You know that sense of ease, that feeling of I can do this, a bit of vocab here, a few more complex phrases there. Easy money.

But the previous week, as with all our lessons, our teacher had handed out next week's lessson (for those with the inclination or probably more importantly the time to get ahead of themselves.

And she'd uttered those fateful words that strike fear into the heart of any budding linguist, 'we're going to look at verb structure'.

She even apologised. 'I'm sorry', she said, 'but I think it's time we some grammar as it'll helpe everything make more sense'.

Sense, since when has grammar in any language made any real sense.

If grammar made sense irregular verbs wouldn't exist. There'd be rules, and if you applied the rules you'd be right. Every time, no exceptions.

But of course Welsh, like I presume all languages, has its irregularities. And, typically, the verb bod (to be), one of the most commonly used verbs, is irregular. Problems from the start then...

The previous week we'd looked at place names, and I have to be honest I found the lesson quite fascinating. I'd mentioned before how Wales seems to be a land of colour, but it's also so descriptive.

All the common words of course have a meaning, but once you know those meanings the whole geography of the country suddenly comes to life.

I'm sure a lot of people know the most common of all, Llan, is church, but what about those other common words, bryn (hill), pen (head), nant (stream), cwm (valley)... a place such as Cwmbran in the South Wales valley might seem just a name, but suddenly when you know the translation is Valley of the Rooks it takes on a whole new persona.

Finally, a quick thankyou to my fellow classmates and teacher. Next Thursday is the second leg of the League One play off semi-finals between Doncaster and Southend. They all agreed to skip a week to allow me to enjoy the game (is enjoy the right word?) with a pint.

One even confessed to me afterwards he's spend a lifetime watching Crewe Alexandra around the country and completely understood.