Eisteddfod

I was apprehensive about the Eisteddfod. I became more apprehensive when I realised what the logistics would be on the Saturday morning. We would have a stand, and we needed to bring all the kit we would display there. That meant needing vehicle access. And that is only allowed until 7:30 in the morning. Wrexham is 1.5 hr by car. And we needed a bit of time to find our spot, and unload. Dei said he’d pick me up at 5:20. Oh dear.

I was ready at 5:20, and Dei was on time. Together we drove to Wrexham. We got there with quite some time to spare. The Eisteddfod staff let us in, vehicle and all, and after some fruitless driving around we found the rows of sheds of which we figured we’d get to inhibit one. We didn’t know which. And we were expected to stage an activity late morning, in a nearby tent. Ok. We unloaded, Dei parked the car, and we waited. I had brought coffee. We just chatted a bit at a picnic table. Later Martyn, who travelled in from Wrexham itself, joined us.

Arriving on a still rather empty festival terrain 

Not much later someone appeared who knew about the sheds. We found ours, opened it, and brought the kit over. We started to put sea creatures in two tanks. Seaweed, crabs (both the hermit and non-hermit variety), starfish (also two varieties), periwinkles, anemones, shrimp… but then we were told we weren’t in the shed but under some awning.

We put up two tables, and moved the tanks over. We needed two tanks, as we had starfish, and if you let them anywhere near all the other creatures they would eat them. And with the help of a battery provided by M-sparc we set up the microscope. It was a bit windy, so I had the microslides out; these are robust and don’t blow away easily. The other samples were chanceless! Martyn had a bit of a marine dressing up box with lab coats and a hard hat and buoyancy aid and suchlike. When we had it all displayed we were ready for the public.

Martyn modelling the contents of his dressing up box, by the tanks

Close-up of some of the creatures

 

We were not just there to show off things on our tables. We were expected to do a central activity late morning, in a sizeable tent. And we had chosen something that had been used by my colleague Yueng on school visits: put paint on shells and seaweed and the likes, and then pushing them onto cotton tote bags. You get lovely prints. And they can take the bag home.

I had no idea if anyone would show up. But a few minutes beforehand, one family with a few kids appeared. So we started. And then suddenly the whole tent filled up. Mayhem! And I hadn't seen the process in action yet. So I was keen to let Dei centre stage. Fortunately, he was ok with that.

An example bag

Dei in action. It doesn't look that tidy if you have kids doing it

Somehow we survived! And I hope the kids were happy with their bags. And we soon found out that the paint easily comes off the table. We had been trying to keep all the paint restricted to easy-wipe tablecloths and Blue roll, but that was naive. But with the pain so easily removable, if the kids make a right mess, it doesn't matter! We just wipe it all off afterwards. Good to know for the second time.

Most of the kids seemed to have a limited attention span, so some rather abruptly left. And when are our was up, they were pretty much all gone. So we could go and restore the tent to its original state.

When that was done we returned to our tables. And then we started taking turns to go and find some lunch. There is a dedicated food field at the event, and I was the first one to head there. I first did a good loop to check everything out before I chose. And I found a stand selling Tibetan food, including dumplings. I like dumplings! So that was what I ordered. It was really good. But not very filling. So then I had it for the stand selling crêpes, and had one with banana and chocolate sauce. Excellent! That would keep me going for the rest of the day.

Exploring the terrain, looking for food

When I came back it was back on duty. I think it was approximately a 60-40 ratio of Welsh and English speakers. And it was generally the kids that saw our tank and were interested. So we did a lot of talking and Welsh about hermit crabs and starfish. But there was also a lady who had actually done her masters on foraminifera! She could even tell me which species. I didn't have that one, but I found two specimens of the same genus for her. That was fun.

I was knackered, I was hoping we could leave reasonably early. And the lady from the organisation came to tell us that by 4 pm, we could start packing. We were all exhausted so that's what we did. It did take a while, though, as we had a lot of stuff, and we had to catch all the animals from the tanks and put them back in the buckets they had come in. 

We had to get all our stuff back to the car in two trips. Even though we had a trolley, there was no way we could do it in one go. Buckets full of water, and tables, are quite heavy! But we got it done. And then we could leave.

It is quite a drive back, and I was also quite peckish by the time I got home. I made sure to have food straight away, and I went to bed early. I was so tired! Unfortunately, I slept like a log. So I had survived the first day. On Tuesday, I would have to be back. On a day with less good weather. We would see how that would go!