It occurred to me as I was typing the title of this journal that the word 'rhannu' in Welsh means both 'to share' and 'to divide'. I suppose the latter is the very essence of the former. ^^

You read that right! And if you didn't, you will have done after running it through a translator app. After months of waiting, red tape, inspections, and some more waiting, last week La Maison de Chien welcomed a weary traveller from a war-torn land into its chambers. My Ukrainian guest is only a little older than I am, and on February 23rd he was enjoying a break from his studies to be an Orthodox priest in Latvia. After a month of bureaucratic nightmares - and presumably literal nightmares after his hometown was occupied - he arrived in the UK and settled into a flat in my county, and for the three months up to Monday last week was assembling burgers at a McDonalds for measly pay. The lack of an age difference between us has probably helped him to settle in as well as he has, and while we have some differences in routines and cultures, they are differences we’re working through with time, patience, and Google Translate speech-to-text. They also pale in comparison to our similarities: our shared love of liberal democracy, of cooking copious amounts of nosh, and indulging in the occasional tipple… OK, well, maybe he enjoyed that a bit more than I do (apparently, it is Ukrainian tradition to knock back the first three glasses of any hard liquor), but he’s content to leave me to my cider and wine. While we’re only a week in, I already sense that the remainder of his time living here will be as positive an experience as can be, given the awful circumstances.

Nearer to the beginning of this month, I spent a few days in the Southwest of England, on two separate occasions. The first was at the Yeovil Railway Centre, where in a short ceremony that fitted their personalities perfectly, two very good friends from university got engaged. The party will be later in October, and the wedding sometime afterwards. Both of which are set to be very fun occasions, and my opportunity to catch up with old friends. The second occasion was a short family holiday in Exmouth, on the south Devon coast. My dad, sister and I stayed in a caravan at a holiday park near the town, and let me tell you, the prices of hiring those caravans PLUMMET after the kids go back to school. While the atrocious weather - and the occasion of the Queen dying - put a bit of a damper on the holiday, we were still able to have fun at a nearby wildlife park and at a couple of steam railways. Rest assured, there will be many, many photos incoming. :D

On the subject of the royal events of the past month, I was at one of them! On the very sunny autumn Friday that the new king travelled to Cardiff, I helped out with one of the hastily-organised events and got a pretty good view of Charlie. Given the circumstances of his having only just lost his mum, he seemed in reasonably good spirits, and to his credit he took time to greet as many people on the crowd line as he could. It will be interesting to see what the next few years will bring, both as Charles is officially crowned and as William is invested as the Prince of Wales. My door is always open for Welsh language tutoring…just saying. ;-p

That’s pretty much it for this month of this Shep’s life story! One which I’ve been sharing on FA for over 8 years, now. Looking back over some of them, I’m reminded of the years I spent living with other people, who effectively were strangers until they weren’t. While the circumstances of the arrival of my latest housemate may be very different to all the others, I hope to go into this experience with the same open mind, tolerance, and willingness to compromise that made most of my other house-sharing experiences successful. Of course, it’s my hope that tomorrow, all will be resolved, and my guest can go home to resume a life put on pause. But until that day comes, he’ll be welcome. And after he has left and the room in which he’s staying once again becomes a spare, so will you be. ^__^

Flt/Lt. Dai, out.