Just an ordinary day

It’s barely after 9am on a very warm day in South Wales. The Met office yesterday issued for the very first time a severe heat warning covering much of the UK including this neck of the woods. Frankly, they’re a bit late - it’s been rostio here for a few days, knocking 30°.

Why is it that us British bemoan the cold and wet of our climate, only to moan like buggery as soon as it gets a bit Mediterranean like?

Anyway, no golf today (normally play on a Tuesday). Nevertheless, up with the lark, or at least when my wife got up to go to work at 7am. Breakfast on the patio (porridge - on a day like this 😂). Then watered the garden, fed the cat (again), emptied the dishwasher, changed a couple of plug sockets (been decorating you see), and brought the green waste bags in from the road. The other 5 recycling bags/bins won’t be emptied until about  2pm. Also sent a couple of emails in my role as cricket club Secretary. Just caught up on my social media feeds as well, although why I bother I don’t know. It’s either covidiots or sensible (ish) people retweeting or moaning about covidiots. 

Oh, and I’ve had a grump about next doors dogs, which bark incessantly driving me nutty. 

Just an ordinary day, and it’s only 9.20am. 

Juggling tomatoes

Today a rather random collection of news and updates.

I hope you enjoyed my yesterday's post about post lockdown resumption of cricket. Having had some further thoughts on this, I did a little pictorial thread on Twitter earlier in the same vein.

As regular followers will know I try and grow a few things in my small garden, and lockdown has given me added incentive and time to do so. As a result I ended up with about 30-40 established tomato plants in pots (I normally grow two or three), so you can see I somewhat over-planned. Along with this I also overdid the courgettes and cucumbers....

Anyway, I've given some to our neighbours and my wife took some and left them at her mum's so when her brother calls on his "carer days" he can pick them up. That still left a load. So today I put a load out at the front of the drive with a note saying "help yourself". They're all gone now, so I'm happy, and hopefully a few other people will be. Good deed for the day.

My son leant how to juggle this week. He got some proper juggling balls and within 24 hours has gone from not knowing how to juggle to being able to juggle standing on one leg. Impressive stuff. I suggested he needs to try axes or burning torches now.

For those asking, there's little cat news to report. Sleep, eat, hunt repeat.......We did unfortunately add a robin to the list of kills earlier this week #murderer

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 25th: Photography

Years ago I had Zenit Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera (a Zenit because it was relatively cheap not because it was good) and enjoyed taking many "snaps" on 35mm film.

With the advent and evolution of the mobile phone, pretty much everyone has a camera on them all the time these days, and the latest cameras on the latest phones can provide staggeringly good results on a par with dedicated cameras under the right conditions. In addition to my iPhone XR, I also have three other cameras, all models a few years old now.

• A Panasonic TZ60 pocket travel zoom, usually reserved for holidays abroad or where I don't want to be carting around too much weight
• A Canon 100D DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) one of the smallest DSLR's available, and what would be deemed an "entry level" DSLR
• A Panasonic FZ330 Bridge Zoom. Only recently purchased but an older model, I bought this for it's long zoom when I need something more than the TZ60.

I swap and change between these depending on where I'm going, what I'm photographing or sometimes just based on whichever one I pick up first.  I take a LOT of photo's. Currently I have getting on for 22,000 photos on my hard drive (and yes, they're backed up in at least three separate locations) including off site in the cloud. The best ones, or those that have the most personal impact, including holiday ones I upload to Flickr, and you can see some of the albums I've made available publicly from this link.

I guess like many people, 99% of my photos are bog standard or worse, but every now and then I take one that really stands out. I find it's a hobby that you are continually learning on. Every time I press the shutter I learn something new. I try these days not to just use the "point and shoot" settings, but adapt whatever settings best suit the circumstances (or at least try to).

With lockdown, a lot of my usual haunts such as Barry Island, Cardiff Bay and other local areas are out of bounds, and being stuck at home you might think there's a limit to what I can photograph. But I've started messing about with taking macro (close up) photographs of flowers in my garden, and some of the shots have come out pretty well.  I've attached a few here.

I've also started to focus more on the post-processing - loading photos into software that allows me to tweak and play with the image, mostly to try and enhance the photo, but sometimes just for a bit of fun. The top tow photos here are the same flower - it's pink not blue.

I find photography immensely satisfying, but equally challenging when you miss that shot. On occasions though you just have to take what you can with whatever camera you have - they say the best camera is the one you have with you. Today we walked up on the golf course again, and disturbed a pair of green woodpeckers (to see one is an event in itself, to see a pair is amazing). They flew out of some trees and into some other trees further ahead. We couldn't see them with the naked eye, so I took the camera I had with me today - the Panasonic TZ60 pocket travel zoom, pointed it at the tree and zoomed all the way in, past the optical zoom and into the digital zoom where the picture starts to degrade rapidly. I thought I'd just taken foliage, but if you look carefully towards the top of the photo, you'll see a partially hidden woodpecker - his red head is the giveaway. On one hand it's a terrible photo. Fuzzy, the bird not really visible and certainly not centred. But the fact I managed to capture even this, made my day.

Spot the green woodpecker

And finally, just so she doesn't feel left out, here's a close up of the cat.

Until tomorrow....
#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 19th: Don't start what you can't finish...and virtual quizzes

This isn't quite the way I'd intended to spend my first spring in retirement. I was looking forward to getting out and about, and we've already lost a planned holiday and short break - but on the flip side, it could have been much worse - I'm still healthy (relatively). On the plus side, being both retired and confined to barracks means that many of the things that I'd normally file under "Oh, I'll get round to it sometime" start leering at you from every corner.

I'm already seriously procrastinating over a shedload of decorating that needs doing. But it's the small things that distract you. Yesterday the oven needed cleaning. We have one of those relatively fancy ovens that actually tells you that it needs cleaning, and a setting that's supposed to clean it. But it only cleans the back and sides. The racks and bottom have to be done manually. So I donned my marigolds and got cleaning. In my defence, I did them about a month ago so they weren't too bad but they still needed doing. And then that moment when putting them back in, I noticed the oven light. That was seriously manky. So having touched it once and got my fingers burnt (#idiot) I've now set myself a reminder to look at it once the oven's cold. Oh and there's another combo-oven next to it, so that one will have to be looked at too. And whilst I was down there looking at the oven, I noticed how dusty the bottom of the adjacent cupboards had become. My point here is, if you look long enough, there's always something that needs doing. And that leads to something else, and so on ad infinitum. In a similar vein I bleached the kitchen sink this morning. Having done that and obtained some sparkly results, it reminded me that we have several other sinks.....Oh, and the kettle by the sink needed descaling...you get my drift. The morale of the story is, I think, don't look in the first place.

Lockdown makes you yearn for many 'normal' things. My daughter has been longing for a McDonalds egg McMuffin. Strange, because she doesn't normally eat them. And she's not keen on the egg bit. Anyway, Mrs H's shopping trip yesterday resulted in all the relevant ingredients being bought, and this morning I rustled up said breakfast 'sandwich'. To be fair, it wasn't difficult. Sausage patty, what I used too call "plastic cheese", a nice egg and an English muffin, lightly toasted. The result was a well received thumbs up.

Who needs McDonalds

One of the things we've been doing as a family is the "Virtual Pub Quiz" run by a chap called Jay. I don't know how many people are watching this now, but the most recent one has been streamed almost half a million times! There are many people doing this sort of thing, but we've stuck with this one over the last four weeks and generally sit down to do it on a Saturday evening. So far the victory count is level 2-2 between my and my son 2. The best score any of us has got was this week when my son got 43/50. My wife was second with a highly respectable 35, I got 30 and my daughter 23. This quiz is pretty good - 5 rounds of 10 questions, with a break after 30 when the answers for the first three rounds are revealed. Jay has refined the quiz week on week, but we watch it after it's streamed to cut out all the pre-amble and mid-quiz break. The questions are a decent selection of history, sport and leisure, TV/Film, music and general knowledge. It's the TV/Film and music that normally lets me down.

The Government are getting an increasingly rough ride over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. They are certainly not without fault. I don't necessarily respect them, but equally I don't envy them. Platitudes and spin don't make up for failings, and you just wish someone would say occasionally say "sorry, yes we got that wrong" or answer the question asked and not go off down another alley. It's the scientists that impress me though, with their measured and calm reflections. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Office I've mentioned before, and another one who's putting a very calm and measured messages on social media particularly is oncologist Professor Karol Sikora (@ProfKarolSikora on Twitter). Amidst all the accusations, blathering and headlines today, his latest tweet (as I write) sums  it up for me. Maybe the politicians could learn a thing or two from him.

Mistakes have been made - we haven't got testing, PPE, the exit strategy or treating other serious illnesses 100% right.

No country's response has been flawless.

So let's move forward together, learn from it and get it sorted as soon as possible.

The cat chalked up another kill yesterday evening. Same species. I suppose living next to a large tangled hedgerow doesn't help. That's three in two days.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 18th: Bad hair, cats and rats

Mrs H conducted a successful early hours sortie to the shops this morning. Out of the house just after 6.30am and back around 8am fully laden. She said stock looked pretty decent apart from pasta and rice which we have enough of currently. She said it was also quieter than last week.

I normally have my hair cut every four weeks, or five at a push. As a child I had ridiculously unruly, curly hair and the by the time it was something I started to worry about (we're talking early/mid 70's here folks) the fashion was generally to keep it on the long side unless you were a skinhead. Long hair sort of went along with the baggy trousers ("Chelsea bags" I think they used to call them) and the platform shoes. My parents would have never let me get away with something too over the top, but my Mum just about let me get away with a pair similar to those shown below.

Platforms like this were tame by most standards

Anyway, I digress. Over the years I've tended to have my hair cut shorter, and for the last who knows how long I've stuck to a standard number 4 all over with an occasional basic trim just to shake it up a bit. Having a number 4 every few weeks means that I start to get twitchy after about week three and I can't remember the last time I went more than 5 weeks without a cut. By my reckoning I'm now comfortably overdue being shorn, although it's still short by most people's standards. Unless I let one of my family loose on my with my son's beard trimmer it looks like I and most other in lockdown are going to be doubling up on our normal timetable for getting our locks cut. Given that I can't go out and have people laugh at my greying curly hair I think I'll brave it out, just to see what happens. And anyway, I don't trust anyone with a beard trimmer least of all my son!

And you think you're having a bad hair day?
© Chester Wiker

After a week or so of sparse cat news, the feline was back in full on action yesterday evening, bringing not one, but two R.A.T.'s  in within the space of an a couple of hours. Fortunately both had gone to meet their ratty maker, so all that was required was a quick disposal. Clearly it was an hard work catching them though...

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 16th: Hurrah for plumbers

One aspect of #isolation life is that you're not quite sure who's out there when something goes wrong. Last night I was running a bath, and as I switched the tap off water started pouring our of the shower controls (fortunately not an electric one) above the bath. This happened once before many years ago and required a new cartridge (don't ask me - I thought that's what you put in pens and printers), but this was 8pm in lockdown.  I shut the water off and rang a local plumber I've used before who's generally available quickly and doesn't charge a callout fee. After a chat I sent him a short video and photo of the problem. He was able to come out this morning early (obviously adhering to strict social distancing - we were talking to each other from different rooms!). You can see from the photo below, it wasn't a little leak.

We were supposed to be having this old en-suite bathroom gutted and replaced this week. The work should have started on Tuesday but due to the lockdown that's not happening. So the choice was replace the cartridge (they're not cheap and they're not always easy to source, especially now), or just take it off and blank the pipes given once lockdown is over everything's going.  All things being equal, the latter choice made the most sense. Fortunately we have two other showers in the house so losing this one temporarily isn't a major issue. Job done. And if you're ever in need of a plumber in the Dinas Powys/Penarth/Barry area, give Marcus Jones a ring.

We reprised our walk on the golf course this morning, this time with our son in tow now he's been furloughed and wasn't doing anything. A gentle 2.8 miles. Given the news that's been announced today that the lockdowns is going to be in place for at least another three weeks, we'll probably be doing a few more of these. As an aside, on our (not quite every day) walk I've definitely noticed that traffic is increasing. People are getting fed up I think. Stick with it folks.

And finally, even the cat's got the hang of this now #washyourpaws

Stay safe. Wash those paws!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 13th: Stranger Things for strange times

Foreign Secretary Dominc Raab has just announced that the Government does not expect to make any changes to the coronavirus lockdown this week. Well we knew the Welsh Assembly had already announced that there would be no loosening of the restrictions in Wales at the end of last week, so it's no surprise. Whatever it takes #stayathome.

After several weeks of warm sunny weather, it was a shock to wake up to wind and some serious coolness in the air. In truth, I didn't wake up to it, the wind kept me awake half the night. Well actually a combination of the wind, and the bloody cat miaowing outside everyone's bedroom in turn it seemed. I'm not the heaviest sleeper at the best of times (I think I've become attuned to keeping one ear open in case the feline brings us any presents in the middle of the night), and that combined with early dawn light and the wind rattling anything not tied down, meant some broken sleep.

Nipped out in the car last night. Although my wife had visited her mum earlier in the day as part of her normal caring duties, and left her in apparently reasonable fettle, her sister rang us late afternoon saying she's tried to ring her but was only getting an engaged tone. At 8pm she was still getting an engaged tone and was getting worried. My wife wasn't overly worried as the the community carers would have been in to get her ready for bed and rung us if there was a problem and they hadn't, but better safe than sorry. We drove over and I stayed in the car whilst my wife popped in. Turned out she was fine but had taken a call earlier and not put the handset back on the stand properly! I haven't been further than the local Dr surgery in 3 weeks so it was nice to get out even if it was only a 15 minute drive and it was quite bizarre to see the roads as quiet as they were around the normally busy Leckwith and Canton areas.

One of the things about #isolationlife is that it gives you a very valid excuse to watch a lot of TV - although some people don't need an excuse. I'm not a particularly avid watcher of TV drama series. I've never watched a single episode of Breaking Bad for instance. I did enjoy Game of Thrones although I was very late to it (I think season 3 was all under way before I watching the very first episode), and I stuck with The Walking Dead for a few seasons before it started to become stale. In the last few days with encouragement from my wife and daughter I've started watching Stranger Things, (itself now up to season 3), and I have to say I'm enjoying it immensely. I think there are two reasons why. Firstly, its set in the early 80's, a period I can recall well, being in my early 20's at the time, and secondly it's very Stephen King-ish. I was an avid devourer of his books - in fact I've still got a shed load in the loft, and Stranger Things is very much written in the same style.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 11th: Compost, lost footballs and birthdays

My wife did our shopping this morning. And.... she also managed to grab me three bags of multi-purpose compost from Tescos whilst she was doing her shop. Compost is clearly not 'essential' in itself, but as she was doing the weekly shop and there was a pile waiting to be bought....... it's the one thing I was short of in my garden - at least now I'll be able to pot on my seedling tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, beans etc and be salad self sufficient later in the year!

I still feeling incredibly guilty that she's doing all, or most of the shopping as well as doing her couple of shifts at the hospital and looking after her mum 2-3 days a week when she's not working. There are good reasons for me not contributing as much as I'd want to here, but it still feels wrong. She's going to need an enormous bunch of flowers.....💕.

On our (almost) daily exercise walk today stopped to admire some cherry blossom. It's staggeringly easy to take for granted, or just not see some of the beauty that's right in front of our eyes. Only a few weeks ago it was raining, incessantly, cold and dark and now we see sights like this. Nature is truly a wondrous thing.

Blossom on a tree near our house

Also out on our walk I spotted a misplaced football. In fact, if you open your eyes when you're out and about, you will probably see loads of lost footballs. A few years ago I was introduced by fellow blogger, friend and former cricket team-mate Andrew Pearce to a Twitter feed (now also available on Instagram), called @Lostfootballs (lostfootballs on Insta). Their bio says;

"The saddest sight in the world - lost or discarded footballs. Honour them, send in photos. No rugby balls allowed".

Now whenever I'm out and about and see a "lost" football, I make an effort to post it to their Twitter feed.

A lot football spotted on today's exercise walk

And talking of Twitter. Today apparently marks twelve years since I joined this at the time, rather fledgling social media channel. Specifically it was Friday April 11th 2008 at 10.13 and 47 seconds (no, seriously). I've been a fairly avid user ever since, and at the time of writing this afternoon, I'm posted 29,521 times. That's almost 2.5k times a year or just under 7 times a day on average. I suspect much of what I tweet has been either

1. Football (and mostly Cardiff City) related
2. Replies to someone else (frequently about Cardiff City)  - seeing a trend here?
3. Photos of holiday places, or other things that have taken my eye
4. A load of rubbish
5. A combination of any of the above

I'm a Twitter Twelve!

If you hadn't already guessed I like Twitter. I like it's concise nature, although the move to a 280 character limit from 140 felt like a cataclysmic shift at the time (interestingly, despite this shift to 240 characters it appears from some quick back of the fag packet research that many tweets remain in the 30-40 character range. I haven't got the inclination to source this beyond a few quick Google searches). However, the channel also has faults. People are inclined to believe what they read without fact checking. People use it to troll/abuse/blame very quickly. There are the usual percentage of absolute idiots that use it - although you can level that at any communication channel. I also find that it can be good for customer service issues. Being a very public channel, (some) companies have realised that if they don't act quickly on complaints they'll get a bad rap pretty instantly, and have subsequently invested time and money in their Twitter customer service (CS). In some cases is rarely more than a "we're really sorry about this" (looking you train companies), but others provide excellent CS via this channel. It tends to be my first port of call these days. Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble on about Twitter that much. Sorry.

I'm right out of cat news.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 9th. Or is it?

Today for the first time I've learnt that someone I know personally is now in hospital with coronavirus. Sobering times.

I'm seeing a lot of comments about lockdown life where people are losing track of what day it is. I do that a lot anyway, and more so since I retired last November. But it's certainly true that being cooped up with the family at home and not getting out, means it's easy to lose track of exactly what day it is. I saw this posted on Facebook yesterday which sums it up perfectly.

Speaking of lockdown, the Welsh Assembly confirmed yesterday the the lockdown restrictions will not be lifted next week (after the initial three weeks it was due to be reviewed). I never suspected that it would be, and whilst we all want to get out there, or at least back to something less abnormal than the situation we have now, staying put seems to me to be the right thing for us to be doing.  Normally the Easter weekend is the start of people taking holidays, going out and about, BBQ's, family gatherings and so on. The weather looks set fair, and in an ideal world we'd all want to be inviting people round and firing up the barbie, but please, let's not get complacent. Stay at home.

There was a decent effort of clapping, banging of saucepans, whooping, car horns and even fireworks round our way for the Thursday 8pm celebration not only of the NHS but all those who are keeping us safe, fed, watered, bins emptied and victualed (bound to have missed someone out). well done all of you and thank you.

I was in the front garden today doing some tidying up when a cat from a couple of doors down (new-ish neighbours) wandered over. I'm not sure our cat would approve, although the two were seen eyeing each other up in a friendly way from a distance the other day.  Seemed friendly enough and a rather magnificent coat to boot.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 8th: Death, procastination and mice

Back on 30th March I posted about John Prine, a country/folk musician who was battling coronavirus. I was sad to find out today that he had passed away in Nashville (just to be clear, I'm sad about everyone who is impacted by, or worse dies from this dreadful virus).  Here's a link to a YouTube video of a live session of one of his best known songs "Lake Marie". There's a BBC article today also that you can find here.

Sadly, I think we in the UK haven't even started to see the worst of it yet. There are suggestions from many quarters that the lockdown (if that's what it can really be called) are working and that rates of infection are slowing, but as many are quick to point out, we're not testing that many people, so it's hard to trust the data with any great degree of confidence. As I said yesterday, at my wife's hospital, whilst there are Covid-19 patient there and the ITU is busy, they don't expect a real hit for another week or so yet.

It's been another relatively quiet day at the manor. Mrs H has gone to see her Mum who's doing pretty well all things considered. She was pretty much in a lock down situation anyway before all this began, not being able to go anywhere due to her frailty, except that she could at least have visitors, but she's managing OK (as we all are). Both kids still working from home although my daughter's IT  many and frequent IT issues remain largely unresolved, or only resolved for short periods of time before another issue rears its head (and not just her, it seems many in her company are having similar issues), so she's been limited in what she can realistically do. She has a day off today so we'll see how things go tomorrow.

We had a video call catch up last night with my wife's brother and one of her sisters and their other halves. It's good to stay in touch and we were yakking for about an hour.

I keep putting off the decorating I have lined up - I'm arguing that the weather's too nice to be indoors at the moment, so focusing on gardening, and waiting for rain before I start to tackle the painting. Seems to be a good strategy as we haven't had any significant rain for a few weeks now, and none on the immediate horizon. Oh well.....it can wait.

The cat brought her first "present" for a while in last night. Just after I went to bed at about 11am I heard her bang through the cat flap, followed by her "I've got something" miaow (very different from her normal "I'm here and I want something" miaow. I then heard my son who was still up mutter something unintelligible (and probably non-repeatable) and some clattering. When I got downstairs, he was in the process of putting that cat in the downstairs loo (in the room not actually in the loo!) and said there's a mouse under that box, motioning to a small cardboard box on the floor. We're pretty well versed in dealing with these stains, so once he returned he lifted the box and I pounced with an upturned plastic takeaway container, neatly capturing said mouse before sliding the lid under it. It didn't seem physically affected by having been between the jaws of the cat, so it was quickly returned to the garden. Oh, and we let the cat out of the loo. I make that 2-0 to humans vs the cat .

Butter wouldn't melt....

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

6th April: Silly politicians and the Queen

Back on 26th March, I briefly mused about how things might change once we're through of all this. As luck would have it, Sky News, no doubt amongst others were also thinking the same thing and posted an article yesterday Coronavirus: Five things that will never be the same because of COVID-19. I'll leave you to read the article but essentially it talks about:

1. How we act as a society
2. How work might change
3. How use of technology during this crisis will change how we do things in future
4. Our possible future approach to leisure activities
5. How we might consume differently as a result of the pandemic, and the impact on the retail sector

As I (and many others far more important and knowledgeable than me) have repeatedly said, we are in unprecedented times. I don't believe anyone in their right minds would want to be in any senior Government leadership position right now, having to make critical decisions almost by the hour, and with what appears to be often conflicting scientific advice whilst trying to do the right thing and keep everyone happy (an impossible job). Anyone who argues they know better and has no relevant science to back it up (looking at you Twitterati and Facebookers), should frankly shut up. Nevertheless there's no accounting for folk, and sometimes politicians, who are after all, just folk, do silly things. They're only human after all and who amongst us can honestly say we've never done something we regret?  But really, Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood has surely won the numpty of the week award for one moment being on TV urging everyone to stay at home, and then shortly afterwards hotfooting it off to her second home. And she didn't do it once, but twice! It beggars belief that she didn't consider this a foot in mouth moment, but there we are. And whilst she's taken what some would argue is the 'honourable" course of resigning as a result, surely we need people with this knowledge and experience supporting our leaders at this moment in time? If everyone resigned as soon as they made a mistake, no one would ever be in a job. We have to learn to accept errors and learn from them, not demand a fall guy (or gal) every time. Yes it was poor judgement. Don't do it again, even fine her £30 which seems to be the going rate for coronavirus rules misdemeanours if it makes you feel better, but losing someone of that experience from your team just feels counter productive.

And talking of experience, so to the Her Majesty The Queen. I'm not really a royalist (although I'm not averse to a little pomp and ceremony now and again). I think I was once, but that's almost certainly because my parents were. Christmas Day by the TV for the Queen's speech was a constant in our family (and still is for my 94 year old mother-in-law). There's no doubt she splits opinion (the Queen that is, not my mother-in-law). Judging by my Twitter timeline, a not insignificant number of the people I follow are broadly anti-monarchy. I think part of the problem is that people look at her vast wealth and perceived "privilege" and have no idea or understanding about what the Queen does and the Royal Family actually do and have sacrificed through the course of their lives in order to serve their country - and argue that the wealth and privilege means they haven't sacrificed anything. Personally, there's no way on earth I'd want to live my life like that. Nevertheless she still is held in enormous respect by many. So her broadcast to the nation last night whilst poo-pooed by some, will have done some good for many others.  I saw a few comments from people last night saying that having watching Netflix's The Crown they have a far greater understanding of the how the Monarchy works, the pressures they have and what they do and have given up - whether or not they are a royalist or republican. That's not to say we don't all have pressures and have made sacrifices by the way, they're just different.

We've also received our official letter from the Prime Minister, which basically says "stay indoors". There's nothing in here that anyone keeping up with the news doesn't know (or shouldn't know) already, but I suppose it's worth a shot in case anyone's been living on Mars for the last month or so. Whether it'll do any good is another question. Those that will comply are probably already doing so, and those that aren't will chuck this in the bin and keep doing what they want to in their own selfish way. Because we're a Welsh household, we also got a copy of both the letter and leaflet in Welsh. Let's not start a debate about the right's and wrong's of that.

The Prime Minister's letter

In #isolation life it's been a day of chores after waving my good lady off to her nursing shift at 7am this morning. I hope she and all her NHS colleagues are staying safe (update, at least for my wife is, yes thankfully, she is - she's not on the front, front line as it were - yet). Two lots of washing done, cleaned the upstairs windows (I can't believe how filthy they were!), checked and watered my plant seedlings, prepped for tonight's virtual cricket committee meeting (I'll tell you how that went tomorrow), and plenty of other bits and bobs including my first ever stab at making bread (soda bread) which went mostly well.

My first ever soda bread effort - not bad, tastes good

Oh, and by the way, my thumb appears to be on the mend, and I might get away with not losing my thumbnail - result!

That's probably enough for today unless there's any breaking cat news.

#stayathomesavelives

April 5th: Rant time

Ok, sorry folks, it's rant time. I've tried to avoid this, but I can't any longer.

I suspect many people will have seen stories over the last few days about people flouting the #stayathome guidance - this piece from Sky News pretty much sums it up, but equally illustrates some of the confusion that exists. Sure, just "going out" to laze about in the sun with your mates sunbathe on the beach, or gather anon any sort of group anywhere etc is not what going out for daily exercise means, but at the same time, going for a walk on your own (or with your family) is. So in the video at the top of that piece, the woman that was stopped by reporters surely - as she argued, just taking exercise on her own and keeping away from others. The man with the child who said  "...it's all nonsense..."  needs to seriously look at himself. I've also read comments on Twitter from people saying they have neighbours who are having friends round for parties. But the problem is many people can't differentiate between what's the right thing to do (pretty much stay at home unless you HAVE to go out) and those who are using the 'guidance' to flout that principle. And as I've seen suggested today, they are going to be the first people to moan if the current lockdown is extended, or tightened. Personally I feel guilty every time I go through my front door, whether that's to go to the shops (twice in the last fortnight for me) or a short walk for exercise sake (about half a dozen times in the last fortnight, and my wife and I were given the eyes by someone on their drive today when we went for a short 20 minutes stroll.

If anyone needed any greater clarity about the gravity of the current situation, then the following graph published in the Financial Times showing that the UK's (and the US and Spanish) death tolls are higher relatively than Italy's should give them a wake up call. But it won't. Partly because the people that don't care don't read the FT (I don't but that's not because I don't care), but because they can't past the "I'm alright Jack" mentality. Maybe we should confront them (within social distancing rules) with all the health and service workers who are doing their utmost to save lives and keep the country running at this terrible time, or speak to someone who's lost a family member due to coronavirus. It IS hard to stay indoors and not go out (apart from a daily walk, if you must - and I do sometimes - on your own close to home). But it's better than being dead, or causing the death of someone else by your own selfishness and stupidity. This will end, and sooner rather than later if we all follow the rules now.
Rant over.

At the moment, the cat's got it better. Can go out when she pleases, gets fed twice a day and sleeps the rest of the time.

Stay safe: #stayhomesavelives

April 3rd: Birthdays, garage doors and more blogs

First up, a very Happy Birthday to my Mother in Law who turned 94 today. My wife was over there and sorted her cake and me and kids FaceTimed in to wish her a happy birthday.

In the latest day of #isolationlife, in a temporary moment of freedom I drove to the surgery for my latest routine blood test for the medication I'm on. Quizzed and temperature taken at the door, I passed with flying colours before a very short wait and an even shorted visit to the phlebotomist, who expertly relieved me of a few millilitres of the red stuff. She was in good spirits, though said she was very busy moving between the community and the local hospital, and it also brought home how easily we can come into contact with people who are in contact with others who maybe closer to the "coal face", so the over-riding mantra remains - #stayathomesavelives unless you absolutely have to be out. I also thanked her for all she and her colleagues are doing when I left (as I always do, but made a particular point of today). It's a small thing, but hopefully helps people understand how much they are appreciated.

My wife was out doing shopping whilst I was at the surgery and texted me to ask if I could stop to get some eggs as there were none in the big Tesco near us! So on the way back from the surgery I stopped at a local stores where fortunately they had a decent supply. I was only out about 20 minutes in total, but the sense of freedom and release was quite something.

In a more bizarre turn of events, I found myself washing the interior of the garage door. Seriously. I only went in the garage to put something away. And then it happens. You look at the inside of the door and think "God that's filthy, I really should clean it sometime" (having wilfully ignored it for the last 15 years). And then you realise that there's just no time like the present. So a bucket of soapy water, a sponge and there I was scrubbing down the door. I just hope no-one came up the drive whilst I was doing it - they'd probably have thought Ithere was a crazy zombie in there knocking on the door to get out!

As the sun continues to shine I keep putting off some decorating (actually a lot) that needs doing, and keep dabbling in the garden. I've pricked out my fledgling tomato plants today and sown some runner bean and French beans. The conservatory looks more like a greenhouse every day.

The things you do when isolated - cleaning the inside of the garage door 

I thought it also worth sharing the following picture that I came across on Facebook which genuinely made me laugh out loud (my wife gave me a very funny look at the time.

Following on from yesterday's post when I directed people to the Better Out than In blog, I've come across another blog worth a read, not least because it's a local blog - Barry's Boldest Blogger. Often humorous, relevant and passionate it's well worth a browse, especially her latest musings on lockdown.

Later this evening we're going to have a 'virtual drink" with our friends, who we'll be FaceTiming for a chat and a catch up over a beer and glass of wine or G&T. My son is also doing a "virtual pub" catch up with his workmates when they clock off this evening, including prizes for the best dressed, most interesting drink and more. Good to see people making the most of a bad situation.

Until tomorrow, I'll leave you with a photo of me and the cat taking a break from washing the garage door.

April 2nd: Blogs and rising tensions

First up today, a shout out to an old friend Andy Pearce. I've known Andy for donkey's years firstly through playing cricket together way back in the late 80's/early 90's and more recently as we (along with our sons) sat together as Cardiff City supporters for many years. Andy also blogs occasionally and is a far better writer, and much more eloquent than I am. His blog is Better Out Than In, and he's also taking the opportunity of #isolationlife to pen his thoughts. Pop over and visit his blog.

It's been another quiet day here in Barry (as you'd expect). My wife's had a day off seeing her mum as it's her brother's turn on the rota today. Tomorrow her mum turns 94, and it's going to be a huge shame that we can't all pop over to see her and celebrate that milestone with her.

Otherwise it's the normal routine. Pottering around the house doing odd jobs, and various personal, cricket and family admin tasks. My wife and I have been out for a walk - it was lovely and warm earlier when we went, but has gone very chilly now, so we had the best of the day for our daily ambulatory allowance. One of the positives about getting out for a walk is that you see far more of your locality than you might otherwise, a point I've mentioned before. Today we went on a route we've never done in 15 years of living here. Only a couple of miles circular walk, but I saw green spaces, views and road names that I'd never have seen before today.

In the wider, but narrowly focused world, I've started to notice a subtle shift in some social media and more broadcast news. It seems to me that after a couple of weeks of general goodwill (not everyone but most), and acceptance that whatever your political leanings, the those in charge have a tough, almost impossible job on their hands, people are starting to snark, moan, blame a bit more. And to make matters worse, some of the social media posts where people are feeding and re-posting/tweeting some of the conspiracy theories around all this is patently absurd. There's also a huge amount of misinformation out there. Maybe we're all getting a bit stir crazy, but folks, we're going to have to live with this for a lot longer yet, so chill out, check facts before jumping to conclusions, and accept that this is such a hugely unprecedented situation, no-one is going to get things right all the time. Andrew Neil, BBC presenter responded to a snarky comment on Twitter today suggesting "the" commentators were

"...all determined to bring about the collapse of this government"

with what I thought was a pretty measured response;

"You are howling into the dark and into the wind. And not adding an iota to our knowledge or understanding. I do not for a second underestimate the huge challenges ministers/officials face in unprecedented circumstances. Mistakes will inevitably be made.

That sums it up for me. It is unprecedented. Mistakes will be made because nobody knows what the answer is. Those in charge are doing the best they can with the science and data available to them. Despite what many seem to think, they're not idiots. Scientists (and politicians) disagree with each other all the time, so they're not all going to (metaphorically) cuddle up and say they all agree on one way forward now.

Anyway, that's enough depressing talk for now. As you know, we should have been in the Peak District this week, so in the absence of any worthwhile photo from today, here's one of Chee Dale from our last visit in November 2018.

Bridge of the river Wye in Chee Dale

Oh, and the cat. Haven't seen her all day.

All Fools Day: The Good Life

April already. How did that happen?

Well here we are, barrelling into the fourth month of 2020 and what a shit year it's been so far. Floods followed by plague, a global lockdown and a worldwide shortage of toilet rolls.

On a more serious note, things out there are getting increasingly challenging, especially for the fabulous frontline staff that are keeping the country and its people in some sort of bizarre dystopian normality. The NHS workers (all of them), carers, refuse collectors, retail workers including those supporting online shopping and delivery, the emergency services, the forces and many, many more. Ordinary folk like me would be in a far darker place were it not for these people.

The BBC today reported a 563 rise in deaths in a day, and a 13 year old with no underlying health conditions has died from coronavirus perhaps forcing people to realise this doesn't just affect the elderly with underlying health problems. If you weren't already aware, this is serious folks #stayathomesavelives.

Adding to an already serious situation, it appears that there are various 'scams' out there on the back of this. I read today about someone who was allegedly stopped by two besuited men whilst coming home from shopping, who was asked where they'd been, and demanded a £50 up front payment in cash for breaching the stay at home guidelines. Clearly most people wouldn't fall for this, but there are some gullible folk out there who would. If anything looks remotely dodgy, it probably is. Take care out there people, and don't believe everything you read on social media.

More cricket admin for me today. Who'd have thought that so much needed to be done when we're not actually playing cricket (now or for the foreseeable future). The role of a club volunteer (in my case secretary) is often hidden from those who actually play the game.
Also gardening again for me today. My front garden has had more attention on the last week than it's had in the last 15 years. The cat was overseeing things.

Chief Gardening Supervisor

My tomatoes and cucumbers have also sprouted as have my lettuce and radish and pak choi. If the slugs don't get 'em at least we won't suffer from salad starvation, although I'll have to find something to eat for the next two or three months until they're ready!

Tomatoes to the left of me, cucumbers to the right....

Stay safe folks, and stay home unless you absolutely have to go out #isolationlife.

March 31st: What a month that was

So we say goodbye to March. Or perhaps more appropriately good riddance. Saying that though, there's almost certainly worse to come, and as set out in yesterdays post, there's an awfully long way to go yet. If you can bear reviewing it, there's an article on the BBC titled "The month everything changed". Wherever we go from here, one things for sure, the world will never be quite the same.

Today's update from Chez Stats. All fit and well here. My wife and I went for a walk which turned out to be about 2.5 miles according to my iPhone. Only locally (obviously), bit it's quite interesting what you see on foot that you never really take notice of because you're in a car or a hurry to get somewhere. It wasn't a particular "lovely" walk as we are on the edge of town here, but we did see some wildlife. An R.A.T. scuttled across some grass in from of us and then poked his head back out and watched us intently for a couple of minutes affording me time to take at the following picture (I usually have my camera with me - always my phone, but frequently one of several others I own). Here's Mr Rat - not everyone's cup of tea, but this was cute a cute shot.

A local resident

Walking along a wooded path, I also spotted, though was unable to photograph due to it's speed and being tucked away in the branches, a coal tit. I haven't seen one of those for donkey's years, so counted the wildlife score on perambulation today as a good result.

My daughter is still having work IT issues - or rather her work IT is having trouble getting her connected (she's not alone in this), so her working from home is very stop start - more stop than start currently. As I mentioned the other day, I think businesses will learn an awful lot about their business continuity procedures as a result of this situation.

Otherwise it's been a day in the garden, and a lot more achieved than I set out to do. Oh - I've also booked seats and updated our Advanced Passenger Information for our holiday to Greece in June, more in hope than expectation #nochance.

Yesterday evening, all those we were supposed to be in the Peak District with this week caught up on the face to face social network app Houseparty, although I was slightly concerned about the numbers of people reporting being hacked in various ways after installing it. It seems this is slightly incorrect, although as with any app, using strong and secure passwords is key. we'll see - we intend to have a catch up once a week for a "virtual drink".

Just catching up on other news - deaths attributable (in part at least) to coronavirus in the UK are at almost 1,800. Still way short of the predicted "best case" 20,000. A new "hospital", the Nightingale has been built (or rather an existing building re-purposed) in just under two weeks, a stupendous achievement. Some supermarkets are supposedly easing restrictions on purchases - note "easing"not removing. And in one of the more amusing stories coming out of coronavirus, goats appear to have taken over Llanduno in North Wales.

The cat's had a mixed day. My wife, daughter and I attempted one of Joe Wicks workouts on YouTube this morning. That sent the cat barmy and she was running around like someone had set fire to her tail whilst we were doing that. Then she came and sat watching me gardening - we both like being outside. The rest of the afternoon, she's crashed on a sunny bed upstairs.

That's all for now folks. Check in for another instalment of #socialdistancing fun tomorrow.

March 30th: Silicone and Windows - but not that kind

So, starting with coronavirus/covid-19 because that's what prompted this renewed effort at blogging. Yesterday the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England said that it might be six months before life in the UK returns to normal. That's quite scary as that takes us to the end of September, although she did say that doesn't (necessarily) mean we'll be in complete lockdown for 6 months. And I was thinking today, that on the day that Boris (or whomever says it) says, "Ok folks, you can get out and about", where is everyone going to go first? I bet for a good many it'll be straight to the local pub (if it's still open). Those first few days post lockdown are going to be really weird I think, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
It's evident that some people still don't appreciate the seriousness of this pandemic. However, when it starts affecting those they know and love, perhaps that'll hit home. A couple of those nudged me today. First, a post on Facebook from someone I don't know, but who lives relatively locally said they had someone in there family that had "had" the virus. True or not, when it's just around the corner, it rams it home a bit. Secondly, as people that are famous (or at least well know) are reported to have been diagnosed, it also becomes a bit more scary. Obviously we've had a few politicians who have been diagnosed including the Prime Minister. Today I found out that one of my favourite musicians, American country/folk singer John Prine has not only been diagnosed, but it currently on a ventilator. That's not to say that I didn't appreciate what a terrible situation we are in before today, but this brings it home even more. As an aside, one of John Prime's songs "Ain't Hurtin Nobody" has got one of the best lines of any song ever:

There's roosters layin' chickens
And chickens layin' eggs
Farm machinery eating people's arms and legs

On the basis of that single line about farm machinery I bought his album "Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings" which is absolutely splendid.

In #isolationlife today I've meandered between redoing the silicon sealant inside the conservatory and upgrading a laptop. You'll recall my sone was clearing out his bedroom the other day. Well he dug out his old laptop. I can't recall just how old it is (it's the one before the one he's got now), but he was going to chuck it. Ever the gadget hoarder, I dusted it down (literally), booted it up and found that it ran (almost) perfectly. I did a completer restore of the operating system (Windows 8) and today I upgraded that to Windows 10. Can't see anything wrong with the device, and it runs really well and quite fast for an machine a few years old. Bonus win as a spare machine (although I'm a Mac man).

Old laptop with W10 installed

As for the silicone..... Well I'm not the best DIY-er by a long way. But how hard can siliconing be? The professionals make it look easy. I look like I've done 10 rounds with a silicone gun and lost badly, and whilst the sealing will do a job, it ain't going to win any prizes for neatness. It's terrible stuff! And I only managed to slice my finger once getting the old stuff off. I've got a few tales about my DIY failures which I'll save for another day.

Hardly seen the cat all day.

22nd March 2020

A relatively quiet day in Chez Stats.

Anne (my wife) has been over to her mother's, partly because it's Mother's Day, but also because she's her part-time carer. Wrong though it felt, I decided not to go on the basis that really the general advice is not to visit others, even though it is my mother-in-law. I suspect however that there will be times over the coming weeks that I will have to visit. As I feel fine (as does my wife), and my mother-in-law - for an almost 94 year old housebound person with multiple pathology, it does feel wrong not to go, but that's what we're being told to do, so that's what we're doing.

I've been nowhere today, and neither have the kids. Its been another nice day if little breezy, so I've been doing some more gardening. My daughter has been trying to set up the laptop she's been given for potential home working, and despite being advised the set-up is "idiot proof" has run into an issue that requires advice when she's back in work tomorrow. Such is the nature of IT. It's supposed to be easy, but rarely is in my experience.

We've all (well me, my wife and son) had a go at Joe Wicks' YouTube "Worksout for Seniors" this morning. We chose the "seniors" version  at my wife's behest. She's only 59 😂. 10 minutes of fairly gentle exercises. Was quite funny to watch (us not the video), but on a serious note, as we move towards a more confined life for the present, maintaining any level of activity is important, and 10 minutes is nothing. What else are we going to do?

The news (and particularly social media) is still full of tales of scenes of idiocy at supermarkets and in some public spaces. Best avoided I think. Supermarkets and social media that is.

Tomorrow I have to go out as I'm due a regular blood test at the GP surgery, and to pick up my prescription.

I almost forgot. Last night me and my son watched Zombieland. Felt immensely weird watching an albeit comedy film about a zombie apocalypse give the current situation, but it was very funny. Well I thought so anyway. Reminds me, I might have to watch Shaun of the Dead (again).

The cat's been out enjoying the sun, and as per my quip yesterday that she could always go out hunting in these times of (some) food scarcity, she was spotted this afternoon coming home along the top of the fence carrying a large, dead R.A.T. Luckily we managed to catch her before she brought in indoors.