Warrington Wednesday
Yesterday I went through parts of Wales’ beautiful landscapes to record material for upcoming reports on the election to the Welsh Parliament.
I arrived to the small town of Llangollen at lunchtime after passing through the rolling countryside with its green-clad softly shaped mountains and hills and deep valleys and countless flocks of sheep everywhere.
Llangollen is beautifully situated in a valley, like a small alpine village almost, with a beautiful bridge over the rushing river Dee in the middle of a Wales that has also begun to feel a little more of the idea of independence.
More on that theme in other reports, but once there, in Llangollen, it was also time to walk through the avenue of memories. Yes, it was partly because that place for me played a certain role during my own independence once.
It is almost 30 years ago now. A 22-year-old Daniel Alling sang in the choir Allmänna Sången in Uppsala, which on a summer tour that year would compete in choir singing at the big choir festival which is held every year in Llangollen.
The big prize for the winning choir in that competition has the suggestive, perhaps not entirely fair if you look at it in perspective of how many good choirs there are in the world but still so enticing and seductive name “Choir of world”.
Almost 30 years ago then.
Where I was yesterday stood in front of the Llangollen Pavillion, a kind of mixture of a huge white tent and a brick building, I did not really remember much.
I actually remembered the white tent, but not the rest of the surroundings very much.
But pictures were taken and posted on social media and also in groups where many of the old driving buddies from that time are.
There were many happy comments and memories from the trip. 30 years ago.
Like a thousand years ago, or as it was yesterday, as Thåström once sang.
We competed among another with the well-known chorus version of Fröding’s poem King Lily of the Valley by Dungen and I still remember the joy in Llangollen that summer day 1992 when the conference on live Welsh television finally proclaimed us the winners, as “Choir of the World”.
But where I stood in front of the Paviliion in Llangollen, I liked to remember but did not long to return.
Then was then and now is now and it is also good that way.
Personal independence is obtained a long time ago, the joy in Llangollen then was definitely a station on the road and it was fun to yesterday tell some of those I interviewed about their thoughts on independence about the happy memory I associate with just Llangollen.
I’m not very nostalgic about myself, it does not suit me, it does not seem to fit in with retrospective nostalgia for a journalist who is constantly looking forward to constantly new deadlines and stories.
But it was definitely nice to be back in Llangollen in beautiful Wales so here almost 30 years later.
Like a thousand years ago or like it was yesterday.
Source: ICELAND NEWS