Celebrating Butetown's diversity champion

The central heating fired up automatically early this morning for the first time since spring, as the ambient temperature of the house dropped below its threshold. It was cold yesterday and cold again today, bright and sunny, and thankfully no rain. After breakfast I drove Ann and Clare to the train station before driving to Saint Catherine's to celebrate St Michael and All Angels with six others plugging a gap at Mthr Frances' request. Fr Roy Doxsey agreed to cover St German's, although I was scheduled to be there. Clare stayed in town and went to see the Richard Burton biographical exhibition in the Museum.

After the Eucharist, I collected this week's veggie bag, and completed preparation for next Thursdays Morning Prayer and reflection, ready to record and edit when I got back from my walk around the park. On BBC Wales after supper was a programme about the making of a new statue celebrating the life and work of Butetown's Betty Campbell, Wales' first black head teacher and anti-racist campaigner who died four years ago. Her image was chosen by poll to represent heroic Welsh women in history. She lived, worked and died at the heart of the community she served, and was as proud to call herself a Cardiffian as she was to say she was black.

I was surprised to find when I looked on the Wales on-line website at five o'clock, that there was only a brief mention in the breaking news blog of the unveiling of the statue today, and not even a mention of its location outside the new HMRC building in Wood Street. Admittedly, photos were posted on a new page by six o'clock, but news of the statue unveiling had been run by the BBC on the Today programme in the morning, and on a BBC news web page. The statue itself was featured on Radio Four's 'Front Row' programme at seven fifteen in the evening, on top of the TV programme I saw. The Media Wales building is a hundred and fifty yards along Wood Street from HMRC, how come they were so slow to report on this? I should point out that new BBC Wales HQ is also on Wood Street directly opposite HMRC but why were Media Wales editorial team lagging behind the Beeb, when this was happening on their block?

I think we're in for some terminological wrangling. Wood Street is the main thoroughfare running though that part of the city centre designated as the Central Square Redevelopment. Actually, Central Square is the open paved space with Brunel's Cardiff railway station 1920s facade on the south side and the back entrance of the BBC on the north. On the west side are numbers one and two Central Square, the BBC is number three. The east side of the square is where the new bus station complex is under construction. So Betty's statue is within the Central Square development, though not in Central Square, but Wood Street. If all early news reports omit to mention Wood Street, we can look forward to confusion!

Still, it's a great day for the city. I'll be donw there with my camera taking photos tomorrow, under orders from my sister June.

Welsh waterway revival

I drove to St German's to celebrate Mass with five others this morning. On my way out of church I was accosted by a man who rode into the churchyard on a bike. He begged me to let him use my phone for an urgent call, as he'd run out out credit on his. He started telling me about himself, saying he was a Catholic and showed me the rosary he wore around his neck. Then he lifted up his tee shirt to show me the tattoos on his back, representing two prison sentences for thieving he'd served, and put behind him in an effort to go straight. He made the call to his sister, apparently thanked me, then left.

I reached home at eleven. Clare had gone into school for an INSET session, and arrived home just before midday to be ready for a visit from the British Heart Foundation's furniture collection van, booked to take one of our two lounge sofas away. Three months ago we ordered a couple of armchairs from John Lewis' to replace one of them, as I found it wasn't comfortable enough for someone of my size and weight. The delivery van arrived at one. The crew unpacked and installed the chairs, which fit nicely in the space left by the sofa. They are very comfortable and supportive for the back. After lunch, I sat sown to do my daily Duo Lingo drill, and fell soundly asleep for an hour and a half. A worthwhile purchase indeed.

Then I made a start on composing a reflection for next Thursday's morning prayer, before taking a walk down to the Taff listening to the news on my phone. The rest of the reflection got completed after supper. There was an interesting programme on BBC Wales in the evening hosted by rugby legend Gareth Edwards and his wife Maureen, the last in a series exploring Welsh canals. This one was about canals in the Swansea and Neath Valleys, now undergoing the slow process of restoration after half a century of dereliction and neglect. The Vale of Neath is home territory for them both. Having lived and work in the area for thirty years, both were surprised to discover hidden treasures in a place they thought they knew well. There's some beautiful scenery and even a wetland nature reserve through which a canal runs. There's such potential for leisure and tourism here, and wonderful stories of the industrial history of the region around Swansea. These are places which I'm hoping we can explore in times to come.