| Space Cadets Corner |
| The corner of this virtual interweb world which belongs forever to our friends and WASA volunteers from around the world. Many of whom must be borderline certifiable just for writing to us. |
| W.A.S.A. |
| Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome, to..... |
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Meet Brenda Bickersthwaite. This rather unjolly and particularly unkempt lady of the shopping bags is keen on not ever throwing anything away. Here seen outside Canada Gates in Llundain. Sometimes she has a shopping trolley with her full of empty pop bottles. She often frightens children when she shouts at the trees.
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Dafydd Afedd-Dŵr Loves drizzle so much he moved out of Wales to live in Manchester. Dafydd, aka Dincs, is a volunteer for the Cymru IV mission to Miranda, scheduled to launch sometime. He is the official onboard fisherman and will be accompanied by an as yet unspecified person of compatible genitalia. Dincs likes furry animals that are super, and fish. He is presently sitting by his telephone awaiting further instructions. |
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Mr Afedd-Dŵr eto. Dincs was our official representative at a recent festival whereby he was hoping to meet members of the sweary Welsh rock group "The Peth". If he had come upon any of said band, it was his mission to shout at them the first thing that came into his head. As you can see, Dincs tee-shirt here is asking the question "Pwy ffwc di'r Peth?". This, translated into English means : "I'm not altogether entirely sure who exactly are the Peth?" Pwy ffwc indeed? Where's our song you promised us you bastards??? |
Lady with parachute She may or may not be connected to our member from Blackley Fishing Club. Anyway, whether she likes it or not, she's now on the crew list for Cymru IV. She can be the official mission fish-wife. |
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Mamgu Seen here, completely off her face on "mushroom soup" at Glastonbury. She knows how to "get down" does mamgu. She took a copy of Woman's Realm to read between the headline acts but was so bog-eyed she found it difficult to take in the stories about adopted children and that. Behind her can be seen the horrid layabout hippies who probably spiked her. Mamgu gets up to the toilet a lot in the night. |
Meet Helmut McKechnie This is one mixed up person. A German of Scottish descent, in a kilt who lives in Northern Ireland. Not only that, but shares a hoose with a Welshman and another person. Seen here wearing THE ONLY Welsh Space Agency(TM) tee-shirt in existence in the whole wide world. Now, if anyone tries to sell you one of these highly exclusive tee-shirts, then either Helmut has been killed for his, or, like some hats that are in circulation, they are fakes. Anyway, Helmut, in spare time from his job with his mouse-mat cleaning franchise is lovingly restoring a 1958 Ewbank Carpet sweeper which he hopes to take around Ireland in a one-artefact touring exhibition sometime next year. |
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Helmut also likes to re-enact scenes from old television shows. In these 2 photos he's seen pretending to be someone out of 'Prisoner Cell Block H'* which was on a few years ago about some dykey Australian slappers in the cardboard-walled "Wentworth Detention Centre". Helmut has volunteered to be in charge of the janitorial supplies for our mission to Miranda. * Prisoner V93 ROF is not actually Wentworth inmate "Lizzie Birdsworth" but is actually the number plate off an Austin Princess. |
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| Blackley Fishing Clwb... |
| This lot will go down in the annals of Welsh space exploration and angling history. Nobody has done more for fishing, cosmology and absinthe consumption than these guys. Kids do the commercial festivals like Glasto and 'V' - Spaced out fishermen do The Greenman... |
Dan - (on the left) • preposition & adverb Dan (aka Deej, or "Underneath" in Welsh) is an active member of the WASA Youth - a bit like the Hitler Youth, only without Mr Hitler, all those arm-waving salutes and invading Poland kind of stuff - which is asking for trouble anyway if you ask me. Dan, if you were to find him on your dinner plate would probably get left on the side along with the cold sprouts and bits of gristle. Photographed here at the Greenman Festival where he was last seen hassling members of "The Peth". Note the unofficial use of the official WASA bread van. What his father says about his personal hygiene can not be repeated on a decent upstanding website. |
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Dan's Dad, Dincs Dafydd Afedd Dwr. As rough as at least 3 bear's arses. But this man knows a nice refreshing cup of Absinthe when he gets one. Festival goer - furry animal chaser and friend of Salford car-scrumpers, Dincs is totally nocturnal in habit. Here seen having a cup of cocoa at 6am before retiring for a good day's kip and missing all the action at Greenman. Which included a dedication from the Super Furry Animals apparently.
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Tarquin, 3rd Earl of Blanchcombe Despite his aristocratic background, Tarquin loves nothing more than a good slumming it in a tent with the rest of the fishermen of Blackley. Tarquin is regularly seen dangling his angling stuff into the canals of Salford. His career best daily catch includes : Gudgeon x 3
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The Blackley Fez In their own words... "The Fez is indispensible as a piece of camping equipment as it can be used as a low level bedside table supporting ones ashtray/Absinthe based night cap and anglepoised camping light. It can then be turned over and filled with valuables such as portable gramophone, money clip, nodders, baccy and nocturnal hip flask). The use of the Fez as a driving aid on long journey's is also recommended as it protects one with it's magical properties and dissipates road rage in fellow drivers." |
| WASA Aeronautical Engineering... |
| The back-room boys of the Welsh Space Agency, these are the guys who keep our craft afloat, stuff pets into fax machines in the name of research, and otherwise drink tea. |
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Ted Technegydd Ted is arguably the scariest person we have at WASA. He can never quite understand why the opposite pavement is so much more crowded than the one on his side. Ted came a creditable third in the British Open Children Scaring Championship 2008, succesfully terrifying more than 40 kids into involuntary micturition. Well done Ted. Ted makes satellites out of empty beer kegs in his spare time. He hopes one day to exhibit them at the Satellite section in the crafts tent at Cerrigydrudion show, held every September. |
 Here, Steffan is seen contemplating what to do after this particular cup of tea. |
Steffan Syniad Dwl Is WASA's bone-idlest engineer. Last known to have picked up a pair of pliers in 1998. That was to fashion a couple of paper-clips into a shape vaguely reminiscent of C3PO out of Star Wars. The reason he still "works" for us is that he is the only one who knows how to get the best out of the WASA teapot. Steffan though was responsible for the switch from PG Tips to Paned Cymreig. He also helped us introduce Chocolate Gingers to go with said tea, which, if used carefully, can be eaten regularly without developing a dependency. Unlike Chocolate Limes which are now considered contraband.
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 Aled Aelod with now repaired WASA teapot. |
Aled Aelod Aled, pronounced as in the past tense of Ale, is a wonderful human being. When the WASA teapot developed a leak, he plugged it personally with his finger and hung on, in agony, until all the tea could be safely transferred to mugs. Aled is in charge of the WASA particle accelerator. He recently sped a particle up to more than 130mph. He regularly brings bags of leftover Higgs Bosons and Leptons to share out amongst the lads during tea breaks. |
 Even shorter-arsed Aled Aelod post-centrifugometer training |
Aled has delusions of being a cymrunaut just like Dilwyn up near Jupiter somewhere. But he couldn't hack the intensive training involved. Here he is seen a full 6" shorter after a session on the WASA centrifuge in the park at Corwen. Aled likes 2 sugars in his Welsh Brew Tea, but interestingly, only 1 sugar in coffee. Spooky! |
 The WASA centrifuge. Where Dilwyn Griffiths learned to cope with the rigours of deep space. |
| Other Head-the-Balls... |
Who the hell is this? We haven't the faintest idea. He turned up on an email one day recently and resists all attempts to delete him. He's been dubbed Ernest* here at WASA HQ. And there is some debate over whether those really are his teeth. He does seem jolly happy with his cup of Welsh tea though and so deserves a place on our Space Cadets Gallery. God bless you Ernie, and all who sail in you. *If you have lost somebody who looks like he might be called Ernest, and who may or may not have all his own teeth, then drop us a line and we can send you a photo of him enjoying a cup of tea. |
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Welshy Welsh Now, this chap turned up on our doorstep after being at one of Jacki Fab's parties. He's described as Welshy Welsh. And may answer to the name of Gwion. If this fine specimen Cymraeg belongs to you, then we'd just like to let you know he's ready for collection at any time - he's drinking all the tea. Cawl a Caerphilly, Jacki :) |
Jo'burg Crew This photo was sent to us by someone who claims to have been conceived under Rhyl Pier. Quite an achievement in itself. But who now scouts the world for emergency landing sites for various space agencies, including ourselves. Seen here are his ground crew. They are * That's five names for eight people. That's caring and sharing for you.
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| dilwyn@welshspaceagency.org |
