Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

The latest Clay Shaw Butler Money Matters column from the Carmarthenshire Herald. By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has called for banks and charities to take greater responsibility for those who may be vulnerable to scams. The CTSI commissioned a report from Bournemouth University's National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work into scam victims, and its recommendations to financial institutions and charities include: recognising their duty of care to dementia sufferers who could make an 'unwise decision' as a result of their cognitive state allowing vulnerable people to put a 24 hour delay on new or large transactions from leaving their bank accounts and sending an email or text alerting a carer or loved one at the start of that period adopting a default that personal data is not shared without a clear opt in and that it is not held for longer...

West Wales media consultant Robert Lloyd is spending time in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. He will be reporting exclusively for The Herald newspaper series on his adventures. If my personal road trip to Rio is anything to go by, this could be a roller-coaster journey. Three years in the planning, the journey hit what can only be described as a speed bump last week with a medical issue. So, I write this very much in hope – the hope that I will be on the plane to Rio on Sunday . . . just as long as the doctors agree it is safe for me to travel. Three years seems like a long time, but the reality is that my personal Olympics and Paralympics journey goes back further still. A lifelong fan of the Games (one of my earliest memories is of David Hemery winning the 1968 400 metres hurdles at Mexico on our first colour telly!), it has always been a ‘must see’ TV event in our house. The idea of actually ‘being there’ at an Olympics first started forming during a summ...

The latest Phil Evans column from the South Wales Evening Post. Comedian Phil Evans is from Ammanford. He is known as the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy. www.philevans.co.uk -------------------- HOOKED-ON CARAVANS? NOT ME! As I’ve grown older and wider...err...wiser, I’ve been able to answer many questions that once baffled me, such as . . . “Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?” The answer is now blindingly obvious. It’s because your pockets are full of birdseed. And . . . “If a picture paints a thousand words, why can’t I paint you?” Because I failed my G.C.S.E. in Art. But some things still have me scratching my head, apart from dandruff. The most vexing question of all being . . . what is the strange madness that insidiously persuades a normal person to purchase a touring caravan? I just don’t get it. They take over your driveway and have to be hooked-up to your car so you can head off to a faraway campsite where you can sleep in a smaller, cramped versio...

The latest 'On Song' column (about the choral scene in and around Llanelli) from the Llanelli Star and the Carmarthen Journal - Tickets are now on sale for A Night With The Stars, the annual showcase concert of Loud Applause Productions, the popular production company run by Llanelli-based Cerith Owens. A Night With The Stars takes place on Saturday 12th November at Ffwrnes Theatre, Llanelli, 7.00pm start. This is a Gala Concert featuring the ever popular soprano Shân Cothi, the world famous Morriston Orpheus Choir, the brilliant young violinist Charlie Lovell Jones and an array of very talented vocalists from Loud Applause Rising Stars. It will be a bilingual evening of first class musical entertainment to suit all tastes - choral, opera, classical musical theatre, jazz. The host is BBC TV and radio personality Garry Owen and the accompanists for the Rising Stars are Andrew Pike and Rhiannon Williams Hale. Shân Cothi should need little introduction to a Llanelli audience. She ...