Croseo i Gymru President Obama'

[Gob]

Barack Obama will visit a school on the first of his two-day trip to Wales for the Nato summit, the White House says.

Watch US Ambassador Matthew Barzun's attempts to get to grips with Welsh language ahead of Nato summit

Learning a new language is difficult enough – without the pressure of needing to swot up a few days before an international summit.

But US ambassador to the UK, Matthew Barzun, wasn’t shy about sharing the more painful moments of his attempts to learn his first few sentences in Welsh - despite taking nine attempts to master saying "Helô".

We're delighted to see Mr Barzun having a go at learning the language - but he was the first to admit his early attempts left a bit to be desired.

The newly-appointed diplomat posted a video of a series of outtakes of attempts to learn Welsh sentences including “hello, how are you?” and “My Welsh needs... improvement” ahead of the start of the Nato summit in Newport – with hilarious results.

Mr Obama is the first serving US president to visit Wales and he, along with Prime Minister David Cameron, will meet pupils on Thursday morning.

The pair will then join the rest of the 150 heads of state and ministers for an official photo at Newport's Celtic Manor which is hosting the summit.

On Friday, the president will watch a fly-past and hold a news conference.

The White House confirmed he will stay in Wales on Wednesday and Thursday night before flying back to Washington at the end of the summit.

Nato leaders will discuss Afghanistan on the first day and then a have a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Commission before ending the day with a working dinner at Cardiff Castle focusing on security challenges.

Friday's discussions include the future of Nato and the transatlantic bond between countries.

[wesw]

I don t have anything nice to say, so I won t say anything at all.

he s no fan of Churchill tho. beware.

[Reality Bytes]

Actually he didn't do too bad though his "helo" sounded more Irish to me

The NATO summit is a very sore point for me - its been causing chaos here already for over 2 weeks now and they haven't even arrived yet. Brahms and I had been patting ourselves on the back as we'd arranged to take Wednesday through Friday off work so that we wouldn't need to try and get anywhere as we live in one of the areas we've been briefed will suffer disruption as we're on one of the direct routes they are using to get back and forth, Brahms had told his staff to work locally or from home, my own employer had arranged the same, schools are either closed or have completely changed their hours and we've all been told there will be major travel disruptions with next to no advance warnings because of security. They are also expecting tens of thousands of protesters who have already started arriving and you just know they are going to be considerate of us locals right? Plus all the security, staff and reporters etc.

Then 3 weeks ago my niece reminded me she's getting married in Bristol on Friday we have had to scramble around trying to find a hotel to stay in on the other side of the bridge overnight on Thursday as there's absolutely no way we would be able to risk trying to travel on the Friday morning - that was a struggle as every hotel, motel and B&B as far away as Gloucester has been booked solid, the few rooms we found were the far side of Bristol and they'd raised their prices - I'm paying a premium rate for a bloody travelodge! We now have to try and get the dog into kennels then make our way to Bristol right smack bang in the middle of whats expected to be the very worst bloody day to travel right past the front fecking door of Celtic Manor and we get to do the same in reverse on Friday to try and get home again after the wedding.

Last week I went to a meeting in Cardiff thats a mere 10 min drive from my office even in the usual rush hour traffic it's a direct line between the office and the venue, after the meeting I needed to pop back to the office to drop off some stuff - it took me over an hour as whilst I was at the meeting they'd suddenly closed the road I would take back. I ended up on totally the wrong side of the river trying to get back across in nose to tail traffic crawling along at a smails pace - 2 effing WEEKS before they all arrive!! The center of Cardiff looks like Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles.









http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... rs-7697281 - more photos here

[Gob]

Bloody Nora, can you imagine how bad it would be if there was someone important going, like John Otway?

[Reality Bytes]

Just had this pop up on my facebook wall from the local radio station

From South Wales Police:
"As part of the security operation for the 2014 Nato Wales Summit, a number of exercises involving vehicles, aircraft, and officer deployments will take place in South Wales and the South West over the next few days.
Chief Superintendent Alun Thomas said:
“Residents should not be alarmed by these, they are essential to test our procedures alongside our mutual aid policing colleagues and partners from the military. We are grateful to the public for their continued support and we apologise in advance for any disruption these activities may cause.”

Already been convoys of siren blasting vehicles passing along the top road this morning - had a feeling thats what was going on, thank god I'm "working" from home today.

[rubato]

... They are also expecting tens of thousands of protesters who have already started arriving and you just know they are going to be considerate of us locals right?... "

Protestors don't drink beer? stay in hotels? eat in restaurants?

yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

Have they ever had a NATO conference in a 3rd world country before?





That was for GOB not the lovely RB.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Could be worse, like when Obama comes to NYC for a fundraiser.