Vienna therapy for New Year's Day

Inevitably I got to bed late. The fireworks didn't persist for long. Another wet night, and it rained for much of the day. I worked on the next Sway edition and sent out the liturgical readings during the morning, and Clare cooked a curry for lunch. 

Afterwards I edited the document I've been working on about MAC finance in the present economic crisisand sent it to Iona. I'm not sure it will be of any use as it has no new ideas, but rather spells out as clearly as I can put it the folorn consequences we are facing. 

Canton ministry rotas for the next two months arrived by email from Sue. I'm not doing as much and have a number of Sunday free, which would make it possible to go away for longer than a week, if I can decide what to do and where to go.

Photos arrived on Instagram from Kath in Singapore, and from Rachel in a remote valley somewhere in Arizona. An incredible contrast between the brightly lit urban canyons of a high rise South East Asian city of 5.5 million in festive array, and a sparsely inhabited nature reserve in the back of beyond, as seen through the eyes of our two travelling daughters.

I ventured into the rain and walked under my umbrella in the park for about an hour before sunset. Shoes and trouser legs were soaked by the time I returned. Day after day of low cloud and rain is daunting when it comes to the same old routine with no prospect of travel on the horizon for the moment.

The movie of My Fair Lady was on at tea time, and I joined Clare to watch part of it. The technicolour cinemascope movie still looks great on a modernish telly. The dialogue is beautifully clear and stagey, unlike that of many contemporary movies now that mumbling without subtitles is fashionable. The singing was mimed I think, but the choreography throughout was superb. Not sure about the plot.

After supper the crowning glory of any New Year's Day for me, the Concert by Vienna's Philharmonic Orchestra, with traditional favourites but also introductions to their repertoire as a result of discoveries made in archives of 19th century music. I'll never forget how important these Viennese concerts were for lifting the spirits in emerging from covid lock-down.

By the time it finished, rain had stopped, with the promise of a few hours respite in the forecast, with three flood warnings and one for high winds issued at different times today for all low lying areas of South Wales. I walked for three quarters of an hour through empty streets, avoiding the park where the gusts of strong wind are readily felt. Amazingly it's twelve degrees tonight, four degrees higher than the historical average high end of the winter temperature range, with more wind and rain tomorrow all day.

The death toll in Gaza as risen to 2,200, and the Israeli campaign against Hamas is likely to be prolonged over several months more. 150 aid trucks allowed in per day is a fraction of what the urgency of need is to deal with 1.8 million displaced homeless people. All this with the war in Ukraine killing hundreds of thousands combatants on both sides. I can't help feeling disheartened, helpless and distressed by this contradiction of the spirit of Christmas good will with so many innocent people suffering on such a scale. We need to be fighting climate change not each other.

Viennese New Year

A bright blue sky greeted me when I got up this morning. On my drive across town to celebrate Mass at St German's I was delighted to find the New Year's Day concert from Vienna being broadcast live. Such a cheery start to the day. We were two dozen of us celebrating the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, and in honour of the 250 anniversary of the first occasion when John Newton's anthemic hymn 'Amazing Grace', we sang it just after I preached, mentioning it in conclusion. 

An unscheduled hymn was slipped in at the last moment at my request, having climbed up the long narrow staircase to the organ loft to ask Brian the organist if we could do this. As the readings were shorter than usual, the extra hymn didn't lengthen the service which normally lasts about one hour and fifteen minutes. As I left church and drove home for lunch, the Vienna concert was just coming to its conclusion with the traditional Radetzky March, accompanied by audience hand clapping led by the conductor. A great start to New Year's Day.

By the time we'd finished lunch and I'd had a short snooze, the sky had clouded over. I set out for a good long walk in the park, and slowly it began raining,, building up the further away from home I was. A wind blew in from the west making it fell much colder than the actual twelve degrees. With trees now stripped of leaves there was nowhere to shelter, so my feet and legs got soaked. In the end I gave up and headed for home in a moment when the rain eased off, feeling very frustrated and annoyed with myself for failing to check the weather before leaving.

After supper we watched a programme on BBC Wales in which Welsh presenter Huw Edwards reviewed the development of the movement for Welsh independence over the past thirty years, following its rather cranky start in the sixties with the short lived Free Wales Army creating a media fuss, while real action in the shape of the Gymdeithas yr Iaith's success in political campaigning for Welsh language equality led to equal status for Welsh and English in government communications and bilingual road signs, and then the establishment of the Welsh Assembly government in 1999. 

It took a while for it to develop and legislate on a range of issues relevant to Welsh life in education, health, agriculture and social issues but its credibility gained impressively in the way devolved health policy dealt with the covid pandemic, steering the course differently from the Westminster government, and to good effect. Through practical measures a strong case has been made for greater autonomy. The notion of complete independence is to my mind wishful thinking, but moving closer toward a national self governing federation with common foreign policy, law enforcement and state security seems reasonable to discuss if not aim for in future. Many young people seem to feel positive about such a change, although I doubt if many realise how complex further steps towards that measure of devolution would be, especially when it comes to economic affairs, give that so much of Wales's capital wealth has been expatriated over past centuries. Let's see first how far Scotland's independence movement in achieving its aims.

After this thought provoking programme, back to Vienna for a repeat of this morning's broadcast concert on telly and radio. Two hours of delightful music with some beautiful ballet performances to concert music shot on location, and an appearance by the thirty strong Vienna boys choir augmented by ten girls of the the Vienna girls choir, met by rapturous applause from the audience. I couldn't help wondering how the two hour live concert programme was broadcast with the midway interval of another twenty minutes omitted. Mention was made by Petroc Trelawney the Radio Three presenter of there being a shorter first half. I guess the first half was recorded, then played back with a delay of twenty minutes to fit nicely with start of the second half, broadcast completely live. Often during concert intervals there are interviews with performers. It may have happened for the Austrian broadcast audience, but either to expensive to arrange or demanding on the programming schedule to be worth bothering with.

After the recorded version finished at ten, I went for a walk around the park as the rain had stopped and I needed fresh air. Lovely music echoed in my mind as I walked. A great way to pass the first day of a new year, despite the rain.

Covid sabotages reunion

We had a message from John, Jasmine's dad last night, to say they'd all got covid after a family wedding last week. When I saw photos of the wedding party my first thought was of a potential disaster waiting to happen. If Jasmine doesn't test negative midweek, she may not visit us as planned. If she did come anyway. I'd need to avoid seeing her, as I can't risk covid stopping me from travelling. It's going to be risky enough getting on a 'plane knowing that on average half a dozen people flying will have covid whether they know it or not. I'll need to be very careful en route to be fit for work when I arrive. If I do arrive that is, given current flight cancellations and delays. Had I seen this coming before booking, I would have preferred to pay extra to travel all the way by train, even if it does take twenty hours, and cost double the price of a flight.

Yesterday, I bought a new clock radio and CD player for Clare. It was proving frustratingly difficult for her to follow the setup instructions and get the thing to work properly. After breakfast I had a go at the job, and fiddled about with the controls to try and figure out what each did. A bit hit and miss, but I managed to get a few key DAB stations to work, but it's doing to be an uphill struggle to get the FM stations tuned in as well. The system has twenty pre-set buttons but with no clear indication of how to add or delete pre-set stations. How ridiculous to make quite an expensive domestic item so user unfriendly.

It was raining when we both set out for church, so I gave Clare a life to St Catherine's and then went on to St German's. There were only two dozen of us this morning. The holiday season is upon us. We kept the feast of St Thomas the Apostle, and as the readings with quite short and my sermon wasn't too long, I was back home for lunch by one.

After Clare's siesta we went for a walk through Llandaff Fields and along the Taff, where I saw an egret fishing again in much the same spot as I spotted one a fortnight ago. Later I caught a glimpse of a heron flying down river, a magnificent overview too brief to photograph. If you see them flying over you with  neck folded in and legs protruding beyond the tail, they look a bit odd, ungainly, but from above their four foot wingspan is a wonder of elegance to behold.

This evening I watched the Vienna Philharmonic's outdoor summer concert from Vienna's Schoenbrunn Palace. A magnificent affair, bringing to mind their 2020 summer concert, as European concert venues  just started to resume public performances. That was postponed until the end of September, and was a huge organisational challenge to arrange after months of rehearsals punctuated by covid testing. I found that event most moving, as a symbol of resilience in the world wide artistic community. And here we are nearly two years on, better protected after a succession of four vaccinations, but still capable of getting infected by one or other of the contagious omicron variants doing the rounds. Will it ever end?

I woke up this morning still thinking about last night's episode of Inspector Montalbano. I believe it was the one that started filming around the time that the pandemic broke out, and completion was subject to long delay. I thought this might account for the deserted outdoor scenes, but as I pondered upon it further it struck me that in many previous episodes few street scenes were populated with anyone other than the actors involved. I thought there may be different reasons for this. 

From a film producer's viewpoint, filming a populated street scene is expensive on crowd extras, road closures and security personnel. Scenes are often shot in daytime when it can be hot, and people stay indoors out of the sun, so an empty daytime street would be normal. Then there's the possibility that the producer choses to do this, because many ancient small towns and hill villages in Italy are depopulated by emigration, or contain holiday homes only periodically used. Empty properties have cropped up in story lines from time to time as well, so it's possible streets are empty most of the time, and the film portrays this. One way to inform the speculation would be to read all the novels, as they describe the setting of the fictional Vigata. I've only read one of the three dozen so far.

Viennese New Year, despite everything

After a late night, a frosty start to the New Year. The news is preoccupied with still rising covid infections and deaths, plus the challenges of vaccine distribution. We got up late and ate pancakes for breakfast, but didn't go out for a walk until after lunch. The park was busy with holidaymakers, unable to go elsewhere, as traveling to the beach at Penarth or Barry is banned for Cardiffians, being in a different local authority area.. The rules say that you must start and end your exercise period at home, and only travel within your local authority area by car if you have no alternative means to exercise.

Experts are alarmed to find that the new virus variant is far more contagious, spreading faster than other mutations. It's becoming more efficient at transmitting itself, so its impact is more more widespread at a faster pace. We can look forward to stricter lock-downs in an attempt to contain the spread until the vaccination campaign takes effect. Is the diligent observation of the existing precautions - 'hands, face, space' - all that's possible, all that's needed? 

There's no research published yet on whether mechanisms of virus transmission are being subverted to aid this virulent strain. apart from the inevitability of human carelessness and accident. It seems that more infected people without symptoms may be a factor. Does it stay alive longer on some surfaces than earlier versions did, or need stronger disinfectant action than was originally the case. There's no news on this yet. In my opinion, it's bound to be crucial, as is antisocial behaviour by people socialising irresponsibly

A wonderful New Year's Day treat this evening with a recording of the morning's Vienna Philharmonic orchestral concert, played for the first time ever in the Musikverein concert hall, emptied by pandemic restrictions. All the orchestra's musicians were covid tested daily during the rehearsal period and before the performance, and so seating arrangements for the 145 players didn't need to be socially distanced. I make a point of listening to any concert by the Vienna philharmonic. Their musical repertoire contains a great deal that has been familiar with me since childhood, as weekend orchestral concert broadcasts were something listened to in our house, even after we had a telly.

It was lovely to see looks of pleasure on the face of the conductor and musicians as they played under the direction of 79 year old Ricardo Mutti, who has been with the orchestra on occasions over the past fifty years. Playing in the absence of a live audience must have been tough, but there was a live internet audience of thousands by means of an interactive web-link which fed back their applause into the hall at the end of both halves of the concert. Bravo techies for making this happen with people from seventy countries all over the world watching and clapping, though sadly not during the traditional final encore, the Radetsky March. Music to console offered by those whose livelihoods and sense of vocation depend on it. A memorable expression of global solidarity. A great start to 2021.

Harvest festival weekend

Another rainy morning, enough to make me feel very grumpy arriving at St Catherine's for the Eucharist dripping wet. It was our parish Harvest Festival Celebration, with all the offerings being of foodstuffs that will be of use to the local food-bank. We were about four dozen, including over half a dozen children. A good number considering both the weather and the covid secure restriction, which still un-nerve some of the regulars. I was most touched afterwards to be offered by Hilary from this week's fresh produce for sale from the church garden a jar of crab apple jelly she made from the fruit of a tree planted there last year. The church tree is a little ahead of the ones we hope to harvest in the park, but there seem to be different varieties growing and coming to fruit at different times in different terrains. Marvellous!

By the time we had lunch, the rain had stopped, so I went straight out and walked up to Llandaff Weir via the Cathedral again. It gives me a chance to enter and offer a few prayers in the spot where I was ordained. With my cold almost gone, I feel I no longer need to self-isolate, just wear a mask in enclosed spaces as usual. From Tuesday, I'll have to be stricter, no visiting enclosed spaces, avoiding going near anyone when I'm out walking. It's not so difficult if you pick the right time of day, there's plenty of space in the parks most of the time. Trees are turning colour and shedding leaves day by day now, so each day I take photos of a select few, to record the changes. A small autumnal aesthetic pleasure.

We watched another three episodes of 'The Shtisels'. It's a series that really draws you in, as the characters are believable and you start caring about them and what happens in their lives. After supper we watched the Vienna Philharmonic concert recorded a few days ago in the Schoenbrunn Palace gardens in Vienna. Neither the orchestra nor the audience of several hundred were socially distanced, and only a handful of the audience wore masks. Pre-pandemic this concert would attract an audience of tens of thousands. The audience size limitation seems to have been the main concession to covid-19. I believe that there's a virus testing and tracing regime and other social policies which made the concert possible in this form. In some other European countries concerts and opera performances have resumed under controlled conditions. In a way, all these projects are experimental, an opportunity to find out what works safely and what doesn't. The UK hasn't yet been so bold, not surprisingly, given the difficulties the government has encountered in managing the crisis and retaining public confidence.