A windy day, with dark clouds moving at speed, clearing for a while then re-forming, with occasional light showers. More like March than Michaelmas. After breakfast I drove to St Peter's in Fairwater to celebrate the Eucharist with twenty two others, and join people for coffee and a chat in the hall afterwards. Amazing that this midweek service is so consistently well attended, and there's double that number on Sundays. I'm scheduled to be there on Sundays a couple of times in the next quarter without having to rush away at the end to get to St Luke's for another service. Something to look forward to, as it's only ten minutes drive from home instead of 20-25 minutes from Roath, where I've been on most Sundays this last few months.
On returning home, I retrieved this week's veggie bag from Chapter, then cooked lunch and did this week's grocery shopping at the Co-op. The till staff were talking with concern about news of a break-in at Tesco Metro ar Canton Cross last night. Money tills were broken into for their cash float content, and vape display shelves were broken and emptied. Thieves entered through the roof of the rear warehouse. Damage repair will be more costly than the value of what was stolen. "It'll be us next." said the one of them, dreading the prospect.
While Clare went out to shop at Beanfreaks I made next week's Morning Prayer video slideshow and uploaded it to YouTube. She returned with a broken wheel on the shopping trolley, sadly un-repairable. Luckily, things fell apart outside our next door neighbour's house on the return trip. We now have several broken un-repairable items to take to the tip so I'll book an early afternoon visit to the Bessemer Close recycling centre tomorrow after I've taken Clare to catch her train to London for her birthday trip to see 'Abba - Voyage'.
I went out to buy Clare a birthday card. She can't decide what she'd really like, nor can I guess. When you have as much as you need, health and freedom are the things the matter and those can't be commoditised, only looked after carefully. I found an unusual sixteen month 2024 calendar with pictures of Wales, as a starter gift. Still looking for inspiration for something else. The birthday cards were for the most part were either sickly sentimental or rude, but I found one that will make her laugh. She was having an early supper when I returned, ready to go out for a Plygain choir practice.
Walking up Cowbridge Road from the card shop, I noticed for the first time that Calvary Baptist Church looked different. Then I realised that the front entrance has acquired a set of stylish simple iron railings and a gate to enclose its forecourt. It seems to be an interesting outcome to covid times.
Outside Tesco's a hundred yards further up the street on the opposite side are some fancy shaped public benches. For ages, these have been frequented by drinkers who prefer to buy supermarket booze, mainly cans of beer and socialise with their mates in the street as they wouldn't be welcome in nearby pubs with outdoor seating. Generally speaking, it's been a harmless enough feature of local street life. Lock-down emptied the streets, but once it was permissible to be outdoors for a while, in an effort to enforce social distancing, the Council surrounded the seats with Heras fencing.
Street drinkers moved to Calvary Baptist Church which is private property outside the public realm where police enforced dispersal is required. The forecourt was left rubbish strewn and smelling like a toilet. It can't have been pleasant for church cleaners, who'd have enough problems with sanitizing the interior before and after services. Church members would be reluctant to approach, let alone challenge drinkers' behaviour.
The Heras fencing stayed around the benches for a while after covid restrictions were lifted, but street drinkers have now returned to their old haunt, though it cannot be the same at the moment, as a block of low rise apartments is being built next door to the supermarket and a site security fence blocks much of the pavement next to the public benches. It's not a place where it's easy to sit and watch passers by over a can of beer for the time being. The facade of Calvary Baptist has been modernised at some time in the past fifty years. At that time I reckon the accessible forecourt was constructed, making for a welcoming facade. The passage of time however, has shown that church railings still have their uses.
Until Clare returned from singing, I spent a couple of hours watching episodes of a new Israeli crimmie on 'Walter Presents' about a complex investigation into corruption in the police force called Manayek. The dialogue is fast paced. Concentration is required to keep up with the subtitles. Quite demanding in fact, but the story is engaging. Then I read for a while before turning in.
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