Going for solar

Overcast sky, cold and rain today. A good night's sleep, seven and three quarter hours, best sleep quality in months, and less volume of pee overnight, two days after stopping the 'booster' hypertension meds whose toxic impact on my body is diminishing. I woke up feeling a little hazy. Saturday breakfast pancakes with honey or marmalade soon cleared my head. My blood sugar must have been a bit low as well. At eleven a representative of PlanetBloom arrived. It's a solar panel installation business. 

Clare had arranged a visit for a sales presentation. It's a matter we explored a few years ago, at a time when solar panel efficiency was far less than it is now. We didn't pursue it as it was too costly to be economically viable. Given the recent advances and lowering of prices as more households adopt solar power the situation has changed, and we are in a position to save money on our total energy costs. 

We decided to go ahead and order an installation. When it came to paying the deposit, I must have made a mistake with the on-line bank transfer. We paid by card over the phone. Then I found myself locked out of our joint bank account and had to go through a long security check to establish my on-line banking credentials. I had to look at bank statements and receipts to establish account ownership successfully. It was very unnerving, but the person answering the helpline was most patient with us in the midst of all our confusion and chaos. I don't need this level of stress while I'm recovering from the medication nightmare of the past couple of months.

After a late lunch I walked in Llandaff Fields until dusk and completed my daily step goal. Clare cooked spinach and vegan cheese pizza for our supper. Both Owain and Rachel phoned for a chat. Kath and Anto are in Barcelona for a conference about children and theatre, part of Kath's research in preparation for the next Sonrisa Arts project. It's a pity they can't meet up with Veronica and John, as Veronica is recovering from her knee joint replacement surgery and still in hospital learning how to walk. Another early night for me tonight, no telly.

Paid in full

Another good night's sleep, another cold cloudy day. One of the roofing team arrived as we were having breakfast to remove the last traces of the work done and tidy up the front garden. Clare went off to her study group in Penarth, and I took the bus into town to pay the roofing bill at Santander Bank. I was rather annoyed to discover that the bank's computer system was out of order. I was expecting the last person to arrive at the house to collect a back alley gate key at twelve thirty so I caught a bus straight away rather than hang around in hope. When I got back, I made the slide show to go with next week's Morning Prayer video and then cooked lunch. Clare was back just after midday and was able to hand over the last key herself.

After lunch I took a bus into town and re-visited Santander Bank. This time everything was working as intended. Give the size of the invoice I was paying, I was impressed at how thorough the bank clerk was in questioning me about the payment I wanted to make; about the job done, how we chose the contractor and whether any advance payment had been made. She explained that it's part of their anti-scam protocol when dealing with large amounts. Given the rising prevalence of banking fraud I must applaud this, even if it does add a few minutes of Q&A to a visit to the bank. 

On-line banking with Santander is also thorough with its own in-built protocols to ensure you know what you're doing and haven't been pushed into making a transaction by a third party you don't know. I could have made the payment on-line, but as it was such a big sum, I wanted an official receipt containing all the necessary details, for the record. While I was there I was able to leave a notification on our account of my next stay in Spain. I was also told of a new current account set up called 'Edge' which promises favourable interest rates and no fee withdrawals and payment when in Spain. I must investigate this, as it could be beneficial.

While in town I visited John Lewis' but couldn't see any bargains worth contemplating, the popped into Wally's deli and bought a chorizo and some Greek Black olives before taking a bus to Canton and walking the rest of the way home. Before supper I watched the remaining one and a half episodes of 'The Drought', which was, I thought, an impressive piece of movie making, portraying a good relationship between two investigators and the teams backing them up, with some lovely townscapes of Caceres in Extremadura and Lisbon in Portugal. Both places worth visiting. 

Then after supper, with no urgent jobs to do, settled down and watched a couple of episodes of 'Vigil' about a murder on a British nuclear submarine. An interesting way to showcase the role the Navy plays in deterring global superpowers from wiping out life on earth by accident or design. Interesting detective work with limited resources in an unnervingly claustrophobic environment.

Cyber intrigue portrayed

We were back in church at St Catherine's for this morning's Eucharist. It looks bright and clean after the re-decoration. There were eight of us with Mother Frances. She spoke interestingly about St Thomas More's 'Utopia', a book I've never read. He was a man of conscience in Henry VIII's government opposing schism from Rome and Henry declaring himself head of the church. Although More was much valued by the king, he paid with his life for defying Henry, and sticking to his principles. It was a timely reminder of Christian integrity in the midst of our current political leadership crisis.

After the service, a coffee and a chat, I collected this week's veggie bag, returned home to investigate the mail order purchase from Church House London of baptism cards and communion wafers to take with me, as I've been requested to look into it.  in London to see if delivery would be possible by Monday next at the latest. I had no luck however, as there were none of either in stock right now, and time is running short.

Clare cooked a fish pie for lunch with a sweet potato topping. It made a change from ordinary potatoes, much lighter on the digestion. Then I went into town to deposit a cheque and inform Santander Bank about my debt card use abroad. It was confirmed that the least expensive way to buy in euros is to use a Santander ATM to withdraw cash, as this doesn't attract a fee the way using a card for purchases does. Good to know. I also looked for new travel bags, as few of the ones we have match our need to fly without hold baggage this time around. Not only does this cut the cost, but in a time when baggage handling is suffering from staff shortages internationally, it means being able to come and go without baggage delay. 

The dedicated luggage store has gone from St David Centre. M&S offered nothing, John Lewis' range of travel bags was far too expensive, except for a small rucksack in the sale. House of Frazer had a decent selection. Many of them were discounted. For just under sixty quid I got two really useful items for less than half their total price. Mission accomplished!

In the evening I binge watched 'The Undeclared War' on More Four, a drama about a cyber attack with GCHQ at the front line. It was written earlier this year, set in 2024. Embedded in the first episode was a news report featuring a new Prime Minister addressing a protesting crowd. We were told that eighteen months earlier Boris Johnson had been ousted in Parliamentary coup. And this was made before this weeks tide of government resignations was even contemplated, just before the confidence vote I think. Fiction and fact bumping into each other. The overall story makes a good job of explaining Russia's cyber warfare strategy, whilst portraying a brilliant young student intern working with an surprising an experienced team of geeks. I don't know how credible it is in all the detail, but it seems credible enough and does resort to a semi magical view of the digital world. Not a bad piece of educational propaganda in the light of the Ukraine war.

The New Normal in Cardiff city centre

Another overcast cold and rainy day. I slept well in my usual bed, but am physically tired after my walk and stairs exercise movng down from the attic yesterday.

After breakfast, I completed work on the slide show for my sister Pauline's funeral with several list minute additions, which now make it feel more complete. It's now just too big to email, so I had to upload it to Google Drive and send a file sharing link to the funeral directors, and likewise later on for the eulogy. It seems likely they're not very keen on using a file streamed from YouTube on the crem's digital system, just in case it picks up a virus of a different kind altogether, I guess.

This afternoon, I walked into the city centre and back. Having read about the road closures in front of the Castle, I thought I'd go and take a look and some photos. It's been done with temporary traffic barriers and cones, plus lots of yellow and white line markings on the roads. The grass in the Castle moat area has been marked out with large circles in whitewash paint, to guide the placement of street furniture for when the pubs across the street re-open, as it's planned to let customers drink outdoors across the street. The place seemed very empty for a weekday afternoon. Very few pedestrians or bikes in newly widened bike lanes and pavements. 

The city centre's shopping streets have yellow guidelines for pedestrians walking in separate directional lanes. It looks a mess and will be terrible to remove once no longer required. Will people bother to comply when it's crowded I wonder. Guidelines were largely ignored today with few people about. Only a handful were wearing masks.

I went into the St David Centre to visit the EE phone shop to top up my PAYG phone. I wore my Virustatic shield mask again, was greeted at the door and directed to a hand sanitizer point, then collected by a young salesman who dealt with my request, sitting at a desk behind a plastic screen. I've not had a top-up card for the past five years, so I had to give my number and buy phone credit. 

The contactless facility of my debit card wasn't yet activated, so I had to use the card's chip and pin device, as they were unable to accept cash payments. The paper receipt containing the phone top-up code couldn't be given to me as a sanitary precaution. The salesman said he could hold it up to the screen for me to read. I told him that even with the right glasses the code was too small to read from the paper, so he agreed to dictate it to me, so I could enter it into my phone's SMS window. It worked perfectly, first time, and I was delighted!

My visit to the centre wouldn't have been complete without a look at the building works in progress - the new bus station, and the hotel being built behind the facade of the old Custom House. The Central station entrance doors were all boarded up except one for entry and another for exit. It looks very sad. There's even a notice up asking 'Is your journey really necessary?' harking back to World War Two.

I went to the nearest Santander ATM to activate my card's contactless device. I was pleased to see that the machine had a contactless symbol on it. When you tapped it with your card this activated the machine to request your PIN number in the same way as inserting it into the slot for it to be read. I didn't need cash, so I just asked for the balance on the account instead. Now it works properly. Using the ATM keypad and touch screen does bear the risk of contamination however, but I covered my working finger with a tissue, and must remember another time to keep something better in my pocket to use instead.

Some, though not all shops are open, it's all very low key and tentative at the moment. Wandering about the streets with all their strange markings and covid19 notices up, almost empty at rush hour made me feel as if I was on a huge film set location for a dystopian movie. I wonder how it's going to work out in the months ahead?

State of Alarm - day Forty Nine

Now that it's possible within reasonable limits to get out and about every day, I decided it was time for me to make the effort of driving to San Antoni and getting some money from the Santander cash machine. Regardless of language the user interface on modern ATMs is generally user friendly, and in this case, once a UK card was registered, the dialogue priority was English. I think the last time I drove down to San Antoni was seven weeks ago. There was no question of not knowing where to go, where to park or how to work the machine, but inwardly I was nervous, and it was quite an effort to get myself out of the house and into the car equipped with mascarilla y guantes, plus hand-gel. 

I was nervous at being in a public place with others, nervous about appropriate behaviour, since I've had no practice since lock-down began, only going out when the streets were empty. Nervous having to think about correct, safe hygienic behaviour for my sake and the sake of others. Mindfulness and nervousness don't sit well together. It's the sort of thing prisoners released at the end of sentence worry about while they adjust to mundane life again. It's the sort of thing people with agoraphobia or obsessive compulsive disorders have to endure, with or without support. Such a jittery experience is not wasted, if it enables you to put yourself in the shoes of another. 

I parked the car down the far end of the marina, a ten minute walk from Banco Santander. A few of the wayside bars and restaurants were open and serving to clients sitting at socially distanced tables. Some masked municipality workers were out, the odd masked cyclist and unmasked elder making their morning paseo. The car park was almost full, but I found a place, and noticed that cars were coming and going fairly often, people visiting briefly for specific purposes maybe, but not staying around for long. People need time to get used to new routines by practicing them and then relaxing with them. Me too.

The neatly groomed beach along the road into town was deserted. I think I saw one Proteccion Civil vehicle, but no police at all. I guess the area is covered by CCTV, and Tuesday morning isn't like Saturday or Sunday, when people like to get out for a paseo and become a crowd that causes anxiety to the enforcers.

Anyway, mission accomplished. My card still works, and I was able to withdraw €200. It's cash I'll now need as I'm now going to resume shopping for myself. Ibiza covid-19 infection rates have stayed in check for several weeks, and lifting some restrictions, provided accepted precautions are still strictly observed, encourages me to think the risk level is acceptable. Whatever I do when I get back home it will be higher anyway!

While I was driving back my phone kept pinging. Back in the house I fielded a text message from British Airways telling me that my home flight to Gatwick, booked on 26th had been cancelled, and that I could book another to London at no extra cost. I was upset but not altogether surprised. Last night, the BA head of Gatwick operations was on the news saying that the airline was contemplating withdrawing all its services from the airport. Twelve hours later notification o flight cancellation arrived.

It directed me to a re-booking page I suspect had been hastily constructed overnight. It was crude and user-unfriendly. I had to hunt, date by date after the flight cancelled to find the next available flight to anywhere in London from Ibiza. No diary  with flight dates highlighted was available, like going back to booking fifteen years ago. A rush job, reflecting what BA would describe as a fast moving business situation, never mind the customers struggling to get their planning heads around changing circumstances.

So, I am now booked on a flight to Heathrow on the first of June instead. Rosi said BA never fly from Ibiza to Heathrow - a change of policy, or a flight which will turn out to be like some of the emergency flights, stopping over to collect and drop off passengers like an old style country bus. If we get to Heathrow, it will suit Kath and I much better, as it's half the Gatwick travel time back home to Wales.

I now have two additional Sundays of work here, more on-line services and bible studies to prepare. I'm happy about that. It may mean I can complete my guided tour of Acts, without having to compress the last third, and neglect stories worth examining. A detailed study of Acts with proper discussion is a year's job at least. My desire has been to enable bible study group members to look at the whole with fresh eyes, and see the unique transforming nature of what was going on in the stories Acts tells us. Get excited about the detail in the light shed by the big picture, is the message, but it's hard work when it's such a long and varied story.

Only recently I came across a testimony to the influence of Paul's teaching by a leading UK atheist intellectual - sorry don't remember his name - he identified Paul's advocacy of freedom, equality and human dignity as gifts unleashed on the world through the story of Jesus, as being the paradigm shift in changed self understanding which overthrew empires, led to the reformation, enlightenment and rise of modern science and technology. A very secular meaning to the grace revealed in Christ's Gospel, but I think he's right. It takes an outsider to recognise the true value and impact of all the church has struggled and often failed to teach, as it became socially acceptable to believe. 

After lunch, I walked down to the rocky lava covered seashore at Cala de Bou, and took photos of the Cormorant couple on the foreshore now rather than on the island. No sign of chicks however. On my return, before supper, I walked up to Es Cuco and did some shopping, having regained enough confidence to do so. On my last shopping visit here I was intercepted and questioned by police, still at the early stage of working out how to carry out enforcement, and how to identify idiots and dodgy geezers. Hoy, nadie. The shop wasn't busy, staff were kitted out properly and screened, and it was relaxed as friendly as ever, the changes taken in their stride. Long may they prosper!

After supper, another evening spent relaxing, listening to a Beethoven concert on BBC Radio Three. Slowly I am unwinding ...

More travel plans

I did the shopping and cooked lunch this morning while Clare went to the gym. Corns on my feet have been giving me trouble again, so I called into the Podiatrist to see about a booking and was told nothing was available this week. The receptionist took my phone number and promised to call if there was a cancellation, which she did after lunch, much to my delight.

I've started looking at Hostal accommodation prospects in Palma, and possibly a bed for the night near Bristol Airport (at twice the price), as my flight is so early. It's either that or get a taxi, at roughly the same cost, to forestall the risk of the airport coach not running. It's hard to decide. I'm concerned that I don't get over tired travelling. I arrive in Palma mid morning and won't be able to book in until three in the afternoon. Lugging a suitcase around lacking sleep isn't something I feel happy to put up with these days. I am vulnerable enough, and must minimise my vulnerability if I am to get my Spanish Police check done and be of any use to others when I go on duty.

Before the weekend I discovered that my blood pressure medication runs out several days short of my return from Ibiza, so I had to write to my GP and beg for more. The prescription was ready for me to collect this afternoon. Then I went into town and got it made up in the big Boots Pharmacy in Queen Street. A soft spoken pharmacist from Ulster asked if I could spare her the time for a quick interview abour medication use which I was happy to do

Then I visited the Santander main bank branch to give notification of my being in Spain from next week. I was told I can use my debit card there to draw cash and pay for things with a fee, and that's useful, provided the exchange rate is not too heavily loaded in the bank's favour. I have already seen on-line that there's a Santander bank in Palma town centre where I can pay the bill for the Police check. Branches close at two o'clcok, so I'll have to look lively when I arrive there. 

Clare also needed some silica gel crystals from Lakeland for the de-humidifier she bought for her jewellery work bench. The bag was larger than either of us expected and weighed a couple of kilos at least. She also asked me to get some non-bio laundry liquid, wherever I could. It took me a couple of tries before I found the right one, then it was time to go straight to the Podiatrist and lug the shopping with me. It's a relief to think that I will now be able to walk relatively pain free while I'm away.