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

One of the new fitness/self-defence schemes is coming to Carmarthen. I am grateful to Saranne Davies for telling me about the Krav Maga seminar in Carmarthen Leisure Centre Tuesday 7th December between 8-10pm. Saranne says:"You only need to Google it or have a look around You Tube to find out how savagely simplistic it is. It's all new to Carmarthen and it's their first break into the area after testing the waters in Pembrokeshire." Here's a short overview from Saranne below: Krav Maga means Contact Combat in Hebrew. It is a proven system of close quarter self defence. Developed and originating from Israel this system has been tried and tested in many real life situations. Krav Maga is the official close quarter combat of Israel's Armed Forces and many S.W.A.T. Law Enforcement and Military units all over the world. It is now taught to instructors, SWAT teams, security forces, military units and civilians all over the world. Films such as Bourne Supremacy have ...

Carmarthen v The New Saints today - match off. Clubhouse open as usual 12:30pm. Villa v Arsenal 12:45pm; Wales v New Zealand 5:15pm on TV.

Carmarthenshire County Council has been recognised at the prestigious National Business Awards. The authority came runner-up to the Police Service of Northern Ireland in its bid to scoop the Health, Work and Well-being Award at the finals held at London’s Grosvenor House. Other runners-up in the same category included M&S, the Metropolitan Police and the Northern Bank. Elin Cullen, head of business and specialist services, said: “Lining up alongside so many big commercial and public sector organisations has proved the level of commitment the authority has for improving the health and wellbeing of its workforce, and ultimately the public that the workforce serves. “Of course we are disappointed that we did not win the award, but to have been shortlisted at all is a big achievement, of which we are very proud. “The judges scrutinised every inch of our submission, and have given us some very positive and constructive advice which will help us strengthen our practices even further.” Th...

More than 100 people have received potentially life-saving health checks at an event organised by Carmarthenshire County Council. The authority’s occupational health department laid on the event as part of its commitment to promoting the health and wellbeing of its 9,000 employees. The health fayre, held at Llanelli Town Hall, was opened by Cllr Pat Jones – the council’s executive board member for health - who was joined by Scarlets commercial director Rupert Moon, and council Chief Executive Mark James. They spoke of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, before encouraging visitors to take advantage of numerous free health checks and massage tasters. Over 100 staff took part in the health checks, which tested their glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. They were also given nutrition and lifestyle advice by the leisure department’s Fusion and Vitality schemes, massage and reflexology tasters. Cllr Pat Jones, the council’s executive board member for health and soc...

One lucky class of schoolchildren can enjoy a free film at Carmarthen’s Apollo Cinema. The cinema is holding a Christmas card competition for schools with prizes on offer. The winning entry will be invited to take the whole class to the Apollo to view the film of their choice. The competition is open to all primary and secondary schools. Pupils are asked to design a Christmas card and the winning entries will be displayed in the Apollo Cinema foyer. The winners in each of the three categories – infants aged four to seven; juniors from seven to 11; and seniors aged 11 to 16 – will receive a cinema pass for one child and one adult. The overall winner of the three categories will get a cinema pass for the whole class to attend a screening of their choice (not including 3D films). Details of the competition have been sent to all schools. The winners of the infants category will be announced in St Catherine’s Walk on Wednesday, December 8, the juniors the following week, and the seniors on ...

Modern farming and traditional milling techniques have come together to produce Wales’s newest organic flour. Loaves made with the flour will be one of the talking points at this year’s Winter Fair in Llanelwedd. The new flour is unique in that it uses locally grown organic wheat – a joint project between the world renowned IBERS research centre at Aberystwyth University and the owners of Wales’s latest working water mill. Andrew and Anne Parry of Felin Ganol, Llanrhystud, near Aberystwyth, in mid-Wales, are both former members of staff at IBERS and when they were looking for locally grown organic wheat, they turned to their former employers. Further developments are in the pipe line with IBERS and Felin Ganol carrying out further research into a variety of traditional oats. The loaves will be on sale at the Wales Organic Centre stand as part of the organic area on the balcony of the Livestock Building at the Winter Fair. The Centre is part of IBERS. Growing crops locally means a savin...

Many thanks, folks. Thanks to you, dear readers and visitors, this blog is continuing to pick up more hits. It's now hit the 18,000 page views mark. That's a 1,000 views since November 15. Keep the hits coming, folks! Much appreciated. Many thanks. See earlier blog - http://sirgarblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/17000-visits-chalked-up.html Meanwhile, the blog has chalked up its first visitor from Macedonia. The full country by country list (figures from January 6, 2010) is as follows - United Kingdom (GB) 5,030; United States (US) 548; India (IN) 50; Australia (AU) 40; Germany (DE) 39; Canada (CA) 36; Europe (EU) 34; Qatar (QA) 29; Ireland (IE) 27; Japan (JP) 27; France (FR) 23; Belgium (BE) 21; Italy (IT) 19; Malaysia (MY) 15; Netherlands (NL) 15; New Zealand (NZ) 13; United Arab Emirates (AE) 11; Russian Federation (RU) 11; Spain (ES) 11; Philippines (PH) 9; Singapore (SG) 9; Sweden (SE) 8; Pakistan (PK) 7; Denmark (DK) 7; South Africa (ZA) 6; Austria (AT) 6; Norway (NO) 5; Bahrain...