May June be better

See what I did there? 😉

So the peculiarity that is 2020 marches ever onward. It seems long time ago that I welcomed in May with a nod to my Mum. What does "Blazing June" hold?

Well for one, it's unlikely to be as blazing as May - it's been an absolute roaster of a month bar a couple of chilly windy days and I've seen tell that in the next week or two we'll see temperatures declining and increased risk of rain, and my garden desperately needs the water to be honest.

Tomorrow sees the first real steps in a very cautious easing of lockdown by the Welsh Government, with the "Stay Local" message, because we need a new message don't we? It allows for people from two different households to meet outside (at last - hooray), but with guidance that this should be restricted to within a five mile radius but using common sense if for example you live in the wilds of Powys.

Whilst this is a welcome development, it seems to me from news, and social media that many people are ready stretching the guidance or flagrantly ignoring it. I will admit that we've hopped in the car and driven the 3 miles or so to Sully for a walk along the coast just to get a different view. We've also had a socially distanced cup of tea with our friends in their back garden a couple of times but have at all times kept well away from people. Common sense dictates that outside and at a distance, any risk is insignificant, but a bit more on common sense in a moment.

Tempting though it is to go to Barry Island one of our favourite walk spots, we'll hang on until it's allowed and the inevitable initial crowds have dissipated.  What we don't want or need is a replication of the recent scenes we've seen in England at Southend, Durdle Door, Bournemouth and Brighton to name just a few examples, and as frustrating as it is, the caution of the Welsh approach may be helping. On the other hand, it may be storing up a mad rush to the coast/beauty spots at the point the Welsh Government give us reign to go anywhere. Personally, I fear it's just delaying the inevitable.

Durdle Door, Dorset 30th May 2020: Image PA

Part of this rush to go frankly anywhere other than home in England is down to the gorgeous weather we're having with people not being in work for one reason or another and therefore having the time to do this, but it's undoubtedly also a reaction to the Dominic Cummings affair as people decide that if it's OK for him to break either the guidance or at the very least the spirit if the guidance, depending on how charitable you're feeling, it's ok for everyone else to break the rules. I think he and the UK Government have a lot to answer for in the way they've handled and communicated throughout this pandemic. I wouldn't have wished the management of this on anyone, but it seems they've made some   poor decisions at times.

The population (across the UK, not just in England) now seems to be split into two distinct halves. Those that are saying "bugger it" I'm going to do whatever I want to do because 1) I'm fed up of it all and 2) Dominic Cummings can and therefore so can I, and those (particularly in Wales) that are saying we should hold fast and not ease restrictions until we're absolutely sure and positive it's safe to do so. I was in the latter camp, but the longer this goes on I'm beginning to err towards the former. I think we need to allow for commons sense, even though some of the pictures we're seeing now suggest that in some parts of the country at least, that common sense is in very short supply.

And finally, on a different note, and like my pal Andy Pearce over at the "Better Out Than In" blog I think the time has come for a bit of a change on this blog.

I've been an inconsistent blogger over the 16 years of this blog's existence, with bouts of regular blogging interspersed with an occasional hiatus, most notably from 2016 to 2019. The blog has never had a theme, and was initially started just to enable me to jot down stuff that was of interest to me, in many ways as a sort of digital diary - I was never very concerned about who read it or getting many followers - if you read it and find something interesting or useful, I'm happy but it's not the be all and end all.

Blogging daily during lockdown has helped me come to terms with the current situation, whether I'm having a rant at the Government, posting about my walks or photography, but of late it's become more of a chore to write something every day and not repeat myself, and occasionally I've let my schedule slip and posted something at the last minute not because I had anything useful to write but just so I wrote something on that day.

So from tomorrow, I'm changing tack. I may post daily, but I may go several days without doing so. I'm promising myself to post at the very least weekly. And I may start to focus a little more on specific themes from time to time. My Fence Post post of a few days ago, got me thinking that it' might be fun to trawl back through my thousands of photos over the years and pick a particular shot I've taken that evokes particular memories, or reasons why I took the shot. So if you forgive the pun, I'll give it a shot, and see what happens!

Until next time....

#isolationlife
#staylocalsavelives

America launches astronauts from American soil

The most exciting story for me today was the launch of American astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into space. What makes this particularly newsworthy is that this is the first time since the shuttle programme ended in 2011 that the US has launched American astronauts from American soil.

Since 2011, the only way into space (and the International Space Station) has been by paying for a ride on the Russian Soyuz rockets - the same vehicle that Britain's Tim Peake went to the ISS on 3 years ago.

Having watched many of the Apollo and shuttle launches, the countdown always gets me - the last couple of minutes seems to go so quickly, and the 10 second countdown at liftoff makes my skin tingle - the don't have that countdown in Russia with the Soyuz - they just go at the anointed time

Additionally, the vehicle used today, the Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule is designed and built by Space X the company opened by the controversial Elon Musk. Thus, it's a commercial undertaking, albeit in partnership with NASA, and provides a route for commercial expeditions to the ISS and beyond in future. The technology used is incredible on a number of fronts. It was remarkable to see the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket return to earth and land with precision, upright on a drone platform in the ocean, enabling it to be re-used for future flights. This is now fairly standard Space X Falcon procedure but it's still amazing to see it happen. The astronauts have futuristic suits and helmets unlike anything seen before except perhaps in movies, and most of their controls in the Dragon capsule are touch screen

After the first launch scrubbed on Wednesday due to the weather, today's countdown and liftoff was perfect. The two astronauts now have a 19 hour journey to the ISS, where they'll spend around 120 days before returning to earth.

With worldwide travel pretty restricted, these tow astronauts have had the ride of their life today, and can no go and self isolate in the ISS for four months. Hopefully by the time they return, things will be a little bit better on this planet.

Image: NASA

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

27 Years

27 years ago at 1.15pm  on this day I married the fabulous Mrs H (or Mrs B as she was then). We chose the end of May to get married as we thought the weather would be warm and sunny, and of course it rained!

It hasn't though dampened the last 27 years of our life together, which in many ways have passed by in a flash. Many of those who celebrated our happy day are no longer with us, but we also have many additions to the family who weren't with us then but of course now are, as the circle of life goes round and round.

It's been an brilliant 27 years when all said and done. I'm lucky to be married to such a wonderful, kind and loving person, and brilliant mother to our two now grown up children. She's someone who seems to bring out the best in everyone and I'm incredibly proud to be her husband. She is also amazingly tolerant of my occasional *cough* bouts of grumpiness (I put that down to my genes - thanks Dad, and watch out James), especially at this moment in time when lockdown is getting us all to a state of raging cabin fever. As well as reflecting on the past 27 years today, I'm looking forward to the future and spending the rest of my life with her.

Me and the wonderful Anne on our wedding day 29th May 1993

And 27 years later...

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

The Fence Post

I take photographs for the simple pleasure of capturing a moment, a view or maybe a special occasion. Something that might invoke a memory when viewed back at a later date. I have no preferred theme to my shooting such as landscapes, wildlife, or street photography, I just snap whatever I think is worth a shot.

Occasionally, a photo may stand out for a particular reason, and this happened today. Mrs H and I went for a walk this morning to get out and about before the weather got to hot, and on account that we're going to be busy later having a BBQ in the garden and a few shandies as it's our daughter's 23rd birthday.

We walked up to the Wenvoe Castle golf course, a place we've been many times over the last couple of months, although it's now open to golfers so we had to be wary of flying golf balls. Actually, the place seemed fairly quiet, and judging by the shots I saw being hit, it was evident that no one-s played for almost three months. There were golfing singletons about (currently rules in Wales allow you to play alone or with one other member of your household) and I did see a woman apparently caddying for her husband which seemed to be a marvellous idea!

Anyway, we walked through the course and then down a lane that splits the first nine from the back nine, and it was along this lane I took this shot of a fence post.

Ageing

Now ordinarily, a photograph of a fence post is nothing to get excited about. It wasn't until I got home and was flicking through today's shots that this one stood out to me from amongst the landscape views of the Vale, a couple of squirrels and a distant woodpecker.

Initially the reason I took the shot was because of the bright morning sun on the vividly yellow lichen. But the more I looked at this shot, the more intrigued I was. I thought about the passing of time, and specifically ageing. The lichen on the post is itself the obvious indicator that this post has been here for several years. But it's also fallen at an angle over time. I don't suppose it was put into the ground this way, unless the person doing it has DIY skills like me! That's two indicators of the passage of time. And then there's the rusting barbed wire, slowly oxidising over the months and years.

Looked at from this perspective, this photo now means more to me that just some yellow stuff on a concrete post, or a colourful snap on a walk. It's got history - perhaps not decades worth, but it's certainly been there a while, and the three things that pull that together - the lichen, the subsiding angle and the rusty barbed wire make me think that for all the wildlife and magnificent views we saw on our four miler this morning, this for me, was the shot of the day.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Cheque mate

Apologies dear readers for my tardy, brief and frankly lacking posts of the last couple of days. I've had other things on my mind (mostly trying to quell my anger around politicians and their aides).

However, it's a new day and I have something else to rant about 😀

Cheques. Remember them? About 10 years ago there was a plan to phase them out in 2018, but that got pulled when people realised that a lot of people, and primarily the elderly were, and were likely to continue to be dependent on them. You don't see them very often these days (we even pay our window cleaner and milkman via online banking (OLB) and Direct Debit respectively), but when you do the circumstances fall into one of two camps. You're either a payer or a recipient.

As a payer you have to pay for something via cheque. "What?" I hear you say. Surely there aren't places that don't accept card payment these days, and where the amount is too great for cold hard cash?

Leaving aside the increasing distaste amongst most people for coins and folding paper in favour of contactless - I last withdrew cash at the beginning of March and still have all of it in my wallet),  it's true that some places still don't or won't accept card payments. Primarily the reason given is the setup and fees associated with managing card payment that means that some, often smaller companies don't like the financial hit. However, this has been offset in recent years by systems such as iZettle that run off credit card sized readers that can attach to you phone (think Christmas market traders for instance). These can be set up at low cost although I accept there's usually a "per transaction" fee. So the argument that it's too expensive to take card payments doesn't really hold water.

The second scenario is when you're lucky enough to be the recipient of a cheque. If you're unlucky, this might be to offset payment you've already made, but the best occasions are when it's someone just giving you some money - it happens! But then the realisation hits you, that you've got to pay the darned thing in before you can get hold of that lovely moolah. and that's where things might become tricky.

I've recently been sent a cheque as a donation to the cricket club where I'm secretary. A lovely gesture (thank you to the donor, even though they're unlikely to be reading this). I'm also expecting a cheque from someone who doesn't do online banking so bank transfer is out, in respect of payment for something that I've already paid for on their behalf.

I've been a customer of my bank's OLB system almost since they rolled it out years ago. Despite some of the scare stories, I'm an advocate of OLB. I find it incredibly convenient, easy, safe and secure and increasingly feature rich. However, they don't cater for the paying in of cheques which feels like a big gap in their offering. I tweeted their customer service Twitter account this morning to enquire whether there was any likelihood of them having such a feature in the foreseeable future. To their credit they responded within minutes, but their response was negative - it's not something they are planning, at least any time soon.

They did suggest, not very helpfully, that I could visit one of their branches or pay it in via a Post Office, but obviously that wasn't my point. For one thing this would entail a physical visit to said branch or the Post Office, which rather flies in the face of encouraging online banking. But a visit to a bank it will have to be. However, with increasing branch closure (not to say reducing Post Office branch closures) and currently reduced opening times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, visiting branches is becoming increasingly challenging, especially if you have to work. It's a good job I'm retired and have the time to go.

Some banks do have this functionality within their OLB offering - it usually requires you to take a photo of said cheque and attach as an image, but that's got to be easier and quicker than getting in a car and driving to the nearest branch. Assuming it's still there and open of course.

Photo: wiseguys.co.uk

Out of interest, a quick Google can return a list of banks that do allow the depositing of cheques via phone. 

Banks where you can pay in cheques with your phone

• Halifax
• Barclays
• Lloyds
• HSBC
• Bank of Scotland
• Starling

Banks where you can't pay in cheques with your phone

• First Direct
• Monzo
• Nationwide
• Natwest
• RBS
• Santander
• TSB

Until tomorrow.... 

#isolationlife 

#stayhomesavelives

Better late than never

I’m writing this at half past ten in the evening. I’ve completely forgotten to think about writing a post today even though I have a reminder set on my phone, and in all honesty there hasn’t been anything particularly urgent occupying my mind  today, well not worth blogging about anyway.

Maybe it’s a more general reflection on my current state of mind, which is being bloody fed up of all this coronavirus malarkey. 

Sure, it could have been a lot worse. We’re all fit, well and comparatively unaffected by the virus (other than the frustration of lockdown). My son returns to work (virtually) tomorrow after several weeks on furlough. 

I’m looking forward to the Welsh Government announcing something positive tomorrow at their breifing, although the news tonight reported that any changes are likely to be ‘cautious’. 

Hopefully I’ll have something a little more constructive and positive to post tomorrow.

Until then

#staysafe

#stayathomesavelives

Broken Britain

I'm angry. Still angry. I don't often get angry. Grumpy yes, angry no. The Dominic Cummings affair though has pushed me over the edge, and judging from what I'm reading, hearing and seeing, many, many others.

Will BJ and DC now see the anguish, hypocrisy and anger they have caused over this matter? They probably have (if even indirectly - they probably have lackeys to do that for them), but are choosing to ignore it. I'm not going to go on at length - there's enough information, analysis and opinionating out there to go around with lots to spare.

And now Boris tells "England" that non-essential retail will be opening from 15 June, whilst here in Wales we remain ostensibly in lockdown.

I give up.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

I've hit the wall

I've got nothing to blog about today. I'M FED UP and frankly I just can't be arsed.

I can't write about the garden (again). WellI could but you might be getting bored of that. I haven't taken any photos today (although I might have a blog plan for June based on photography). I certainly can't write about the current Dominic Cummings situation. Well again I could, but it'll just make me even madder than I am about it already, and I'm already taking medication for blood pressure!

So sorry folks, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow when hopefully something might have inspired the embers of an idea for a post.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Incredible bird photography

Yesterday a picture of a swift appeared on my Twitter timeline. As most tweets contain a photo, that fact in itself is not particularly interesting, although I suspect that not everyone is familiar with the swift, a summer visitor with its beautiful scythe like wings. Famed for allegedly being able to sleep on the wing, and rarely coming to ground, you know it's summer when you see these birds flying high chasing insects.

No, what really struck me was the photograph itself. It's an astounding shot of a swift heading straight towards the photographer, it's wings like razors.  A copy of the image taken by Somerset based photographer Carl Bovis (@CarlBovisNature, website) is below, but go to the tweet link above and open the image for a full view.

Swift - Credit Carl Bovis (@CarlBovisNature, https://linktr.ee/carlbovis)

As a very amateur photographer and nature lover myself, I'm absolutely taken aback by this image on a number of levels. Firstly taking pictures of any bird in flight is a feat in itself, evidenced by the number of times I've shot some lovely branches of a tree but no bird! To get your camera settings right to get a clear, sharp shot AND manage to get the bird in the frame takes incredible skill, and no doubt patience (and you have to have the right gear). Carl undoubtedly has all this plus bags of experience taking these sort of shots. Secondly, swifts generally fly quite high - I did tweet Carl and ask him about this, and he graciously replied quite quickly telling me that on this occasion the bird was quite low - nevertheless a head on shot of a swift must be quite rare! And thirdly, to capture this bird so precisely head on makes this image all the more stunning. Its wings are like knife edges and in the image you can immediately sense the manoeuvrability and speed of the bird.

Intrigued, I immediately started following Carl on Twitter and looked back through his timeline. The images he takes of birds are quite remarkable. They put my feeble efforts of a wildlife to shame, but I guess I take comfort in that I love taking photographs however they come out, and eventually, with enough practice I may one day take that real "keeper" shot!

I've also jumped straight in to buy Carl's book because if this one image is anything to go by I'm going to love leafing through his book to see the photos and learn more about how, when and where he takes these amazing shots.

Finally, and on a serious note, it appears that someone used (whether intentionally or unintentionally) a photo of Carl's on a Twitter post without crediting him. The net result is that many of those viewing that tweet believe the poster to be the photographer especially as their profile picture showed them holding a camera. Unlike many photographers, Carl does not watermark his photos, but to use his or indeed anyone else's images without crediting the original photographer is a big no no.

Twitter, as I've mentioned on many occasions before, can be a pretty unpleasant place at time, but when you find jewels like this, and are able to communicate directly with people that until that day you'd never heard of before, it shows the platform can be used for. It certainly made my day.

If any of nature, photography or birds are your thing, give him a follow. You won't regret it!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

How quickly will we forget?

To say it's been an odd few months is no understatement. Before Christmas we were all concerned with  the trials and tribulations of Brexit (remember that?), Boris finally having got his way to "Get Brexit Done. Blimey, if that was all we had to worry about! Looking back now, we can see how the Government loves a soundbite/message and was perhaps a foretaste of what was to come with "Stay At Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives", shortly followed by "Stay Alert (I still don't know what that means"), Control the Virus (I still don't know what that means either), Save Lives".

Anyway, fast forward to the start of the year and we all watched from afar as the coronavirus spread westwards at a rate of knots, blissfully going about our business as usual, before it was too late, and we were suddenly in lockdown (or a lighter version of it, because let's face it we were never in real lockdown).

During the last couple of months, we've (mostly) seen people being nicer to each other, helping neighbours and friends out who are isolating or shielding, clapping the NHS and other key workers. We've left notes and sometimes gifts for our postmen/women, refuse collectors. We've seen business models change to adapt to lockdown. We've learnt to work from home, obey social distancing rules and live without things that previously we might have seen as "essential". We've done all those jobs we've been putting off for weeks, months, or even years. we've de-cluttered, we've learnt to cook. We've possibly exercised more, perhaps not because we wanted to exercise per se, but because it was an excuse to get out of the house, but hey, let's not decry the fact that we are at least exercising! Many of us have discovered more about our local area than we ever knew before, and probably would never have known if it weren't for this pandemic.

Sure, we've missed (and continue to miss) many things. Popping round to a friends house, or the pub, or going to a restaurant, theatre or on holiday, but we've survived.

At some point though, things will start getting back to some sort of normality. In some places in the UK (England I'm looking at you), this has started sooner than for the rest of us. Having said that, despite Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland continuing their stricter lockdown approach, we do have coffee shops, garden centres, fast food outlets, DIY stores, car washes, etc open, and we do have people using them, almost certainly on non-essential visits. We also have people getting in their cars and driving to places for exercise, or just because they want to.

Let's not kid ourselves here. Whilst in Wales, at least locally, we're not seeing the mass migration to beaches and parks that are happening in some parts of England played out across news and social media, we're not holier than thou. When a picture of a packed Southend beach from last weekend was posted on Twitter alongside an photo of an apparently empty Whitmore Bay at Barry Island as a comparison, along with the predictable comments, what you might have missed were other comments and reports on other social media timelines saying that actually, Barry Island was busy that day (not ridiculously so, but it wasn't empty either. Apparently Cardiff Bay was also packed. Anyway, I digress.

So, the question I have is this. When we do see lockdown lifted, and restrictions eased, how much of everything that we've done and adapted to in the last two to three months will remain, and how much will we quickly forget as we rush back to our cars and self centred lives? Will we continue to talk to our neighbours over the fence, or check in on that little old lady at the end of the road? Will we not moan about queues, or take public transport instead of jumping into our cars, or God forbid even carry on walking? Will we stop appreciating the NHS, and all other key workers we've been so resolutely thanking and applauding these last few weeks? I'm not suggesting we continue clapping every Thursday - that needs to end sometime.

Will we all flock back to Wetherspoon's for our cheap beer after decrying them so vehemently for not paying their workers early on in the crisis and saying we'd never visit s 'Spoons again? News reports of massive queues at recently opened McDonalds for example (or let's face it, anything that opens - Starbucks, recycling centres, garden centres - God knows what will happen when the high street shops open), suggest that however much we say one thing, as soon as the opportunity arises, we instinctively resort to our previous behaviours, and will do anything for a soggy burger and fries, or cup of coffee. In a nutshell, how easily we forget.

I'd like to think we won't, but I'm not holding my breath.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Two planets and a spaceship

Last night I spotted two planets and a spaceship!

Venus has been shining brightly in our skies for some months, although will soon disappear from view. You can't miss it. It's the brightest object in our skies low in the west in the early evening and I've previously taken a photo of the planet when it was in conjunction with the star cluster Pleiades.

Venus/Pleiades 4th March 2020

In the last few days though, it's been joined in the sky by Mercury the planet nearest to the sun. It's a rare sight - for a start it never gets about 28º from the western horizon making it difficult to see unless you've got a great field of view, and secondly it's usually not very bright meaning observing it requires binocular or a telescope. Currently though, it's easily observable with the naked eye - but not for long. This photo was taken by someone I follow on Twitter last evening (@susan_snowy) and shows both planets well.

Venus (top left) and Mercury (bottom right)
Copyright @susan_snowy

Over the next few days as Venus sinks lower in the skies there will be a "conjunction" (a visual coming together, even though they're actually about 31 million miles apart).

It's worth getting out and having a look as soon as it gets dark - I was out at 10pm last night to see this whilst preparing for the International Space Station (ISS) to pass overhead.  Mercury is elusive, so to be able to tick this one off your "I've seen list" is well worth doing.

I've posted about the ISS several times previously, but make no apologies for doing so again. This is a real spaceship, around 250 miles up, going at 17,500 mile per hour, orbiting the earth once every 90 minutes. Currently with a crew of three (two Russians and an American). Last night's pass was epic. It appears (as it almost always does from the west/west south west and flew overhead visible as a very bright yellow dot. The pass was six minutes in length and the brightness didn't fade until it it disappears from view over some houses. Sometimes it fades quickly depending on where the sun is (it's the sun reflecting off the station that makes it visible). My photo below, isn't the best ISS shot I've ever taken (got my exposure settings wrong), but who cares!

ISS flying overhead
150 second time-lapse:
Tripod mounted Canon 100D
18-50mm lens
ISO100
f11
remote shutter

Still in space, next week (May 27th to be exact) sees the launch of Space X's Crew Dragon, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket with two American astronauts who will fly to and from the ISS. This is a historic launch and flight as it's the first time American astronauts will have launched from US soils since the shuttle programme ended in 2011, relying on Russian Soyuz craft ever since.

This flight is called "Demo-2", and follows "Demo-1" an unmanned flight to the ISS just over a year ago. The two astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are NASA veterans. They might not have time for Twitter at the moment, but can both be followed at @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken respectively. whilst there have been test flights, you've got to admit it takes some balls to be sat on top of a rocket - especially in an historic first. The launch will undoubtedly be available to view on stream, probably via Nasa and Space X.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad would have been 91 today. He died in December 2016 a week after after collapsing at home. He wasn't a well man by any means, but I don't think anyone expected that he wouldn't recover from that event. We all thought he was too stubborn and bloody minded to go that easily.

Born in 1929 when the world was a very different place, he grew up in Sale, Manchester. His father was variously in the army, a confectioner, and a school caretaker (he might also have been a bookie). The family endured a torrid few years in the 40's. The first of his two older sisters Dorothy, died in 1945 from tuberculosis at the age of just 22. Six months later his mother died aged 52, and on Boxing Day 1947 his other sister Joan also died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.

Aged 8, 1937

After a period working as a railway clerk, Dad joined the Royal Navy and served abroad during the Malay Emergency. It was in the Navy that he met my Mum, who was also in the Navy as a serving WREN.

He was a qualified sailing instructor (Front left)

A post sailing pint and a fag! (Standing, with cigarette)

On leaving the Navy he briefly worked for Littlewoods as a trainee manager before working for Mars, the confectionary company, initially as a salesman with a little van in the south of England (Hampshire and Wiltshire) but latterly as a manager on the chocolate line at Mars' large factory in Slough. We were never short of chocolate or Spangles (remember them?) in our house!  I can also recall the smell of chocolate that pervaded the air any time we drove near to the massive industrial estate where the Mars factory was located!

Dad's Mars van c1960

In late 1969 Dad left Mars for a manager's position at Geest (the banana people), where he was responsible for (amongst other things) making coleslaw. That move necessitated a relocation from Slough to rural Lincolnshire, a place where we lived for 10 years in the village of Donington. The part we lived in was wholly agricultural, and flat. Big sky, sugar beet, sprouts, cabbages as far as the eye can see! It can be a stark place, but I love going back there when we go to visit my elder brother who still lives close to where we lived. As an aside, and perhaps in a spooky foray into the future, I remember once coming with my Dad on a trip to Barry where the Geest ships sometimes docked. Now I live here. Spooky indeed.

A Board meeting. Dad top left. Think this was during his time at Geest
No computers or mobiles in those days!

After being made redundant from Geest in a move I don't think he saw coming, he had a short spell as a manager with the packaging firm Linpac, based near Goole on Humberside. Dad commuted there by car, around a 160 mile round trip, no mean feat in the 70's. I don't think he was ever particularly happy there, and in 1979 after much deliberation and input from all of us as a family, at the age of 50 he took a brave decision to quit and took a substantial pay cut to work as a Field Commissioner for the Scout Association covering Avon and Wales. He'd been heavily involved in scouting as a volunteer until then. So we uprooted again and moved to Chepstow. He worked for the Scout Association until he retired, but was highly respected and kept involved almost up until his death particularly through his massive network of contacts and my sister who also works for the Scouts in a roughly similar type of role.

In his Scout uniform of which he was hugely proud

As well as this work, he was also active in the local community. He was Secretary of the local Athletic Club for several years, played in the local quiz league, and sang in the Chepstow Male Voice Choir. He could be a truculent and antagonistic bloke at times, perhaps the embodiment of the "grumpy old git" (I think that's where I get it from). He was never wrong about anything in his eyes and the word stubborn was made for him. He was still driving until about a year before his death. When his licence was pulled for health reasons, he kicked up an awful fuss - he'd recently been berating other drivers (actually, skip the "recently") for driving too close to the white line as he was getting through wing mirrors at an alarming rate. He absolutely wouldn't have it that it was probably him not the other drivers.....

He loved his beer, cricket, the sea, dogs (of which he had many over the years), France, where he visited several times and had some dear friends, but above all he loved his family.

I miss him , and strangely (or not) I often have dreams where the two of us (and occasionally others) are travelling somewhere. I'm sure a dream psychologist would have a field day with that.

I'm not sure what he'd make of our current situation had he still been with us. I'm guessing that despite being in the vulnerable group on both age and health, he'd have still taken his dog out, and gone shopping himself.

A poor quality photo, but the last one I have of him, with my younger brother, about 3 weeks before he died

I will raise a glass to the "Squire" tonight.

Until tomorrow

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Lockdown blues

I've got to admit it. Spending two and a half months barley venturing from my door (bar the odd walk up to the local golf course), is not how I envisioned my first year of retirement.

The initial novelty of lockdown has long since passed. As I've mused on this blog before, I'm not even sure that we have lockdown in any real sense of the word now. Coffee shops, DIY shops, golf courses, garden centres are all open - I even sent my son to B&Q today to get a new toilet seat, as I broke an old one whilst decorating (I consider this an essential purchase). Despite texting me to say it was "so busy" along with a photo of a queue, he was gone barely half an hour, so it can't have been that bad. Roads are busier by the day. My wife said that one of her work colleagues suggested that the promenade at Penarth recently is just as busy (if not busier) than "normal" - whatever that means now, with people walking, sitting, drinking coffee and so on.

So whilst I'm trying to remain "on message" by staying at home, seems like the world and his dog have decided that lockdown's done.

I'm fed up. I want to get out and about, if only to hop in the car drive to Penarth and go for a walk somewhere different and buy a coffee from a shop  just to change the day to day picture because I'm getting stir crazy here.

Richard Pryor, left, and Gene Wilder in “Stir Crazy.”

Whilst I understand the Welsh Government's cautious approach, that's only going to be effective if everyone stays compliant with the lockdown message, and it feels to me that is no longer the case.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Vaping -a visible reminder about how germs and a virus can spread

The idea for this post came to me today when I was taking my short exercise walk around the local playing field. I passed (at a fair distance) a man and a woman standing by their car, chatting and both were vaping.

Full disclosure here, I'm not having a go at people who vape or smokers. I'm an ex-smoker, although in truth I haven't smoked for about 30 years now, and like many ex-smokers, since giving up I've been completely anti-smoking in any shape or form. I believe that that vaping is "better" than smoking tobacco, although I haven't grafted through any research to establish that as fact. I also know that many people transition to vaping as a way to give up cigarettes (although in truth, the people I know personally that have done this seem to vape far more than they ever smoked). In any case, whether it's better or worse, I do know that inhaling anything into you lungs other than pure air can't be good for you in the long term.

The thing that has always struck me about vaping though, and particularly relevant in these times of virus spread, is just how far a vape cloud goes when exhaled. and it's no fun being stuck in a mist of someone else's exhaled strawberry or caramel sweet, sticky vapour. It was this that prompted this post. Actually being able to see the clouds of vapour being breathed out from these two individuals, with the vapour swirling around them and then being quickly carried off on the breeze, I was starkly reminded of how easy it would be for a an invisible virus to spread very, very quickly. And if we were comparing a virus to a vape cloud, then I'd argue a two metre distance certainly ain't enough.

Vape cloud (Flickr)

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

A busy day in the garden

Lockdown, such as it is, has some advantages. With nowhere much to go, and time on my hands (which admittedly I had anyway) I've taken the time to learn some new photography post-processing skills. Not formally, but by watching some videos, and just getting in there and having a go.

Post processing is the art of taking a photograph straight out of the camera (or OOC) lauding it into a software programme and tweaking it in any number of ways to improve the final shot.

For many years I thought this was cheating - surely a good photographer should be good enough to get the shot right first time, but it's not that straightforward. They say a camera net lies, but that's not strictly true, and sometimes what comes out isn't quite what you expected. Or it is, but you want to enhance it.

The recognised top of the shop program for doing this is Adobe's Photoshop, but it's eye waveringly expensive - especially for an amateur like me - there are many packages to choose from, but the absolute cheapest starts from around £9 a month and goes north fairly quickly from there.

I use its little brother, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and also have Skylum's Luminar 4, although there are still alternative cheaper programs, and free options available.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll have seen some of my tweaking previously. I rarely shoot in black and white, but have posted photos that were originally taken in colour and then tweaked into black and white. The moon photo I posted a couple of weeks back was enhanced to give more contrast.

I've also leant how to add watermarks to my photos - something neither of my current programs due by default, and useful if I have a particulary nice shot I don't want anyone to nick and claim credit for.

Today, I decided to have a little bit of fun with a new (for me) technique and try and post an image similar to one shown on the BBC website today, and the results as a first attempt are satisfying.

I'm calling it "A busy day in the garden!"

A busy day in the garden

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Woody Woodpecker

Bit late and a bit rushed to post today. Shortly I'm off to partake in the weekly family "virtual pub Quiz" I've mentioned before. Although broadcast on YouTube on a Thursday, it's our Saturday evening 8pm lockdown activity. Lately I've been coming off much worse, due to my sketchy ability to answer questions on TV and music. 3rd out of 4 the last three weeks which doesn't do much for my competitive nature. Mrs H and son taking the honours. Hopefully I'll do better this week.

Today has mostly been pottering in the garden and an almost 5 mile exercise walk around the golf course area. We saw both types of woodpecker - a Lesser Spotted (the black and white one with a red head) flew right across our path at one point - too quick to photograph. We say the green woodpecker as we left the golf course into the Cardiff & Vale crematorium grounds. He was about 40 yards away heaving a right feast on an ants nest by the side of the road. I didn't have my longest zoom, on, so the photos below are the best I could get at the extreme end before he got too nervous of me and flew away, with the second one cropped right in as much as I can before losing too much picture quality.

At max zoom

Cropped in

And also, here is a rather nice shot (I think so anyway) of a bluebell that I took in the woods close by.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

The things you do in lockdown you'd never do otherwise

I was sitting in the conservatory yesterday (as you do when you're stuck at home - if you've got a conservatory of course), and noticed that the roller blinds were looking a bit, shall we say, in need of a clean. Actually they were manky.

Couple of points here for context. Our conservatory (built before we moved in), was built by cowboys. For one thing it had a laminate floor, laid straight over some joists above a 5"-6" void. That meant walking on it was like walking on a trampoline. We fixed that. The conservatory frame itself (uPVC) looks like a 5 year old had built it out of spare bits from their lego box. It's OK, but it's got gaps where there shouldn't be, and the overall handiwork was, erm crude. Still we stuck with it (it's a lot cheaper than pulling it down and starting again, although in hindsight...). The roller blinds themselves, and they're pretty bog standard blinds at that, have faded over the years. Anyway, this all means that it's not the poshest conservatory in the world, but it does a job. But after a damp and dingy winter the blinds were beginning to look a little grim.

So I took them down, unrolled them, checked them in the bath one at a time with a washing machine tablet and a large dose of Vanish. A good soak and rinse later, and a dry on the line they look remarkable better. Not brilliant, as they'e slightly two-tone - they were probably once cream, but having spent most of their life rolled up  the bottom bit tends to be more sunbleached, but at least the grime's gone.

Maybe (probably) I should have done this every year since we've lived here, but the reality is, at least in this house, a lot of these sort of jobs just don't get done, until that moment when you have a little more time to reflect and think..."Oh dear, that needs looking at...."

Still, I suppose that's what lockdown and retirement's for......

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

The power of Twitter

A bit late today. Got caught up in other stuff and then have just been out to clap for the NHS!

The social media channel Twitter, can be a bit of a nightmare. People can post anything they like (pretty much), which is both good - because there's pretty much nothing off limits and you see some great stuff on there, and bad, because people often use it as a vent for their frustrations, anger, strong views, or fake news. It's often used as a ranting platform (or as much as you can rant in the 280 character limit), and there are some truly despicable people out there.

However, as always there are two sides to the coin. I've been a user for over 12 years, from when it was still in its infancy. Over that time I've posted almost 30,000 times and have massed a meagre 400 followers, although I do count a couple of well know celebrities amongst that number (God knows why). I've tweeted (and had a response from) an astronaut on the International Space Station, and follow most of the US, Canadian and European astronauts that have been up there for the last 8 years or so. As a breaking news platform it just about beats everything - you often read about stuff on Twitter before it hits any of the major news outlets, although as with everything else you need to be cautious), it's as subject to hoaxes as any platform.

I often use the platform as my first port of call on customer service queries. Most companies have a Twitter presence, and the public nature of the platform means every who follows me can see if I complain about company X, so businesses tend to be inclined to deal with problems perhaps a little quicker than if you revert to email for instance. It doesn't always work though, and some companies are either frustratingly silent or tend to post bland, unhelpful responses - Train companies are particularly good at this - complain that your journey is going badly and the train is crowded  and they'll come out with a "We're really sorry about that".

During the current pandemic it's been a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand you've got the pro-Government tweeters, vs everyone who thinks they've done a terrible job, vs the news channels who is seems are biased both towards and against the Government (you can't win in politics). And the there are ordinary, sensible people asking good questions, giving sound advice - one voice of reason I've started following during this time is oncologist Karol Sikora (@ProfKarolSikora) who has remained calm and objective whilst those elsewhere seem to be either spouting rubbish or defending poor decision making.

Anyway, today I used the platform to answer a question. A friend had asked me about a photo of a crayfish I took some while back, asking if it was a native or one of the introduced, invasive and destructive (to native species) Signal crayfish. I didn't have a clue and the two species look virtually identical, so it's hard even with a photo, but I knew Twitter would come up trumps.

I posted the photo (attached here), and asked Twitter to do it's work.

Probably a Signal crayfish

I cheated a bit by tagging Will Millard, (@MillardWill) someone I've shared a couple of tweets with in the past who's an angler and BBC presenter (and who incidentally lives in Cardiff). He told me what he thought, tagged someone else and within 5 minutes I had my answer. It's a Signal.

Since then a few more Twitterati have responded to my tweet confirming the initial suspicions.

Used this way, it's a great tool. I love it (as you've probably guessed), and probably spend far too much time flicking through my timeline.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

Sun, sea and sand. It'll just have to wait

Having already lost an Asia cruise and a long midweek break to Derbyshire to the coronavirus pandemic in the last three months, our next holiday was supposed to be in six weeks to Aghios Georgios North, a fabulous, quiet part of Corfu that we've been to several times before. We stay in a small, incredibly well run family hotel, and we love it to bits (as does the multitude of annual returners).

However, we've sadly resigned ourselves to the fact that it's not going to happen this year and so have bitten the bullet and re-arranged our trip for the same time next year. That means, as of the time of writing instead of 37 days, we have 400 days to wait until we see our Greek family again. This is what we'll be missing...

A cold Mythos on the hotel patio overlooking the beach

The Costas Golden Beach Hotel (shh...dont' tell anyone about it)

The "guard" dogs. L-R Paris, Rocky and Hector

Ah.....Greece

Aghios Georgios North. The hotel's smack in the middle of the bay

As I've mentioned before, as I'm now retired, and my wife is semi-retired, we are fortunate enough to be able to be more flexible in our travel and holiday plans, so whilst we're now zero for three in 2020, we still have three more trips in the calendar. A week in another favourite place, Pembrokeshire is slated for August, and we remain hopeful that that one might happen. Then at the end of September, we're due to go on a cruise with our best friends, departing Venice taking in Dubrovnik in Croatia, Kotor in Montenegro, Katakolon and Santorini in Greece before returning to Venice.  We're pretty convinced that's not going to happen, although it's still four and half months away. Finally, we normally go away in late October/early November for a week with a bunch of my wife's side of the family - usually to Derbyshire, but last year and for this this, to the North Devon coast. That will hopefully still go ahead as it's a long way off yet, and it's always a blast.

In the meantime we stay in lockdown. It's tough when you see England beginning to open up. Whilst I still think Wales (and Scotland and Northern Ireland) is taking the right approach, I'm genuinely getting fed up and bored of being in the house excepting for the occasional short walk for daily exercise. I'd love to just be able to go and wander round the shops, or as my English friends can no do, jump in a car and go wherever I like to exercise. Today in lieu of not being able to get on a golf course whilst watching people in England being able to do exactly that, I've been practicing my putting on the landing. Suffice it to say, eight weeks of lockdown hasn't improved my game.

One quick addendum to yesterday's post about insurance. we currently pay more to insure the cat than we do to insure the house and contents. Go figure.....

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

The great insurance rip-off

I'm sure I've moaned about this somewhere, sometime previously, but insurance renewal of any description is an absolute minefield, and unless you're a savvy customer, a complete rip off.

Whether it's car, house, travel or any other form of insurance, having shopped around for the best price, when it comes time to renew your policy, existing customers are invariably whacked with increases (sometimes significant in their premium).

Insurance renewal - a minefield

My wife has received her car insurance renewal documents this week. Let's put some context in place. She's over 50 (hope I get away with that one), drives an unmodified, 2017 1.0 litre  Ford Fiesta, drives around 5k miles a year and has maximum (protected) no claims bonus, and thankfully no accidents in at least the last 5 years. An experienced and safe driver of many, many years. There's one other named driver on the policy (me), now north of 60 and driving since 1977 also with no claims.  All in all, you'd expect pretty low risk.

Her renewal quote is just over £400 - and that's with two additional discounts applied, the first because of her membership with a particular organisation and the second because I hold another LV insurance policy. It's a £30 hike on last year's premium (which in hindsight was also pretty steep).

Her current insurer (and let's name and shame here) Liverpool Victoria (LV) also doesn't include a courtesy car or breakdown cover.  Generally, we've found LV to be pretty good - we've had a number of car and house policies with them over the years, but this seems an outrageous cost given the car, personal circumstances and usage.

So off to one of the comparison sites I went. Trying as much as possible to give details for a like for like policy (not always easy), plus adding the option for a courtesy car if ever needed, the quotes rolled back in.

The cheapest quote came in at £147. That's £254 (63%) cheaper than she's been quoted by LV. Granted it was via a company I'm not familiar with. Some of the less familiar brands in comparison site results are often underwritten by one of the big boys - this one was owned by a broker an underwritten by Ageas who are pretty well known. The first well known name in the list (Churchill) comes in second at £165. There are a further sixty-six (66) quotes below her quoted renewal price with LV.

Now I fully accept there are many people out there who are loyal to particular brands, and that comparison sites don't always tell the whole story. I've had to claim with LV on two occasions in the past and found the process and their customer service exemplary, but whether it's worth a 63% premium is questionable.

Companies will also offer significant discounts to new customers rather than existing, loyal customers. Lure then in, and then hope that many will just stick with you. Insurance companies, and other companies - utility companies are the same,  rely on compliant, loyal customers who just renewal without questioning.

I'm betting, and I'd lay my house on this, if she rings LV to ask if they can reduce her premium there will be some wiggle room. Perhaps not much, but there will be some. It's also possible (though perhaps I won't put my house on this), that if she provides a like for like quote, it's possible that they might match it - I had some success with that on a house insurance quote (with another company) once. But even if they can't match it, she has the option to walk away. She won't lose anything - she can still get the same level of insurance, but she will gain - up to a £254 saving.

I'm also certain, that all things being equal, if she chooses to change, next years policy quote will also demand a new comparison search, but frankly, it's worth doing.

And the moral of this story is, the renewing any insurance policy (or utility), don't accept the first price you're given. Take the few minutes (and most of us have got some minutes at the moment) to run a quote through a comparison site. You just might be pleasantly surprised. If you don't, it's money down the drain.

Automatic insurance renewal - money down the drain

Just as an aside, when using one of the big comparison sites, remember that some companies aren't always listed, so you might want to go to heir site direct for a quote. As an example, Direct Line and Aviva won't appear on the moneysupermarket.com comparison site.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

It's a Meme-athon not a sprint

Well, it was inevitable wasn't it?

The Government* announces a snappy new message (but only for England), and the internet has gone wild turning it into memes. Was there any way this wasn't going to happen?

* Given that Boris's plan isn't going to be presented to Parliament until the morning after he gave an update to the nation (but really only England) on Sunday evening, one has to wonder whether this is a Government message at all, but rather something dreamt up by some spin doctors who clearly have no idea how to create a clear and wholly unambiguous message in a moment of global need and haven't got anything better to do.

Anyway, here's the original. If you know what it means, answers on a postcard please.

And here's how others see it. I've only posted a selection of some I've seen and that don't contain any swear words, this being a family blog and all that. There are many, many other's, some very funny, some a little more shall we say, Anglo-Saxon in their approach.

This one (below) is my personal favourite as it's an animated image that you tap to stop where it displays a random selection of words. Genius! The link to the original tweet is here https://twitter.com/OFalafel/status/1259446167831752710

This next couple focus on the ambiguity of what "staying alert" might mean.

This one implies the Government has run out of ideas (if it had any in the first place).

And if we weren't sure what "stay alert" means, then how is it possible to know what' control the virus" means?

And then of course there's the different messaging in the different countries (well actually it's only different in England).

Another one on being alert.

And again....

Sick of messages for the sake of messages?......

I can match your ambiguity and raise you

Not listening (blocks ears)...

Anyone?

And perhaps my second favourite which many people believe neatly summed up what BJ said last night...

But of course folks, remember, only in England.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives