Worst habit: E-mailing my to-do list to myself. (Most recent: Look up what Pytheas and others wrote about the Celts.)

Favorite conversation: Meeting the owner of a Peruvian restaurant in Aix-en-Provence. He and Juan talked for almost an hour. 

Proudest moment: Speaking (briefly) in Cymraeg with a volunteer at South Stack Lighthouse and being asked where in Wales I was from. 

Brush with celebrity: Sitting directly behind Cerys Matthews (Catatonia) at a concert during the Llais Music Festival in Cardiff. 

Most tears shed: Weeping through the final ten minutes of Michael Sheen’s performance in Nye. Not a tissue in sight. 

Toughest challenge: Believing in myself. 

Favorite view: From our apartment in Abertawe. Port Talbot to the east, Mumbles to the west, the city below, and England across. 

Second favorite view: The Eryri Mountains from Penmon, the northeastern point of Ynys Môn across from where we lived in Bangor. 

Biggest disappointment: Watching the sinking ship that is America from the other side of the Atlantic. 

Unexpected joy: Sitting down by the pier in Bangor to watch the Northern Lights.  

Historic moments: Stumbling across post-election celebrations in Paris totally by accident after the defeat of the far right. 

Pure nostalgia: Visiting Cognac, where I taught English more than 10 years ago. Absolutely uncanny: so familiar, and so different. 

Place I can’t wait to get back to: Anywhere in Cymru—Ynys Môn, Swansea/Abertawe, and Presteigne/Radnor are top of the list.

Place I couldn’t leave soon enough: London. Second place, Dublin. I don’t think I’ve been anywhere so absolutely inundated by Americans. 

Mountain top moment: Attending the International Arthurian Congress, feeling for the first time in my life like I found my calling. 

Something left undone: Another year, and I still have yet to submit an article for publication. Second place, hiking Offa’s Dyke path. 

Favorite whim: Touring Dylan Thomas’ birth house in Abertawe (Swansea). 

Second favorite whim: Taking the bus to Llangollen for an overnight trip. 

Party crashers: Swimming in the Irish Sea on one of the only days it reached 25C and having to dodge jellyfish everywhere. 

Something I learned to love: Driving the narrow Welsh and Irish roads. 

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