On the record

Another sunny start to the day, with a layer of frost on cars in the street. By half past ten, while Clare was having her on-line jazz piano lesson, I went for a refreshing walk, first around Thompson's Park, then to Llandaff Village, then down to Blackweir and back home in time to make lunch.

In the early news it was reported from health authorities in Yorkshire that they were ahead of schedule with their covid vaccinations and had run out of supplies. It's being said that there are enough supplies in the country to meet the target of inoculating the top four categories of vulnerable people by mid February, but it's a matter of scheduling and delivery logistics. This is much the same as what's been reported here in Wales, except that the Welsh Government and Health Boards have stuck to their measured delivery plan and not run out for racing too fast, to avoid having the vaccination teams idling or stood down. First Minister Mark Drakeford is being harrassed by the BBC for giving honest answers to vaccination questions. It's not the first time he has been targeted for criticism for getting things right, acting in advance of English government moves and publicity.

A letter arrived for me in today's post from CofE's Archbishop's Council, inviting me to register my basic clerical identity details on an English church national database, for public reference. Hitherto, the world has relied on Crockford's Clerical Directory, a respected independent publication which has been around since 1858, and whatever information is made publicly available by each diocese. It's possible for clerics to get left out of either, and be difficult to trace, a concern when it comes to safeguarding issues. The new database will also cover lay church office holders and workers. I'm asked, as I hold a Europe diocese PTO and worked for half my ministry in the Church of England. Church in Wales, as disestablished Province of the Anglican Communion will already have its own database on which I appear as a retired licensed cleric with a PTO. Anyway registration on the CofE database only took a few minutes, then I received a confirmatory email.

By the time I went out for a load of bread after lunch the sky had clouded over and the pavement was wet. I thought the shower was just ending, but as I walked it really began in earnest, and I got quite wet. Not long after I got back, the rain stopped, the sky cleared and the temperature dropped. Another frosty night to come, and no sign of the promised snow down here on the coast.

The wound pain was quite acute for a while this evening. I don't know what to do about it. No chance of getting a wound specialist to look at it without going through the rigmarole of a GP or hospital visit. I'm not sure if a district nurse could do anything other than look at it and recommend a specialist looks at it. They're all so very busy with far worse medical crises to manage, and it's not exactly life threatening. No sign of infection, just sharp excruciating pain sometimes, which takes a while to recover from, the sort of pain that analgesics can't deaden, as it stimulates the vagus nerve, like hitting a panic button. Walking is the only thing that helps. I've done 13km instead of 10 today.

I watched this week' episode of 'Rebecka Martenson Arctic Murders' this evening. I love to see the snow covered terrain and the way it slows life down naturally. Sara observed that Swedes in the north naturally speak slowly, and take time taking with each other, yet when something goes amiss they have very fiery tempers.

The evening news told of a troubling early statistical report on the impact of the new coronvirus variant, and intimations that lock-down measures will stay in place until April. The government has talked about 'following the science', but it's been noticeable how slow the reaction has been to new data, as if needing to soften the impact and avoid inevitable economic impact. It's not worked. Despite vaccination roll-out happening at a remarkable pace, infections and deaths still rise. The situation is not under control, and the tone is more serious and less upbeat than it was (apart from vaccination news), as if the government now using anxiety to motivate non compliant people. I believe that from the outset, measure should have been imposed more strictly so that people would get used to how it inevitably has to be in order to bring the pandemic to an end.