Thoughts and findings in Wales

[mtbc]

In driving around Cardiff we stumbled upon an excellent small diner, Luvly Grub. Their fare may be basic but the staff are nice and the menu offers a good range of freshly made food in decent portions and at low prices. I wish there were more eateries like this.

In navigating South Wales I have enjoyed hearing mst3kmoxie's English-voiced Google Maps app butcher Welsh place names so badly that even my American-voiced maps lady does a better job but I might have hoped that some metadata with the names would have caused alternative pronunciation rules to be applied; now I wonder how it copes with Spanish place names in the US.

In conversation the question was raised of why no banknotes are issued by a Welsh bank and I imagined that the Welsh think that quite a fair question. Perhaps it is simply that they have been less resistant to annexation.

Comments

[crazyscot]

Wales was fully conquered by England long before the union with Scotland was contemplated. 13th century, I think.

There used to be Welsh banknotes - indeed lots of little Welsh banks - but no banks founded after 1844 were allowed to issue their own notes. Banking was not an easy profession and many collapsed (not related to note issuing rights); the last Welsh issuer lost those rights in 1908. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2010/03/collapse_of_welsh_banks.html

[mtbc]

Thank you, that makes sense, and the banking history turns out to be more interesting than I had expected.