. Am so VERY glad that Liver is not the national meal of Wales!

Something I learned this evening: Norway sends a Christmas tree to the City of Cardiff each year! Ones are also sent to London, and possibly Edinburgh and Belfast. This is to thank Great Britain for defending Norway during the WWII.

I am so very impressed with the attention and respect that people give to WWII here. On the radio on Sunday (which was actual Remembrance Sunday), I heard that there are something like 70,000 war memorials in the United Kingdom. 1,700,000 British men and women died in the 2 World Wars.

Also, almost all final elements for Lisa and Ben's trip are arranged!!!!! "Calennig" means "New Year's gift" -- am assuming in Welsh, but you never know -- and that is what the celebration here is called. Hogmanay it is not (the original plan), but that will leave something for the future! I am the best travel coordinator EVER.

Well, this will be finally... A line from Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope:

"Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one; and when you do, it makes you want to hide under the coffee table."

Here is an arty picture (i.e., not so perfect, yet also cool) of the menacing moon over my house as I was leaving to go to Rotary this evening. Front door to the Hobbit Hole is the tiny one to the R, past the two people (?) walking. Door to far left is the door to the other place that shares our address; this is where much of our mail goes first. Door in middle is not a door; well, there are two, aren't there? Neither one is a door.

Time was 5.55, so you can see it gets dark early now. It is about 6C right now.