Welsh Cows (and Women)...

Disclaimer: If you cannot enjoy a good little chuckle at yourself or your heritage do not read on...

This is something that came into my email inbox over the past 24 hours. Some explanation may be required, then again may be not. I carry a British Passport courtesy of my Welsh heritage.

So, to all my Welsh family and friends, I hope you get a chuckle out of this like I did.


The only cow in a small town in Scotland stopped giving milk.
The town folk found they could buy a cow in Wales quite cheaply.

They brought the cow from Wales and it was wonderful, produced
lots of milk every day and everyone was happy.

They bought a bull to mate with the cow to get more cows, so
they'd never have to worry about their milk supply again.

They put the bull in the pasture with the cow but whenever the
bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away.

No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away
from the bull and he was never able to do the deed..

The people were very upset and decided to go the Vet, who was
very wise, tell him what was happening and ask his advice.

"Whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away.
If he approaches from the back, she moves forward, they said
When he approaches her from the front, she backs off.
If he attempts from the one side, she walks away to the other side.

"The Vet rubbed his chin thoughtfully and pondered this before asking,

"Did you by chance, buy this cow in Wales ?"

The people were dumbfounded, since no one had ever mentioned that they
had brought the cow over from Wales .

"You are truly a wise Vet," they said.

"How did you know we got the cow from Wales ?

"The Vet replied with a distant look in his eye.


"My wife is from Wales "

And Death Shall Have No Dominion...

I like the poetry of Dylan Thomas. Maybe it is simply because the poetry is good, or it might be because of a shared Welsh heritage, or it could be something that I am yet to realise. However, there was some discussion before Will was born about names that he might be given before we decided on Will. Among these was Dylan.

Anyways, I have been going through all my books in order to sort them out into some kind of order in readiness for packing them into specifically labelled boxes so that I can find them again. Whilst on this mission I came across some Dylan Thomas poetry, including one of my favourites; "And Death Shall Have No Dominion".

The beauty of poetry is that a poem is really anything anyone cares to label as such. There is, obviously, good poetry and not-so-good poetry, but it is all poetry at the end of the day. I am not going to analyse this poem for you. Rather, I would encourage you to read it, and bring to it your own life experiences and views. My biggest enjoyment in reading poetry is imagining that the poet was writing this poem for you to read and interpret it as you will.

This poem has even been interpreted as being a commentary on the inevitable socialist underpinnings of our existence.

So, it is within this framework that I post "And Death Shall Have No Dominion".

Enjoy...


And death shall have no dominion. 
Dead men naked they shall be one 
With the man in the wind and the west moon; 
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, 
They shall have stars at elbow and foot; 
Though they go mad they shall be sane, 
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; 
Though lovers be lost love shall not; 
And death shall have no dominion. 


And death shall have no dominion. 
Under the windings of the sea 
They lying long shall not die windily; 
Twisting on racks when sinews give way, 
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; 
Faith in their hands shall snap in two, 
And the unicorn evils run them through; 
Split all ends up they shan't crack; 
And death shall have no dominion. 


And death shall have no dominion. 
No more may gulls cry at their ears 
Or waves break loud on the seashores; 
Where blew a flower may a flower no more 
Lift its head to the blows of the rain; 
Though they be mad and dead as nails, 
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; 
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, 
And death shall have no dominion.

Learning Languages...

I have always had a fascination with learning, and in particular learning languages. I guess this stems from the fact that I have always had a knack for picking up languages easily. I once tried to learn Vietnamese, perhaps tried is the wrong word, and after 16 hours of learning my teacher, a South Vietnamese refugee who ended up re-settling in Australia, could not believe that I had never had a lesson before. He seemed to think I was pretty good at it.

I also learned French for a couple of terms in junior high school. I was pretty good at French too. However, much to my mum's horror, I stopped learning French after a couple of terms because I succumbed to peer pressure. My friends were adamant that only "gay" people spoke French, and at 12 I really did not think that I wanted to be gay. Not that I am really sure that I knew what gay was all about back then.

However, I recently bought "French for Dummies" and I am going to teach myself (or re-acquire the limited skills I once had) French. The reason for this undertaking is nothing more than I want to learn and I am keen to learn at least three more languages. At the moment those languages are French, Welsh, and Arabic. I have decided to start with French.

Maybe my next post will be in bad French :D

William Alun Baiton

I promised to post and here it is.

William Alun Baiton was born at 07.35 on 28 November 2008. He is a healthy 3.7 kgs and 50cm in length.

Mother and baby Will are doing well.

If any of you are wondering "Alun" is the Welsh spelling of Alan.

Alan is my father's name and today is his birthday.

Enjoy the pictures!

Having A Wales Moment

Tintern Abbey

Chepstow Castle

Welsh Flag

My old man is a Welshman. Born and raised in a fine part of southeast Wales, Chepstow. I have been there once and lived with my grandparents. As I get older I want my missus to see this part of the world and I would like my kids (assuming there are more after this one) to also see and learn the family heritage from my old man's side of the family.


Two of my favourite places are Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Castle. I am a bit of a history buff and the rich and long history of both these places have meant that I have spent countless hours just hanging around and soaking up the atmosphere and escaping into the recesses of my mind wondering what it would have been like to be living at the time these areas were in their respective primes.


The funniest thing I can remember includes Chepstow Castle. I went there with my sister in 1991 just for a look around. People have always said I look like my old fella but I have never believed them until this particular moment. Normally, you have to pay to get in and the Sis and I had no problems with that. The money is useful in terms of the upkeep of the castle.


However, I was strolling on up to the counter to pay and was about to fork over the cash when the cashier said, "you're Alan Baiton's son, aren't you?" I am like, "yeah!", "have we met before? or did my grandparents call to let you know we were on the way?" She just smiled and said, "you're the image of your dad!"


This woman apparently went to school with my dad and would not have seen him for 30 years and my dad was a real skinny bugger in his younger years and I am certainly not on the slim side of the coin. Still amazed even after all this time.


One day I would like to go back there with my old man so that he can tell me about the places of his youth in his own words and in his own way.

Suicide -- A Follow Up

A note just in case you are wondering. The couple of recent posts on suicide is not a warning sign that I am thinking about ending it all. Morbid fascination with the idea of how someone reaches that point.

There are reports of another suicide in a small Welsh town, Bridgend, which makes this the 22nd suicide in the area in the last 18 months. The suicide of Carwyn Jones makes it 3 suicides from the same street in a matter of months.

The community is at a loss to explain the multiple suicides. Yet, explainable or not there seems to be a clear need to set up some kind of community support program to provide avenues for people to come to terms with their depression or stress.

I have family connections to Wales hence the reason I came across this sad and tragic news. I must add none of my family are from this part of Wales.

Baby Names

Yes, yes, yes, I know the kid is not due until November and that is bloody ages away! Whose idea was it anyway that this pregnancy thing had to last approximately 9 months? Perhaps this is proof that God is a man after all or then again perhaps God is a woman and has consciously kept man away from experiencing the pleasure and pain of child birth...It might have helped though if God had granted me some videography skills so I could better capture the process on film!

I am already planning the kids 18th birthday party and the embarrassment of watching the "day you were born" video!

But I digress! This post is about baby names! Let's face it the kid has to have a name, right? So, my philosophy is that it is better to sort this stuff out in advance so that you're not making rash decisions in the heat of the happiness moment while the missus' legs are spread-eagled and up in the air and in all her glory! To simplify things I reckon "the kid" is a good choice as it is gender neutral and reflects the fact that they will always be the kid no matter how old they get...the missus is not convinced on this one!

My other choice is the gender neutral Dylan. However, the reality is that we both want to capture the essence of the kid having two cultures and a wide array of influences ranging from Australian, Balinese, Indonesian, Welsh, and each of our personal interests and likes, and we want to do this in the kid's name. Yet, we are also conscious of not wanting the kid to have a name as long as the Nile.

I would like to factor in my old fella's Welsh heritage and have at least one Welsh name in the fold somewhere. I am not really into RAB Jr. if it is a son. Yet, I could be tempted with names like Harald, Tristan, or Drew. Besides if it is a daughter I kind of like the names Meaghan, Elizabeth, and Tuyet (Vietnamese for snow), Eloise...

When it is all said and done...I am not hoping for a son or a daughter (although fraternal twins would have been nice), I am just hoping that all goes well and smoothly and that the next however many weeks that remain, fly past :)

Bring it on!