Harvest anniversaries

I had a surprisingly good night's sleep, getting up to empty my bladder fewer times than has been habitual. I wonder if it means my body has eliminated the toxic traces of the medication that irritated my digestive system for such a long time? I certainly felt clear headed with more energy when we set out for church.

Harvest Festival at St Catherine's this morning with a portion of the Harvest altar 'shewbread' (as Charlie Smith used to call it, back in St Paul's days) consecrated for Communion. After the service, a festive glass of bubbly and piece of cake was offered in the church hall to celebrate three golden wedding anniversaries taking place among church congregation members this autumn. I came home carrying a bag of tomatoes and runner beans from the church garden. Clare bought a jar of chutney as well.

We had swordfish steaks for lunch with spinach spuds and carrots. I felt sleepy and light headed after we'd eaten for no apparent reason and dozed for an hour before going out for a walk in Llandaff Fields. It's been overcast all day with a cold wind from the west. I wouldn't be surprised to see most of the leaves turn colour in the next few days instead of just the few that have turned brown or gold and dropped already. Some leaves still hanging are dark green, tinged with brown, scorched by the summer's fierce heat. Photos I take don't really do justice to the rich variety of colour the eye can see.

Yemen's Saudi backed government is counter attacking Iran backed Houthi militia which have seized control of the country's coastline and control access to the Red Sea waterway. The Houtis have also hit and damaged a Saudi oil refinery in Riyad. Iran is attacking marine traffic through the Straight of Hormuz and will only negotiate with America on terms agreed in June's Memorandum of Understanding. Both Trump and the war are increasingly unpopular in the United States. Lack of progress towards peace and the cost to the economy will influence the outcome of the mid-term elections and control of the Senate. No amount of cheer leading from Trump and his associates can make up for their failure to end the war they started. Middle Eastern countries have been hit hard by the escalation of the conflict because of their alliance with the United States. The relationship between Gulf States and America may change significantly as a result.

After supper I watched the latest episode of 'Winter'. I have to wait until Wednesday for the next. That's enough watching for today anyway.

The shadow of inflation

I had quite a good night's sleep. When I got up at nine Clare had been up for an hour unheard and cooking Saturday pancakes for breakfast. I spent the morning writing and reading my news feed. 

American public support for the war against Iran has dropped to 31%, 83% of Americans believe it will drag on for an extended period.G7 nations have agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel from reserves to counter regional oil price shocks. Diesel is £2 a litre in Britain today. The rising cost of transport is going to add to the spiral of inflation, especially the cost of food. It will pressurise the haulage industry to switch to electric powered trucks. The huge cost of investing in new vehicles must happen this decade under the policy of eliminating fossil fuels, but it isn't going to happen quickly. There's a fuel crisis right now. The increased cost of transport reduces the amount of investment available that must be made for the conversion to electric haulage.

Oil is still passing through the Straight of Hormuz defended by American military escort from attacks of increasing intensity, but also by overland pipe line to tankers in the Red Sea. Houthi militias have control of the Yemeni coastline and Bab al Mandab, making maritime oil traffic vulnerable from every angle. Consequently the price of oil is not falling despite attempts to instil confidence in the continuity of supply. The rising cost of living in America and Europe and the cost of waging war are a cause of political anxiety and could lead to social unrest. Will forthcoming elections in Israel and America deliver a damning verdict against warmongering leadership?

We're having second thoughts about a week's holiday in Oxwich Bay, as the journey there is more lengthy and complex taking the train to Gowerton, then an infrequent bus to Killay, and another bus to Oxwich Bay. A taxi from the train station would cost £25-30 each way. It was so easy when we had a car! Where else we can have a holiday using public transport instead of Oxwich is something we need to decide.

We walked up and down Llandaff Fields together after lunch for an hour then returned home for tea. Later I went out again on my own, feeling the need to expend more energy, appreciating the benefit of being clear headed and enjoying autumnal sunshine.

After supper, a couple of episodes of 'Winter' to finish the day.

Better news

Another night when I didn't sleep as well or as long as I hoped for. Perhaps it's just nervousness before I go to UHW for my cardio appointment. I still needed to check with Santander bank that all is in order with my saving account now that the transaction network system is behaving normally again, so I repeated the trip made yesterday. There are no concerns about my account. It turns out the error message encountered yesterday registered as a duplicate of the one I attempted to make, which is not allowed in the transaction protocol. I saw no evidence the on-line transaction had gone through as the account page hadn't updated due to the network outage. The bank clerk confirmed that it was now displaying correctly. All is as it's meant to be. I sent a message to Owain, now over in Geneva, mentioning the slow updating. He too had been in contact with Santander and told it would take a couple of days to update the display of pending transactions.What a mess!

Then I went to the bus station for a bus to UHW and found a number seven was scheduled to go directly to the Heath up North Road. This journey took me only twenty minutes. It meant I arrived an hour earlier than I needed to be there for the appointment. I bought myself some sausage roll and kefir drink for lunch and whiled away the time updating my blog. At least I was punctual arriving. A half hour waiting to have my weight, blood pressure and temperature checked, and an EEG taken. 

Then, an hour waiting to see Dr O'Neill. He was aware of the fact that I'd stopped the dipyridamole medication, and satisfied in view of the general improvement in my condition that my sensitivity to it was reason enough to continue without it. The fact that I'm physically active with good stamina led him to consider there's no need for me to be fitted with a pacemaker. He's booked me in for an echo cardiogram in a couple of weeks time. I came away feeling light hearted and most grateful. Nothing to worry about. It was sunny too.

A crowd of people were waiting at the bus stop when I arrived. Then two number nine buses appeared at the same time, followed by a number seven, which took me as far as the Blackweir Tavern. I walked from there the rest of the way home across Blackweir and Pontcanna Fields, completing my step count for the day as I reached home.

After supper I found a new crimmie to watch on ITVX. 'Winter' is the name of a pathologist with a keen eye for detail, involved with police investigations into violent crimes. He has a tragic unresolved history as his own wife was murdered and the flawed criminal investigation into it left him unsatisfied, looking for answers. The series caught my eye as it's set in Clifton Bristol, where we spent our undergraduate years. 

Outage

 I didn't have the good night's sleep I needed to face a lunchtime hospital appointment. Santander notified me of a fixed term high interest savings account account transfer I needed to make, so I went to my online account after breakfast to deal with this and encountered an error message that made no sense. I asked the Sandi bot the reason and was logged out of my account. Nothing I could do would let me back in. The site froze on me. 

I went to the bank branch in town on  my way to UHW and discovered their network was down. On line news and comment revealed this is not the first time recently. Satisfied that it was not a mistake I made, or a malicious attack, I took a 110 bus UHW. It took an hour and ten minutes to get there, touring West Cardiff suburbs. Each time it stopped, the idling engine rattled the bus so strongly it was like sitting next to a pneumatic drill working flat out. 

I bought a snack lunch and waited an hour for the appointment, only to find I had come a day early - a diary error. I didn't think I could cope with another draining bus ride so I walked home.

 

We had supper early than took a taxi to the Millennium Centre for WNO's performance of 'La Boème' on a bleak grey minimalist stage. Some of the aris took me back to childhood musical evenings at home with my sisters and Uncle Mostyn singing with Mum playing the piano. We were lucky enough to get buses after the performance, so we were back home by eleven. I was surprised to find I had walked eight miles today, and wasn't as exhausted as I would have been when I was taking the clot busting meds.

Plots in the news

 I slept well and was strangely light headed again when I woke up, with lots of thick mucus later in the morning. I wonder if it's mild sinusitis? We were a dozen at the St Catherine's Eucharist. A wicker basket full of ripe tomatoes sat on the table among the coffee cups after the service. What an amazingly fruitful summer we've had in the church garden.

When I got home, I thought Clare had cooked fish fingers for lunch, but similar sized objects on the plate were composed of tofu - fried. I slept for three quarters an hour afterwards then walked in Llandaff Fields for an hour.

News came in dribs and drabs of an Israeli airline hijack attempt in Saudi airspace by the plane's Omani copilot, averted by the actions of pilot, passengers and crew. A strange affair which coincidentally showcases good relationships between Saudi Arabia and Israel. There's more to this than meets the eye in the way it's being handled I suspect.

A group of men were arrested yesterday in an odd attempt to make mischief at Fairford US military airbase with cans of petrol. Although the conspirators are Brits it is alleged they are Iranian proxies. Trump alleges the plotters were known about by US intelligence.

Clare had supper early this evening and went to Chapter Arts to try out a new choir she's thinking of joining. I watched another couple of episodes of  'Wisting' then it was time for bed. 

Costly overseas snail mail

I slept well again, woke up feeling clear and sharp, if a little light headed for most of the day. We looked on-line for a suitable replacement standard lamp before deciding which store to visit and buy one from. Few of the designs on offer were of any interest. Clare went off by taxi to her study group in Penarth mid morning. The group is having lunch together today. 

I did food and pharmacy shopping, then made lunch for myself, a veggie pasta dish. I needed to sleep for an hour afterwards as I was again drowsy after eating. Then I went to the Post Office to mail a card to Connie and Udo in Germany. When I asked the counter clerk the cost of the stamp he spoke indistinctly from behind a screen. It took two further attempts before I understood what he was saying, partly because I couldn't believe it was so expensive. Three pounds sixty, as much as the cost of the card. Incredible! 

Having forgotten to buy chocolate biscuits earlier, I popped into the Co-op to get some before returning home. Clare was just about to cook swordfish steaks for supper when I arrived - a delicious treat. I may have eaten too much today.

I watched a couple of episodes of Norwegian crimmie 'Wisting' on iPlayer this evening, only to realise that I'd seen it before - four years ago in fact.

Birthday girl

A good night's sleep from which I woke up feeling alert and fresh for a change. I sang Happy Birthday to Clare and lit a birthday candle on the breakfast table. Now we're both eighty one years old.

Owain arrived in time for us to go out for a birthday lunch together at 'Sonder' a recently opened restaurant on Llandaff Road. Clare and Owain were satisfied with their menu choices but I opted for a disappointing  lasagne with two different flavoured sausage meat fillings, topped with melted cheese rather than a cheese sauce. It turned out to be excessively greasy, quite a challenge to my digestion sans gall bladder. Somehow my digestion coped, although I felt really tired after the meal. 

We searched for a bakery or a cake shop to buy a celebratory cake, with little success, as many of them close on a Monday. Eventually Coffee#1 came up with a big slice of lemon drizzle cake which served the purpose, topped with a candle. Rachel called to greet her Mum when we got back home. It meant she could join us in singing Happy Birthday from the far side of the United States. 

Before returning to Bristol, Owain helped me to deal with an on-line banking issue, moving money from  one account to another to benefit from a better interest rate. Making an informed decision is the hard part as there's so much detailed information attached to each banking offer. Owain is experienced from his job at reading confidently through on-line documents and making sense of them, this saved me a lot of worry.

I went out after supper and walked for three quarters of an hour, listening to the Archers on my phone as it got dark, then spent the rest of the evening watching the last two high tension episodes of 'Trigger Point'. I thought the story-line was ridiculously flawed - a group of ruthless mercenaries delivering an atom bomb in a crate to a UK-USA football match in a stadium in the heart of London, to start a nuclear war. Hired by Iran? Or the CIA in a false flag operation? Russia isn't mentioned. None of those wicked killers would have a chance of surviving if a nuclear weapon were to obliterate London, yet none of them were portrayed as crazy jihadis. If they're in it for the money they won't get to spend it if they get blown up, as the economy is already collapsing. The rescuing heroine is 'superwoman, the anti-climactic ambiguous conclusion that left me wondering if she actually survives or is a ghost. Maybe it's left vague while a decision is made about a season five.