Find the vaccination centre nightmare

The crab apples that I picked yesterday needed to be de-stalked and cut up before cooking. Over two kilo's worth, and a long fiddly job. After a morning walk around Thompson's Park, I finished what Clare had started, both before and after cooking lunch, with just the last mugful to finish off when we got back from our booster jab appointment.

Our appointments were at the Bay vaccination centre and we left in good time, following Google Maps instructions to the post code in the Sports Village area. We reached the road in question, but there was no signage to indicate where the centre is. There was just a wide open entrance gate to the site with a large No Parking notice, and traffic cones along the entry verges. From this vantage point the large warehouse in use wasn't visible. We'd learned earlier that the warehouse housed the 'Toys 'r Us' store which closed several  years ago, but no signage remained to offer a clue to the identity of the place. And there was nobody about to ask. For anyone as unfamiliar with this part of Cardiff as we are, the total lack of signage was utterly reprehensible.

I concluded that we'd not found the right place and drove around through an area of anonymous blocks of buildings searching. In desperation, Clare phoned a friend who lives locally and had her booster jab earlier this week. It was easier to come and show us rather than instruct us, she said, and drove to meet us at the Morrison's supermarket filling station to guide us there. She too experienced the same difficulty finding the place, and thought instructions would make no sense to anyone unfamiliar with the area. It was so kind of her to come and show us the way. She led us back to the entrance where the sat-nav guided us and drove in, round a blind corner into a huge parking lot next to the huge warehouse that was our destination.

There was a short queue to register. It didn't matter that we were twenty minutes late. It seems delays and queues are normal, as people are being encouraged just to turn up, even if they don't have an appointment. Uptake of the booster jab hasn't been as fast as hoped for. The vaccination booths are numbered up to fifty and not all of them were in use when we were there. There was a waiting area with chairs to accommodate up to sixty at a time, with twenty people waiting. After just ten minutes, we were ushered into a cubicle together and interrogated by a recently retired doctor, a chatty Irishman. In twenty minutes we'd both been jabbed with the Pfizer booster vaccine and sent to the recovery zone beyond the waiting area. With seats facing the exit, and facing a wall clock, so we'd know when the required fifteen minutes wait before departure was over. 

Everybody at the centre was friendly and helpful, but the total lack of signage utterly reprehensible. How many more people had the same difficulty finding the place as we did? The address and post code on the six pages of literature from NHS Wales couldn't have been clearer, perhaps an outline map graphic on one of the information sheets would have helped, but no road signs? An A-board with a chalk notice on it would have sufficed. How many people have been deterred from getting the jab by this totally avoidable omission? On reflection, a 999 call to the emergency services might have been effective, but a nuisance for them.

When we returned home I did the last mugful of crab apples and but them on the stove to stew for a few hours. Then after supper, Clare got out the straining bag and loaded with stewed fruits into it, and between us we hung the loaded bag from an upside down stool, dripping precious liquid into a bowl overnight. Then we settled down to watch a telly version of a P D James' novel in a new series called 'Dalgliesh' on Channel 5 - he's the detective who features in her stories. It's set in the mid seventies, making it a recent history drama. And so to bed.

A day to remember in the history of science

Following Thought for the Day I uploaded day two's Morning Prayer video with a little more confidence than yesterday. Then I walked into town again after breakfast by way of the Madhav Indian grocery shop on Lower Cathedral Road, as we needed to top up on several spices. The store sells packets at half the cost and twice with weight of the ones sold in little glass bottles from supermarkets. Just right if you use spices liberally, as we do. It caters mainly for Asian, African and Caribbean customers, not only with spices and condiments but also select vegetables from far off places. Next to the shop is a small simple restaurant area where cooked vegetarian Indian foods can be bought to take home or eat in. I always enjoy going in there, as its proprietor is friendly. One of these lunchtimes I'll try the eaterie.

Under the Wood Street river bridge, I noticed a strange object sticking out of the water. Closer inspection revealed that its was a large stuffed toy Snoopy tied to a branch broken off a try. Strange, I can't imagine how it got there, but it made a good Instagram picture. I popped into John Lewis' to see if there were any tech' bargains, but nothing obvious remained on Black Friday deals. Not that I have anything particular in mind that I need to buy at the moment. My tech needs are very limited these days. Thankfully I don't have to edit videos that often, as I make very few, so I couldn't justify buying a more powerful computer just do do that - unless it was heavily discounted, of course! 

On leaving the city centre I took more photos of building construction progress. The Edwardian Crown Post Office building on Westgate Street is being converted into a hotel, and a huge steel skeleton has sprung up at the rear of the building, for additional suites of rooms, I imagine. The grand main hall with counters will I suspect be renovated and adapted for the hotel reception area in due time. It'll uplift the environment at the lower end of the street, which has looked sad and neglected for the past quarter of a century if not longer.

I stopped at Tesco's to get some wine and a bunch of flowers, and had to queue longer than expected at the checkout, as the store was quite busy. I got home just as Clare was putting lunch on the table and wondering where I was. Although I didn't feel physically tired, I slept for an hour and a half after lunch. I seem to need a regular eight hours sleep time a day. I usually wake just after seven whatever time I got to bed, and lately it's been well after midnight, so an afternoon siesta plugs the gap. I wonder if this amount of rest is as necessary for the mind as for the body, and maybe more so as we get older. I went out for another walk later to complete my full two hours of fresh air and exercise. Along with excellent food this seems vital to sustain the steady improvement of the wound condition. It's also an antidote to dark evening hours inert in front of the telly. That's something that's been easier to do of late as I can now sit for longer without pain and discomfort. It's truly incredible, having been for so long unable to do so.

Over the weekend UK health regulators have been fast-tracking approval of the Pfizer/BioNtech covid-19 vaccine for use and distribution in Britain, so that roll-out can begin some time next week. Four hundred thousand double doses for essential health workers to start with. This is a colossal achievement for the global scientific community, to get this far in ten months from decoding the virus genome, unprecedented in the history of science. And on the same day a Chinese robotic space craft lands on the moon to collect and return kilos of moon rock samples to earth! 

Only yesterday Google's Deep Mind artificial intelligence research programme announced a breakthrough in predicting the shape of different kinds of proteins, long chain amino acid molecules which, depending on composition and size fold up into different shapes that determine their behavioural properties and functions inside cells. Determining shape by any other means is extremely difficult, and the question of how to do this on a basis of what the molecule is made up of, has been around unanswered for the past fifty years. This new tool has amazing potential in analysing  and synthesising proteins, and in developing new medicines. 

At a time when the pandemic has put normal life on hold, paradigm shifting scientific breakthrough has taken place that will make a profound difference to the future and challenge temptation to despair. The Creator Spirit works among us while we're busy worrying.