Those Dreaded Eisteddfods

I don't know what happened but, somewhere down the line, St. David's Day has become just another day.

I recall having half-days for many, but not all, of my days in primary education.

I think I was unlucky in they decided to cut the half-day holiday a few years before I went up to high school.

I despised St. David's Day while attending secondary school.

Hated it.

We were forced to sit in the school hall for hours on end in their own version of an Eisteddfod.

I don't look back with fondness at that whatsoever.

There was something evil about it and I cannot put my finger on what gives me this feeling. It was like the teachers were forced to do it and we - as their pupils - had to comply.

The only contribution I made - other than sitting there like an illegal immigrant captured and held in a land where he couldn't understand what was being said to him - was to enter a science art competition.

I had to draw a picture warning of safety in the laboratory.

The problem was - I needed to know the Welsh words for 'don't be like a bull in a china shop - act responsibly in the lab' or something like that and my science teacher didn't have a clue either.

So, on a Welsh themed science poster all I had was a red-coloured bull with a head like the Chicago Bulls logo.

Okay, a red bull could be Welsh at a stretch.

With a lot of elastic.

Would you be surprised if I told you I actually won the competition?

Well, don't be. I didn't!