Hairdo

I sent a WhatsApp bon voyage message to Andrew after waking up this morning, as today he's starting the long journey to Malawi and the eye clinic he's helping to establish there. After breakfast, Clare's study group met at our  house, and I confined myself to the bedroom, writing a sermon for next Sunday. By the time I came downstairs again after they'd left, lunch was already cooked and on the table. We had a large fillet of Red Fish, which neither of us recall eating before, succulent and tasty, a bit like cod.

After lunch I went for a brisk walk around Llandaff Fields for an hour while Clare siesta'd, then we drove over to Rumney for a hairdressing session with Chris at his salon. While Clare was in the chair, I went for a walk around the lake at Parc Tredelerch as I did last time but today with my Sony HX90. It was misty and overcast, already seeming to be quite dark an hour before sunset. I snapped a big old heron on watch at the edge of a bank of reeds, some swans, coots and tufted ducks in the middle of the lake, plus a large number of assorted gulls resting on the water. Another brisk but rewarding walk before having my long but ragged hair trimmed to perfection. 

Although traffic was heavy on the return trip, it ran slowly without holdups, so we arrived home for an early supper, as Clare was then going out to her weekly meditation group. I couldn't bear to watch Wales versus England football at the World Cup, as their wins against England have been few and far between over the years, and as anticipated they were thrashed. There was nothing else of much interest on telly. Instead, I archived archived videos I've made from my computer to a backup hard drive.

Then I watched a full length movie reprise of the spy thriller 'Spooks' from  2015 on iPlayer entitled 'The Greater Good'. Fast paced and full of violence, it was in contrast to the Le Carre book I finished this afternoon, called 'Running Agents in the Field' which proceeded in a leisurely anecdotal way over the few days in which it was set, with only the odd threat or promise of violence and some brilliant intriguing dialogue masking the real intent of the agents throughout, albeit a little harder to follow.

Quiet weekend

Writing a Sunday sermon, editing and uploading photos, and updating this blog took up most of a sunny day, until late afternoon when I drove Clare to rendezvous with Caroline at Magor services west of Newport on the M4 for their visit to Auntie Daphne. Caroline having flown in from Durban at lunch time had driven down from Birmingham airport, and arrived a minute or so after we'd parked. We laughed at the perfectness of the timing, then drank a coffee and chatted for a while, before going our separate ways.

I returned to enjoy a quiet evening, watching a high octane 'Spooks' re-run, all about a flying visit from US President Bush to London, and the security hassles surrounding that. Co-incidentally, US President Obama is in town this weekend, being forthright about the consequence of the UK not leaving the EU, much to the annoyance of the Brexit lobby. With so many international figures speaking against Brexit, its campaigners are increasingly sounding as if their arguments are being lamed by a body of opinon that says the known risk from staying in the EU is more tolerable that the unknown potential risk of leaving. As if the world needs any more uncertainty in these still wobbly economic times.

'Spooks' was followed by the start of series two of 'Hinterland', which was like a slow motion movie after the frenetic pace of the former. Welsh 'film noir' it's being called. Yeah, OK, but it wasn't the much hoped for third series showing, but a re-run of series two on the national network. BBC Wales showed series two earlier this year. It was good to watch first time around, but seemed even slower this time, and didn't hold my attention nearly as much. Roll on series three. Soon.

SIM satisfaction.

I celebrated Wednesday's 'class Mass' at St German's, then returned home and cooked lunch, before taking Clare to the train for Coventry. She's looking after Rhiannon over the weekend, while Kath and Anto are gigging far up north in Cumbria. Apart from a couple of hours watching episodes of Spooks and Happy Valley on catch up TV, the rest of the day was devoted either to Lent blog writing or preparing material for the office. Somehow, even when I have time to myself and only me to look after, I still end up getting to bed later than intended.

I woke and breakfasted earlier than usual this morning, and having had less sleep than I really needed, I spent the morning doing very little, quietly, with the occasional doze in the armchair thrown in. One nice thing about being retired is not feeling guilty about such treasured indolence. I spent the afternoon in the office, by way of a visit to the Central Square building site, to take more photos of the construction work on the foundations, now under way.

I chatted with a lorry dispatcher outside a gate on Wood Street. He told me proudly that he'd seen 143 lorries of excavated subsoil off-site the day before. These are big vehicles, and must be carrying a 20-30 tonne load, so that's about 3,000 tonnes a day. The basement car park will be four and a half metres below ground level, 150 by 250m surface area. The weather as pretty rotten lately, but I was surprised later to discover it's over three weeks since I last visited the site to snap the progress.

After a wasted trip to the bank failing to satisfy all the requirements for signatory changes to the BCRP Board account, I spent another hour and a half on MS Publisher in the office, the set off to St German's for Stations of the Cross at seven. On the way, I called in the EE shop in Grand Arcade to top up my personal PAYG phone, and was told that I needed to exchange my old Orange SIM card for an EE SIM card, as before too long it would cease to be functional, now that the merger of companies at technical and administrative levels is moving to completion. As I had ten minutes to spare, I waited around in the shop until a PAYG SIM could be issued and top up payment taken.

Since Orange UK became EE, about three years ago, I have been unable to log into my phone account to check balance or top up as the Orange site denied all knowledge of me and my phone number or email address, although I could still top up by other methods. Also my present phone, about two and a half years old, has always needed to acquire the network manually, except when I'm abroad, where an Orange SIM still works automatically.

As soon as I returned home after Stations of the Cross, I swapped the SIM cards and found it worked automatically first time, perfectly. Moreover, I was able to download the EE mobile phone app, to enable me to check my balance and top up on-line if I wish to do so. Nice to have the phone working properly at last.

Coed Ely discovered

More time spent in the office yesterday, then out in the evening to St John's Canton for a concert in aid of Pedal Power, the local cycling charity. Two prolific and popular young Welsh singer songwriters performing under the name 'Brigyn' were the main act, and they were very good. Supporting them, however, was singer Heather Jones, one of the first generation singers of the modern Welsh popular song revival, with a career spanning fifty years. She's about the same age as Clare and I, but looking twenty years younger, with a voice that has the purity and beauty the distinguishes Joan Baez. 

She was rightly hailed as 'legendary' by the compere, with such a distinguished career behind her. She says she's now in semi- retirement. Her songs were all in Welsh but she spoke about her life in music as she introduced songs bilingually. When we spoke with her at the end of the concert she said that it was unusual for her to introduce her music bi-lingually. Raised an English speaker, she learned Welsh and kept Welsh speaking company from her school days onward in her life in music. What a wonderful performer, well known in Wales, but sadly not so well in the English speaking world of popular song.

Today, the weather was sunny if cold, perfect for a nice long walk. We drove out to Llantrisant, to the Ely river valley on the road to Tonyrefail, and then explored the walking paths of the 600ft wooded hill that rises to the west of the river, named Coed Ely, which means Ely wood. I was please to snap this Chiffchaff, just as it was taking off

We walked for a hour on the south side, then went for an excellent pub lunch at 'The Bear' in Llantrisant's main square. The pub is in fine fettle, but it's so sad to see that ancient hill town looking quite down at heel these days, with a number of empty shops - commercial life has drained away downhill to the Talbot Green retail park.

In the afternoon we returned to Coed Ely, having earlier found the north side car park, and we walked the forest trails for an hour or so, which occasionally gave us views north into the Valleys.

We walked right over the top to the south side, where trees give way to fields, with a view across the Severn Estuary fifteen miles away, as far as North Devon. Fortunately the rain didn't overtake us.

We returned home for tea and a nice relaxed evening, just right after some vigorous exercise. With a sermon already prepared yesterday, after cooking, I had time to watch 'Spooks' on catch-up, before it was time for the penultimate double episode of 'Trapped'. Despite its near black and white filmic environment, being shot mostly in extreme snowy weather, it holds the attention well, not only with its engaging plot line, but also with some fine acting on the part of all the principals. Altogether, a refreshing day off.