Unprecedented hearing in Parliament

I woke up at half past six this morning. The sun was already shining and I couldn't doze off again without first posting to WhatsApp today's YouTube link to Morning Prayer. Eventually, I dozed off again listening to the news, and got up late, just as Clare was off to her study group in Penarth. After breakfast, I spent an hour writing next week's biblical reflection before driving to Penarth to collect Clare for an early lunch, as she had an eye hospital appointment at two. We had just enough time to cook and eat together before I drove her to UHW.

Then I went for my daily walk and bumped into Fran and Mark, just as they were entering the park for an afternoon stroll, so we walked and chatted together. We then bumped into Mike, a mutual acquaintance who kept us at a distance, as he said was nearly at the end of a spell of self-isolation, having caught covid, most likely on a family trip to Sweden. Just as I was leaving the park, I bumped into eye surgeon Andrew, masked up and keeping me at a distance. He caught covid at work last week. By co-incidence I have been in the vicinity of three different people with covid in the past five days, having got through the last two years with hardly any encounter with a covid infected person. Is this what the virus becoming endemic means now? 

It's not life threatening, no worse to get over than ordinary 'flu, so no need to be so vigilant and worried about catching it. Can't say I'm comfortable with this casualness. To our social and economic benefit winter covid restrictions have helped to bring about a reduction in 'flu illnesses and related deaths. I'd be in favour of maintaining social habits which help maintain reduction in contagious sicknesses of any kind. Already the number of people wearing masks on public transport and in indoor entertainment and retail settings, not to mention churches, diminished remarkably even before it became optional. I don't see how this is publicly beneficial. Why tolerate contagion of any kind when it could be reduced?

President Zelensky of Ukraine gave a speech in Kyiv broadcasted live to members of Parliament and relayed by the BBC on the PM programme at five this afternoon. The first time this has ever happened. It was a powerful account of the war on a day by day basis. Ukrainians are still begging for a no-fly zone over their territory, but the risk of this escalating into a world war is too great for NATO or any other country to take. Western nations are pouring 'lethal military aid' into Ukraine to make up for this, to equip the people to keep fighting for themselves. The number of refugees is now over two million. Early estimates of the number rising to four million have now been revised upwardly to seven million, though the basis on which such a prediction is made is not explained.

It seems two Russian army generals may have been casualties of the invasion as well as several thousand troops. Remarkably, the innovative use of state-of the-art smartphone technology is helping to make a difference. With thousands of people able to take geo-located photos of conflict zones and post them to website aggregators, real time military intelligence can be harvested and applied to defending the country in an unexpected new way. The skilful use of drone weaponry is in the hands of a generation that grew up honing its skills on computer games and flight simulators. This is something the invaders can't have bargained for.  The Russian army still has a frightening amount of fire-power, and it's using it ruthlessly to empty and conquer targeted cities. They have underestimated those they expected to overwhelm. The anti-war tide of protest in Russia is rising in the absence of success. Already this  is undermining Putin's hold on power. How much more damage will his army do to Ukraine before the army turns against him and scapegoats his failure of leadership? We can but watch and pray.

Conflict preoccupations

Another dull and rainy day. Clare, undaunted was on her way out for a swim just after seven. I stayed in bed listening to news about the war in Ukraine. Slowly information about the historical background is being included in the news. Ukraine was a Republic of the USSR, but centuries ago was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of States, and thus more permeable to Western European influence. Old Slavonic is the basis of Ukrainian and Russian languages, as well as Polish. Ukrainian and Russian are both understood  and spoken in Ukraine, so language is not a political issue. Historically, monarchic rule characterised Russia but not Ukraine where Cossack democratic self-government was predominant.

UNHCR reports today that the number of refugees now exceeds half a million. Amazingly, Switzerland whose banks are a favourite hideaway place for rich Russians to keep their money has decided to impose the same sanctions on Russia as the EU, stating that such flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention is intolerable. 

Both BP and Shell have announced disinvestment of Russian gas field holdings, following pressure from the public and shareholders. Putin's actions have succeeded in uniting European and American nations and spurring them into decisive action in a way he cannot have predicted, or has he completely lost the plot?

Meanwhile Russian forces advance slowly and brutally in the face of continuing strong resistance, although the advance seems to have been impeded as much by Russian logistic inadequacies as military resistance. Also it seems that Ukrainian military drones which the Russians have failed to take out of action have contributed effectively. But, Kharkiv a northern Ukrainian city close to the Russian frontier, has seen heavy fighting today and multiple civilian deaths. Fighting has continued around the country despite talks between Russians and Ukrainians being held.

When not listening to the radio, I spent the morning finishing and uploading this week's Morning Prayer video, and preparing tomorrow's funeral service. After lunch I decided to brave the rain and take my daily walk, but it took me half an hour to find my rain trousers before I could go out. Later, I realised I couldn't find the Sony HX90 camera I took to Kenilworth to photograph Rhiannon's birthday party with. I wanted to upload and share the photos, but forgot over the weekend. I have the camera case but not the camera. I haven't a clue what I did with it after I got back, only I do recall noting that it needed to be recharged, and only got around to finding the charger today, but that's all. What have I done with it?

Clare's former colleague Jacquie arrived in time for supper. She's staying overnight and going with Clare and Fran to the Steiner School tomorrow to present Fran's icon of St David to the school in a St David's Day celebration. Pity I can't attend, but unfortunately I'm busy tomorrow.

Today, the last of the controls relating to the covid crisis are being lifted in Wales, made optional rather than mandatory, but face masks are still obligatory in shops, public transport, health and care settings. It doesn't seem to include churches. As far as many are concerned its already not obligatory, as many folk no longer bother with masks where they should. Don't ask don't tell seems to be operational around the issue of asking anyone if they are exempt from face mask wearing for health reasons, so it's all a bit of a fiasco in my opinion.

 

Time to start waiting

Since my gall stone gave me trouble last Sunday the discomfort and occasional pain beneath my right side rib cage hasn't hasn't gone away. A familiar symptom of inflammation, although it has recurred seldom in the three years since I switched to a dairy free diet. Now that I have almost completely recovered from my five rounds of surgery, I decided it was about time to start the process that will most likely lead to keyhole surgery to address the problem. 

As soon as I was awake this morning I rang the surgery for a telephone appointment, then wrote out a history of the trouble and what I'd done to mitigate the symptoms. Then I was ready when I was called by a GP at half past eleven. As a result of our 10-15 minute conversation, I have a blood test next week and an ultrasound scan has been ordered, the necessary first diagnostic step to confirm the symptoms are what they're supposed to be, and not something else. 

A course of action will then be proposed that will most likely mean getting in the long queue for surgery. The worse it gets the more likely that I'll be seen sooner rather than later, though I'd rather it didn't worsen. I spent far too long coping with the fistula and getting sicker awaiting treatment.  The trauma of those long waits are still with me and surface from time to time in my body memory if not my mind.

Once the GP call was over, I went out for some fresh air before cooking some chicken for lunch, Clare had prepared the veggies and some vegan protein balls for herself. I remembered Rufus' recommendation to drink some cider with lunch, which he found helpful to mitigate pain and discomfort from his gall stones - he is waiting for an operation already. Clare bought me the bottle of cider which I drank when she was out shopping, and at the end of my afternoon walk, I bought a larger one which will last over the weekend. It seems there's something about cider and even cider vinegar which helps the stomach to maintain an alkaline environment. We'll see if it works for me. 

The document I've been working on with Rufus lately, I ran past my old friend Roy, still in Alicante, and it was well received. Rufus is now trying it out on other parties, likely to be interested in a pioneering ministry initiative.

I watched the second half of the 'Dalgleish' episode this evening, which was fairly convincing. Clare went away and watched Royal Welsh College music videos on her tablet, less convinced than I that another 'hudunnit' was worth the time.

News reports from across Europe mention a significant rate of increase in covid infections - a fourth wave that is leading to a resumption of restrictions. It could be happening here as well, though high vaccination up-take means Britain is coping better with already high infection numbers. As I see it, all of Europe and the UK are paying the price for lifting restrictions early. Masks and social distancing contribute to curbing infection spread, even if it's less easy to say by how much. If they were obligatory everywhere it must help make a difference. For every person that does the right thing, however, there's another than doesn't care and things they have a right to be careless and risk infecting others.

  

Dunster drive

After breakfast we went to Dunster by car, to visit the National Trust stately home, dating back to the fourteenth century, transformed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by its wealthy landowning family into a substantial domestic country residence with landscaped gardens. The Bristol Channel is a mile or so away and the castle sits high above the coastal plain beneath the Quantocks on a fifty metre promontory. 

The house interior is largely Jacobean with handsome wooden panelling and stairs, its walls are covered with generations of family portraits. Whether or not you know anything about the people they portray, they demonstrate the way in which portrait painting evolved over three. centuries. The extensive gardens wrapped around the promontory on which the castle stands are stocked with trees and plants from far and wide, and some delightful footpaths weaving their way through tall trees bushes and plants. 

At the bottom is a winding stream with three bridges crossing it, all in different styles. Higher up a side valley the stream feeds a mill leet, leading to a working flour mill, with an overshot double waterwheel and four sets of grinding stones. It used to produce flour from cereals grown on the estate, but as this has been given up in favour of sheep farming organically grown grain is shipped in by the sackful from elsewhere. Ann came away with a bag of oats and Clare with a bag a spelt flour for bread making when we return home

In the valley on the western side is the village of Dunster. It has retained many of its mediaeval buildings and town plan. The mainly fifteenth century Parish Church of St George was once a Priory dating back to the 12-13th century and has an interesting internal layout. The chancel and sanctuary are under the central tower and there's a rood screen a couple of bays into the nave. The east end beyond the tower is furnished with an altar and seating in the form of rectangular stalls to the north south and west, as is found in some collegiate churches with a chapter within the building. The east end lancet windows are characteristic of an eleventh century foundation. None of these features are necessarily original. The nineteenth century restoration of a delapidated church was carried out by neo-gothic revival architect George Edmund Street, keen to impart to his work a sense of its history as a parish church of monastic origins.

In addition to a churchyard on the west and south sides, the land at the east end has been made into a park and garden, and there's a large mediaeval tithe barn on the north east side, renovated in recent decades and now used as a community facility. The narrow road through the village winds past the south boundary wall and in the street beyond passes a fifteenth century building called 'The Nunnery'. The Priory originally had a small number of monks whose residence has long disappeared, and a small number of nuns as well. Like the castle, a great deal of attention has been paid to the conservation of the built environment. Unlike the castle, the village remains populated and economically active with small shops and a post office.

On the way there, we had a fifteen minute traffic queue due to road works to get through the neighbouring village of Carhampton, but on the return trip thankfully, we had a clear run. Beyond Dunster on the way to Minehead are even more major road works, road closures and diversions increasing the travel delay. Fortunately, in the past week the road closure has been transferred from the day time to evenings, much to the relief of all those who go to Minehead for their shopping. At the moment, the steam train runs as far as Dunster, then there's a replacement service using an antique bus the rest of the way. Road works would add to the journey time and make it impraticable for a shopping commute. Road maintenance is vital for rural communities, so heavily car dependent, and tends to get done outside holiday season. It must be awful to live with.

I cooked supper and then we watched 'Have I got news for you' savagely satirical, followed by a romantic black comedy, sort of, coarse and in poor taste. I could have done without it. Scientific advice is openly advocating a return to the kind of minor restrictions in England which still exist in Wales, but Boris is doing his optimistic best to disregard warnings that contagion and hospitalization could again spiral out of control. This totally lacks in common sense, as if he's afraid of losing face politically, simply shrugging off growing concern. One local public health authority is making use of its powers insist on mask wearing in situations it has control of. Let's hope others will follow suit and put to shame the fool at the helm of government.

Freedom or more chaos?

I enjoyed a long and relaxed night's sleep without a duvet as the air temperature was a comfortable 23C and it wasn't too humid. Under the bright morning sun, the temperature went up to about 30C again. For me the sensation was just like being back in Malaga, and awakened memories of beautiful days under the sun. It's going to be a good while before I can return there with shifting sands of pandemic management and new viral variant threats making the future uncertain, except for the rich and crazy people determined to travel no matter what the cost to themselves and others. 

Today, the other side of Offa's Dyke, all legal covid restrictions are removed as covid delta variant infections continue to soar. What was made obligatory in similar conditions a year ago becomes optional, relying entirely on the numbers vaccinated to mitigate the impact. The Prime Minister and two cabinet ministers are now in quarantine, having realised that those in Downing Street 'pinged' by the track 'n trace app cannot get away with being infection tested daily, when hundreds of thousands around the country have to stop work and self isolate for the same reason, whether infected or not. 

Previews of an interview with Boris' former advisor Dominic Cummings released ahead of tomorrow night's broadcast give an impression of the chaotic reaction by Boris and his cabinet cronies at the beginning of the pandemic, when denial at the seriousness of the situation seemed to be the initial reaction, people reluctant to believe it was as bad as the scientific advisors said it was. But how many of them have any proper medical or scientific training in anything? Cummings is on a mission of vengeful boat rocking. The trouble is, his personal credibility was ruined by his own behaviour. Even if he tells the truth, he'll be doubted because of his motives, even if the evidence he presents vindicates him. It's as good as any political soap opera we've seen on telly in the past quarter century.

I took a trip to Tesco's before cooking lunch, uploaded photos and wrote a few things before Clare and I walked for an hour along the Taff, as much in the shade as possible. Clare doesn't enjoy the heat like I do. After supper, another episode of Iolo Williams's wildlife programme series on Pembrokeshire with some stunning photos of Kingfishers and their two fledgling chicks. So inspiring. Then I squeezed in a second episode of 'Baptiste', available in full on BBC iPlayer, before this week's new episode of NCIS series 17. Another guest appearance of Cote de Pablo as Ziva in a rather confusing (or was it just too fast moving for me?) part two follow through from last week's episode, before she mysteriously disappears again. I didn't find this reprise of an old story worth the effort that undoubtedly went into providing fans with closure. It felt tired, and un-glamorous.

Prairie in the park

Another warm day with clouds and sunshine plus the occasional shower. I spent the morning and part of the evening working on the audio file for next week's Morning Prayer and Reflection. Clare went to her study group and I cooked lunch in time for her return. It's a pleasure just to live without the constraint that an open wound imposed on me for so long. It's less of a struggle to get done all the things I set out to do, and for this I am most grateful.

Rain was threatened when I left for my afternoon circuit of the Fields and Bute Park so I wore a raincoat. It didn't rain and I ended up carrying it as I was overheating. Yesterday I got damp from drizzle as I didn't take a raincoat. I can't get it right, but refuse to encumber myself with a brolly just in case. Perverse is the word for it. Because of the abundance of rain earlier in the spring and present warmth the vegetation has grown with abundant luxury. I don't recall seeing bramble bushes before covered with so many flowers for so long, or did I simply not notice. 

An increased area of grassland in the parks, not mown for sports users is rich with wild flowers and long grasses, so we have more than just lawn green in the city landscape; pale gold, yellow, brown. It enhances biodiversity, economises on running costs and carbon footprint. It's an enhancement to our environment which hope will continue and felt to be beneficial to all, people and creatures alike.

Despite the continued rise in delta variant covid cases causing concern to all in the medical profession, the English government is pressing on with easing restrictions and making mask wearing voluntary rather than obligatory, insisting that everyone take personal responsibility for keeping each other safe. Well, we should do that in any case, but if there's no possible sanction other than a disapproving look or comment, some won't bother to think of others and the risk factor is enhanced. 

We're already seeing a third wave of covid infections, not as serious or dangerous as previous ones, but the outcome of the decision are quite unpredictable. It's being seen as an experiment in resuming normality (of a kind), but it's more of a political experiment than a scientific medical one. More of a gamble really and disquiet is being expressed by members of the public who consider themselves vulnerable, as much as medics. Tomorrow the Welsh government will announce its decision about restriction. It'll be more cautious and pay more attention to infection statistics and their impact, thankfully.

Unwelcome mixed messages again

After breakfast this morning I prepared and printed all my material for the funeral I'm taking tomorrow, then in the afteroon I walked into town, and took photos of construction sites around Central Square, then called into John Lewis' out of curiosity to see what's on offer in the summer sale. It's troubling to see how many more empty shops there are in St David Centre, in the Arcades, and main streets. Restaurants and pubs are open and serving outdoors, but weren't that busy. I guess that the return to office work isn't really under way yet. 

Boris Johnston is promising to end all covid restrictions in England three weeks from now, making mask wearing optional in places where it is currently mandatory. Opinion polls are showing that over two thirds of people surveyed don't approve of this and will ignore this permission. Trades Unions and the Labour party have expressed criticism of his intention. Mark Drakeford isn't promising anything at the moment, sensibly cautious in the light of the spread of the covid delta variant, preferring to rely on a review of the latest Welsh evidence before announcing a lifting of the restrictions. 

People break the rules anyway, and act inconsiderately, putting others at risk. Abandoning mandatory regulations, leaving it to common sense by making safe behaviour optional is tempting providence to my mind. Whatever changes are made I'll maintain the habit to follow the existing rules as best I can for the sake of others. Even a compliant person forgets sometimes. Obligatory rules are a 'red line' challenge to us to stay alert, to avoid getting or transmitting infection.

Owain is out of quarantine now, with no sign of having caught anything. He managed to work out with his 'pinged' social group that the infected person was a visitor without symptoms who only stayed for an hour, and he had no direct contact with them. So all's well that ends well. We look forward to seeing him on the weekend ahead.

We watched a lovely programme about Pembrokeshire wildlife with Iolo Williams. It showed a little of the Cleddau Estuary and Slebeck Park, which has awakened ideas of a visit there when we can. Then we watched a programme on Sky Arts about Iranian culture, which was of particular interest in its portrayal of Zoroastrianism, the religion of Persia before Islam. We were shown its temples, and some of the amazing massive bas-relief rock art of mythical figures dating from the third century CE. 

I was fascinated to learn that a quarter of the world's hundred thousand Zoroastrians still live and practice their faith in Iran, where the religion came into being. The majority are in India, some are in North America. The finally the last episode of season 16 of NCIS, rather odd in that it featured appearances of a ghost of the ex-wife of both Gibbs and Fornell, and an appearance by Ziva warning Gibbs of imminent danger to his life. She's not a ghost, despite being officially dead. Her death several years ago was faked to cover her disappearance.  Or so we were told.