Maternal fiesta anticipated

Yesterday evening, after the central heating came on, we noticed that the stairs were unusually cold and with a draft of fresh air. We investigated and found that the south facing attic Velux window was wide open, with rain blowing in and one end of the bedroom carpet soaked through. The night before, the wind that buffeted the street could well have dislodged the catch of the window if it wasn't firmly closed as it should have been. 

So, the rain could have been coming in for forty eight hours, although I doubt this was actually the case, as we'd have felt the cold draft of air two days running. In fact we'd noticed the wind changed when we were outdoors. In the new direction, rain was driven directly into the room. What a mess! We wonder if there was enough rain to soak through into the bedroom ceiling below. Time will tell. 

Fortunately, we had a small electric radiator to help dry out the carpet, but now we have a blower heater as well, courtesy of Wales and West Utilities. We were given this to use last week when our gas supply was off all day and we didn't have to return it, as their covid safety protocols forbid this. Just imagine, if there are a dozen houses with gas supplies to change, that number of heaters is required to give away, adding how much? Another five hundred pounds to the cost of completing the job.

A good night's sleep, lie-in and pancake breakfast. Just after we'd finished, when Clare was in the garden hanging towels to dry, the doorbell unexpectedly rang. I was out of reach in the bathroom, and Clare had to run through the house to intercept the caller. It turned out to be a beautiful bright big bunch of flowers from the kids for 'Mothers Day' as they insist on calling it, despite having been raised to call tomorrow Mothering Sunday. How lovely of them to do this!

We went for a walk up to Llandaff weir and back in cold wind blowing clouds in, but bright sunshine nevertheless. Passing by the Cathedral, I think I got my first glimpse of the resident peregrine falcon taking off from the tower - not exactly a close view, hovering thirty metres overhead.

On my afternoon walk down to Blackweir, the playing fields were surprisingly empty and there weren't half as many people out walking as usual on a weekend. Then I remembered that Wales is playing Italy in the Six Nations Rugby Championship this afternoon. All normal activity is suspended when Wales is playing, whether they are in the Principality Stadium in the city centre or away. There may be few or no Welsh spectators present in Rome, so the digital pilgrimage has to make do instead. The score turned out to be 48-7 in favour of Wales. 

I've observed groups of anything up to a dozen youngsters together kicking a ball around or exercising together, and on one occasion, two full teams of youngsters playing rugby. Was this a permitted school practice game I wonder?

Today, the Welsh lock-down restrictions start to ease. Now it's possible for two people from a household to meet with two from another in a garden as well as away from home. We don't have to stay home apart from food shopping, medical visits or daily exercise, we can now travel up to five miles from home. On Monday we'll be able to get a haircut as well. I sure do need a haircut!

More travel journal transcription this afternoon. I've reached Orthodox Easter 1998 now. Clare took long phone calls from her girls, while cooking hot cross buns (without crosses on) glazed with orsnge blossom honey. We lost track of time andwere an hour and a half later than usual eating supper, due to early hot bun testing! Nothing much on telly, but it doesn't much matter when you have lots of other things to do. I think even boredom could be an interesting change in such circumstances.

Dydd gwyl Dewi Sant

My Dewi Sant video reflection uploaded and displayed as hoped for without hassle just after I wok up at eight today. June my sister rang at nine expressing delight and enthusiasm for an outdoor production of Puccini's 'Turandot' by Sydney Opera, live streamed on Sky Arts, starting at seven this morning. She set her alarm to get up early enough to watch it. This is one of series of brilliantly staged outdoor operas the company has staged this year apparently. I think the Aussies have weather on their side, plus plenty of wide open spaces.

The house gas supply is being switched off today to upgrade the piping from street to meter, Clare got up early and raised the thermostat to warm the house through as much as possible before shut down. It's overcast again today but mild, so the house will cool down slower than at night. The gas went off at ten and work was done first at the house gas meter end, then along the supply path. The gas supply was on again at two, pretty good going.

Interesting, a couple of days ago the new said that Ghana would be the first West African country to get a supply of vaccines. This morning's first day vaccination report was from the Ivory Coast. Then in the evening new the vaccination launch in Ghana was reported. It makes me wonder how much guesswork and how much co-ordination is going on in the news reporting editorial office. 

Trump has spoken publicly for the first time since leaving office, to a Republican convention, talking about a re-election bid in 2024. A golden image of him adorned the stage before he arrived in person. What do his biblical fundamentalist fans make of this I wonder? Some commentators reckon this self trumpeting behaviour will end up being counter-productive and drive moderate Republican support away to the Democrats. We'll see.

Before I went out for my walk of the day after lunch, I sat down for a while with my Olympus camera and started to explore the 'settings' dial. For the most part, I used the camera the lazy way, leaving the camera set to 'Auto'. When setting it up at the outset, I realised it had a complex set of menus. I found out in the 'Art' menu how to use a black and white photo pre-set but that was all. I was more interested in seeing how well it handled, how easy it was to use, and what sort of photos it gave, treating it like a simple point and shoot device. I felt it was time to get to know its settings better.

I turned its main top left dial to the SCN setting, and was surprised to discover a collection of sub menus that would suit portrait, landscape, night shots etc, but also some unexpected pre-sets, one is for 'macro' shots, very close up to small objects. Another pre-set was labelled 'wide angle'. This really surprised me. The all purpose short telephoto lens I mostly use isn't especially wide angled, but selecting the pre-set makes the field of view far wider. Likewise with the telephoto lens. And I'd been thinking that when the camera shops re-open my first purchase should be a wider angled lens! I've no idea how this works but the pre-set seems to change the aperture width, although there's no physical change to the lens. When I go looking for a new lens (most likely a long telephoto) I'll ask if anyone can explain this to me.

My walk took me up to Western Avenue and the down the west bank Taffside footpath, now dried out at last and no longer treacherous. I stopped to take a photo of the river, and while I was switching on, a Kingfisher emerged from the riverbank below me and flew upstream in full view at close quarters. It was too quick for me to raise and point my camera, but an ephemeral moment of delight. The last time I got a clear, if not so close look at a Kingfisher was in Corsica fourteen years ago. One day I'll get a photo!

Confirmation today of a funeral I was asked about before the weekend, and a request to do another. Both are next week, and I have one this week. It'll keep me busy. Glad to help out my colleagues too. There are still a lot of extra deaths, many of them pandemic related. I called the next of kin about this week's twice delayed funeral, and learned that not only was it a covid death, but that the care home in which it happened was closed down and is subject to police investigation of criminal neglect of residents. This help to explain the double delay. Covid has really exposed the inadequacies of social care for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable, accumulated over decades of under-investment and poor regulation. Sadly, much responsibility for this state of affairs stems from government policy. Reform is overdue. Will it happen as the country recovers from this pandemic, I wonder? 

Works in progress

Another day at zero degrees centigrade. I tracked down my long johns and wore them for possibly the first time in the ten years since we visited Rachel when she was living in Canada. It's also cold enough to wear the balaclava hood my sister bought for me last year. It fits nicely under the hood of my ski jacket, which now shows signs of its antiquity, bought in the early nineties. I think the padding has compacted, reducing its ability to insulate. It's a long time since we lived anywhere with a cold enough winter to call for an outdoor clothing upgrade.

When Clare returned from her early walk she said that a team of people were about to start work on Blackweir Bridge. When I walked down to the Taff later in the morning, work was in progress. The deck of the bridge was being taken up and each panel of stout mesh steel, two metres long, was being secured to the handrail above. Since last week's break-in through the barriers closing off the bridge to the public during the pandemic, a decision has been made to make a short-cut impossible by removing the deck. It's a sensible move under the circumstances, although, like thousands of others, I resent having to walk around instead of crossing over. A second temporary bridge with a one way system would have been preferable and not impossible. In other situations where bridges have been washed away by floods, Army engineers have erected temporary crossings. Why not here?

The Wales and West Utilities team replacing the street's gas main hit a problem this morning which meant the gas supply had to switched off for three hours while it was fixed. The house was quite warm and only slowly cooled to the point that the temperature difference was noticeable. Before reconnecting the supply an engineer came in and tested the gas flow to the meter with a special device before rebooting the boiler. He used a smartphone app linked (I think) to the house smart meter to check the supply. Unfortunately, he couldn't initially access the app and had to get the help of a colleague outside to make it work. It all works perfectly, except when it doesn't!

In daily pandemic news reports, it was disturbing to learn that six out of ten covid victims were disabled, very much a reflection of the unjust social and economic disadvantages they endured, and reflected in their general health condition. The UK's high covid related death rate, one of the world's highest, is also an indication of economic and environmental disparities that contribute to poor health. It's not just a matter of decades of NHS  under-funding, but people being made more vulnerable by their living conditions. Is this going to change any time soon I wonder? 

A month ago I was very annoyed by the criticism levelled at the Welsh government and NHS at what was perceived by BBC news and other media to be a slower roll-out of the covid vaccination programme. It now turned out that Wales has reached the target of vaccinating for the first time 20% of the population most at risk a few days ahead of the date set. The logistics of distribution and inoculation were thoughtfully worked out at the outset, even surviving a few days of setback due to snow closing some of the vaccination centres. Tonight's news now reports a planned reduction in first time injections to allow for re-stocking so that second injections and first timers can be continued in March. But will the newshounds apologise for unwarranted criticism of First Minister Mark Drakeford? He's done us proud.

A taste of Occitan

It's been another bitterly cold day, so much so that I donned an extra layer in the form of a thermal vest to fend off chilling me to the bone. Instead of one long walk, I ventured out three times for shorter periods, as I found the cold quite debilitating, perhaps because humidity level is higher. Still no sign of snow apart from a brief flurry at lunchtime.

On Monday, gas engineers from Wales and West Utilities dug a hole at the end of our street to access the junction between the trunk main and the branch that serves us. We were advised that there was water in the pumping. To our surprise yesterday, we were asked to move our car so that a hole could be dug in our usual parking spot. It seems the branch main can be accessed through at special joint just there. This morning a portable pumping engine appeared and set to run for several hours. I asked the guy minding the machine if it was sucking or blowing. He smiled and told me that it was sucking out and depositing in an attached tank a mixture of water and oily fluids, which at some time in the past had been injected into the pipe as part of a fault inspection process. Its potential toxicity would mean it couldn't be released into the sewer. Hence the tank.

I collected our organic veg bag before lunch. It had a generous supply of freshly picked brussels sprouts my favourite winter treat, not just for Christmas dinner! We cooked some frozen sprouts on Sunday and despite the care taken, the texture wasn't quite right. The ones we get from Coed Organics started the day in a frosty field west of Cardiff and were picked for delivery. Perfect! A treat to look forward to.

Despite differences of opinion between certain vaccinologists about the age range in which the Oxford/AZ is to be recommended, the W.H.O. has today declared that it's good for use with adults of all ages, with all covid19 variants known so far. It's not the perfect remedy but the best of all possibilities at the moment. It takes into account ease of manufacture, storage, transport globally and production cost. These factors are as important to take into account as vaccine efficacy given the urgency of inoculating the maximum number of people around the world to stop the pandemic.

This evening we watched a delightful programme of Rick Stein's about French Catalan cuisine in Languedoc. It has it's own special character given its proximity to the Spanish border, the other side of which is the region of Catalunya. In fact people in that region use Catalan as well as French and Occitane, the ancient regional tongue. Catalan is said to resemble mediaeval French, probably true also of la Langue d'Oc. They're all deeply interconnected.

One summer back in Geneva days in the nineties, we spent a couple of weeks staying in a cottage owned by a CERN scientist in the country near Gaillac and Albi. We took our bicycles with us strapped to the back of the car and rode around on quiet country byways. A lovely experience. It was a rare occasion when I forgot to take a camera with me, so we have only happy but fading memories. Gaillac wines were not widely known and still seldom found in UK supermarkets, but I remember them with pleasure. I must look among my journals to see if I wrote about the trip at the time.