Warm and cloudy today. I spent the morning writing, then at midday Clare and I set out separately to go to St John's for the monthly lunch. Clare went ahead as I hadn't quite finished what I was doing. She locked the front door absent-mindedly on leaving the house, so I had to unlock it to let myself out. Then, equally absent-mindedly I forgot to double lock the front door as we usually do on leaving. It's the first time such a coincidence has happened! I called at Tesco's on my way to get our food bank offering. The cash machine was out of service, but fortunately Clare had cash to pay for us both.
Ashley came and joined us for lunch, as he was in town to collect a prescription for the GP surgery he's frequented for the past forty years even though he now lives up at the top end of Merthyr Vale. Clare had to go for an eye test after lunch. Ashley and I went into town on an 18 bus which stopped in Riverside, due to road closures in Westgate and Wood Streets resulting from the much publicised start of the reunion tour by Oasis at the Principality Stadium. Seventy thousand fans invading Cardiff today and again tomorrow! Road closures in the centre two other days this week due to Blackwieer Fields gigs. No wonder citizens are complaining about the disruption.
Loud music emanated from the stadium when we arrived at Fitzhamon Embankment five hours before the main performance of the day. There were long queues, not only to get in, but to buy official Oasis branded tour merchandise from the stall outside. The same in Westgate Street across the road from the stadium shop, making it difficult to pass through the crowd. Those milling around in the main streets were either wearing Oasis merchandise or buying it. I don't understand this mass consumer passion for the reunion gigs of a band which broke up sixteen years ago, though I understand the motives of the producers of this phenomenon, who will get rich through it as the end of the day.
With the streets so crowded, I wondered how well city centre retailers would do during this week of so many visitors. Ashley and I took refuge in the John Lewis restaurant for a cuppa and a sit-down. The store was almost empty. I went there to buy a bargain phone in the summer sale but couldn't convince myself I really needed to change the one I have, except that it seems to work more slowly than it used to and had trouble switching automatically between SMS and RCS messaging mode.
I can send a SMS text message, assuming it's delivered straight away, and then find an hour later that it's not been delivered. If the phone's wi-fi is on outside of the house it'll keep seeking a public wifi network to link to, and send the text via RCS when it can't. It gives an error message, rather than switch to SMS via the phone's 4G SIM card. This arrangement is seriously flawed, unreliable in an emergency requiring a fast response. If you don't switch off your wi-fi in public this can happen when you least need it to. I wonder if there's a workaround for the occasions when you forget to switch off your wi-fi?
After parting company with Ashley I walked to the top end of Westgate Street through the crowd of concert goers and drinkers overflowing from the pubs. Outside the Angel Hotel a police car was blocking the road past the castle with four police horses and riders standing alongside it. In front of the car was a black uniformed gun-toting woman in her twenties, a member of the police armed response unit. A surreal sight set against a crowd of thousands in a good mood, euphoric, if not inebriated. As the buses weren't visiting their usual stops on the city side of the Taff, I walked home.
After supper and the Archers, I watched another of the Sommerdahl murders before going to bed, a bit later than intended.
No comments:
Post a Comment