Market pictures

Yesterday morning, after a brisk walk in the chill air to the bank to get out some money, I walked to an appointment with chiropractor Clive. Since starting to take the antibiotics, I find I have more of a spring in my step, and enjoyed the exercise. The session, working on my back and neck was good too, and I got home feeling refreshed. While I was out I bought a second solid state hard drive to fit in one of my laptops and install Linux Mint. The six year old laptop I fitted a SDD with Linux for Clare works a treat with power on to an open Libre Office document ready to use in half a minute.  On a good day Windows 10 accomplishes this in 3-4 minutes, if not longer. quickly    

Later in the afternoon I went into town, to take photos of the Christmas tree outside the castle, the illuminations and outdoor craft market stalls. It all looks very bright and jolly at this time of year. So pleasing to see a tall Norwegian fir tree bedecked just with white lights. Natural simplicity works. St John's Church on the Working Street side is hemmed in by German style bars and fast food stalls, it may look like fun but the cooking smells in the air are far from pleasant or evocative of a traditional British winter evening outdoors. 

Still, tourists and shoppers come and go in good numbers. I hope the trade stallholders do justifies their attendance. Some, I recall from previous times, come for a week and then visit other regional Christmas markets. I guess business tails off after initial interest, or maybe it's a matter of affording the stall rent for a long enough time to cover costs and earn something in addition. I think I am too risk averse to ever have made a living like that. Mobile market traders have my admiration!

I attended the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning and went back into town in the afternoon to take more photos. My sister June reminded me that I'd promised some photos of the indoor market which I took with great pleasure. It's ten to fifteen years since I last did this and I have photographed several different covered markets in Spain with great interest over the past five years. This time I applied myself to the task with the same energy as I would if I was visiting an unfamiliar market to take pictures. It made me aware of just how much more colourful Cardiff market is and how almost all the stalls are occupied nowadays, compared to fifteen years ago. Someone must be putting an effort into promoting trading opportunities there, and about time too. My two days worth of photos can be found here. 

Our broadband speed has started to fluctuate and has dropped from around 1.8mbs down and 0.9mbs up down as low as 1.2mbs down and 0.6mbs up. When one device is uploading photos or doing a Windows update, other network attached devices become almost unusuable. It was impossible to see what might be causing this, as there's been no physical changes in the set up since installation, some two years ago. I contacted TalkTalk via Twitter and Direct Messaging (which I found clumsy and repetitive to use when the line dropped out. Their engineers ran some line tests and router diagnostics, but in the end I had to agree to a house visit. Something is seriously wrong, but what?

The new regime of pills requires that I take them at least two hours after eating and an hour before another meal. Doing this conscientiously has proved a little difficult given the variability of each day, and the meeting challenge of getting out of the habit of nibbling nuts or fruit in between meals if I feel hungry, as I often do. As a result of changes in diet over the past year and reduction in size of portions, I have a healthy appetite and good digestion. I'm grateful for that, when I think that some people my age don't have such pleasurable good fortune. 

I still have a couple of medical issues to sort out, however. Today I rang the colorectal surgical team administrator, and learned that there was a delay in processing MRI scan results, so there was no news about the operation I await. It seems the radiologist examines and interprets the scans in order to brief the surgical team, who then establish their treatment plan and arrange an appointment. Four to six weeks wait time, it seems at the moment. Not what I hoped to hear. Being a patient means having to be patient and wait to be treated and to effect a recovery. There's just no alternative.