Inaudible

An overcast day today, but no wind and warm enough for people to be sitting out in groups on Llandaff Fields. I went to the bank and deposited a cheque after breakfast. This week the door was open and a few clients were queuing inside. Not all were masked, but the cashiers set a good example behind their bullet proof security screen. Stores it seems are no longer offering those who enter a shot of hand sanitizer, the bank likewise. The two tills in HSBC are equipped with new card and smartphone app reading devices, recently installed, but not yet operational "Next week", I was told. Other banking groups are ahead of them in this. I had to pay in my cheque with the traditional paper slip provided, and draw cash from the nearby ATM. I guess this makes it simpler to check receipts at the end of the banking day.

Twenty five years ago Swiss retail banks were fitted with magnetic strip card readers for clients' specially issued account identity card. When we lived there, Switzerland was still predominantly a banknote using country and to some extent still is. There were ATMs but fewer of them. You made a visit to the bank for withdrawal as well as payment and deposit services, and the bank card made it easy to pay money in and take it out. Some UK banks adopted similar bank cards in the new millennium but not universally so. The use of ATMs was more widespread, and cheques for payment. The introduction of modern debit cards giving access to account information from the 'hole in the wall' out in the street. And then came internet banking and mobile banking from the smartphone.

I noticed the door of Stavros' hairdressing salon next door to the bank was open, so I caught his eye as he was seeing a customer out, and asked how I could book an appointment. As he had time before his next booking he summoned me in for a quick cut, much needed. My hair, thank God I still have this much, has grown so thick and untidy in the five months since I last saw him, a few days before leaving for Spain. He was out of work for four of those months and is now playing catch-up with clients. 

My name, temperature and phone number was taken, while the chair was sanitized, and then I was covered in plastic sheeting before my haircut. I paid and gave him a big tip, to make up for the haircut I didn't get after I should have returned at the end of April. He said the business the first week after reopening was hectic, but has settled back to being normally busy now. His salon is so conveniently placed, it benefits from passers-by as well as loyal customers.

As Clare bought a fish pie mix to eat for lunch, I cooked paella for the first time in more than a year. It turned out well despite lack of practice. It's become a bit more complex an operation since Clare adopted a special diet for arthritis sufferers. It involves avoiding potatoes, peppers and tomatoes among other things, all foods which I enjoy, so we've had to learn to cook some components separately which previously we both would have been able to eat mixed together. It's easy enough to cook tomatoes and peppers separately and then mix them into my portion of the paella, as long as I get the timing right and don't get distracted.

After my walk in the park this afternoon I decided to email my GP again to report that the doxazosin medication is having no impact on how I've been feeling this past week. Having to wait so long for tests and an examination increasingly worrying me. Should I increase the dosage further, stop taking it or wait to be prescribed something different?

I was disappointed to learn from Ashley this evening that Paul's funeral webcast is almost inaudible. It's sad as it means the eulogy, written with much collaborative effort for the wider civic audience won't be heard by anyone other than the family. The microphone was working, in fact it was over-sensitive as it picked up the noise of the lightest touch on the lectern, and I know the family could hear me from their responses. The audio feed to the webcasting device can't have properly configured or monitored for quality. A technical disgrace. I must check the webcast and record it, to find out whether Audacity can do anything to improve the sound.