Land of my mothers ( apologies to 'mae hen wlad fy nhadau'*)

Have 'mercilessly hammered'** my car down the M4 and brought it back to its natural urban habitat.

Christmas was as Christmas always is in my parents' house: chaotic, cluttered, drunken and fabulous.

Somehow have managed to keep hold of my sanity despite being one of nine family members living in a terraced house for five or so days. This involves a great deal of shouting (our main method of communication); vast quantities of drink (earliest alcoholic beverage: 9am before chapel on Christmas morning); a few food fights (earlier on I found a lump of stilton and a cold*** chip in my handbag - a joint sibling effort I am told) and an average consumption of 50,000 calories a day which I suspect I didn't get to burn off: my exercise consisting of running - I went every morning, of which I am very proud of myself (probably the only time I wasn't actually eating), and playing PS2 (usually while consuming more calories).

I always pine for Wales when I leave it. And not just because of my family, but the whole vague notion of 'belonging'.

My grandmother comes from a village called Waunarlwydd - two miles away from where she, my parents and uncle/aunt etc now live. Though she lived for most her life/her married life outside Penclawdd in a pub called the Berthlwyd Inn that overlooks the Lougher Estuary - about four miles the other direction - (that's it in the picture) where we moved when I was about eleven. I loved living in a pub and to this day you can tell that my parents used to run a pub. Big clue: their attitude towards drink, welcomed with open arms/mouths.

We moved to the pub from Ystrad Mynach near Caerphilly which was real coal-mining country up in the Rhymney Valley. The Penallta colliery was the closest and the last deep mine in the Valley - although it didn't technically close until the early 90s, I remember friends' dads losing their jobs much earlier than this as production was scaled down. I went back to Ystrad a few years ago and the area desperately needs new jobs to keep the community together, it was really upsetting to see how it had declined.

My parents now live in Gowerton, the village between Penclawdd and Waunarlywdd (you would hardly describe my family as 'nomadic', most of them have remained within a five mile diameter), and although I have moved around a bit I love the fact that they haven't and I still get to go 'back home'.

Saying that, I don't know if I'll ever return there to live, though I'd love to have a house near Llangennith (which I still visit in the summer to occassionally surf). If I couldn't live on the coast I'd go back to a valley town such as Pontardawe (where I spent some of this holiday as non-hired help, making bouquets and greening up funeral weaths in the local florist - a long and not at all interesting story - I think I'm pushing the boredom threshold with this as it is). Tight-knit Dylan-esque communities with fabulous pubs. Pontardawe has two that are great: The Pink Geranium, and no, it's a not a gay bar, and 'The Other Place'.

Next challenge is what to do on New Year's Eve. I have the option of going back to Wales for a night of gambling and drinking with my family; down to Devon or staying put here in London. The latter is winning at the moment though plans (as pointed out by Patroclus) are somewhat, er, fuzzy and could be based around a boxset of the OC.

For those who are going to lavish costume parties (Frangelita and her technicolour 60s outfit) - yes, we'd like to see a photo please...

Oh, and talking of pictures, what happened to the photo of Homer? (makes chicken noise).


* Which is the Welsh national anthem (land of my fathers). Seeing as my grandfather came from Derbyshire and my dad comes from Crewe, the Welsh element is on the maternal side

** This is a lie. I drove it very carefully and with enormous amounts of respect. At 20 mph. LC - you've never even seen me drive. Besides, you can't even drive a bike in a huge circle without falling off.

*** Obviously, on the basis that it must have been there for a few days...