And they are raising lots of hard cash for Macmillan Cancer Care Support as part of the annual Macmillan Walk.

Please feel free to liberate all spare change in your pockets, purses, piggy banks… it’s all for a good cause.

• Photos of the Start of the Walk at Hirwaun in the Gallery.

The coffee morning event was held recently at St Fagan’s Church Hall, Trecynon, Aberdare.

There were delicious cakes sold, along with a bric-a-brac sale, raffle, and of course tea and coffee served all to raise money for Save the Children charity.

Congratulations to all those involved in organising this event.

Click on the thumbnail photographs to see larger versions.

In Aberdare Town recently we met the ONE TRUE KING.

Elvis Preseli.

We fought our way bravely past the security guards, the groupies, the photographers, the masseuse, the PAs, the personal chefs …

We overcome the vast entourage that filled up Market Street in Aberdare seeking the one true king.

Our audience with the King was brief.

He curled his lips.

And he wiggled his hips

And said :

Easter Sunday 8th April. Aberdare Con Club. Be there, bach.

There’s a host of top Elvis tribute artistes to entertain you, with one or two surprises too.

Tickets are just £6.00 each from the Hi Tide on 01656 782432.

To be kept informed of events leading up to the Elvis Festival, register on the website at www.elvies.co.uk

There are now over 30 breweries in Wales and most of these will be represented at the biggest real ale event in Wales. On the Friday afternoon at the festival, the Champion Beer of Wales competition will be judged by an expert panel.

According to James Daley, CAMRA Regional Director, “With over 30 real ale breweries in Wales, we now have more breweries than we have had in 70 years. Between them these breweries produce over 180 different beers throughout the year and we will be aiming to have as many of these as possible available at the beer festival.”

The Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival is the biggest beer festival in Wales and is the showcase event for Welsh real ale breweries. During the 3 days of the Festival 10 tons of beer will be tasted by over 4000 thirsty customers.

We have customers who come from right across the globe for the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival , says James Daley, Its a celebration of the best that our brewers in Wales can produce alongside the best beers from the rest of Britain and Germany. We even had one customer fly in from the USA last year.

Over the past 5 years, the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival has aimed to offer the thirsty public the best range and quality of real ales, ciders and perries and this year will be no exception. The Great Welsh has has grown over the years from the Cardiff Beer Festival, which was held at the STAR centre in Splott. It is now the Campaign for Real Ales biggest beer festival in Wales and one of the biggest in the UK.

Festival Facts: Over 19, 000 pints of real ale, cider and perry will be sold at the festival. Thats over 10 tons of beer, cider and perry! Over 4000 customers will be attending the 3-day festival. 170 different real ales will be available at the Festival. An average of 11 pints every minute will be sold when the Festival is open.

Around 50 ciders and perries (pear ciders), many from Welsh producers, will also be available to complement the real ales. Over 100 staff, all CAMRA volunteers, will be staffing the Festival.

A range of beers from Germany will also be on sale at the upstairs bar.

The Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival Cardiff City Hall Opens Thursday 23rd November 5pm-11, Friday and Saturday 24th-25th November 11-11 Admission 3 (5 after 5pm Friday) includes souvenir glass and programme

Further Information: www.gwbcf.org.uk

Local indie-rock band Souldriver are at Hirwaun Con Club on Saturday November 4th 2006. Start 7pm. For tracks, pics and other things zoom to their website at http://www.souldriver.co.uk/

Welly Week is organised by Garden Organic to raise funds to help educate and inspire people about organic gardening, farming and food for a sustainable future for ourselves, our children, our environment and our planet.

During Welly Week everyone is invited to host a welly walk or wear their wellies to work and celebrate all that’s good about organics!

Find out more about Welly Week events and how to get involved.

The new Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff Bay was built with £67 million pounds generously donated by the taxpayer.

Today the Assembly staged the ‘Opening Debate’ where the Assembly Members followed the familiar ritual of thrust and parry. The invited audience chuckled at the to and froing. It was friendly play acting between consenting performers.

Behold all the wood in this new theatre! There is so much of it. Many woods look their best after they have been oiled. The oil provides a protective and durable coating. This new theatre requires a suitable oiling before the ceremonial opening by HM Queen on March 1st 2006 St David’s Day.

So today saw the first coat of varnish laid on the new building of the Welsh Assembly. As this was the very first day, glib self-congratulation was the chosen finish. Assembly Members came forward with enthusiasm to give it all a fresh lick.

Many claimed personally to have had a hand in creating a bold new Welsh historic building. Tributes and praises were heaped upon corporations and their lackeys as if they were being beatified for later canonization.

Tickets for this theatre were in short supply, unlike the supply of crachach and media luvvies. They came to engage in the peculiar Welsh sport of intellectual frottage. Never in the field of Welsh journalism have so few critical questions been asked about such a grand folly.

Today in the opening debate the media pack outweighed the taxpaying public. A Grand Scrum of media players formed in the upper public gallery. If you looked closely you could see them salivate at the prospect of even more work on their doorstep in Cardiff. Although Cardiff didn’t vote for the Assembly, it prospers by it.

“Cardiff was built on the exploitation of the people and the environment of the South Wales Valleys. And so the exploitation continues today but instead of coal barons the new exploiters are global corporations. The Welsh Assembly facilitates this exploitation.”

“People in the Valleys quarrel for crumbs and handouts from Government, whilst an effete bourgeoisie in the new Welsh Assembly building today proclaimed their so-called sagacity in shipping slate all the way from North Wales to this new spectacular theatre in Cardiff Bay.”

None of these lines were a part of today’s script at the Welsh Assembly.

After an hour of play a voluble Cabinet Minister was joined in a cross-party chorus of self-praise. We were told that the new Assembly Building was an important part of our history, that the building was an icon and a symbol of a new way forward, and that it establishes the Welsh Assembly’s environmental credentials. It helps if you are able to ‘suspend belief’ in any theatre including this one.

The Assembly was ‘green’ said the granny on the pulpit. The project to plan and build the new home for the Welsh Assembly took seven whole years. If only granny had asked the architect to design a system to harness the hot air generated by this new theatre, they could heat most of the houses in Cardiff.

This was a very Welsh affair : Democracy as spectacular theatre and religious revival.

At a Religious Revival people would come to reaffirm their faith, to renew their belief and to sing praises. At the opening of the new Welsh Assembly Building, the politicians that represent us came to renew their belief in themselves and to reaffirm their right to rule us and spend our money.