TALE OF TENS ON THE RUN-UP TO THE MILLENNIUM
by Mavis Wallace

As I write, my husband and I are celebrating a milestone in our lives. It is exactly ten years since we moved into the village of Llandevaud. Not exactly momentous you may think, but for us it was very much a watershed in our lives, so I had better explain!

Without regurgitating the messy details, suffice it to say that we were going through a domestic trauma involving a turbulent episode in our 20 year old son's emergence into adulthood. We saw Llandevaud not merely in terms of moving house but an opportunity for my husband and I to rebuild our lives and to resettle in preparation for retirement.

I then cast my mind back a further ten years when we were living in another village near Bridgend. Our-ten-year-old son was at school, I was happily back at work, my husband commuting daily to his office in Cardiff. I had plenty of friends and interests centred on the village Church and local societies so what could go wrong? Out of the blue came the news that my husband's employer was going to close its' Cardiff office and move the staff onto a works site as an economy measure. The work site that was eventually chosen to re-deploy the Cardiff office was Llanwern.

At first my husband tried commuting but the travelling distance together with a patch of severe winter weather convinced him that he would need to live nearer his work. Male logic - no problem, but for me it felt as if the fabric of my life was being torn to shreds. It was for me a major personnel crisis - giving up my job, my friends, my social activities and it certainly coloured my attitude towards the prospective upheaval. My husband's attempts to interest me in properties in the area met with passive resistance, but patience prevailed on his part and we eventually found a suitable house near Caerleon - this is how we came to live in the area in the first place.

Crises in our lives seem to crop up in ten year cycles so what you might ask lies in store for us in the new millennium? Our son is happily married and with some help from our much loved daughter-in-law, has recently presented us with a darling -grandson. If you visit our sleepy little village you will find a haven of tranquillity coasting sedately towards the millennium but I am afraid our ten year calamity record may change all that!

We look forward to the millennium, not with confidence, not with reassurance that our retirement haven is safe from predators, but with apprehension. This is because our prospect for the millennium is that we shall have a new neighbour - a whacking great theme park. Joke as we may among our fellow villagers about the opportunities for employment as car park attendants, the prospect has transfixed the village. Resistance has been mobilised but we are facing a mighty commercial machine.

Well, who knows, after all, no one gave David much odds against Goliath did they? Besides, things did work out alright after previous crises, so we look forward to the new millennium not with confidence but with the hope things will again pan out well.