The cleaner sound

A cold clear night followed by a bright sunny day with clear skies and quite mild for this time of year. The only significant development in Ukraine is a two hour video conference between Presidents Biden and Putin. Meanwhile the bombed theatre in Mariupol whose basement is said to have been sheltering 800-1000 people is slowly being evacuated while the area is under continuous fire from Russian forces. 130 have been rescued alive so far. Over a hundred empty prams and baby buggies have been assembled in the city of Lviv, representing the number of children killed so far in this onslaught. Meanwhile Putin, his regime and most of his citizens are in denial about the responsibility of their forces for such crimes. Every day we ask ourselves, how much longer can this go on?

I went by bus over to St German's for today's Lent lunch. The first bus I took was ten minutes late and it took me a while to find a bus for the second leg of the journey, so I arrived half a hour late, in time to eat but was annoyed to miss Malcolm's talk. There were about fifteen of us, several came from other churches in the Roath Ministry Area,including Mike and Geraldine Payne, whom I knew as members of Saint Michael's Church in my days as Rector of Central Cardiff. Mike is now the Ministry Area lay co-chair. Mike's now retired from being a full time Trades Union Official and brings to his new role a wealth of experience on social justice concerns which the churches will really value.

I caught a forty nine bus from Newport Road to return to the city centre and walked home from there. The brightly painted new bus was an all electric vehicle, one of a number bought since last autumn by Cardiff Bus. Part of their fleet is low emission fuelled vehicles, in a different livery, plus the remainder which is now slowly being phased out, in the old Cardiff dark green livery. 

The sound of an electric bus took me back to Geneva days where electric trolley buses have run since they were invented after trams, as the city had a convenient source of hydro power. It also took me back to the sounds of my youth when Cardiff also had electric double decker trolley buses. How much quieter and less malodorous the air of the city centre will be in a few years from now. The air is improving with more electric cars on the road, as it also improved thirty years ago as catalytic exhausts were introduced. The smell of diesel car exhaust is still noticeable, as is that from central heating systems whose boilers haven't been serviced.

When I got back home, I prepared Monday's funeral service and eulogy, and then got ready to leave early for the Millennium Centre for tonight's WNO performance of Janaczek's opera Jenufa. We were invited to a 'Friends' drinks reception before it started with a helpful brief introductory talk from WNO's musical director Aidan Lang. It's a beautiful work, dating from the turn of the 20th century, and the cast of singers was superb and evenly matched for their different roles. It's a sad story which highlights the power of forgiveness to redeem a tragic situation, while portraying powerful men as morally weak and powerless women as morally strong. Very thought provoking, with exquisite music.