Y Ddraig Goch

Coming out...

2011-03-22T11:46:00.006Z

Ha! Bet you thought that was gonna be it with the revival of my long-believed-to-be-dead blogs right? Well... to be honest, I wasn't so sure either. But that's all because I'm really really busy with stuff. Some of it actually uni-work related and others involving me slinging guns, hanging from spaceships, or catching a ride with the Terminator. But that's not what this post is about.

"Mom, dad? I think there's something you should know. I mean... I think I might be... you know... a writer... How do I know I'm a writer? Well... you know, I really like writing?"

I've been keeping my writing habits mostly to myself for the past few years. Probably because of confidence issues or something, I'm not really sure to be honest. But now I think it's time for me to come out about this. Writing is something I really love (a passion I share with my darling sister, who has had a lot more success with it ;) ). No doubt I'll remain secretive about it to some extent, but that's mostly because I just find it difficult to even explain what the heck I'm writing about without making it sound as cliche as I really hope it isn't. If anyone would like to read bits of the stories I've been concocting and putting down on paper (or on my computer screen), just ask. I might actually get over my own insecurities and send it over.

What made me want to come out about this, finally? Well, besides the nice things I've heard from the few people who actually know about my secret (granted, now slightly-less-secret), I got an email from a certain school in Vancouver where a certain Head of Writing for Film and Television actually seemed to like some of the things I sent them. This was enough of an ego-booster for me to gather enough courage to write this little blog, as well as giving me the courage to keep writing and hopefully even get somewhere with this. ... Maybe.

I am aware - knowing myself the way I do - that this ego-booster won't last long. Before I know it I'll be trying to scratch my face off for ever making such a bold statement where I presume myself to be hardcore enough to be called something as awesome as an actual "writer".

Booyah!

Oh dear...

2011-03-14T09:59:00.003Z

Hi, remember me? I think I might be back.

No doubt most people who ever blessed my blog page with their presence will have forgotten about its existence long ago, but this morning I thought it was time to bring it back from the dead. All too often will I think of things that I feel I should share with other people, and all too often do I end up yapping some of my friends' ears off with a collection of random pieces of information that they then somehow (miraculously) have to string together in order to make sense of it all (I'm sorry!). I have found that it is usually easier to write than to talk - that being said, I do have my moments where I find it hard to shut up once I get going about something. I apologize - hence the revival of this old blog.

One difference that will take place on this blog after it has been clinically dead for a year or two is that I will start focusing on more aspects of my life, straying away from my more Welshie/university centered blogs.

Right, I feel a lot better already. That's enough sharing my thoughts for now, more updates will follow!

You can tell it's my turn to write blogs again...

2009-08-20T16:46:00.005+01:00

I'm never very consistent, I know. I'll just blame it on being "busy".

I've been back from South Africa for over a month (!) now, and although the pictures have been online for a while now, I never actually mentioned it here.

...

So there, I mentioned it. The pictures I took (and a few pictures from my mates) are officially on my picasa which you can find here, here and here.

Africa was too amazing to be able to tell anyone about just in a blog, so I won't even try. I hope the pictures will tell a little bit about what we saw though, to make up for my lack of blogging.

Bang! Bang!

2009-07-15T15:11:00.003+01:00

The South-Africa trip is almost over. Time for a final update.

Monday was rifle handling day. The GlaWiBis (Glamorgan Wildlife Biology students) got to handle light weight rifles as well as somewhat heavier types. Wendy finished second-best. That's my girl. (Next time, shoot the no. 1, and you'll be the winner, Wendy!)

Yesterday (Tuesday) was anoter day of making tests, and today the GlaWiBis traveled back to Johannesburg. They'll spend their final night in a hotel, and tomorrow evening they'll take a plane back to Heathrow.

It has been a great trip, with a lots of excitement and fun. Very informative, and useful.

This will probably be my last blogpost as guest blogger on Y Ddraig Goch for some time. Next Friday we'll pick up Wendy at Schiphol airport. Wendy will again take care of this blog after returning home.

Perhaps I'm allowed to do some updates while the GlaWiBis will be in Indonesia next year. But, for now: thanks for reading my posts, everybody! I hope you enjoyed it.

~Martin (guest blogger)

I did! I did taw a putty tat!

2009-07-12T18:27:00.009+01:00

It was a long night of watching the drinking spot for Wendy and het fellow student, Briony, but nevertheless they had to rise early this morning. But it was worth it. They went for a trip in the area and spotted some bathing elephants very close by. They also encountered a caracal (Caracal caracal), a beautiful cat (as you can se in the picture), traditionally known by the alternative name of African lynx. However, it is no longer considered to be an actual lynx, but instead it's believed to be closely related to the African golden cat and the Serval. In Afrikaans it's called a rooikat. An awesome creature.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day as well. The students will be doing rifle handling then, so stay tuned!

~Martin (guest blogger)

It's getting wilder all the time

2009-07-11T20:41:00.011+01:00

It's been a few days since the last update, so to prevent you from getting too confused, I'll organize this update by days of the week.

Last tuesday
On Tuesday the students visited a reptile park in the area. It was a lot of fun. They even got to hold some of the animals there. Wendy was allowed to hold a python, a very rare (female) Golden brown baboon spider (Augacephalus breyeri) and even a scorpion. (Pictures of her holding the animals will be online as soon as she is within one armlength of an internet computer.) There were also black mamba's (Dendroaspis polylepis). The black mamba is one of the most dangerous snakes, and the second largest venomous snake in the world. The students witnessed them being fed (poor mice). And ... no, they weren't allowed to pick the snakes up and hold them.

Wednesday
On Wednesday they have been spotting birds.

Thursday
On Thursday the students went for a walk in the area. Like most of the other days they leave pretty early in the morning, when it's still cool, and stay out untill around 3:00PM when it gets too hot. They are always accompanied with a guide carrying a rifle (safety measure).

Friday
Friday was a day off. Most of them went swimming in the river. It was a beautiful spot to go swimming according to Wendy, so I guess there weren't that much crocodiles in the area. It was great fun.

Today (Saturday)
A somewhat less awesome thing is that Wendy and her fellow students even have to work on the weekends. They're currently doing a 24-hour watch near a drinking spot, and registering and counting all the animals coming to drink there. Wendy's shifts are from 1:00PM to 3:00PM, 8:00PM to 10:00PM and from midnight to 2:00AM tomorrow morning. I guess that last shift could get pretty cold, since it's winter on the southern hemisphere. Being a wildlife biology student is not a nine to five job, I can assure you. But, as passionate as they are, this seems to be no problem whatsoever.

Stay tuned!

~ Martin (guest blogger)

Wildebeest for dinner?!

2009-07-06T20:00:00.000+01:00

Wendy called 5 minutes ago, so here's another update. Her stories are getting more and more juicy. Speaking of juicy: the day before yesterday they had wildebeest for dinner. A bit tough, but not bad at all.

Yesterday evening they heared the jackals and the lions very close by their tents. Must be somewhat scary, I suppose ... But I've been told its tradition at the Glamorgan University to return home from their Wildlife Biology field trips with all the students alive and (more or less) in one piece. And that fills us with confidence ... I guess.

This morning (very early) they left for Kruger National Park. Inside the park, they encountered a mother elephant with two youngsters crossing the road at 10 meters distance. There was also a male acting somewhat aggressive, flapping its ears and being noisy, next to the car. (Must be the season, and the big guy's hormones ...)

They've taken lots of pictures of the elephants (Loxodonta africana), hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius), girafs (Giraffa camelopardalis), baboons (probably Papio ursinus griseipes, because we're talking about South_africa here), warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) and lots and lots of impalas (Aepyceros melampus). Some of the best photos will be uploaded to this blog after Wendy returns. That's a promise.

Wendy's exam results arrived in the mail last weekend. She got a first on most of the subjects and, depending on the pending results for the Big Game Tracking tests (which look very promising, by the way), she might well get a first for the whole academic year! Keep your fingers crossed, everybody!

Stay tuned!

~ Martin (guest blogger)

Jealousy alert

2009-07-03T18:40:00.011+01:00

I feel a strong urge to warn you beforehand that the following may cause some jealous feelings towards the International Wildlife Biology students. So, if you're not sure you're up to it, leave this blog right now, and do not return in the following two weeks or so. After that, they will be home again, life will be back to normal, and it will be safe for you to return here.

...

Still here, are you? Okay, then. Today Wendy called to give us a quick update on her whereabouts in the last few days. Yesterday they left Bloemfontein and travelled for 12 hours. They're now in a place near Kruger National Park, and the accomodation is not bad at all. They're sleeping with three persons in nice big tents that have their own shower cabin. There is even a swimming pool! Some students couldn't wait after the long journey, and had to jump right in. No time to change, or even take off their shoes. (Guess who was one of 'em?) It's not as cold at night anymore, so no more frozen shoes ...

Today they went on a safari trip and spotted lots and lots of beautiful animals. There were too many birds to even mention them. They saw zebra, buffalo, hundreds of impala, a black-backed jackal, and wildebeest. The wildebeest were less than 10 meters away! And so were the African elephants they encountered. O, and they also saw a few giraffes at a 15 meters distance. Wendy was all enthousiastic. She having a fabulous time.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty jealous. If you are too, don't say I didn't warn you.

Stay tuned for more updates!

~ Martin (Guest blogger)

Lions in Bloemfontein

2009-07-01T14:50:00.005+01:00

I shamelessly use any excuse I can think of to try 'n' get my safari girl on the phone to hear about her whereabouts. I promised her yesterday to call her as soon as her exam results arrive in the mail. But hey, I didn't promise her not to call when there were no exam results in the mail. So just ... erm ... to be sure, I gave her a call to let her know there were no exam results yet.

(In a whispering voice:) "Hello?"
- "Hi Wendy, it's dad. Why are you whispering? Is this an inconvenient time to call you?"
- (Still wispering:) "Well, I'm in the car right now and there are about eight lions next to the car!"

Wow, that must be so cool. Driving around in an open Jeep, spotting al these wonderful creatures. I guess this makes up for the days of hard work, yesterday and the day before.

For those of you who are - like me - dying to see the pictures of this trip, I'm happy to tell you the students will create a facebook page especially for that purpose. So, be strong for just two more weeks, everybody!

Stay tuned!

~ Martin (jealous guest blogger)

Science to do ...

2009-06-30T15:44:00.013+01:00

Wendy called this afternoon, so it's time for an update. So, what have our scientists-to-be been up to lately? Well, it looks like they're doing science. The past few days, she and her fellow students (Homo sapiens) have done a lot of walking in the area and observing sable antelopes (Hippotragus niger, see image). And that means collecting lots of data, which they were processing this afternoon. Besides the sable antelopes they've spotted impala (Aepyceros melampus), gemsbok (Oryx gazella), and even four giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). On Thursday there will be an evaluation, and that means more tests. After that, they will be heading for Kruger National Park.

Wendy's cold is almost over, though she still sounded a bit hoarse (no, I don't mean the Equus caballus, but the sound people make when their cold is not yet over) on the phone. At night, temperatures are below zero, causing Wendy's shoes to get all frozen when she left them outside one night. Sleeping in tents is gonne be fun (*not*) when they go camping (0_o') later on (if they go camping, which hasn't been decided yet).

As always ... stay tuned!

~ Martin (guest blogger, and now officially authorized to post here using my own blogger account)

Best week ever!

2009-06-28T21:20:00.005+01:00

I just checked the Y Ddraig Goch visitors statistics and hey, guess what ... This week was the best week ever! Don't believe me? I have proof! Check out the graph below.

So, on behalf of Wendy I'd like to thank all you visitors for keeping up-to-date with Wendy's adventures over in South-Africa. (And the best is yet to come ...)

Stay tuned! (Or even better: just subscribe if you haven't done so yet.)

~ Martin (guest blogger)

South-Africa, in some ways, must feel like home ...

2009-06-27T11:36:00.005+01:00

Wendy must have her deja vu's now and then. Just take a look at the picture below ...

Need I say more?

~ Martin (guest blogger)

Rifles 'n' dead animals

2009-06-26T20:30:00.021+01:00

Today the Wildlife Biology students made a journey of eleven hours from Ladysmith to Manuha, near Bloemfontein. The area around Bloemfontein looks like in the picture above.

Before they left they spotted a red hartebeest. It's a beautiful animal, like the one on the left. (This one must have worn its Speedo the last time it went sunbathing ...). During their trip to Bloemfontein they spotted lots of ostiches and some impalas as well. They're staying in a big house, loaded with dead stuffed animals (zebras, one brown hyena, antilopes, jackals) and guns. Wendy even discovered two rifles in one of the closets in their room. Well, that shouldn't be a problem, because Wendy's score on the rifle security rules test (one of the tests they did in the last few days) was 20 out of 20. She scored very well on the other tests as well by the way: 8 out of 10 (tracking), 9 out of 10 (plants) and 6 out of 7 (birds). You make daddy feel so proud, baby.

Okay, I'll stop bragging now. I know it must be somewhat annoying to the reader, and I wouldn't want to cause an implosion of the visitors statistics of this blog while Wendy is away.

Where was I ... O, the house. Wendy's sharing a room with three other girls, Georgina, Briony and Sarah, and possibly some stuffed animals as well. That must be weird, waking up in the middle of the night, staring into the eyes of a stuffed hyena.

Tomorrow they will go to a rugby game. O well, I guess they deserve some relaxing after a week of extremely hard work ...

~Martin (guest blogger)

A correction and an apology

2009-06-25T21:01:00.004+01:00

Okay, it was partly due to a bad phone connection, and probably - I'm prepared to admit - partly due to my eagerness and enthousiasm when blogging about Wendy's adventures. I made a mistake when writing in the previous post that Wendy will go to Mabula tomorrow. She isn't. They're heading for a place called Manuha, which differs only two letters from Mabula, so I hope the reader will forgive my error. Nevertheless ... my apologies for that.

Searching in Google Earth for Manuha was futile, however. No hits. So I did a search in Google (not the Earth thing, but the internet search engine), resulting in a powerpoint presentation about the Glamorgan Wildlife Biology trip of 2008. So this time I'm pretty sure I've got it right when I say they're going to Manuha, unless ... Those people at Glamorgan could, of course, have made a mistake when they made that powerpoint presentation.

For those of you thinking that Wendy and her fellow students are having a quiet vacation, you're utterly wrong. They had to do two exams this week. One on Arfican birds and - if I'm not mistaking - another one on tracking. So, don't be fooled! Being a Wildlife Biology student is very, very hard work.

More updates ahead! Stay tuned!

~Martin (guest blogger)

Update from South-Africa II

2009-06-25T10:19:00.007+01:00

This morning, Wendy phoned just to inform us she hasn't been eaten by any wild animal, canibal tribe or fellow student who did't get his/her vaccinations and got infected by rabies. Wendy has a little cold (I guess you're asking for it when wearing shorts in winter), but apart from that, she's still enjoying her stay very much.

Tomorrow they will be leaving Ladysmith and head for Mabula. I'm not sure she said 'Mabula' (the line was bad), but I was able to find it in Google Earth, so it must be richt. It'll take them eleven hours to get there, so that means rising and shining at six tomorrow morning! But it'll be worth it. Check out the rhino's in the Mabula area in the picture.

She didn't have much time to talk, because they were just about to enter a cave, so we agreed to call her tonight to get more juicy details (depending on how dangerous/hungry the wildlife inside that cave turns out to be ...).

Stay tuned!

~ Martin (guest blogger)

Update from South-Africa

2009-06-20T17:54:00.012+01:00

This is actually a guest-blog, written by Martin de Boer, Wendy's dad. We just had Wendy on the phone from South-Africa, and I'll try to give a quick report of her experiences of the past few days.

At he moment Wendy is staying at the Aardvark Nature College near a town called Ladysmith for a few days, where they are guided by Marius and his assistent Joe. They regularly take tours in the area, and get to see a lot of the wildlife.

The most exciting experience has been a nightly dropping, two nights ago. The students were let out of the car, in groups of two, and spent about one hour and a half out in the open. They could hear the jackals close by, which must have been an exciting moment.

Today and yesterday, they have been watching and even catching birds, spotted aardvarks, ostriches and other animals. It's an extremely beautiful country, and I have a feeling Wendy is not particularly eager to go home yet ...

Being Dutch in South-Africa has a funny side: Afrikaans (the South-African language) is related to Dutch, and it's kinda funny to read the signs in Afrikaans.

~ Martin

Before I leave...

2009-06-13T23:26:00.003+01:00

I'm gonna lose my laptop tomorrow afternoon so this might be one of the last chances I get to post anything here. I'm going to South Africa this Monday (stress, stress, stress and a lot of excitement!).

Me and my group from my class are leaving from uni at 1pm and will go to London from where we'll catch the plane. I'll be gone until the 17th of July when I should arrive in Holland again. I won't be home til late thoug.

I thought I'd make a little video before leaving and I posted it here.

See you all soon!!

The morning after

2009-03-30T03:29:00.005+01:00

This is the morning after arriving in Japan and the night was confusing. After waking up at 4ish 5ish both me and Fleur were wide awake for a little while. Then I was completely out of it again until 7:30 (out of it means, waking up every once in a while, very confused and falling asleep again after, literally, one second).

We haven't done much yet today, obviously, as it is only 11:30 in the morning here. We'll go to the cable carts in a bit, after I'm done uploading a short video we made. After that we'll probably head towards Kobe city centre.

Awesome.

EDIT: If you want to see the quick video we made click here.

In JAPAN!

2009-03-29T11:28:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone. Me and Fleur got in Japan yesterday... umm today, tomorrow? Well we got here, and I'm not sure what time it is where (I think I actually live in the future now) and we're both pretty tired.

More will follow when I've regained the ability to open my eyes for more than ten seconds.

I Heart Glam contest

2009-03-17T12:01:00.002Z

I'm still into making videos (even though it had been a while now) and when I heard my university held a contest where the contestants had to make a video I wanted to join. After some trouble with cameras (Sanne brought our camera but not the cables to transfer the footage to my laptop) I finally got the footage to start editing. Editing proved to be a problem too- I didn't know photo camera footage gets messed up by certain movie editing programs. But in the end I finally got it to work... too late.

With a bit of luck I'm still in the contest but even if I'm not click here to see the video I made about why I Heart Glam.

Happy birthday dad!

2009-03-02T18:09:00.002Z

Today, the second of March, is my dad's birthday! I've been away most of today which is why I'm so late with this but here I go anyway: Happy birthday dad!

Happy birthday to me!

2009-02-18T19:51:00.003Z

Hey everyone!

I've been stalling writing a blog for a while, but I'm back again! Last week and this one have been quite exciting. Last week I had an interview with someone from the glamlife website who might be doing an article about video blogging and asked me some questions about the videos I've been making on Youtube. I was really nervous, but it was actually not so bad! He was very nice and asked me several questions about where I get my inspiration, whether I want to take this to a higher level, etc. He also told me about a contest called "I heart Glam", in which people have to make a video which shows why they love Glamorgan. I've been gathering ideas for a few days now, and will try to enter too. I'll keep you posted... hopefully.

This week was the week of my birthday, which was on Tuesday, and my sister Sanne came over, so she'll be writing a bit later on as well. My birthday was very cool. I got loads of sweet messages by mail, skype, msn, facebook and hyves and in person and if I would like to thank everyone who sent me something. I haven't been on my computer very much and haven't replied to everyone in person yet, sorry! The reason I haven't been online much (besides lectures and fieldtrips which I seem to have a lot this particular week) is because Sanne is here and because of the birthday present I got from Albano, Marion and Leo: Guitar Hero for ps2 (woop woop!!)

Here is a short message from Sanne:

Hey guys, Sanne here. I've been here for three days now, since Sunday, and I really love it here. I've been on a fieldtrip to the mountain, where Wendy and her group investigated the animal life in the river. I made a lot of pictures and filmed a little bit. That evening we went to the sushi restaurant, which was the BEST! On Tuesday it was Wendy's B-day! Yay! It was a lot of fun, cause Marion and Albano came over and gave her her AWESOME gift, which has been keeping us busy since then. Wendy will tell you all about that :D Today we went shopping in Cardiff and went to the Subway afterwards, which was also a lot of fun. All in all, Wales rules so far!

Procrastination

2009-02-10T15:38:00.003Z

Ok, so I've waited a liiiitle too long with writing my next blog. I don't know what to say in my defense to be honest, I really don't. It's not like there's been nothing to blog about. In fact, there's loads of stuff I could (and probably should) have blogged about. And sure, I did have stuff to do, but I was never really too busy to use that as an excuse. So I'll just blame it on what I always blame most of my problems on. I suffer from procrastinationitis (if that's not really a disease they should make it into one.

Well, that's all I can do for today, I have a lecture now. Yay, microbiology!

Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda!

2008-12-24T11:34:00.002Z

Merry X-mas everyone!

(I'm trusting you on this one Tim)

Front page

2008-12-10T10:58:00.005Z

What would I be without Marion? This morning she sent me a message on msn (which I didn't receive until quite a bit later) telling me to check the students' website because I was on the front page. Sure enough, when I checked I was surprised to see they did put a picture linking to my youtube blog in the sub news menu. Crazy!

If you want to see the Students' Union website click here. I'm sure they will update the site again soon enough and thus may delete my picture soon enough so it might not be there anymore when you check.