Photojournalist Lorna Cabble spent three months hanging out with her camera, after hours – photographing the city’s late night scene. Over to Lorna to explain more about her project.
UNITED KINGDOM, WALES; Autumn/winter 2016. Image shot while working with Cardiff Street Pastors, a voluntary based organisation that aim to protect people while they’re on a night out in Cardiff on a Friday and Saturday night.
During my second year as a student in Cardiff, there was a lot of publicity on the attacks that had happened to female students around the Cathays area, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it – the subject struck a chord with me. It was really in our faces, so I just kept thinking “I really need to do a project on this, or it’s going to bother me.”
I didn’t know where to start, so I started photographing students being students on the streets of Cardiff (students are so great) and ended up seeing a poster for the “Student Safety Walk”, an organisation that gets students (both male and female) home safe, or looked after when they’re in a bit of a mess – so I contacted them to see if they’d mind me tagging along.
For this project I was probably out in town at night at least three times a week. The Student Safety Walk went out twice a week, so I made it out with them as often as I could around work. I was also out on just general shoots, and with Cardiff Street Pastors a few times too.
The things I saw were a bit shocking, but in an amusing way more than anything. All I kept thinking was “how are theses people not cold in their outfits?”, while I was wrapped up in a coat and scarf and freezing!
There was a guy who had a whole bottle of scotch to himself, he was just completely unable to do anything, and threw up every five minutes, we had to get him an ambulance – it was a bit scary. His housemates came out of the student union a while later and saw him while we were waiting for the ambulance, so we filled them in on what was happening – but they left him. That was really shocking for me, and kind of made me realise why I was documenting the kind people looking after him and others in similar positions to begin with.
I did see a few worrying scenes where there would be a guy trying to take a girl home – but she would have no idea who he was – so it was good to see that being stopped. And I also saw taxis reject a lot of lone females, or groups of females (as well as males) as their journey home wasn’t long enough for them – or sometimes they were too drunk (which I kind of understand, but it’s worrying that they’d then have to walk home). I also saw some really lovely scenes where people were just kind to each other, so it balanced out.
My next project kind of spring boards from this one: I’m photographing people who have been sexually assaulted and I’m getting their stories. I’m going for straight-forward portraiture with this one, and it’s basically aiming to encourage people to speak out about it and try and get rid of some of that stigma – like feeling like you’re to blame, or feeling like you can’t talk about it from fear.
Anyone is welcome to participate in this project, any gender, and an assault of any scale – it’s all important to me. For me personally, photojournalism is just being able to provide those who want/need it with a voice.
UNITED KINGDOM, WALES; November 14 2016. Portrait of Gary, the director of the charity that runs Street Pastors Cardiff. Gary has been volunteering since 2008.
UNITED KINGDOM, WALES; October 31 2016. Portrait of ‘MJ’, an employee at St John’s Ambulance working in Cardiff to help intoxicated people at night.
UNITED KINGDOM, WALES; December 18 2016. Portrait of Alastair Babington, student and organiser of the Student Safety Walk at Cardiff University.
Lorna Cabble is in her final year of Photojournalism at the University of South Wales. Her favourite area of photography is theatre and social documentary: she is obsessed with people and their stories. When she graduates, she would love to work in theatres and to do as much NGO work as she can. She’s the resident photographer for This is Kizomba, Cardiff.
We would like to welcome you to the first instalment from student Niamh Doyle, who’ll be talking to us about a passion she discovered while at university here in Cardiff.
My name is Niamh Doyle and I am a third year Contemporary Music Performance Student at the University of South Wales, The Atrium and like some of you who will be reading this, I, myself and under six months away from graduating my three year degree. Who knew that the term ‘if you blink you’ll miss it’, was actually true, right?
So this particular post is for all of you third years out there who may or may not be panicking about what their future path may be, whether you’ll be able to pursue it, or whether you’ll be able to make a living out of it!
Consequently, this article (arranged in three musical quavers) contains my secret ingredient to how I escaped such anxiety and worry, how I found my new passion and ultimately, how I discovered my intended future career path.
However, my story begins at the very beginning of my second year here, where I remember regretting not 1) attending the fresher’s event fair in my first year and 2) ultimately ending in lacking in participation in an acceptable amount of extra curricular activities (excluding ballet, contemporary and guitar teaching, which with each, I only took up for a short amount of time).
Consequently, at the beginning of second year, I ended up dragging my flatmate (at the time) to the fresher’s fair, where I made the first step into radio.Less than a week later, I was notified with an email informing me on the dates and other information that was required for the interviewing process and only two days later, I became a co-host to the chart show at Dragon Radio. ‘The Rebekah and Niamh Chart Show’ continued solidly for a full academic year, where so many treasured memories and friendships were made.
Whilst this show was continuing to grow however, at this point in my life, I was adamant that I was to go into Music Therapy. However, after venturing into a wonderful three months of work experience at a college in South Wales that summer, I soon discovered than Music Therapy just wasn’t for me. It was from that day on that I looked into other radio shows that I could throw myself into in my third year, which is where my second show at Dragon Radio started; £1 Wonders. It was also at this time that I found GTFM. On this station, I own my show, leaving me with two shows where I co-host, and one where I present and run the desk on my own.
All in all, radio saved me. At the beginning of third year, I had unfortunately discovered that I wasn’t so passionate for music anymore.
So what I’m saying, is if you’re still struggling for a career path and you’re sick of your parents asking you how you’re going to be making your money, take up a hobby that you’ve always wanted to take up, because quite frankly, that could end up being your muse!
So, you guys. I’ve recently started a column for the wonderful Caught by the River website, based on my wanderings (and wonderings) around and about the lovely River Taff.
I know, can’t I write about anything other than Cardiff, amirite? Anyway, two weird things happened after the piece was published. Firstly, after living on the edge of south Cardiff on “Rat Island” for nearly seven years and having NEVER seen a rat down here, I saw TWO within the space of two days – one running across the car park in Morrisons and one scurrying around in the bushes on Dumballs Road.
Wait … there’s more … secondly, what I thought was just a little bit of basic desk research into what is essentially a fluff piece about the place I live got way more complex. It turned out to be the question that kept questioning, itself, other people, and me.
In the piece I wrote for Caught by the River, my conclusion was that no one really knows where Rat Island was exactly, but that we have a rough idea (based on all my research): it was the land that lay between the River Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal, to the south of where Clarence Road Bridge is now.
This is the conclusion I had come to from all the many things I’d read, personal accounts, articles on the BBC, Wales Online, modern history books, etc. Fine.
You can’t actually see Clarence Road Bridge in the map below – it hadn’t been built at this point (1879). But roughly halfway down the picture, you can see James Street on the right hand side – imagine that carrying on to the left (westwards) and going straight over the water into Grangetown. That’s the horizontal line we’re talking about, just above where it reads ‘Dumballs Marsh’.
But no, not fine. Writer, poet, historian, all-round good guy Peter Finch has done all of the due diligence with respect to Cardiff history when researching for his Real Cardiff books (recommended reading, students), and he responded to an email I’d sent him asking if he knew where the spot was with this: the general area was right – it was between the Taff and the canal, but rather than being south of where Clarence Road would eventually be built, it was actually north (up towards where the centre of town is): in between that bridge and the timber ponds, on an actual island created by the Taff, oxbowing its way down to the Severn and the sea beyond.
Peter, wonderfully poetic even when answering inane questions from Cardiff bloggers, wrote me this:
The Taff has always moved about. Thrashed about perhaps, as it traverses its delta. Rat Island, as I understood it, was a section of Taff’s bank made an island by the river ox bowing itself. This was upstream of Clarence Road Bridge near The Dumballs. It was formed, according to Mary Gillham, following one of the periodic floods that plagues the Taff. Gulls and other birds nested there. Rats invaded along a revealed at low tide causeway in order to steal their eggs. The land became rat infested. The name followed.
That was Peter’s first email. Isn’t he a gem? Being in a mad rush, as I always am, I misread the ‘upstream’ part and thought he meant downstream …
But there’s a reason for that. All of the folks I asked – people who used to live here, and had the story handed down from parents or grandparents – had heard the area was called Rat Island because of the rats that were disturbed either when the HMS Hamadryad first to the area (in 1866), or when she was finally dragged away to be destroyed in 1905.
@OldCardiffPics Wasn't it named 'Rat Island' after the Hamadryad was broken up? The story we were told was that the rats came from the ship.
It makes sense, but the area being referred to is south of the Clarence Road Bridge: quite a lot further south … and adding to the confusion, I had read somewhere else the area was already called Rat Island, long before the ship came to Cardiff in 1866.
So how does it all fit together?
The discrepancy between the locations – north of the Clarence Road Bridge, versus south?
I raised the possibility of the name referring to an area north of the bridge with the Cardiff Docks Remembered Facebook (where people share memories of the area and discuss such matters) and it was pretty much universally poo-pooed. No way, said people who had grown up around here. Their truth was in the tales from their parents and grandparents, and they had been definitively told. Rat Island was south, the area next to the Sea Lock, that would eventually turn into Hamadryad Park.
We aren’t debating the European Convention of Human Rights or anything here guys. I am well aware this is a long gone name for an area that bears no resemblance to the marshy hinterland that inspired it – but that doesn’t stop me wanting to know WHY, does it??
There is, I think, anyway, a solution to this, that includes all of these seemingly conflicting perspectives and accounts: an ultimate answer that I – Helia Phoenix, non-historian, non-expert, super-nosey local person – will put forward as the only conclusion to this burning issue … this imperative question … that literally no-one – apart from me – is asking …
Where was Rat Island?
Here’s my theory. The entire area that fringes the main urbanised docklands – from the Bute Ironworks all the way to the south and east, where you can see the HMS Hamadryad hospital ship – would have been a muddy, marshy wasteland at that time – its only purpose really to keep people with infectious diseases away from the overcrowded docks and Tiger Bay. There was very little of interest on any of that land – either north of the future Clarence Road Bridge, or south of it.
So … it’s possible that the one spot was originally named ‘Rat Island’ – the small island next to the Ironworks, as pointed to by Peter Finch – but the name spread down (or was re-used) in the south, once the HMS Hamadryad showed up (or was hauled away), spreading its ratty citizens across the undergrowth that is now Hamadryad Park.
HMS Hamadryad Hospital Ship on “Rat Island”, Cardiff. Photo from People’s Collection Wales
I won’t hold out for my Nobel Prize. But I did feel like I might have actually sort of solved something that’s been bugging me for ages.
I emailed Peter asking if he thought this might be possible. He agreed – that there were two things that were getting confused here …
Rat Island, the geographic island, i.e. a piece of land with water on all sides is the place you’ve spotted on your map. This is the one Mary Gillham suggests had birds nesting on it whose eggs were stolen by rats. Then there’s the local name for the whole district. Bill Barrett who died in 2013 and who was writing his piece on Rat Island for the Cardiff Book #3 (Stewart Williams Publishers) in 1977 suggests that all the land between the canal and the Taff was known as Rat Island. He suggests that this went as far north as the Timber Ponds. These were where the Iron Works are shown on your map … it does seem to be probable that the whole slab of land took on the name of the island.
So, Bill Barrett (RIP) might have got there before me. I wasn’t able to find a copy of his book anywhere (I’m on the lookout – please tell me if anyone finds one), but I’m happy enough with the result.
I did a lot of research for the initial piece (though it might remain inconclusive…), so if you’re interested in further reading:
The Cardiff Coal Boom: The Chronicle Radio show (featuring Ian Hill from Save the Coal Exchange, author / historian Neil Sinclair, Juliet Lewis – Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture), broadcast February 2017
Not really relevant for this piece, but lovely to follow if you’re on Twitter: @OldCardiffPics
Images in this piece: both taken on the section of the Taff that runs through the now disappeared Rat Island: Instagram malayabbasi and heatherpatterson.
Have you been to one of Cardiff’s seemingly endless array of vegan festivals yet? We sent student Maika Wagner along to Viva Vegan to dish the dirt. Not literally. The food actually sounds totes delish there.
My interest in veganism is personal, as I became vegan for health reasons about four years ago. In between I had a stretch of being vegetarian. It wasn’t until later that I started to think about the treatment of animals etc. I think it’s important to promote veganism in a peaceful way instead of the militant way some vegans go about it. It’s important for people to see that it is not as hard as they think to be vegan and that one person can make a difference with their diet, not just to the animals, but also for themselves and their health.
My neighbours had a stretch of being vegan back in 2012, and at first I thought it was quite extreme, because I did not get the motivation behind it. At some point I was looking at weight-loss diets and found this one book by Attila Hildmann. My neighbour had it, so I tried the 30-day challenge and stayed vegan afterwards, as during that time I had read up on all the animal cruelty and it just didn’t sit right with me.
There have been many vegan festivals going on in Cardiff throughout the last year, this most recent one looked like it might be the biggest one yet: The Viva Vegan Festival.
Having been held at the City Hall this Saturday, the Viva Vegan Festival attracted quite a few people who were interested in veganism or were already vegan. The entry fee of two pounds seemed reasonable enough for passers-by to give it a go. Being held in City Hall gave it a more official feeling than other vegan festivals in the city that I had been to. For £14 pounds, you could even have booked a VIP ticket in advance and get a goody-bag and also, most importantly, jump the queue.
If you didn’t fancy splashing out, there were some food trucks outside City Hall so you could have a taste of what was inside.
The stalls featured at the festival were very diverse, ranging from different foods, over bath accessories, skin care, makeup, clothing, art etc, all the way to animal rights activists. Most of the stall-holders were not Cardiff based, but can be found online.
My personal favourites were Solkiki, Bohemian Chic Minerals, chaaboo and Flavour Fusion. However, the all-time favourites with the masses are Mr Nice Pie and The Vegan Bakery.
Solikiki is the most amazing raw chocolate (my favourites are his white chocolate salted peanut and white chocolate hazelnut). The chocolates are Fairtrade and it is ensured that a large amount of the profit goes directly to the farmers.
Bohemian Chic Minerals makes mineral makeup for extremely sensitive skin. Every product is hyper-pigmented, so a even though the tubs are small, they will stretch for quite a while.
Chaaboo makes amazing, cold-pressed, hand-made soaps. There are different scents and two different sizes, which allows one to buy a small hamper of test-soaps as a cute, cruelty-free gift. My favourite scent is the green-tea soap. Many people don’t realise that soap is often made from animal fat and it is nice to have an alternative without having to check the label.
Flavour Fusion is a sort of ‘vegan parmesan’, made from almonds and spices. You can either sprinkle it on top of food or mix it with some olive oil for a dip or pesto, for some amazing flavour.
Apart from the stalls, there were also a variety of vegan talks and vegan cooking-demonstrations going on throughout the day, such as Jane Easton’s baking demonstration. She is the author of the Viva vegan cookbook and gave some great tips on baking, while also doing some myth-busting along the way.
I was born in Cambridge, but raised in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg was probably one of the first cities to have a completely vegan supermarket. A lot of the vegan foods found in the UK are currently being imported from either the US or Germany, so it’s funny to be in a store here and start reading out german labels. There’s a district in Hamburg called Schanze. It’s the hip, young district and has a ton of vegan options, including a vegan ice-cream shop, which is amazing. But you’ll usually find vegan stuff even in normal supermarkets, although more limited than a health-food store. Also, many of my close friends in Germany are vegetarian or vegan, so it’s really easy when going out or going round each other’s houses.
Maika Wagner is 21 years old and was born in Cambridge, UK, but moved to Hamburg, Germany when she was five. From 2010 to 2011, she was on an exchange year in Lecce, Italy, learning the language and getting to know the people there. She moved back to Cardiff to study and is currently on her third year of Contemporary Music Performance at the Atrium.
Hey you guys. So I meant to do this post an actual month ago, but the last six months have just taken it all out of me. Let’s not dwell on crazy world events that we have seemingly no control over though, right? Have a flick through this lovely list for some of our favourite stories of 2016.
Newtown (or “Little Ireland”) sprung up in the early 1830s to house the multitudes of Irish immigrants who had come over to work on the docks. When the estate was demolished in the 1970s, the inhabitants were scattered across the city.
We joined forces with I Loves The Diff to put together a city guide for the lovely Creative Cardiff project. Co-working, education, coffee shops, architecture – we cover it all!
Culture vulture Catrin Greaves rounds up Cardiff’s art gallery highlights for February. Take it away, Catrin!
Nature’s Song, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The museum hosts a stunning display of traditional Chinese bird and flower paintings, the first time this collection has been seen in the UK. Nature’s Song traces the development of this art form from the late Ming dynasty (late 16th century) to contemporary interpretations from recent decades. Bird and flower paintings showcase the talents of poets and calligraphers, as well as painters, and the exhibition emphasises the symbolic and spiritual meaning of bird and flower motifs.In the exhibition, you can learn about different techniques used by painters and calligraphers to create these stunning artworks. This is an exciting opportunity to sustain links between Wales and China: the exhibition has been created in collaboration with China Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing. On until 23 April.
Anna Noel is inspired by how animals accompany humans throughout our lives. Based in the Gower, Anna takes inspiration from the animals she grew up with: From fairy-tale figures and imaginary friends to trusty companions and beloved pets. Noel creates charming ceramic figures, set to populate the Craft in the Bay from 21. January 2017 – Sun, 5. March.
The artist group X-10 present the outcome of two years of collaboration, where they examined the closure and decommissioning of Wylfa on Anglesey, the last nuclear power station in Wales.Through video, photography, sound, sculpture, and installation, the artists respond to this event and question the future of nuclear power and attached environmental concerns. Merging art, science and technology, the show adds new questions and thoughts to the nuclear debate. On from 18 Feb – 17 March 2017.
Participating artists include, – Ant Dickinson, Bridget Kennedy, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Chris Oakley, Teresa Paiva, Tim Skinner, Robin Tarbet, Alana Tyson, Annie Grove-White, Helen Grove-White.
Don’t miss the Artes Mundi exhibition at the National Museum of Wales and at Chapter, which finishes on February 26. Cardiff-based organisation Artes Mundi is best known for its biannual exhibition and prize, and emphasises how art reflects what it means to be human in contemporary society – it is the largest cash prize awarded for the arts in the UK and one of the most significant in the world.
This year’s exhibition brings together the work of shortlisted artists from Lebanon, Angola, Algeria, the USA, Ghana and Wales. It showcases work in a variety of media, including film, installation and performance art. Pop into the galleries for a free guided tour (2pm daily at the museum, and on request at Chapter), and keep an eye out for free family drop-in activities over February half term, which will examine themes inspired by the artists’ work, including costume, storytelling and gardens.
Catrin Greaves works as a tour guide and workshop facilitator at the National Museum of Wales. She moved to Cardiff after studying Anthropology in Belfast, and enjoys singing ina choir and doing embroidery
Great news, party people – the Green Man headliners have been announced for the 15th birthday, and they are looking GOOD!
This year we celebrate Green Man on 17 – 20 August, and check out the headliners – and these are three acts you can ONLY SEE at Green Man this year – they aren’t playing any other UK festivals!
PJ Harvey will be playing the Mountain Stage, ten years since she last played in Wales. Bring the noise!
Ryan Adams brings moody, devilish journeys through country music and Americana to the Black Mountains.
Future Islands – the crazy silky groovemasters bring their madness to Wales for the first time ever!
Other news: two time Mercury nominated soulmaster Michael Kiwanuka returns to GM for the third time to transfix with his panoramic, soul-stirring exaltations from last year’s number one record. Following 2016’s triumphant return with new album ‘Flotus’, we welcome the magisterial melancholy of the legendary Lambchop. Also Conor Oberst– the man behind the much-loved Bright Eyes – will be getting your stirring up misty-eyed moments and Angel Olsen returns following a clean sweep of critical adulation for 2016’s ‘MY WOMAN’.
With a whole load more eye-catching propositions – like 6Music’s album of the year from jazz wizards BadBadNotGood, a DJ set from long time GM pal Jon Hopkins, the ever excellent Field Music, Julia Jacklin and much, much more added to the bill, our birthday bash is shaping up to be a real corker already.
We’ve still got a Thursday night headliner tucked away up our sleeve, plus plenty more amazing acts (including a party-starting programme of After Dark DJs) to be announced.
Stay tuned for more news!
Green Man 2017 takes place in the beautiful Brecon Beacons from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th August, putting glorious musical performers in the most magical of settings. With 10 unique areas, there are whole worlds to explore – from late night, frisky goings-on in the Far Out field, to the best in Comedy and Literature in Babbling Tongues, over one hundred beers and ciders in The Courtyard to beaker-fizzing experiments inEinstein’s Garden, and loads, loads more besides, there’s no better place to dive in and see where you end up.
Ab-Fab Vegan Fayres have been running for a while now, going from strength to strength. In a way, it has become a bastion for the growing vegan community in Wales and Cardiff – it is events like this that keep alternative culture alive. Ab-Fab is more than a lifeline for the vegan community, it is representative of a growing movement in Wales and Britain. The food, crafts and cosmetics on offer, too, were creative and – food-wise – incredibly scrumptious.
Plasnewydd Community Centre proved to be an appropriate space for the Fayre. The space was small, but properly utilised by the highly-varied stalls that filled up the community centre. The room was bursting with conversation, laughs and well-timed “mmms” when someone took a bite of something. The atmosphere was one that was welcoming and inclusive for vegans and non-vegans alike. The stalls were incredibly varied (although cake-heavy, which isn’t so much a problem as it is a solution to a lot of life’s problems) at affordable prices. We didn’t get a chance to try everything, but what we did try gave further evidence that vegan food can be creative and satisfying to the palette.
Vegan Pizza Co. were our first stop. The Cardiff-based pizza slappers have been gaining a strong reputation in Cardiff and for good reason. The pizzas ranged from £6 to £8 which was great value for the quality of the pizza. The pizza crust was strong, the pizzas were well-topped and the vegan cheese was nothing short of a miracle – the cheese, truly, was indistinguishable from its curdled milk cousin. Cardiff Pizza Co. truly are doing great things with pizza and we’re praying that – eventually – they move from pop-up to establishment.
The next stop was The Welshman’s Lunch who had a variety of vegan cakes, chutneys and tea on offer. We sampled (and bought without hesitation) their avocado chocolate cupcake which was – again – a work of vegan magic. The flavour was strong, sweet, unique and dangerously moreish. We then stopped by Peace & Bake who sold a variety of sweet loaves, brownies and cakes (you can see a theme emerging here). A brownie and a banana bread was on the menu and these, too, were dangerously moreish
Mr. Nice Pie and Jack Bakes were next and offered enough savoury pie goodness to end your pie cravings forever. Mr. Nice Pie’s Thai green curry pie was immense and unlike anything we’ve tried before. Jack Bakes spinach tartlet, too, struck a fine balance to satisfy the palette.
The true unsung hero of the fayre was Global Fusion Creole Vegan Bakery. A variety of sweet loafs were on offer, £2 for a slice and £4 for a loaf. There were some truly original loaves on offer, but we settled for the mango bread (something we’d never seen before) and were not let down by the sweetness of the bread for our breakfast the next day.
In addition to the above, there were stalls offering crafts, make-up and cosmetics, along with food stalls we had to miss out on due to full stomachs. We’ll provide a list to all the stalls on offer below, so be sure to check them out as they were all so passionate about their food and crafts.
What stuck out most as we left Ab-Fab in a glucose-induced high was the accommodating nature of it all. A false narrative that veganism is militant has been concocted in recent years, but the truth about veganism is that it is accommodating for all – this was simply a group of people who were trying to make good food without hurting animals. What is there to hate about that? The next fayre is on the 25th in Penarth, so please head on down there whatever your dietary description because this event – along with the lovely organiser Sue Thomas – deserve all the support they can get. You can follow their next event here on Facebook.
To celebrate St Dwynwen’s Day on 25 January this week, we’ve invited Lia from Lia’s Kitchen to create a love inspired recipe for us …
Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, and to celebrate this very time of the year when love is in the air (if “love” means hanging out inside eating and drinking lovely things because it’s cold outside) we encourage you to follow this recipe for Greek chocolate-coated caramel almonds … excuse us while we wipe the drool off the floor …
All you need is love… and Greek chocolate-coated, caramel almonds
Love is all you need! At these times when our world is going through global change on a large scale it is really important to celebrate love and all that is good around us. I hope a small, sweet treat will help you shift your mood to happy. This is my easy and delicious recipe for Greek chocolate and caramel coated almonds – a sweet something to help make it all better.
My excuse to celebrate love (and chocolate) is our own Welsh Lady patron of love, St Dwynwen. We have a lady for our love angel here people, how is that for woman power? Even though St Dwynwen’s story is a sad one (she never got the chance to be with the love of her life) she seems to have remained a beacon of hope and positivity. Her most famous saying is: ‘Nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness.’
So, I invite you to use St Dwynwen’s day (25 January) as an opportunity to think about all the things you love in this world and to show your love to all those important to you, as early as three weeks before Valentine’s day! Love your friends, your family, that special hunk or goddess in your life. Love your community, your environment, the good things in this world, like millions of people coming together to send messages of grounded positivity and strength to each other through the global marches in January 2017. And, of course love good sustainable food!
My recipe for chocolate and caramel salted almonds is an all-time Greek favourite. It is easy and quick to make as a token of love and appreciation to those you love (including yourself). You can have so much fun with this recipe by mixing various nuts and seeds, and even dried fruit together. You can use different specialty salts and spices to add your own bespoke flavour. And it is a healthy snack too (if not abused). Below is my basic recipe using almonds. Enjoy!
In a non-stick pan roast the almonds in medium heat until slightly browned. Then take off the heat.
Mix the water, icing sugar and a pinch of your preferred specialty salt in a small cup (if using) and pour over the almonds. Stir mix well and return to medium heat until they are caramelised.
Prepare your bain-marie to melt the chocolate, by adding boiling water to a pot, placing it on a hob (medium heat) and placing a heat resistant glass bowl (Pyrex) on top. The bottom of the pot should not touch the water.
Add the chocolate broken in small pieces and stir until it melts. Add another pinch of the second specialty salt in the chocolate, if you are using salt.
Add the almonds to the chocolate mixture, remove the bowl from the bain-marie, and set aside to cool down for a few minutes.
Layer a baking sheet with some baking paper (non-stick).
Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture on the baking paper until the mixture finishes.
Grate the zest of one mandarin on top of the chocolate almond bites. Add a pinch of ground all spice over the chocolate bites, if you are using spices.
Chill the chocolate almond bites for at least two hours, preferably in the fridge.
You can wrap the chocolate almond bites in (coloured) aluminium foil to preserve freshness, particularly if you are making more than one batch.
You can use a mixture of nuts, hazelnuts and pistachio nuts work really well. The ratio of nuts to chocolate is almost 1 unit of chocolate to 1.4 of nuts. If you are using dried fruit you can double the amount.
Occasionally, I add a hint of mandarin juice or rum or cognac in the melted choc for that extra layer of flavour.
Lia Moutselou is a self-taught chef who has lived in the UK and abroad for the past twenty years. She runs Lia’s Kitchen and through it pop-up food events, cooking classes and social enterprise projects around the world. She inspired by Greek food, sustainability and world flavours, from her second home of Wales and places she has lived at and visited over the past two decades. For more information visit her Lia’s Kitchen website.
This is a piece put together by Lucy Thomas, Course Leader in BA Music Business at University of South Wales. She published it before Christmas on her LinkedIn and has very kindly allowed us to republish.
Finding myself with some rare time over Christmas I have taken the opportunity to write up a post inspired by some unknown family photos my mum recently shared with me. For the last few years I have been musing concepts of entrepreneurialism, creativity and the nature-nurture debate. It is not my favourite word and I’m not sure exactly what it means, but roughly it’s about new ventures and ideas. The attached photos were a wonderful discovery and have gone some way in confirming my thoughts.
Is entrepreneurialism something that can be taught or is it more of an innate, sixth sense that individuals are born with? Do some people just have the X Factor for new business generation? Obviously, most skills can be learned to some extent, but it is apparent that there are “natural entrepreneurs” who thrive in new landscapes. The traits of individuals wired this way are evident from a young age and at the very heart of it, I see the motivation as creativity and social connectivity. Interaction, expression, the bringing together of things is the driver and pleasure here. It is often the norm for profit to be the secondary result of an excellent service or product. An affirmation of value and not always the main focus as non-entrepreneurs may think.
What has led me to this point has been my own experiences coupled with observations of my oldest son and his friends over the last few years. From the age of about six he genuinely loved nothing better than setting a stall up in the front garden so he could sell, barter, exchange and most of all interact. We then moved to the coast and things got really exciting when the sun shone, people were thirsty and there were tourists. We literally had camper vans pulling up outside and kept running out of stock.
Some young children would rather eat coal than talk to a stranger, or tout a new idea, but our boy just loves to hustle. Fast forward to his dads Street Food projects there is a smoothie stall being incubated along with growing frustration that he’s only 10 and can’t go it alone just yet. We have neither encouraged or discouraged, he’s just been running with his own plans and I have learned that this is the way it is with kids. They have their own ideas no matter what yours are.
Just recently we found these photos of my Great Grandfather’s shop in Pentre selling all kinds of things including bikes and records. I love the way it’s called “W Wiltshire – Athletic, Cycle, Gramophone, Wireless and Electrical Depot”. Anyone who knew the record shop I had for 21 years in Cardiff called Catapult will probably laugh at the many similarities between my business and his, despite the hundred years or so age gap. After completing law school the path I choose at 24 was not that of a solicitor, but an unknown one in self-employment and dance music. Catapult was a launchpad for a label, events, DJ school, lecturing, fashion line and community venue. There is no set career path once you go it alone and this is the best bit.
There can be misconceptions in the ways these “going aloners” or entrepreneurs are perceived and it is particularly difficult for creatives to connect with concepts of business and profit, almost as it if devalues the authenticity of their work. An ugly monster of commercial manipulation, materialism or some such other hideous proposition. The reality is that all new ventures are exciting start-ups to be explored whatever the context and this includes creative projects, music and art. The art of business in itself is an imaginative process; an adventure where you dig deep to collaborate, diversify, adapt and ultimately survive.
Increasingly I see the entrepreneurialism term popping up in the educational sphere and indeed it was a Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship that drew me to the University of South Wales in 2012 and precipitated a career change in lecturing. I found it amazing that people could actually gain qualifications in this sector and was curious to decipher the curriculum processes. What I have found are innovative, transferable skills and environments where you can test things out, including yourself. There are definitely natural entrepreneurs engaging with the process, as well as more reluctant innovators, who sometimes find out to their surprise that they like this stuff.
I am aware that this is a very personal account, really just scratching the surface on a subject I’m keen to research further. Very interested in feedback and shared experiences.
Footnote Jan 2017…. Since writing this post a number of people have been in touch (thank you) with information about W.Wiltshire, including this advert from the Rhondda Leader Newspaper 1917. This has enabled me to date more accurately and I’m blown away that Catapult and Wiltshire’s shops co-existed over a hundred years apart! I love the tone of the advert; the way in encourages saving money by riding bikes in a bid to push the brand. Entrepreneurialism and Wales are in my blood more than I know.
This is for the snappy snappers among you – pay attention fools, as throughout 2017 Buzz Magazine are holding a photography competition in association with Ffotogallery. The winner each month will be featured as the magazine’s Facebook and Twitter cover photos, AND be featured in an upcoming exhibition.
Each month there is a new theme (see the list below) – photographers are invited to take 5-10 images as part of an album related somehow to the theme.
Grab your camera – whatever kind you have – and get creative. Then submit it for everyone to see. The remaining themes for the year are listed below. To be included, send your entries (5-10 images) to Buzz by the 20 of each previous month (for example, the February entries will need to be in by 20 January – so get a move on!):
February Issue Legends MarchIssue Wales AprilIssue Music May Issue Festivity June Issue Excess July Issue Summer August Issue Oddities SeptemberIssue New Beginnings October Issue Humans November Issue Comedy DecemberJanuary Issue Resolution
Email your images to editorial@buzzmag.co.uk to enter your work, along with your name, email and contact number. Winners will be informed a week after submission if you are one of the winners that month.
£100 voucher for one of their photography courses (not eligible with block booking discount)
A Diffusion Festival goody bag (tote bag, Looking for America publication, limited edition box of postcards and a Ffotomatic gift box)
A signed copy of our new publication Garden State | Corinne Silva published by Ffotogallery and The Mosaic Rooms London
A selection of Ffotogallery six limited edition photography publications
Established in 1978, Ffotogallery are the national development agency for photography and lens based media in Wales. Ffotogallery deliver new artistic programmes which are challenging and accessible, featuring the best Welsh and international contemporary work in photography and lens-based media, run accredited photography and digital courses, and are the lead agency for Diffusion Cardiff International Photography Festival.
You guys! Okay so it’s super last minute but our founder/self facilitating media node Helia Phoenix is giving a talk/workshop tomorrow at the University of South Wales.
It’s part of the BA Music Business course but she’ll be talking about using digital platforms for various things – social media / blogging / marketing / storytelling / content production, as well as discussing the current landscape re traditional news and media …
There’s a lot to fit in. Not gonna lie. Plus a lunch break. But we’ll get it done!
“We Are Cardiff’s mission to create and share interesting stories about culture, arts and people took them on wondrous journey that has resulted in 50k followers, a published book and prestigious awards. Hear how strategic digital marketing played a crucial role in the blogs success, straight from the horse’s mouth.”
We Are Cardiff 