sillySo once G returned from the first meeting, we drove down in my car and stayed the night in Pontypool, which is convenient for Caerleon. I'd taken the Eee, thinking to get some marking done, but in fact the meeting only took about an hour and a half, so we trundled back home again, just stopping for a sandwich at Builth Wells.
So there was no time to visit the amphitheatre, but I have visited it lots of times now and the countryside was looking particularly lovely in the clear bright sunshine, so even though I didn't do any sightseeing, it made a change from not going anywhere much.
And on the way back G and I ended up speculating about the existence of a Saint Moist. :)
In Welsh place names, "Llan" means "church" and there are many many place names of the form of Llan followed by a saint's name, for example Llanfihangel (Church of Mihangel (Michael)), Llanfair (Church of Mair (Mary)), Llanfachreth (Church of Machreth).
Because of the system of mutations, any name beginning with "M" will change to a "F" (pronounced V) when combined with "Llan".
Well, there is a little detour we sometimes do to avoid going through the congested centre of Abergavenny and it goes through... Llanfoist. Which would mean, following the pattern above...
Sadly (I know, I shouldn't have checked. Some things are too good to check!) there never was a Saint Moist. It turns out it's an Anglicisation of the original Welsh Llanffwyst. :(
