Beware the air we breathe

Back to thick grey clouds and intermittent rain today, with more to come in the next few days, and threats of flooding. At least I didn't get too wet, walking before and after lunch. I cooked rice and Brussels sprouts with boil-in-the-bag mussels again, tastes to cheer us on another miserable day.

Official covid infection statistics released today show continued downward progression. In three weeks time phased re-introduction of children to classes in school will begin. Groups of four people from just two households will be able to meet again outdoors from this weekend - but judging from what I observe on my daily walks in the parks, this has been taking place already for weeks, few are even an arm's length away from others, let alone properly socially distanced. There's no sign of enforcement taking place, except in car parks. 

It's good to hear more being said about the risk from airborne infection. The existence of more contagious new variants calls for this to be emphasised, outdoors as well as indoors. I find it strange that early research nearly a year ago revealed the likely role of airborne transmission, yet only in the past three months when the contagion risk had been observed to be much higher has it been given increased prominence in public health advisory videos. 

Drivers of taxis, buses, and above all, ambulance drivers have suffered disproportionately high infection rates due to the amount of time they spend in enclosed spaces transporting, then waiting with patients, and treating them. Their standard of personal protection equipment needs to be much higher than in reality it is. I'm not sure we're hearing much from either unions or the government on what's being done to reduce the risks to health and safety in a crisis. Who cares for the carers here?

The Parish weekly notices are now being delivered by means of Microsoft's Sway, one of the apps that is part of Microsoft Office. The diocese also uses Sway to circulate its weekly info round-robin. An Office user can bring together text, images, web-links, audio and video into a presentation hosted on One Drive and accessible via a URL It can even be used to create a website. In effect, each week's round-robin is a little website of its own. Sway has been around for seven years but like video conferencing apps has seen new uses and users during the pandemic. It's rather passed me by, as I'm no longer delivering 'content' to anyone. I wonder if it will supplant the Christmas newsletter pdf in years to come?

This afternoon I watched this week's episode of 'New Amsterdam' on catch-up, and later in the evening the last episode of 'Rebecka Martinson - Arctic Murders'. Not for the first time in this series, a presumed murder turns out to be an accidental death whose circumstances cause others to lie about it. Tragedy in life can have many layers to it.

Exciting archaeology

I drove to Western Cemetery for a funeral at lunchtime. I think it may be the first time that I've ever  had to take a full service at the graveside. The grandson of the deceased wrote a tribute which I delivered to a group of fifteen people, masked and socially distanced around the grave. The temperature was zero, but the sun shone through a thin layer of cloud making it less than dull, but with a light wind it was pretty cold. Together with the tribute and prayers, we stood there for ten minutes. Not too long for everyone to get really chilled.

Forty years ago when I worked in st Paul's Bristol, a few winter funerals started at Saint Agnes Church, and then went on to burial at a municipal on a windy hilltop on the north east side of the city. The rite of Committal would take a few minutes, but I'd be there at the graveside with a big crowd of West Indian mourners for an hour, while the women sang devotional hymns from Redemption Hymnal, and the men filled in the grave with shovels they brought with them. Wind, drizzle, snow. I remember getting very chilled, frozen feet in particular, but these were unmissable moving community events for a pastor to share in. It wasn't like that today thankfully.

After breakfast I'd received a phone call to say that the funeral team would be four men instead of the usual six, and would I mind if the coffin was lowered into the grave at the start rather than the end of the ceremony, since arranging for the coffin to be placed on two supports over hole until it was time to lower wouldn't be possible. 

I agreed to it, then realised I'd have to make some adjustments to the order of service, putting the formal words of Committal at the start to reflect the legally binding action of lowering the coffin into the ground. As this change was capable of puzzling mourners accustomed to the usual ritual, I rang the grandson to explain, so he could tell the rest of the family, revised me order of service, and despite a wee touch of nervousness about doing something different, it went as planned.

I'm still struggling with the business of glasses steaming up when wearing a mask. Clare suggested that I dip my specs in soapy water and let them dry. It didn't work, so I had to abandon my reading glasses and hope that I could cope in the sunlight, given the impact this can have due to the annoying cataract in my left eye. Reading the tribute in fourteen point spaced print was OK, most of the prayers I used are ones for which I had a smaller print text plus fairly reliable memory back-up. All ended well, and I had a nice thank you email from the grandson later in the day.

After lunch I met up with Ashley on Cowbridge Road, after he had his covid jab at Riverside surgery. We walked side by side to Cardiff Central station and talked for the first time not on the phone since last summer. 

In the evening Clare and I watched a remarkable programme on BBC 2 about the recent archaeological research into the origins of the bluestone circle at Stonehenge. It was proved by chemical fingerprinting some years ago that these originated in Pembrokeshire's Preseli Hills. It's now been established that the stones in the Stonehenge circle are an exact match for a set of pits in a circle of exactly the same radius in the Preseli Hills. Some very clever forensic soil particle analysis has revealed that this collection of stones had first been erected there, some three centuries before they were moved to Stonehenge. Experimental archaeologists have worked out how they could have been dragged overland between sites, along a route that closely resembles that of the A40 road for much of its length. An amazing achievement for modern scientific investigation. The programme clashed with 'Rebecka Martinson Arctic Murders', so I watched this on More Four Catch-up straight after, as I had done later afternoon to catch up with this week's episode of New Amsterdam at tea time.

V-day

After breakfast this morning we walked in good time over to Cardiff City Football Stadium for our covid vaccines. We had a shock when we arrived at the the check-in booth to be told that we couldn't proceed to the vaccination point because we weren't in a car. That was how we discovered that the vaccination centre is 'drive-in only'. 

When we were contacted and given an appointment I said that I was pleased it was near enough for us to walk there together for our vaccination. The practice receptionist said was we wouldn't be able to go in together, and I said that waiting ten minutes outside wouldn't be a problem. It didn't occur to me that this centre was exclusively for recipients on wheels. 

Truth to tell, I know nothing about drive-in facilities anywhere. The only one I can identify in Cardiff is an add-on to a fast food joint. The idea of a drive-in food outlet appals me, an offence against food, un-necessarily adding to pollution and carbon footprint.. Yes, I am deeply prejudiced against the concept, and had difficulty conceiving of a stand alone drive-in outlet without a separate pedestrian facility.

They checked and confirmed that we were listed, and reassured us that the schedule had plenty of slack in it, as people were arriving early and being dealt with speedily. I called a taxi, which arrived in ten minutes and drove us through the facility and then took us home. On schedule!

I've had no reaction, Clare isn't sure if she had a reaction from the vaccine or whether it was just the shock of the unexpected. We wait not until 23rd April for jab number two. Next time we're go by car for sure.

It's may be just an odd coincidence, but when I spoke to Ashley later in the day, he interrogated me in detail after I told him the story. He too had initially been offered a vaccination booking at the stadium by someone who didn't mention to him that it was drive-in only. He declined as the date didn't suit him, and will got to his GP surgery for his next week. I knew it was drive-in, but the decisive word here everyone needs to know is 'only'. I would have been happy to drive there if I'd known, although I walk everywhere or use public transport to get around town as a matter of principle.

Vaccination centres are portrayed in the news all the time. It's presumed that what's self evident to some is obvious to everyone. The dominant news image of such a centre in my mind is of a big sports centre with scores of walk-in vaccination points. If there has been footage of people being vaccinated in their cars I haven't seen it. In may be written down somewhere in the various sheets of A4 bilingual information churned out by the health authority, too much to read without losing attention, too many words for a small but precise piece of information. What about people with poor literacy skills, whose first language is neither English nor Welsh, as poor at processing information as I am, but for different reasons?

Anyway, disaster was avoided. We're somewhat less vulnerable to covid now, but are still obliged to keep the safety rules as strictly as ever, as there is a one in twenty chance of the vaccine not being effective and a one in three chance of being contagious if infected accidentally, especially over the next three weeks in which immunity gradually develops. For now the vaccine takes the edge of the inevitable anxiety which is the shared experience of so many at this time.

I cooked lunch and walked around the park down to Blackweir bridge. The vandalised barrier has been repaired, but how long will it stay like that? After supper we started to watch a classic comedy movie 'No Sex Please We're British' It's a fast moving 1960s farce translated from stage to film, but the humour in it is so dated it became broing to watch, so we gave up. Clare decided to read, I watched 'New Amsterdam' and 'Rebecka Martinson, one after the other, and that was it for a thought provoking day.

Unintended consequences

Another early morning the the promise of sunshine, descending into wind driven showers by the time I went out for some fresh air before lunch. I curtailed my walk rather than get wet, returned and cooked lunch. By the time we'd eaten and cleared up, the sun was out again, but this time I went out carrying my light rain trousers in my big jacket pocket. And it didn't rain! The Taff is running high again, though not as high as last week. In the coming week we're promised the return of cold weather and snow, although the air temperature will continue to fluctuate from day to day between two and ten degrees, like this week. In the park, not only are daffodils and snowdrops out but also early crocuses. It's like we're having someone else's weather.

Clare and Kath between them have organised another four day stay in the Oxwich Bay Hotel caravan park in the last week of July. Two caravans for the six of us again. We were lucky to get the booking, as every UK holiday destination is experiencing high demand, as travel outside of the UK is unforeseeable in the light of new quarantine restrictions, let alone restrictions on flights. Stricter measures are imposed almost daily across Europe at the moment, as infection rates continue to rise. The EU lags behind Britain in the distribution of vaccines, there are major practical problems with the demand outstripping the supply, not to mention the conflictual politics of distribution. 

The European Commission made a  poor judgement call at the outset, and is now trying to compensate for it with strong-arm tactics, thinking it can get its own way by throwing its weight around. This is deeply disappointing and serves only to justify the brexiteers case, even though in just a few weeks it is proving disastrous for the flow of trade. If only Britain had stayed in the EU and put more effort into reforming the Commission, given that many European partners are also unhappy with the way it has habitually worked, and generated problems for members states.

News today of a fourth vaccine, an American one, about to be authorised for use in the UK. Batches of this one have also been ordered and should in use later in the spring. Nearly seven million people in Britain have been vaccinated, but it'll be a while before this has an impact on rising numbers of infections and deaths. It seems that infection clusters are being noticed in some offices where people are working together, even when correct H&S restrictions are in place, also in family groups, more so than in supermarkets and schools. Apparently, eighty percent of cases are now of the new coronavirus mutation, a measure of how much more contagious it is than the earlier version.

This afternoon, after completing my walk for the day, I watched this week's episode of 'New Amsterdam' on More Four catch-up. The programme has been re-scheduled from ten o'clock on Thursday evening to one thirty Friday morning, which is most annoying. I can't find any explanation for which it has occurred.

Later I watched the latest episode in the 'Rebecka Martinson Arctic Murders' series - this week portraying drug dealing way up in the north of Sweden, where drug trafficking happens across borders and involves Finnish and Russian drug gangs. and something akin to the 'County Lines' distribution networks operating in Britain. Two police officers' family members are involved, and so far there's been one accidental death by ketamine overdose and a drug distributor murdered. It's a two parter, so next week will reveal whether ot not this gets resolved without more fatalities. It's only story telling, I know, but it's not a big city or even a suburban crimmie for once, but rather a back-country tale strongly resembling the big city - and why? Due to the ubiquity of mobile phones and social networks. The internet has, indeed, abolished distance, 

 

On the record

Another sunny start to the day, with a layer of frost on cars in the street. By half past ten, while Clare was having her on-line jazz piano lesson, I went for a refreshing walk, first around Thompson's Park, then to Llandaff Village, then down to Blackweir and back home in time to make lunch.

In the early news it was reported from health authorities in Yorkshire that they were ahead of schedule with their covid vaccinations and had run out of supplies. It's being said that there are enough supplies in the country to meet the target of inoculating the top four categories of vulnerable people by mid February, but it's a matter of scheduling and delivery logistics. This is much the same as what's been reported here in Wales, except that the Welsh Government and Health Boards have stuck to their measured delivery plan and not run out for racing too fast, to avoid having the vaccination teams idling or stood down. First Minister Mark Drakeford is being harrassed by the BBC for giving honest answers to vaccination questions. It's not the first time he has been targeted for criticism for getting things right, acting in advance of English government moves and publicity.

A letter arrived for me in today's post from CofE's Archbishop's Council, inviting me to register my basic clerical identity details on an English church national database, for public reference. Hitherto, the world has relied on Crockford's Clerical Directory, a respected independent publication which has been around since 1858, and whatever information is made publicly available by each diocese. It's possible for clerics to get left out of either, and be difficult to trace, a concern when it comes to safeguarding issues. The new database will also cover lay church office holders and workers. I'm asked, as I hold a Europe diocese PTO and worked for half my ministry in the Church of England. Church in Wales, as disestablished Province of the Anglican Communion will already have its own database on which I appear as a retired licensed cleric with a PTO. Anyway registration on the CofE database only took a few minutes, then I received a confirmatory email.

By the time I went out for a load of bread after lunch the sky had clouded over and the pavement was wet. I thought the shower was just ending, but as I walked it really began in earnest, and I got quite wet. Not long after I got back, the rain stopped, the sky cleared and the temperature dropped. Another frosty night to come, and no sign of the promised snow down here on the coast.

The wound pain was quite acute for a while this evening. I don't know what to do about it. No chance of getting a wound specialist to look at it without going through the rigmarole of a GP or hospital visit. I'm not sure if a district nurse could do anything other than look at it and recommend a specialist looks at it. They're all so very busy with far worse medical crises to manage, and it's not exactly life threatening. No sign of infection, just sharp excruciating pain sometimes, which takes a while to recover from, the sort of pain that analgesics can't deaden, as it stimulates the vagus nerve, like hitting a panic button. Walking is the only thing that helps. I've done 13km instead of 10 today.

I watched this week' episode of 'Rebecka Martenson Arctic Murders' this evening. I love to see the snow covered terrain and the way it slows life down naturally. Sara observed that Swedes in the north naturally speak slowly, and take time taking with each other, yet when something goes amiss they have very fiery tempers.

The evening news told of a troubling early statistical report on the impact of the new coronvirus variant, and intimations that lock-down measures will stay in place until April. The government has talked about 'following the science', but it's been noticeable how slow the reaction has been to new data, as if needing to soften the impact and avoid inevitable economic impact. It's not worked. Despite vaccination roll-out happening at a remarkable pace, infections and deaths still rise. The situation is not under control, and the tone is more serious and less upbeat than it was (apart from vaccination news), as if the government now using anxiety to motivate non compliant people. I believe that from the outset, measure should have been imposed more strictly so that people would get used to how it inevitably has to be in order to bring the pandemic to an end. 

Winter watch

Finally, reading from a teleprompter, Trump video broadcasted a condemnation of Tuesday's mayhem on Capitol Hill - it's being likened to a hostage video by the media commentariat. Half a dozen members of his cabinet have resigned, dissociating themselves from his actions. Open discussion in Congress about removing him from office before the due date. Whether it will happen or not on such a short timescale is doubtful. 

Trump also stated that he won't attend Biden's presidential inauguration, the first time this has happened since 1860. Whatever he does on that day (and nobody knows what), will draw attention away from the President. A calculated move to undermine a celebration of national unity. A refusal to be reconciled. As long as he's in office he can still wield executive power to do dangerous things, The worry is that he'll declare war on Iran, and leave others to sort out the chaos generated.

Meanwhile rates of covid infections and deaths continue to climb in America and in Britain. A third new vaccine has been authorised for UK use, and there are reports of two new effective treatments that can be used on seriously ill covid victims, shortening their stay under an intensive care regime. Both assist in dampening over-reaction by the inflammatory mechanism of the immune system and reduce the chance of a fatal outcome to the infection. One drug costs a thousand pounds per treatment. A lot of money, but set against the cost of two thousand pounds a day per intensive care patient, its cost effectiveness is evident. The rate of advance in some areas of medical science this past year has been as amazing as the spread of the virus has been terrifying.

My crisp cold afternoon walk in the park was blessed by the sight of a family of long tailed tits foraging in the trees leading down to Blackweir Bridge. I also caught sight of a tree creeper in the same vicinity. They occupy same habitat year after year. Unlike the last time I saw them when I had a camera with me, this time I didn't. But never mind. It's a comfort to know that nature continues as best it can despite global warming and  other man made environmental damage projects.

This evening heralded the start of a new series of Rebecka Martenson - Arctic murders, set in the far north of Sweden. The first episode portrays the life of a community of Sami reindeer herders, with some wonderful photography and explanatory detail about their way of life today, with a family drama and a fatality at the heart of it. A must-watch series now for the next seven weeks of winter in the warm.

Urdd showcase

The afternoon Clare went to Dinas Powis to spend the night with her colleague Jacquie, whose late husband Russell's funeral is to be held in the Wenallt Chapel at Thornhill Crematorium next Saturday morning. I accompanied her in the car as far as the outskirts of Penarth, then walked from there down through the Marina to the Barrage.

The tide was right out, and the sea lock was in operation, for the benefit of a few yachts and fishing boats. I stopped and took photos, and found myself transported to far off places by the sound of the lock gates closing and opening, the roar and scent of  fresh water expelled into the sea. Whether it was the Vienna locks on the Danube or Iffezheim am Rhine, it's the same experience. I just love that environment, and look forward to another cruise when I can travel again. Either on the Duoro or the Rhone, hopefully.

Plas Roald Dahl is now fully occupied with Pavilions and pop up fast food places, ready for the start of the Urdd Eisteddfod running all through half term week from the opening concert tomorrow night. A wonderful fiesta of gifted youth, keen to sing and dance and recite in public. It's marvellous that entrance to events and exhibitions on the 'Maes' is free, as it was for the National Eisteddfod last summer. you just pay to get into the Millennium Centre for performances and concerts staged therein. It's a credit to the City Council to invest in Welsh Arts and Culture in this way.

When I arrived home, there was a messing on the answering machine from cousin Ivor, from whom I have heard nothing for over a year. I knew he'd been in hospital with diabetes related illness, and had been deteriorating due to self neglect. I wrote to him at the time, aware of the difficult I might have at calling a mobile phone at his bedside. In fact, I wasn't sure if I had the right number as he'd changed or lost a phone previously and hadn't kept kept the number.

I called him back, pleased to find that I did have the right number, for future reference. He'd gone through a long spell of rehabilitation with success, and is now back at home. Best of all, he's finally writing the biography of his architectural mentor and role model Leslie Martin, something he's been promising himself to get on with ever since he retired, but never got around to. Already he's half way through the writing stage, loving the task and finding renewed enthusiasm for what he does well. Becoming a grandfather this year was a big boost to his spirits. Sarah his daughter has followed in her father's footsteps and qualified as an architect after a first class degree in pottery, and she's already producing work he delights in. Nice to have some good news for a change.
 

In the evening, I watched the last double episode of Canadian crimmie 'Cardinal', with a somewhat predictable ending. The landscape is a beautiful backdrop to the drama, but its seasons and weather don't play a part in this 'back of the beyond' story, as happens in BBC Wales' 'Hinterland' or 'Rebecka Martenson: Arctic Murders', to name two series that get it right.

  

Snow day two

It snowed more heavily today than yesterday, but intermittently. We went out for another bracing walk after lunch. As the wind wasn't quite so severe, many more people were out walking streets empty of cars, the air noticeably fume free for a change. Few people in the neighbourhood have tried to take their cars out. The main road from town to Llandaff is driveable, albeit snow covered until there was a late pass by a snow plough, sullying the pristine snow. 

None of the shops were open, just the pubs and some cafes. Youngsters were sledging on the hillock at the far end of Llandaff fields. Some were sitting on the sled, others were lying flat, emulating the skeleton riders in the Winter Olympics. We were very  impressed to see a teenage lad standing on his tray-sled, as if he was on a snowboard. I wonder how many more we'll see trying this next time there's snow.

We went for a cup of tea to Canna Deli, one of the small retail units developed on part of the site of the Old Dairy, now mostly taken up by the Co-op. The address is Pontcanna Mews. I wonder if this pays homage to stables once on the site for the milkmen's horses? The place offers select niche market food products to buy and half a dozen tables for those who want a drink and a classy snack. Clare said she went out yesterday to get some porage oats from the Co-op, but found it was closed, as the staff were unable to get in. Canna Deli, however, was open and busy un-freezing customers with hot drinks. She asked if they had any porage oats, and initially was told they didn't have any. As she was leaving, however, the mager hailed after her and declared that he had a packet of Co-op porage oats he could sell her - presumably from kitchen stocks. How enterprising!

Not long after we'd got back home, and shed our outdoor clothes, I realised that I'd not yet taken my three month medication prescription to the Pontcanna pharmacy in KIng's Road, in preparation for my stay Malaga. A phone call established it was open, and I had half an hour to take the prescription there. So, I dressed up again and retraced my steps back to where we'd just been drinking tea, as the pharmacy is nearby, opposite our GP surgery. It was important to do this, as occasionally pharmacy supplies temporarily run out after a spate of demands. Deliveries might be delayed by the weather conditions if that happened, and I might end up short of supplies to fly out with on Tuesday. I should have thought of this days ago when I collected the prescription from the surgery, but I was on my way elsewhere at the time. I was thankful to be able to collect immediately. Number one on my travel preparation checklist now done.

I watched the last of the Scandi-crime series 'Rebecka Martenson - Arctic Murders' on Channel Four this evening. A sad, but rather ambiguous ending, ambiguous enough to leave open the possibility of a second season. The biggest unanswered question is the back story of the eponymous lead character orphaned young, raised by her granny in a hamlet in the far north of Sweden. How did she become a city lawyer? While temping during home leave in her childhood locality as a public prosecutor she shows a flare for unorthodox but successful detective work. Instead of returning to Stockholm to grow a new reputation, in the last frame of the series, she quits. Is it a love affair with her homeland? Or another character, who may or may not be dead at the moment? All will be revealed in due course, no doubt.

Candlemass revisited

I ventured to the Post Office this morning to mail a parcel to old friend and colleague Bernice, with a blouse she'd left behind in Montreux. She preceded me there, doing locum duty in December. I also collected a new CBS bank card, sent to my local HSBC branch, as there is now no longer any counter service in the two City Center branches. Only banking machine services are now on offer, plus advice sessions on appointment. Does the bank no longer want to attract city business custom?  

As today is actually Candlemass day, I took a bus into town and went to Mass at St John's, to enjoy being on the receiving end for a change. In twelve days time already, Lent begins. I'm not sure I feel ready for this yet. Still, Fr Mark emailed me as I was arriving in Cardiff on Tuesday, to booked me for St Catherine's this Sunday, and who knows what else after this, while I'm back in Cardiff. Canon Sarah has booked me to stand in for her on a Lent Friday later in the month, when she has to go and make decisions about the Deanery house in St David's, where she'll live once she's inducted as Dean after Easter.

I didn't stay long in town, or go to the CBS office, as I wanted to return and have lunch with Clare, as she'll be out this evening, leaving me to while away hours watching Belgian and Swedish crime dramas on telly. How indulgent! But, it's what happens when I've been abroad, where UK catch-up TV is not available via the internet and often can't be accessed on Freesat didgy-box either. I continue to resist using a VPN to spoof my location and allow me on-line access what my UK viewing license permits me to watch freely. Frankly, I don't trust this kind of digital app to be a covert channel for malware or surreptitious bitcoin mining. Better not to take a risk with something you can't be sure of.
   

   

Wilderness Theatre

Today was another day of clouds and rain, so not a day for another excursion. On the other hand, I needed time to prepare two Sunday sermons, a Candlemass one for Territet and an Epiphany Four one for Villars. In the evening I watched the second episode of the Swedish Crime Drama 'Rebecka Martinsson: Arctic Murders' shown on More 4 channel. There was a full length introductory story last week, in reality a double episode with no titles and credits in the middle. We're down to hour long episodes from now on.

Its main character is a young Stockholm hot shot lawyer, who grew up in a small village up on the Arctic circle near the border with Finland, called Kiruna. She returns there when an old friend is murdered and becomes involved with investigating the crime. After this she starts working while on leave from work for the local CID team as Prosecutor on other cases. A rather curious story line, but maybe less odd if you understand how the Swedish investigative system works.

It's rather like BBC Wales' series 'Y Gwyllt' in that the wild and beautiful landscape plays a starring role in the drama. We see it in its summer glory, as well as harsh winter severity. The photography is breathtaking. Distances between villages along straight roads are immense and filled with forests, lakes, seemingly deserted. It reminds me a little of the Egin Uur region of Mongolia which I got to travel through back in 1999. It's awesomely beautiful, but takes days to get anywhere. Investigative crime drama tends to be slow moving in nature. Pacing it to ensure the viewer or reader is remains interested enough to follow must be particularly challenging with this kind of scenic backdrop. So far so good, I'd say. Looking forward to next Friday's episode, back home in Cardiff.