The passing of a prophet for our age

The air temperature dropped in the night. I had to get up and find a hat to wear in bed to stay warm but I didn't lose much sleep fortunately. It was zero degrees when I got up but no frost just a dry day. Although my head was clear, the morning meds had an unusually strong impact on me, lasting into the afternoon. I  don't know why, but it slowed me down and made concentration hard work to turn an album of photos into a video slideshow of Rhiannon's 21 years. It's her 22nd birthday today. I made her a digital birthday card and recorded a sung greeting from Clare and I as well. 

After lunch I had a call from a medic working with Dr Tom Hughes, asking me questions about the nasty effect the statins are having on me. A lengthy interview, challenging me to describe accurately what I have noticed recently and back in 2007 when I first renounced them because of ill effects. The stroke has made my reaction much more sensitive. The real concern is the combined effect of taking the Losartan as well. After a twenty five minute conversation, I was promised another call next Tuesday to report his findings and propose an alternative statin. Progress!

In the mail, a final account statement from TalkTalk. I was mentally drained to deal with it after talking on the phone for so long, so I put it on one side without opening it. I have yet to deal with Owain's draft letter of complaint about this to OFCOM.

In the news headlines today, the death at 84 was announced of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, one America's great civil rights advocates, and successor of Martin Luther King. An outstanding preacher and evangelist for social justice. His inspirational exhortation "Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive!" was the call of a twentieth century prophet. He worked tirelessly on the economic front to open career paths for poor and downtrodden black people. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. 

It's also the anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Janani Luwum today as well, a prophet and a moral and spiritual giant of our age, who in 1977 met a violent end for speaking truth to power under the tyrannical regime in Uganda of Idi Amin

I went out for a walk in Llandaff Fields at three when the after effect of the meds and a lengthy telephone conversation started to wear off. After supper, I found two new crimmies to watch on 'Walter Presents'. A puzzling episode of 'Astrid - Murder in Paris' which I hadn't seen, and a whole new series of 'Indagini de Lolita Lobosco', mixing romantic comedy with arms trafficking and the murder of a secret agent tracking the organised crime gang. All worries set aside for a couple of hours before bed time.

Kath on the case

Another damp and overcast day, but not much rain. I slept badly, losing sleep rehearsing things I needed to take care of today, but eventually woke up clear headed and sharp to start with. I posted today's Morning Prayer YouTube link to the Parish WhatsApp prayer thread when I got up for breakfast at eight. 

The toxic impact of the meds was not as pronounced as has been before until I started to tire in the afternoon. i made a start on writing a Reflection for next week when it's Ash Wednesday and completed it late in the day. I went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's. Eleven of us at today's service. I cooked lunch while Clare was out shopping, then went for a walk in the park after eating. I asked Kath's help in contacting TalkTalk to ask for a copy of our final account bill, which I think may need challenging. She certainly succeeded in getting results I despaired of getting. While I was walking in the park at sunset. She tracked the TalkTalk equipment return parcel to its destination from the Post Office receipt. I'd been unable to figure out how to extract this info. 

She obtained screenshot evidence that parcel delivery had been fulfilled. She then set about contacting TalkTalk accounts, logging into their website and using their default direct messaging app to pursue her request for a final account closing bill. The login process using my personal credentials established on their system, rejected my password to hinder the process of gaining access. Exactly the same frustration I had with it that led me to close my user unfriendly TalkTalk account.

Kath did get through and accessed the Direct Messaging app. She was able to download the record of exchanges which I was unable to do. I'm promised a paper bill in a week or so, but am unsure I'll receive a .pdf version as well. I'm promised a phone call from their accounts office about the final account bill.  Kath has found the necessary evidence to support our demand for an explanation of the large direct debit. There's a strong likelihood this call will happen before I have a copy of the bill to scrutinise.

Ashley and I had a long conversation about this affair and he said there were several breaches of consumer legislation in the way this issue has been dealt with by TalkTalk giving grounds for legal action against the company, and these would support a complaint made to OFCOM. Processing all this information, given  how tired I am today, was overwhelming. I need a respite from thinking in order to recover and prepare for whatever comes next.

After supper I watched a couple of undemanding episodes of 'Patience' to relax before bed. All round medical examination first thing in the morning. Stayed up too late again. 

Sharp practice

Yet another overcast, damp and drizzly day. In the news Aberdeen was reported as being covered by cloud continuously for three weeks. Wind from the west has given Wales occasional clear sky days in that time. I wish the medication clouding my brain each day at the moment would go away. It starts within an hour of taking morning meds at nine and doesn't clear until tea time, if not later.

There was a bank statement in the morning's post with a deduction of £171 taken by TalkTalk. I've had no final account statement paper document , nor digital notification email to enable me to question this final figure. I had expected a final bill for the second half of December and up to 9th January when the account closed, line rental amounting to £40 - £50. I have proof I returned TalkTalk's equipment in December. This really upset me. 

Kath sent me a link to BBC's 'You and Yours' consumer programme to tell the story to their Watchdog team. It took me three hours to write a detailed account in an email and copies of supporting evidence. I received an acknowledgement, but there's no guarantee the Watchdog team will investigate. 

Many of my written exchanges with TalkTalk over the past five months were by Direct Message. I was unsuccessful in copying or downloading any of these as a record of the process, I couldn't find a means to do so. There is a separate trail of SMS messages relating to several complaints I've made which TalkTalk alleges were resolved. These are linked to some kind of on-line dispute resolution service for which I have neither had time or patience to follow up, or contest. Life is too short for that, especially when you're unwell. Making the procedure opaque is a sure way to deter clients from pursuing any further. 

If anyone is unable to make a copy of messages coming from the TalkTalk Direct Messaging server to support contention over the 'resolved' complaint, it becomes too daunting to pursue.  The same applies when money is taken from your account before receiving and agreeing an itemised final bill. I have proof of postage for my return of TalkTalk equipment. There's no reason why I should be charged for non-return if it got lost in transit or at the recycling warehouse. No reason for not mailing me a paper copy of the final account. In cancelling my TalkTalk service back in December I was informed I'd lose my TalkTalk email address which I hardly ever used. There would be no reason to email a final bill to that address, unless to make the final reckoning more opaque. They already have a record of my Gmail account for security purposes. This issue is either a matter of monumental administrative incompetence or malpractice. I'm hoping the 'You and Yours' team will look into this. This would support a complaint to OFCOM or make one on my behalf. We'll see.

It was gone four by the time I went out for a walk. I certainly needed fresh air and exercise after sending this story to 'You and Yours'. It started to rain, and gusts of wind as it was getting dark made an effort to break my brolly detaching the handle section from the rest. Not a pleasant evening. A troubling day feeling out of control of this faceless situation and angry with its impositions. I hope I can sleep tonight.

Christmas mail-shot time

Blessed sunshine today, lifting the spirit, but still not getting enough refreshing rest to start the day feeling well. I had a call from BT about the procedure involved in keeping our landline number, which will take a couple of weeks. It means I won't need to change the phone number the annual Christmas letter, due for circulation in the next few days. After breakfast I had a text message from Talktalk wanting to discuss the switchover. BT had already notified them I presume. I was not pleased with the mildly threatening tone of the message mentioning liability for disconnection charges and spent an hour  exchanging direct messages of complaint about the service. If I haven't complied with their terms and condition as the timing of contract renewal coincided with me having a stroke, I will be sure to mention this. If they go on to make a disconnection charge, I'll complain to OFCOM.

I started work on the annual digital greeting card and newsletter mailing after breakfast. It's taking much longer than previously as I'm that much slower at remembering and retrieving information. I have physical cards and addresses organised but have yet to start on the assembly of that mailshot. I started late to make lunch. By the time I went out for my afternoon walk it was nearly sunset, and it started to drizzle, as it often does at this time of day. 

A TalkTalk supervisor called on my mobile to discuss account closure with me and return of their equipment. it gave me an opportunity to give more feedback to add to what I wrote on the Direct Message thread, being particularly critical of the latency in their network and the potential security risk to users who don't understand why the system isn't working as expected. Just after I got home I had a second call from another TalkTalk supervisor about disconnection and had to explain that I'd not long been contacted about this. Then I had a text message from TalkTalk acknowledging my complaint and giving a reference number for dealing with it. We'll see what happens next!

After supper I directed my attention to the digital greeting mailshot of three dozen greetings. Sobering to notice how many people on that list, compiled a decade ago, have since died. Sometimes recalling the detail behind the list was difficult. I haven't lost memory but recall doesn't work as swiftly and efficiently as it did before my stroke. Tired now. Concentrated for too long. Need sleep now.

Anatomy of a local outage

Nine hours in bed, six hours sleep, but I didn't wake up feeling poorly or de-hydrated. It's an improvement. Cloudy but dry today also an improvement. After breakfast I occupied myself with making the Wednesday Morning Prayer video and uploading it. It was a frustratingly slow task, as Windows 11 Bluetooth refused to work with a mouse it clearly recognises. It will work with the Chromebook, but consistently complains on different devices of only having 5% battery left, even when loaded with a tested new battery. This may be why it struggles to connect to any computer. It forced me to use a spare wi-fi mouse which works, but its cursor movement isn't nearly accurate enough which makes it error prone. I have two other wireless mouses, (or is it really mice?) both of them are electronic waste awaiting disposal. And there's an old USB wired mouse which works but not as accurate as it was three decades ago.

I walked down to the river before lunch. Although a lot of rain fell this week the river level wasn't as high as I expected. Leaves on more of the leaves have turned yellow or fallen this past fortnight but there's still a mixture of olive green and gold in the tree canopies. Leaves in garden hedges are a delightful mixture of green, orange, gold and brown in some places, perhaps due to the relative mildness of the weather, and no sharp frost and cold wind to cause them to fall. A lovely sight. Prawns with veg stir fry and rice for lunch when I returned.

An Openreach engineer arrived at two. Me cancelling the appointment made no difference. Having an engineer there, rather than turn him away, I asked him to check our setup. His diagnostic device showed that the outage which affected us also affected those attached to the same pole, something to do with the routine maintenance. Our setup wasn't to blame. When a red light shone on our fibre optic port, the same was true for the others. Trouble is, many of them would have been at work by that time, not available to ask if they were affected. If it was clearly a group connectivity issue, an alert through the service provider to OpenReach would have resulted in prompt remedial action. It was worthwhile having the cancelled visit in the end, to learn this and have the house installation thoroughly checked.

Kath has been investigating broadband deals for me, and trying to figure out the most economical deal that covers TV, streaming services and landline rental is bewilderingly complex. I'm not looking forward to the chore of switching broadband providers, though it's very possible that doing so will save money and give us better service.

I went out for another walk in Llandaff Fields as the sun was setting set. How soon after it gets dark under cloud cover. I walked for an hour and returned in time to take my tea time medication, having completed my daily step quota, less tired today, and my heart rate is steadier, now that my kidneys are functioning the way they should.

A quiet evening of entertainment after supper plus a call from Rachel, an episode of Shetland and a couple of Juge Marianne watched on Chromebook. And then early bed. 

The stress unreliability causes

 Thank God for another good night's sleep with no physical repercussions. The internet was still down and I was obliged to spend most of the morning trouble shooting this using Direct messaging. This is difficult as the 4G signal is so poor in the front room where the fibre optic socket is located. The problem doesn't seem to be with my equipment, but somewhere away from the house. I started the process after breakfast and it took a couple of hours to get to the stage where I was given a booking for an OpenReach engineer visit. I had no alternative but to confirm the appointment, but within 20 minutes of doing so, the internet connection resumed. This requires me to go through the same rigmarole again to cancel, and I can't do it until this afternoon. Once, a few years back, I did need an engineer visit to install a new cable to the house and that went fine. The last time there was an outage the internet resumed while I was still on Direct Messaging. This time normal service resumed, when I was out of sight of the router, responding to an OpenReach text message on my phone about the booking.

In this system user must confirm OpenReach appointments but cannot cancel them without going through the service provider. TalkTalk now have a WhatsApp account for accessing the same messaging service. I tried to use it, but it requires you to install WhatsApp and refuses to recognise your existing WhatsApp account installation. It puts you into a closed installation loop. It's ridiculously bad, incompetent effort to provide a useful means of communication to clients. I wasted an hour and a half of my day Direct Messaging TalkTalk in a situation where 4G connectivity was weak and unreliable. The stress pushed up my blood pressure and I felt unwell because of this.

Sadly, the major obstacle to obtaining a better service is OpenReach which runs the infrastructure which provides internet services whether you use a 4G mobile device or a landline connection. Inevitably there are going to be times when the network is down for maintenance, but OpenReach doesn't warn each user of down times so they can plan workarounds. I wonder how much this waste of time costs the British economy? 

Society has become utterly dependent on data services and apps delivered on-line. AI tools and the data processing they require consume vast amounts of energy which has its own impact on the environment and contributes to global warming. The infrastructure along which processed data is delivered, like road highways, get congested. Breakdowns and hacks can have catastrophic consequences,  yet we put such faith in their ability to work the way we expect. In my tiny experience, when something relied on so heavily fails, the sense of being helpless and out of control in managing routine affairs on-line is most distressing. I think this entire chaotic setup is not a healthy one for its users.

I think it's time to make an effort to rid myself of the services of TalkTalk, and find something better, more consistently stable. I've started looking at the U-Switch website, and when Owain comes next week I'll enlist his help to find a suitable account to deliver the services I need, and make the change.

It's rained for most of the day, often heavily. I needed fresh air and exercise., but walking in waterproof trousers, managing a brolly with a broken spoke in strong gusts of wind, led to more broken spokes. Not only were drains and gutters flooded but pavements too. Un-mended potholes were driven through with no concern for pedestrians and soaking them. It was daunting. I went out before sunset after finally cancelling tomorrow's OpenReach engineer house visit. It was dark when I returned Some of my step quota was done pacing up and down the house instead. Rain reduced to light drizzle at ten, so I went out and walked again for half an hour to complete my step quota before bed, still wound up in reaction to the stress caused by today's outage. Hoping that a night walk and physical tiredness will help me sleep.

Dispatched

A lovely mild sunny day with the temperature rising to 17C, notably higher than usual for the Spring Equinox and most welcome. Owain was up before us having breakfast and a shower. He went off to work at eight thirty, ready for his token day in the office. Crazily, although the Insolvency Agency has people working from home in Bristol the relocation of their regional base has meant the nearest physical office location where he can occupy a desk is now in Cardiff. Next month should be his last, as regional HMRC has a physical office in Bristol, giving Owain his own workstation and a team of colleagues based there, while retaining the option to work from home on suitable occasions. He's looking forward to the change of ambience. Spending so much time working virtually without rubbing shoulders and popping out to lunch with colleagues can't really be life enhancing.

Clare had an early appointment at the bone clinic in Llandough Hospital so I took her there after breakfast. I had a rendezvous with Iona for coffee at eleven. With no idea of how long her appointment would take, I came straight home. I'd not been home ten minutes when she called to ask if I could come and collect her as she'd have a long wait for the next bus. I had enough time to go and collect her, and we were back by half past ten. The appointment was simply to give her an injection of a medication which would deliver calcium to strengthen her bones. It's something she now has every six months since she completed the two year daily regime of self-injection.

Iona and I chatted about the Ministry Area reflecting on the period since she completed her term of office as lay co-chair and how things may develop now. Jan will be finishing her ministry at 'the Res' in June, a vacancy that will be hard to cover adequately, let alone recruit for. The church still retains a key role in the parish hosting an unusually large number of funerals as it's a gathering point for the local community in the face of tragic events. It's a deprived area, seeing an above average number of untimely deaths. Having a pastor on the spot to turn to is really important. Let's hope the vacancy won't be long.

Clare had lunch ready cooking by the time I returned home - roast fish and veg. I found her sitting out in the garden enjoying the warmth of the sun relaxing and reading a book. After lunch I worked on a sermon for Sunday. The Eucharist readings didn't inspire me much, so I looked in my archive to find out how I'd worked with them before. I took an old sermon apart and re-wrote it completely. Looking back at old material like that gave me an insight into how my preaching style has changed over the past twenty years, moving from the heart of the city at St John's to an assortment of places on locum at home and abroad. It's a good reminder that it's impossible to preach the same sermon twice whether with the same audience or a different one. Just like it's impossible to have exactly the same conversation with someone, even if the subject matter is the same.

In the post today a posting bag and pre-paid label from TalkTalk to return the redundant and the duplicate routers. I was starting to wonder how long it would take to receive this delivery. Six days in fact. I packed the bag and took it to the Post Office, glad to see the back of them. From there I walked down to Tesco's to meet Clare and go for a walk. She was shopping for printer ink cartridges but there were none to be found locally. It means a walk into town or to the Western Avenue Tesco's. We walked home up Llandaff  Road and stopped for a drink the artisan cafe cum bakery called 'Ground' since it was taken over and re-branded last autumn. Then I continued walking in Llandaff Fields for an hour until sunset.

After supper, I read some more of Rowan's book and started writing a different ending to grandpa Jack's story until it was time for bed.

 

In town on match day

Cold and cloudy again today. I got up late and woke up with a stiff neck, paying the price for working late. I'm trying an orthopaedic pillow at the moment, but it doesn't help much. Clare was up before me cooking pancakes for breakfast. I cooked garlic mushrooms for a savoury supplement. Then another daily haiku written after Morning Prayer. 

The postman came and handed over another TalkTalk router package. Not the return equipment mail bag I spent half an hour arranging to receive yesterday! Another half hour or so wasted contacting TalkTalk via their DM thread getting apologies and a further promise of mailbag delivery. Now I have two packages to return. Whatever part AI plays in this process, it's not doing well to deliver a satisfactory service. Or is it simply a case of human carelessness somewhere along the line?

While Clare was wrestling with an on-line cognition test, I went out and did some grocery shopping that took me longer than expected. Bathroom disinfectant was on the list. I had to visit four shops before I was able to find what was needed. Then I cooked lentils with veg for lunch. Her test showed that he's above average for someone of her age, despite short term memory problems.

I went out for a walk after we'd eaten, and headed towards town along the riverside path, mildly curious about the match day atmosphere in town. Wales playing England today. As I reached Sophia Gardens, I could hear the strains of the Welsh national anthem, coming from the loudspeakers of the Brewhouse pub and kitchen nearby, but not from the stadium a quarter of a mile away, which meant the roof was closed. I walked to Westgate Street closed for the match, and only then could the muffled roar of the crowd inside be heard. 

Scores of stewards in hi-viz jackets were standing around doing nothing. All the pubs were packed with people watching the game. The best place to find out the score was in tech' shop window screens showing the match to passers by in the rather quiet Saint David shopping centre. Nothing much has changed in the fifteen years since I was walking the city centre on match day, except there's less discarded food wrappers and drinks containers on the streets now. It's a sign that litter clean up teams are operating more effectively now than they did fifteen years ago. The post-match clean-up won't last so long, and may well cost less in Saturday overtime. 

As I started to make my way home before the match ended, spectators were already leaving the stadium with heads hung down. A sign that Wales was losing yet again. The seventeenth defeat in a row. As I was about to cross the bridge to Cowbridge Road East, Clare called to remind me about eating early before this evening's concert in the Cathedral. I had completely forgotten about this, distracted as I was by ambling down memory lane. I was within sight of two buses that passed me by, so I had to walk all the way home, but I made it in time to eat before we went out at dusk across Llandaff Fields under a cold clear sky, wondering which planets were the few bright lights we could see.

The Cathedral was packed. The concert was in aid of Gaza, featuring several local celebrity musicians I'd never heard of, apart from Charlotte Church and a couple of bi-lingual poets. One read a poem in Arabic Welsh and English translations,  the other whose name I did catch was the writer Meredydd Hopwood, who is currently Archdruid of the Gorsedd of Bards, the first woman to hold the office. Her single poem combined Welsh and English with perfect fluency. I understood enough of the Welsh to be aware of the continuity between them. It was a masterly exercise in bi-lingual creativity. She was the only one of the contributors I could understand, as the sound system was too loud, and the echo impaired audibility. 

Sadly, the sound environment, plus the poor enunciation of most of the contributors made speech and songs unintelligible. No, it's not my hearing. When our friend Mark duetted with a pianist he  often plays with, they were not amplified yet perfectly audible at the back when the audience quietened to listen. Still small voices.

We left before the end of the concert as it was bound to finish another half an hour later. Too late for us. I was pleased to buy a copy of Bishop Rowan's new Lent book from the Cathedral bookstall which was staffed during the concert. He's giving a talk about it at church this Wednesday evening. Despite the temperature being close to zero, the walk home under a nearly full moon was enchanting. I hadn't intended to walk ten miles today but I did and felt none the worse for it.  I can't remember when I last walked so far in one day.

An eclipse of the moon happened just before dawn. I didn't wake up at first light and there was in any case a thin veil of high cloud, so I would have missed it anyway. A good night's sleep anyway. After breakfast Clare went off with a friends for a walk by the sea. After Morning Prayer and haiku writing, I contacted TalkTalk via Direct Message to enquire about returning my redundant router. The message dialogue was very slow, first presuming that the delivery package had included a return label or bag, which it didn't. A simple request took half an hour to get one posted to me. The connection kept threatening to time out as responses came so slow. The messaging service must be busy today. I wonder how many others have had a similar query to mine?

I went to St John's for the Lent lunch and chatted with a few people, including Andrew who returned from UHW where he works as a counsellor to take his lunch break with the other loyal church members who turned up. He's starting to train for ministry full time this autumn, so he won't be in a position to join in Parish activity on a regular basis, as he'll be sent elsewhere to gain experience of other churches and take a different leadership role as an ordinand. He'll be missed.

Kath's school friend Kate the travel agent responded to the email I sent her last week while she was trying out a Danube cruise. We'll talk through cruise options suitable for us some time soon hopefully. While I was walking through the woods on the Taff west bank listening to birdsong very close to me, although tree branches are still bare, I had difficulty spotting birds a few feet above my head. When I did finally spot a great tit, the photo I took was poor, perhaps because it wasn't quite bright enough. Auto-focus takes a bit more time to make up its mind in such conditions. 

Rachel rang up while I was putting my camera away. Initially the phone signal wasn't good enough to sustain a WhatsApp conversation, so I called her back when I got to Blackweir Bridge where the signal is consistent and strong, then we talked for an hour until just after I got home. Then she said it was time for her to get up and start work making truffles for her next order. It's breakfast time for her in AZ after all.

I cooked thick  steaks with brown rice and veggies for supper, poached slowly with olive oil, a clove of garlic and lots of lemon juice. Thinly sliced tuna steaks need flash frying, a minute in the pan or less, but an inch thick steak needs a different treatment. Fortunately I got the timing right and the flesh stayed succulent without hardening. The residual jus was perfect with rice and veg.

When I came to transfer the photos I'd taken after supper, I couldn't find my camera. I searched all the room I'd been in when I returned with no success and wondered if I might have dropped it while talking to Rachel without noticing. Eventually I found it hanging by the strap on a coat peg in the hall. It's something I have done before on a specific peg, but I'd already looked there. This time I parked it on a different peg  while taking my coat off and it hidden by jackets sharing the same peg. It made me realise how distressing I find any disruption of routines and regular habits. All part of getting old I suppose, along with needing much more sleep to enjoy feeling well all day.

I didn't feel like settling down to watch something as I was tired and I didn't want to stay up too late. Then I wanted to share with Rachel the recording of a Great Tit made earlier but extracting it from the recording app in order to send on WhatsApp was tricky. The sound quality wasn't good so reducing the noise seemed a good idea. Audacity declared it a faulty MP3 file and refused to load it. Fortunately the 'Twisted Wave' cloud app used by Chromebook had no problem loading it, eliminating background noise and producing a file Audacity accepted and I completed the edit with a sound boost. Well, that's good to know, but I got to bed later than I intended.

New router arrives

Another day of sunshine mixed with clouds with a few brief showers in the afternoon.  I woke up early, posted the YouTube link for Morning Prayer on WhatsApp, then dozed for an hour before getting up and getting ready for church.

Ukraine has agreed to a general proposal about a temporary ceasefire and peace talks. The world waits to hear whether Putin will agree to this or not. Trump says he's going to meet Putin in the coming weeks. In the light of Zelensky's agreement, the use of Musk's Starlink satellite network and US military intelligence sharing will be resumed. The same tactic was used behind the scenes to get stalled ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel started again. More Palestinians have been killed in the time since the talks stalled, and the blockade of humanitarian aid and electricity supplies continues, as talks resume in Qatar on extending the temporary ceasefire. Netanyahu's government refuses to consider ending the conflict despite calls from world leaders to end the aggression and allow the rebuilding of Gaza to proceed. The nightmare continues for the Gaza population and the world looks on horrified, as crimes against humanity are committed again and again.

I celebrated two Eucharists today as Sion is away on a training course. We were just five at St Catherine's and seven at St John's. On the way home I collected this week's veggie bag from Chapter. Clare was busy cooking sausages for lunch when I arrived. A new router arrived in the post from TalkTalk. The package was slim enough to slip through a standard sized mailbox. I opened it and checked the content, but didn't feel the need to swap old for new straight away. A new router means a password change for all our wifi devices, five for me and five for Clare. It's better to do the lot in one go and test them, rather than do it on a basis of need, when any of them is switched on in a hurry.

A chill wind was blowing, dispersing all the cloud while I was walking up to Western Avenue and over the bridge to return on the east bank path, busy with commuting cyclists after four any working weekday, used by staff and students from Glantâf Welsh Comprehensive school in one direction, and city centre office workers in the other. I picked up eleven drink containers - cans, glass or plastic bottles on my circuit. Over the winter it's been about three a day. As the weather improves, and there are more daylight hours after work, more people come out to play sports or socialise in the park, and the amount of discarded containers increases. The distribution of existing litter bins is inadequate, but drink cans, especially energy drinks are often discarded within twenty yards of a bin. Does imbibing such sickly caffeinated beverages produce a kind of amnesia or myopia in the consumer?

After supper and the Archers I found a new crimmie to watch on Channel 4 called 'Get Millie Black'. It's about a Jamaican born detective working in London who returns home and joins the Jamaica Police Force, and when looking for a missing schoolgirl unearths a people trafficking enterprise run by organised liking Kingston and London. Running alongside this is a story of two siblings abused by a violent mother, both fleeing home when teenagers. It's about changing identities and coming to terms with the past. Much of it is filmed in Kingston. It's fantastic to hear dialogue in Jamaican patois used again in a dramatic context, even if I did end up switching on the subtitles. It takes me back to my time in St Paul's Bristol, and my visit to Kingston forty two years ago. How it's changed since then. I made myself stop and get ready for bed after a couple of episodes, saving the rest for tomorrow.

Foggy journey home

I was in bed by half past nine last night, and awake by six fifteen this morning, unusually early for me. A thin sliver of the waning crescent moon had just appeared in the sky above the hill beyond the cowshed. The fields below the house and across to the horizon, south and west of us were shrouded in mist, and as the air temperature was one degree, there was a layer or frost on the grass and both our cars, thick enough to need scraping off. I unloaded the dishwasher and laid the breakfast and said Morning Prayer before the others began to surface. Thanks to a surfeit of bacon some of us had bacon butties for breakfast along with cereals and fruit, toast and jam. A hearty breakfast for a cold and frosty morning.

We've all eaten well during our stay at Black Patch, incorporating all our Christmas favourite foods, but it still left us with a fridge full of supplies, enough to last us a couple more days, with an excess of cake and assorted cheeses. In other words, we had over catered without realising, and had to share out what remained to take home with us. Both cars seemed as full for the return trip as for the outbound. Loading a collapsible plastic crate, almost full, into the car boot produced an unexpected crisis when it fell apart with loud crack, spilling its contents into the space it was meant to occupy, and out on the ground behind the car. Nothing was broken, or so we thought, but when we off-loaded the content into a big bag at home, we found that a plastic bottle of olive oil had shed its cap under pressure and spilled its contents on to most of the bag containing it. Such a mess to clear up, it took us half an hour.

The ninety mile journey home via Abergavenny and Newport train station was lengthy an difficult, as the sun didn't evaporate away the mist, and visibility was 50-100 metres on B roads, many of them winding and narrow, relying on google maps satnav instructions for the first fifty miles, unable to see anything of the surrounding landscape to be sure of where we were. An ideal two hour trip on roads with light traffic took us three hours with a half hour stop for coffee in Abergavenny. Dropping off Owain on westbound side of Newport station, which I've not visited before was a disaster. The signage for the drop off zone was hard to read in poor lighting conditions as the street lights were off, automatically triggered in low light, so I missed the entrance, confusing it with the taxi drop off, and then had to exit in a bus lane. I will probably get fined for this error.

When I got home, I check to see if the 'optical network terminal' box attached to our router had been fixed remotely in our absence. From the way it misbehaved differently on two separate days, I felt sure it was a matter of a network error outside our property, and requested an OpenReach visit as suggested, in case it was our equipment, which responded as intended when switched on. It took forty minutes to get through diagnosis via TalkTalk's Direct Message thread on the morning we left, to achieve this. Now I had to go through the same exercise to get the visit cancelled and confirmed by TalkTalk. Not what I needed at the end of an exhausting drive home.

It was getting close to sunset by the time I was able to go for a walk in the part to un-stress myself after a demanding journey, but an hour and twenty minutes in the fresh air was all I needed to calm down. Clare cooked veggies to accompany the remainder of the cooked salmon. Then it was time to catch up on three days missed episodes of the Archers. Kath and Anto's journey was more straightforward, and they got back in time to go a panto in Warwick Castle in which Rhiannon's boyfriend Talion was playing a part. For us, a quiet evening and early bed, still savouring our four days of rural beauty and quietness.

Troublesome TalkTalk day

More rain in the night and strong gusty wind during the day, but not much more rain thankfully. I woke up late to a breakfast of pancakes, sweet and savoury cooked by Clare while I was dozing. In the mail, a bank statement showing a a bill from TalkTalk that was double what I thought it should be, despite the fact that two months ago I cancelled a couple of add-ons which I thought we no longer needed. 

I spent the morning trying to get some sense out of the website chatbot, the Direct Messaging and SMS  helpline services. The chatbot was totally useless. The other two put me through extensive security checks to establish that I was the account holder, but couldn't give me a simple answer, so I was referred to the helpline which has a real human voice at the end of it. The queue of people desperate for an intelligent human being to talk to must have been very long, as the line just hung. No wonder the company is losing revenue and heading into crisis.

I returned to the website and switched on 'Call Boost' again, as this seems to be the only way to send and receive landline calls that can last up to an hour. The allowance of landline calls is generous, but without 'Call Boost' you can only phone other TalkTalk customers, and we have very few in our calling circle. The rate to all others is 24p a minute. This didn't explain why wi-fi calling from a mobile resulted in my being billed on my landline number. I returned to Direct Messaging with a simple question and this time got the response I was looking for. I had been mistaken to switch off 'Call Boost' in the first place, and paid for it very dearly. 

I think it's improper to use a term like 'Call Boost', implying an additional paid service. Once upon a time before TalkTalk customers gave up and started switching to other providers, maybe half the people called would be TalkTalk users, whereas nowadays it's one in twenty. The information is there in the small print on the website but not presented with sufficient clarity on the options pages. Half a day wasted trying to sort this out, before and after lunch! I was very upset.  I also messed up changing my account password and locked myself out of the account. 

The Direct Message helpline was helpful with this first time. It was a matter of deleting existing TalkTalk passwords from Chrome browser's memory, then deleting stored cookies and browser memorised history. Before doing this, I went out and walked for two hours until it was dark to clear my head. The wind was very strong, buffeting me as I walked along the Taff footpath. Once again the water level was over the top of the fish ladder. It's risen half a metre or more in the last 24 hours.

I changed the password successfully, printed off tomorrow's sermon, then cooked supper, before settling down to watch another couple of episodes of 'Off Grid'. It's long drawn out, with lots of unexpected turns in the plot and the fate of its characters, the portrayal of an ideal middle class family in deep trouble, with all having to cope with life changing identity loss is quite insightful.

Bill shock

More rain overnight but it had stopped by daybreak. I awoke at seven fifteen and posted today's Morning Prayer YouTube link to WhatsApp, then fell asleep again with the radio on after 'Thought for the Day' for another three quarters of an hour. I certainly needed the sleep. The after effects of the vaccine seem to have worn off now thankfully. Unusually, Clare woke up after me. I had breakfast on the table by the time she appeared. It's usually the other way round.

I walked to Tesco's for the weekly food-bank donation and then St John's for the Eucharist along with five others and Fr Colin. With Puddled roads and pavements, with drains blocked by uncleared leaves making it so much longer for the rain to empty away, it's hard to avoid getting wet feet from pavement puddles and wet trouser legs from cars passing faster than they should. Keeping the streets clean and safe seems to be no longer a concern for Cardiff Council.

A bank statement arrived just before I returned from church with a TalkTalk debit double the usual size, just a month after I reduced the bill by dispensing with unused paid extras, no longer strictly necessary with wi-fi calling and WhatsApp to reduce the monthly outlay of over fifty quid for phone and broadband. We now have to pay for outgoing landline calls, and whatever the tariff, it ends up expensive, as we've become so used to talking for up to an hour without thinking about what it cost since a fixed subscription covers all calls. A couple of years hence, our copper landline will be phased out anyway, so might as well get used to using the wi-fi calling set up now. I admit I forgot a few times initially, but most of the landline calls Clare made, as she'd not properly understood that she could use this with her mobile at home, instead of using the 4G network. My fault, I should have explained more clearly.

Clare cooked lunch, and while I reviewed yesterday's performance of 'Branwen:Dadeni' on my blog after identifying the cause for the phone bill price hike. After lunch an email arrived from Fr Colin with info about an Advent quiet day in Llangasty Retreat House to publicise. I converted the text into jpeg format in Open Office to include in Sway. After lunch, I finished my twelfth Mailchimp Sway link distribution and got it right first time. Pleased that I'd got the job done hassle free for a change.

It was pouring down by the time I was ready to go out for a walk. I had to put on my heavy rain gear to go out, and by the time I opened the door about four thirty, the rain had stopped, and didn't return until I was near home, an hour and a half later. The cloud was so low, it was semi-dark an hour before sunset. I went to Aldi's, and bought Clare a bottle of brandy, and a couple of bargain bottles of wine for myself to last me a week. The water level in the Taff is still up to the top of the fish ladder, but no higher, about meter below the top of the river bank each time I've passed by this week. We've not yet seen the volume of rainfall that caused the river to overflow on to the footpath, in January this year, back on 16th February 2020, when Pontcanna fields were flooded and much worse things happened higher upriver in Ponty and Taffs Well. 

Remedial river bank clearance work followed later in the spring. I wonder if additional work has been done on clearing riverbed stones this year, as water flowing over the weir doesn't shoot up into a foamy wave now impeding downriver flow as it used to. I spend the equivalent of half a day each week out in the park, and take an interest in any environmental changes that might overwhelm flood defences in times of a catastrophic weather event, even though we live nearly a mile away from the river. One thing I have noticed this year is that the pool just below the weir is frequented more often by Cormorants fishing for the elvers that hatch there. Some as yet unobserved change has improved breeding conditions. 

I wrote for an hour before supper after my shopping trip in the dark, and wrote more in the evening as well. Before turning in for the night, I watched the sixth and final episode of 'Payback' on ITVX catch-up in which the evil perpetrators got their comeuppance, and the surviving victim and her kids got to start a new life in a new place where they couldn't be found. A complex tale of crime and money laundering and the extraordinary lengths to which criminal financial experts will go to hide conversion of ill-gotten gains and invest in legitimate businesses and property, somewhat hard to follow on times, but worth watching.

Installation Day

When the doorbell rang at eight thirty, I wasn't long out of bed and Clare hadn't yet surfaced. The engineer from OpenReach had come to install our new fast fibre broadband. I sped downstairs to acknowledge his arrival and ask a few questions. Most importantly, the location of the new fibre optic network socket.

I was bemused to learn that the existing hole in the wall drilled by NTLWorld at the turn of the century for their first generation fibre-optic cable installation couldn't be used by another service provider, obliging OpenReach to drill their own. I've never imagined a defunct cable network provider owning a hole in our wall!

Anyway the fibre optic broadband line came in from the same pole in the street as the landline - set to be abandoned for no good reason in two years time in favour of an all digital system that doesn't work if there's a power outage. The broadband line is strapped with cable ties to the back of the drainpipe - fine as long as we don't have a drainpipe disaster! A hole was drilled through into the corner of the front room just above the abandoned NTLWorld socket to accomodate the new fibre optic line. 

A new improved router attaches to the fibre optic socket and all works just fine. The only flaws in the grand scheme of things are 1) the distance from the nearest electrical socket and 2) a standard two metre network cable, which isn't long enough to reach the wall socket for attaching to a powerline adaptor, essential for equal internet access around the house in places not reachable by wi-fi. Domestic power extensions needed juggling with to get everything neat and tidy. 

I walked over to Wilson's Electrical Wholesaler's store the other end of the parish and bought a five metre network cable to use for £3.20. All works perfectly, and we have a download speed of 75mbps and upload of 20mbps. This will make a real difference to uploading pictures, as well as having a dozen devices at a time attached to our router. Best of all, it'll cost us less, for the next 18 months at least, but worthwhile in any case to have high quality connectivity.

I had a call from Pidgeon's about a funeral in early January, the first I've done that I can recall since being in Cardiff of Social Services making the arrangements as the man and his next of kin couldn't afford to pay - what used to be referred to when I was young as 'a funeral on the rates' rather than a pauper's funeral. I recall doing several when I was in St Paul's Bristol forty years ago, when there were no next of kin and the deceased was old and poor. Sometimes there would only be me and the funeral director out of respect there in attendance, but we still gave the person a full service.  

After lunch, I drove to Llandough Hospital for an ultrasound scan. I arrived on time and within fifteen minutes I was on my way back to the car, and free to call in to Lidl's for some wine on my way home. No change in the 400mm gallstone, and the gall bladder shows no sign of inflammation. It functions but at a low level of efficiency, as it can never produce enough bile to deal with dairy fats. It would be better to have the gall bladder extracted, in case some random or accidental factor caused it to go out of control. As it's not critical, I suspect there'll be a long queue, but there's no harm in getting my name on the list.

By the time I got back, it was dark, which meant that I had to walk for an hour in the dark before supper. Preparation for the scan meant I had to fast for six hours, but I waited until after my walk to eat what had been cooked for lunch by Clare - it was most welcome indeed. I didn't have much to do in the evening and ended up sleeping in the chair in front of the telly although I had no reason to feel extra tired.

Pentecost fruit

Up bright and early, getting on with video processing and uploading to Google Drive. I don't know why, but several uploads failed, and they weren't big files. The network connection went down, and I had to restart the router and everything attached to it to restore functionality. The same happened last night, while we were watching Montalbano on iPlayer. The Talk Talk Freeview box,called YouView just crashed. It's the second time recently. Diagnosing this lost us time and was in part the reason why we went to bed quite so late. Is it a random hardware glitch, or a mini dropout on the part of the server, or a power spike, I wonder? Not sure I know how to diagnose this. One more time and I'll get TalkTalk on the case, as it could be the router needs replacement. 

Anyway, the uploading job was done by quarter to ten, and I was able to go off to St Catherine's to celebrate the Pentecost Parish Eucharist without unfinished business. There were forty five adults and fifteen children in church. The atmosphere was rather subdued and unenthusiastic for such a great feast, despite giving it my best efforts. I was quite tired by the time we got home afterwards and siesta'd for over two hours before going for a walk around Pontcanna Fields. A couple of late nights and early starts really has an impact on how I feel and wound comfort, strange to say. We are indeed 'fearfully and wonderfully made'.

Disappointingly, Clare picked only a handful of black currants from our garden bush, which as new and a bit more fruitful last year. We get loads of bees pollinating so why this has happened is not at all obvious. Maybe it lost flowers when vulnerable to cold and wind? Maybe it was lack of nutrients in the soil? Who knows? She cooked the new with an apple to make a mini pie filling or a pudding on its own. Will Kath's blackcurrent bush in Kenilworth will be fruitful enough to make a few pots of jam from this year as previously, I wonder? None of them up there like blackcurrant jam, but fruit from the bush Kath turns into excellent jam, and keeps as a special gift for Dad. What a kind and lovely daughter!

  

Connectivity restored

As she was leaving for school this morning, Clare saw a big builder's lorry at work removing a dump of rubble from the street a few doors down. It's been there for over a month, doubling in size, taking up nearly three parking bays this past week. A major remodelling of the back of a house has been going on during this time, with the sound of hammering penetrating two sets of walls to reach us, six days a week. No builder's skip was used, and the height of rubble reached over five feet in places, posing a safety risk as well as parking 'claim jumping'.

Was it being done with official permission I wondered and enquired of our local councillors, who weren't exactly forthcoming about it. It was a relief to see the back of this - all those loose bricks and pieces of rubble, so easily accessible, would be so easy for a mischief maker to make trouble with, or some kid to treat as a little adventure playground when no adults are watching. Not all who building workers are quite as considerate or safety aware as they should be for the common good.

Finally, at ten thirty this morning, third time lucky, a visit from an OpenReach telephone engineer to sort out our connectivity problem, 22 year old Liam from Ammanford, four years on the job since leaving school, and only recently moved up to work in Cardiff. 

He needed no elaborate diagnostic devices to start with, he'd spotted the problem by the time he got to the front door. The line running from the pole in the street into the house dates back to 1961, and has deteriorated with the passage of time. It wasn't changed, when the switch was made from old style wooden poles which had to be climbed, to hollow easy to manage metal poles. Overhead lines running to individual houses are now accessed through a small ground level hatch in the pole which connects each to an underground cable linked to the area digital relay cabinet. I haven't seen anyone work on this kind of equipment before so I watched with interest from porch, in the rain. Once a new line had been run into the house, a series of electronic line tests were run, and our broadband is now running at 16mbs down, 9mbs up.

I queried why the speed dropped to less than a tenth of what it should be. Liam explained that if an auto-diagnostic process reveals that if the signal to noise quality of a line drops, or connectivity is intermittent for some other reason, a cut out mechanism operates to forestall a potentially damaging power surge. Our line quality has been poor for quite a while, but gone un-noticed until I ran a few online speed tests. What I thought was the just due to our computers slowing down under Windows 10's excessive and un-necessary recourse to internet resources, and unable to handle two devices updating or uploading at the same time was mainly a line problem. Windows doesn't now run much faster, perhaps a little smoother. From boot to working document page is still 2-3 minutes. Anyway, it's such a relief to have this problem sorted at last.

I cooked lunch for Clare, returning home after teaching a morning session, and before returning to school for a staff meeting, then I went for a four mile walk as the light was fading fast. I collided with a small traffic bollard obscured by deep shadow, placed right on the footpath I was taking at the edge of Llandaff Fields to prevent cars being parked on the path and grazed my shin. ThankfulIy, I didn't fall, but I was reminded of the collision with a buttress I had in the dark on the footpath at Territet a year ago. I guess I'm still in denial about being less able to see as well in low light as I used to, and still don't carry a torch. But I am starting to use a smartphone flashlight if I'm less than confident of ever familiar routes, once it's dark. Feeling my age, damn it!

  

  

On the case

I stayed in all morning, awaiting the arrival of the promised Open Reach telecoms engineer but once more nobody came. I reported this to TalkTalk, and eventually was given another appointment, this  Thursday. When I was out walking, later in the day, I saw a team of six Open Reach workers at the corner of Rectory and Romilly roads, about 150 metres from the main telecoms cabinet for our sector. One was digging a hole and five were watching. I told TalkTalk about this, but they didn't seem to get the real-life joke, and responding by stating that the infrastructure work had no impact on my connectivity failure - as if I didn't know. It's got to be the line outside our property which is behaving badly, as all else has been eliminated, except being unable to log into the router software. 

I took an afternoon appointment with Dr Benjamin the third doctor in our GP practice team whom I haven't seen for a few years. I thought it might be good to have a physical examination by a male doctor for a change. He had a letter on his desk from the UHW surgical team responding to a GP letter on my behalf seeking to prioritise surgery. It explained what I already knew about the delay in processing scan results. But it shows the GP team are on my case. Indeed, he promised to write again, saying my affliction was slowly worsening. 

Last weekend's swab test results confirmed the presence of a low level infection, and he gave me a week's course of a different antibiotic, which I believe may be designed to tackle what sister in law Ann describes as 'deep tissue infection' which may not show up in blood tests until it breaks out of its confinement. As my blood pressure has gone up somewhat worryingly of late, symptomatic of the immune system doing battle as much as additional stress from the discomfort and uncertainty, he also doubled the dose of the newest hypertension medication add-on I've been given. I could be far worse, if I wasn't fit and active and not confined to bed, so I must be grateful, as well a patient, and feel confident others are working on my behalf.

All talk, nothing doing again

I went to St Luke's by bus and on foot to celebrate Mass this morning, but nobody showed up. I said morning prayer and then returned home. We went to the Parish Christmas Fair in St Catherines Hall after lunch. The place was very busy with cakes and other goodies on sale, second hand books and records, and lots of parishioners working hard and apparently enjoying themselves in this congenial atmosphere. I found and bought the Bob Marley CD 'Natural Mystic' on the second hand books and records stall. The songs I remember well from the streets during our time in St Paul's Parish Bristol, though I didn't buy the album. Clare objects when I play music too loud, so I have to wait until she's out to enjoy the benefit of reggae from my hi-fi. Even my ears can't take it quite so loud these days, as in younger days.

After late evening Direct Message to Talktalk last night, complaining about the engineer no-show, another booking slot was agreed for next Monday afternoon with only a vague explanation being offered for yesterday.  Yet another unresolved concern to have to wait patiently to get dealt with.

I had another lengthy Direct Messaging conversation about the router password not working. I still couldn't get a straight answer about any possible change in Talktalk router security policy. I posed the question of whether the lockout could be due to the device being maliciously hacked, and this was dismissed as unlikely, despite us being the target of so many scam calls purporting to come from Talktalk in the time since their big data hacking theft two years ago. The perpetrators were in the news this week as they received prison sentences for their crime. But the damage it caused still rolls out, nevertheless. The only half explanation for router inaccessibility offered was that it was due to the, as yet undiagnosed line fault, a somewhat lame idea in my opinion.

As I was experiencing an unusually high level of swelling and discomfort. My blood pressure was consistently much higher than usual, using a new sphygmometer I bought earlier this week, despite it having been satisfactorily lower than usual when I finished the course of antibiotics I was taking until Thursday last. This bothered me, so I called NHS direct, and had a long conversation in which I explained my recent medical journey and reason for present concerns. This was followed up an hour later with another conversation with a 'nurse consultant' in which I imparted the same information and received no practical advice in return, apart from "Call us if it gets worse, or else 999." That's another couple of unrewarding hours of my life I won't get back. Tough it out until Monday, then go and see my GP. The alternative would be hours and maybe tests in a crowded A&E department with a further risk of no outcome and more wasted time.

The last episode of 'Beck' on BBC Four this evening, an all too short series this time, sad to say.

More broadband blues

Yesterday lunchtime I officiated at the funeral at Thornhill crematorium of an 'ancient mariner', a man in his late eighties whose working life had been spent working on board ship, including his war years. His coffin was bedecked with the flag of the Merchant Marine, which was pleasing to see.

Over recent months our domestic broadband speed seems to have deteriorated significantly. It's most noticeable when Windows is updating or I'm uploading photos, which renders other networked attached devices almost unusable, as they're so slow. Running speed tests on Chromebook Windows and Linux devices, shows 1.4mbs download, and 0.7mbs upload speeds with an average seek time of 21-22mbs, occasionally much less. Is it a router fault, an incoming line problem or what? There are also times when the internet goes down altogether for 20 minutes, several times a week. A service which isn't as good as it used to be, and less than I pay for.

In addition, a while ago I tried attaching a storage device via USB and then a network port to the router, but couldn't see it on my computer network. I wondered why the router failed to recognise and attach the device, so tried accessing the router's software to check this detail, but the admin password printed on the router's label wouldn't let me in. I concluded this was a change in Talktalk policy to secure domestic devices, and gave up trying. Now, I'm starting to have doubts. 

This morning, I tweeted a complaint about speed to Talktalk, on by Blackbetter, form the attic, the only place where a reliable signal can be obtained direct from the mast, not from our internal phone signal via router device. It led to a diagnostic conversation via Direct Messaging, without resulting any improvement. I asked about password lockout but got no answer. An afternoon visit from an Open Reach line engineer was booked, but nobody showed up. Maybe an engineer overwhelmed by unresolved Friday calls on his services?

Market pictures

Yesterday morning, after a brisk walk in the chill air to the bank to get out some money, I walked to an appointment with chiropractor Clive. Since starting to take the antibiotics, I find I have more of a spring in my step, and enjoyed the exercise. The session, working on my back and neck was good too, and I got home feeling refreshed. While I was out I bought a second solid state hard drive to fit in one of my laptops and install Linux Mint. The six year old laptop I fitted a SDD with Linux for Clare works a treat with power on to an open Libre Office document ready to use in half a minute.  On a good day Windows 10 accomplishes this in 3-4 minutes, if not longer. quickly    

Later in the afternoon I went into town, to take photos of the Christmas tree outside the castle, the illuminations and outdoor craft market stalls. It all looks very bright and jolly at this time of year. So pleasing to see a tall Norwegian fir tree bedecked just with white lights. Natural simplicity works. St John's Church on the Working Street side is hemmed in by German style bars and fast food stalls, it may look like fun but the cooking smells in the air are far from pleasant or evocative of a traditional British winter evening outdoors. 

Still, tourists and shoppers come and go in good numbers. I hope the trade stallholders do justifies their attendance. Some, I recall from previous times, come for a week and then visit other regional Christmas markets. I guess business tails off after initial interest, or maybe it's a matter of affording the stall rent for a long enough time to cover costs and earn something in addition. I think I am too risk averse to ever have made a living like that. Mobile market traders have my admiration!

I attended the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning and went back into town in the afternoon to take more photos. My sister June reminded me that I'd promised some photos of the indoor market which I took with great pleasure. It's ten to fifteen years since I last did this and I have photographed several different covered markets in Spain with great interest over the past five years. This time I applied myself to the task with the same energy as I would if I was visiting an unfamiliar market to take pictures. It made me aware of just how much more colourful Cardiff market is and how almost all the stalls are occupied nowadays, compared to fifteen years ago. Someone must be putting an effort into promoting trading opportunities there, and about time too. My two days worth of photos can be found here. 

Our broadband speed has started to fluctuate and has dropped from around 1.8mbs down and 0.9mbs up down as low as 1.2mbs down and 0.6mbs up. When one device is uploading photos or doing a Windows update, other network attached devices become almost unusuable. It was impossible to see what might be causing this, as there's been no physical changes in the set up since installation, some two years ago. I contacted TalkTalk via Twitter and Direct Messaging (which I found clumsy and repetitive to use when the line dropped out. Their engineers ran some line tests and router diagnostics, but in the end I had to agree to a house visit. Something is seriously wrong, but what?

The new regime of pills requires that I take them at least two hours after eating and an hour before another meal. Doing this conscientiously has proved a little difficult given the variability of each day, and the meeting challenge of getting out of the habit of nibbling nuts or fruit in between meals if I feel hungry, as I often do. As a result of changes in diet over the past year and reduction in size of portions, I have a healthy appetite and good digestion. I'm grateful for that, when I think that some people my age don't have such pleasurable good fortune. 

I still have a couple of medical issues to sort out, however. Today I rang the colorectal surgical team administrator, and learned that there was a delay in processing MRI scan results, so there was no news about the operation I await. It seems the radiologist examines and interprets the scans in order to brief the surgical team, who then establish their treatment plan and arrange an appointment. Four to six weeks wait time, it seems at the moment. Not what I hoped to hear. Being a patient means having to be patient and wait to be treated and to effect a recovery. There's just no alternative.