Port*m**** to Port*m**** in 67 years

Childhood Cambrian connections. A neighbour, Mrs Fripp, kept a Corgi (cor-gi: "dwarf of a dog"). Above the main road and shopping area, were the posher avenues: Carmarthen Avenue, Merthyr Avenue, Aberdare Avenue, Penarth Avenue, Brecon Avenue. These were much more middle class than our road, but not quite up there with the Rodneys who inhabited the more senior Naval Officers' houses further up the hill. They say that earning the command of a ship meant they moved further up still - over the brow of the hill - so that the Dockyard, as their workplace, was not visible from their homes.

On the adjacent island of Port***, Thomas Ellis Owen (1805-1862), of Welsh descent, is described as the Father of S*******, an architect who built many grand houses that distinguished that area from its more workaday neighbour, despite the two being co-terminous.

Much later I discovered that the eventual wives of two of my contemporaries at school (gender-isolated education in those days) were in fact fluent Siaradwyr Cymraeg. This only came to light with my recent learning of the language and subsequent phone conversations.

Later in childhood, I came to know Llangollen and Abermawddach. Thanks to my father's acquisition of one of those then new-fangled portable cassette recorders (the make was Elizabethan, an offshoot of Philips), I still have audio recordings of those trips. Even in 1963 I was enthralled by the sounds of Cymraeg in speech or song. Place names haunted me: Llandegla, Arthog, Eglwyseg, long before I was crudely aware of the concept of Hiraeth. Even then I longed to pronounce and understand these words correctly, whether Llwybr Cyhoeddus or Cyfleusterau Cyhoeddus (not seen much today). Even then I cringed to the sound of a walking-guide pronouncing Tŷ Canol (a now Listed farmhouse where we had refreshments) as "ticken all". It didn't feel right. Just don't mention "Betsy Coyd" please! But it's so much more than pronunciation. In  adulthood I learned of the deep cultural significance of place names, field names and house names, and their bond to identity, and too many under threat. I'm still learning.

Fast forward. My partner of 38 years is Cymraes, although we met in Ynys Wyth (Isle of Wight). For more than half my lifetime I have lived and loved with her. The opportunity arose to move to Port*m**** near to her family's roots. And to learn the Language of Heaven.

The similarity of the places names is purely coinicidental. Or is it? 

Portsmouth to Porthmadog in 67 years.