Margam Country Park

The "Castle"

Today Anne and I pootled off to Margam County Park near Port Talbot for a walk and a mooch. We haven't been there for donkeys years, since the kids were very small.  It's only a 30-40 minute drive down the M4 from Cardiff and we got there at 10am as the park opened. It's no doubt been very busy of late, but with the schools back, and an early arrival there were just a handful of folks and a couple of dog walkers about.

Talking of dogs, at the handily placed loos near the entrance, there's a self service dog wash, which could come in handy if you have a dirty pooch after your walk.

It's £6.60 to park (pay at the entry kiosk) which seems a bit steep until you realise there's no entry fee to the place. We started off with a wander around the Orangery, a place very popular for wedding do's apparently, and as you can see from the photo, it's an impressive building.

Orangery

In the same area, were the ruins of the old abbey, and quite impressive they were too. Certainly gave a feel for how the old abbey, or at least parts of it may have looked.

Abbey ruins

We then walked up towards and past the "castle". This 19th Century Tudor Gothic Mansion was designed by the architect Thomas Hopper for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. The house was built in 1830 – 40 at a cost of £50,000 using sandstone from nearby Pyle quarry. Listed Grade I as a mansion of exceptional quality, the Castle has some spectacular features such as the vast staircase hall and octagonal tower. 

Unfortunately it's closed to the public currently, and is covered in scaffold as there's restorative work going on. However, I managed to get a photo (see above) that cropped out most of the scaffold, fences and containers.

Adjacent to the castle is another set of toilets, Charlotte's Pantry, a small snack/coffee take out shop and Margam Adventure where you can hire electric bikes, mountain bikes (there are numerous bike trails around the park), pedaloes etc. However, at £15 for 30 minutes the pedaloes seemed pretty pricey to me - not that we were ever going to hire one!

Our plan was to do one of the four walks, ranging from about a mile and a half to 3 three and a half miles. All have downloadable PDF''s on the website. We chose the Cwm Phillip (green way markers). All the trails were very well marked - see the photo below, so you're unlikely to get lost. However, also note that when the guide says there are some steep parts, they're not joking!

Our path took us on a good path/trail through a quiet (we saw no-one else) valley with a stream running at the bottom. There were birds a-plenty flitting amongst the trees, and the occasional rustling in the undergrowth although we saw no four legged wildlife at this point. After a good while of (mostly) level-is walking the track turned right up a hill. It said it was steep, and it was - not ridiculously so, but you do need to be pretty fit an/or or take your time to climb up to the highest point in the park of 240m. Once up there you have pretty good views out over Port Talbot and it's steelworks towards Swansea Bay and the Gower beyond. It was pretty hazy for us, so the views weren't as good as they might have been.

Cwm Phillip

As the track started to descend we bore right along an old medieval drover's track (that's what the guide said!) but instead of turning back down the valley, we went a further few hundred yards to the "Pulpit" (which is part of another trail). This circular outlook was originally built apparently as a spot for shooting pheasants, and the large rock on it was opened by Prince Charles to commemorate the Prince's Trust in Wales. The views again would be spectacular if it hadn't been such a hazy day. 

The Pulpit

Photo on the Pulpit

From the Pulpit using our binoculars we could see some of the Park's deer herd in the distance on the valley floor, and agreed that we'd walk over towards them when we got to the bottom of the climb. Descending, we passed the entrance to an old monastic mine - not sure what they were mining, now gated and locked and possibly used by caving groups.

As we can round the bluff at the bottom of the hill, we unexpectedly spied deer lurking on the ridge looking at us, much closer than the deer we'd previously seen had been. We had an excellent look through at them  through the bins.

Deer on the ridge

A little further on, we then saw another deer in a field! Beyond her we could see quite a large heard, with a large stag lying down. In an attempt to move closer we crept cautiously towards a slight rise. As I topped the rise I was confronted with another twenty or so deer about 50 yards away! Whilst a few got up, giving us the eye, they weren't overly startled, so we backed slowly away, but it's the closest I've ever been to a herd of deer!

After our deer encounter, we continued down the path and came down to the main area of the park. Along the way the views back up the ridge to the Pulpit were quite fabulous.

The Pulpit from the bottom of the valley

Choosing not to go directly back to the castle, we detoured to a small farm park, adjacent to the Margam Discovery Centre a field studies centre. In the farm park were various poultry, sheep, goats, horses, cows and donkeys. Anne can't resist a donkeys so a of photos was mandatory!

Coming back out of the farm park towards the castle, we stopped by the lake for a quick snack and a 5 minute rest. By the lake we saw an inevitable array of wildfowl, plus a heron and a couple of big fish (I'd say at least a foot long) breaching on the lake.

One of several lakes/ponds on the estate

Then it was the final bit of the return leg to the Castle where we grabbed a coffee and a cake before walking back to the car park for the journey home. Even by the time we left, at around 2pm the place was still incredibly quiet, so if you prefer a bit of peacefulness in your visits, I'd wager it's best to come during term-time. As an aside, it's also well served for picnic benches, benches and toilets around the main buildings.

The Castle and adjacent buildings including Charlotte's

Pantry and the activity hire centre

All in all we had a lovely few hours at the park, and will definitely be coming back again. 

Recommended. 

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. 

Covid update - my take

Blimey - missing in action again. I haven't posted since April.

Well let's ignore all the other crap going on (Brexit I'm looking at you), and concentrate on the Covid pandemic.

Last night, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson (yes, the clown really is still PM) announced that pretty much all restrictions will be lifted on 19 July, which many are referring to as "Freedom Day". Of course, this only applies to England. The Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford, was at pains to point this out, and say that he'd be looking at an announcement at the end of next week based on the latest scientific data. Read into that what you will.

It seems that people are now broadly divided into two groups. Those who think that we're fast heading towards (or are already in) a 3rd wave as cases are rising, rapidly in some areas, and that lifting restrictions is lunacy, and those who say that we just have to learn to live with Covid come what may (we do), and that although cases are rising, deaths and hospitalisations aren't, because of the massively successful vaccine rollout. There are of course the usual bunch of "others" - continuing Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers, but sadly and inevitably there will always be idiots.

Personally, I fall into the let's just get on with it  group. Yes it's a thing. No it's not going away. But deaths and hospitalisations are down. Continuing to base any decisions about management on cases rather than the latter seems illogical. We need to be cautious, but not to the point of being so risk averse we wrap ourselves in cotton wool when there's no need to do so. Continue wearing masks in crowded places and for example on public transport. Get everyone jabbed (or as many as will have it - and we're doing very well on this).

I frequently see people saying "it's not the same as flu", you can't treat/.manage it the same way. No it's not the same, but we've had years of vaccinating vulnerable people against flu - we're only just starting down this path with Covid. But the vaccine efficacy is also much higher for Covid. In the autumn we'll probably be into booster jabs for Covid, and the data already shows that vaccination is working. Lets run with it, and get ourselves back to as near normal as possible. Please.

Available now!........or not

I remember a time many moons ago, waiting patiently for a ticketing website to go live with the sale of some tickets for an event my young son wanted to go to - I think it was some sort of wrestling event.  However, as soon as the tickets went live, they appeared to be sold out. Apparently it's quite a common scenario where a massively hyped event appears to sell out virtually immediately leaving genuine punters unable to get what they've been hoping for.

There are suggestions that large numbers of tickets get bought "up front" (how?) buy nefarious outs or other third parties who then sell them on (presumably at some additional profit). It's really frustrating for Joe Public, genuinely trying to buy a ticket for something.

More recently, I've experienced a similar issue in a different context. Tee times at my golf club have to be booked online, and until recently sue to COVID restrictions have been restricted to bookings up to 5 days in advance for 2 balls only (two players), rather than the usual 4 ball limit. Understandably this has put some pressure on the booking system. So at 10pm (when booking opens for the fifth day in advance) several hundred people are sat at their phone/tablet/computer waiting for booking to open to get a tee time. Several times I've sat watching the booking page refresh to open, only to see all tee times immediately booked as soon as the page refreshes. I've got fibre broadband, so my internet connection is excellent. But it's clearly not fast enough because pretty much very tee time is gone my the time the page has refreshed. 

At least the change to 4 balls from 26 May may ease the pressure somewhat, but I just don't understand how it happens. Is there some sort of secret early password trick?

And then today, Cardiff City released an retro shirt (see below) - much sought after and plenty of forward comms about this. The club's Twitter account announced in a tweet at 10am "It's Back", but by 10.03 when I had it in my basket and went to pay it had "sold out a few moments ago". Judging by the comments that were underneath that tweet I wasn't the only one unable to purchase.

This is either really bad luck on my (and others) part, a crap internet connection (no) or more likely ridiculously poor planning by Cardiff City in terms of their anticipated demand for this shirt. I suspect the latter, although whether it was just crap stock planning or an intentional let's keep numbers low and interest high is another matter (cynical me).

The point of this post I suppose, is that despite the wonderful technology we have at our disposal these days, a combination of poor marketing approach, poor availability and possibly poor systems continues to create frustration for customers willing and ready to part with cash.

How much do you trust politicians? Not as far as I could throw one

I’m getting on in years. Whilst not eligible to vote in those day, I can vaguely recall the premierships of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. 

Thinking back, I’ve never really trusted politicians of any colour. My early casting of electoral votes was based entirely on my parents political persuasions, and I stuck with that approach for years.

Mind you, back in the day the choice was much starker. Red or Blue. Labour or Conservative/Tory. There wasn’t much in the way of any viable alternative in rural and generally conservative Lincolnshire where I spent my formative years. 

As I’ve aged I’ve become more and more cynical of politicians of all colours. Broken promises and lies (£350m a week to the NHS anyone?), taxes, service cuts, expenses scandals, financial meltdown, the seemingly incapable ability to address “real” issues like a struggling NHS, low pay for certain sectors of society and so on.

There are countless examples why I wouldn’t trust a politician as far as I could throw them.

And now we have the Conservatives in a pandemic.

Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t wish the governance of the country on anyone during what we’ve experienced over the last year or so, and in the early days I was generally sympathetic towards the pressure the government was under - especially Matt Hancock and the fresh out of the box Chancellor  Rishi Sunak (although that was before I realised the latter was a multi millionaire in his own right)!

But as the pandemic has worn on, irrespective of the right or wrong basic decisions around lockdowns, whether to wear masks or not etc, the continuing exposure of contracts for mates and family members has staggered most people. 

How can any of these politicians look someone in the eye, and say it’s ok that I’ve benefited financially from awarding a contract to someone with whom I have a direct association?

When I was working, I officially couldn’t accept a “gift” in any form worth more than £25 or I’d have been disciplined at best, and sacked at worst. And we are actively encouraged not to accept ANYTHING, let alone something worth a humongous £25.

And it’s not just current politicians. David Cameron, former PM is now in the news for lobbying the Chancellor for a mate. Any yet no one really holds anyone to account. The Government has just won a vote not to investigate these, ahem, ‘alleged’ misdemenours, and unsurprisingly, it wasn’t just Tories who voted in this way. Talk about turkeys not voting for Christmas!

But it also seems that the mainstream media is inept in really pushing this and holding politicians to account. If this was any other country, we’d be seeing stories of corrupt government yet here it’s brushed under the carpet, and sideline news. 

At the end of the day, whilst it’s the Tories in power in Westminster now, and Labour here in the Senedd in Wales, I’m not sure I trust any of them to be truly open, transparent and honest to the electorate. If I could find a political party who could claim, but more importantly honour that, they may well get my vote. Instead, I’ll probably end up casting my ballot to the least worst option. 

Hang Fire Southern Kitchen - a BBQ delight

The Hang Fire Southern Kitchen is a restaurant in Barry, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It's been  extensively reviewed in blogs, newspaper articles, and Twitterati, Instagrammers and people on Facebook. It's owners Sam and Shauna have appeared in their own TV series  and they've written books on their take on southern US BBQ style cooking. In short, it's an amazing place to eat (and drink) and it's really, really popular. Although walk ups are available, they disappear in the flash of an eye, and if you want to book a table, you normally have to do so weeks, if not months in advance.

We've eaten there several times, and never been disappointed. But as for all hospitality venues, the pandemic, and lockdown has been a challenge. Never ones to shirk an opportunity, Hang Fire have developed their "Heat at Home" menu. Basically a click and collect of their best dishes that you can order online and pick up to eat at home.

So this weekend, we did just that.

The online ordering process felt a little more protracted than it should have been - I have used easier online ordering systems.  Oddly, once I'd selected and paid, although I had a confirmation page with my order number, I didn't get an email or text confirmation so had to take a screenshot of the confirmation page for my sanity.

We were ordering for four adults (although neither my wife or daughter have big appetites). We ordered the Big BBQ Deal which promises a feast of 9hr smoked Brisket, 21hr smoked Pork, 3hr smoked BBQ Wings, Mac & Cheese, Pastrami & Potato Hash, plus fixings of 'slaw and pickles and 12oz tub of their Kansas City BBQ sauce. It's stated to serve 3-4 people. Cost £56. We also added their famous, 8hr smoked, free-range, pork spare ribs which they say serves 1-2 at £14. There was also some chilli brisket and beans.

I turned up at the appointed collection time, and was served in a Covid secure way, the heating prep explained (a leaflet is also provided) and was out within a couple of minutes. Seamless.

It's not the cheapest, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and this is quality food, ready prepared for you to heat and eat. It's worth every penny.

The food is slated to last up to 3 days kept in a fridge, and we were planning to eat the next day.

The heating time for each item varied, but the maximum was 25-30 minutes (the Mac & Cheese, Pastrami Hash and brisket and chilli beans in their foil containers). The wings around 20 minutes, the ribs took around 20 minutes and the brisket and pulled pork heated gently in simmering water in the vacuum packs for around 8-10 minutes. Usefully everything that needed heating in the over needed the same heat level, so it was just a matter of getting your timing right.

Once everything was cooked, it looked like this

The Feast

Firstly, you've obviously got to love meat to eat this sort of food!

The wings, once doused in their special BBQ sauce were delicious. The pulled pork was tasty. The mac and cheese was creamy and warming, and the pastrami hash was chunky and added a nice texture to the plate. The chilli brisket and beans was suitably spicy but not overbearingly so. The stars of the menu though was undoubtedly the tender, thickly sliced brisket and the enormous, cricket bat sized ribs. With accompaniments of house pickles and slaw, and plenty of BBQ sauce it made for a sumptuous feast. So much so, that even with the four of us, there's probably plenty enough left for a an almost complete second sitting the following day.

All in all, it was brilliant, and I'd highly recommend splashing out on this as a treat if you like quality food, especially meat and BBQ's!

What's your most popular photo?

Regular readers will know I like photography, and take loads of pictures. Some make their way here, but many can be found on my social media streams, Facebook, Twitter (@statto1927), Instagram (simon_hiscocks) or my cloud service of choice, Flickr which I use both as a backup but also searchable archive, both for personal and public consumption. 

I can flick (pun intended) through these at my leisure - many of these, and increasingly so, I've given a title and occasional a description. Whilst this works for me (after all, I know what the photo is as I took it), it's interesting to see what people search fro on Flickr. 

On this platform, my two most viewed photos are titled "The road to Papagayo beach" and "One of the Papagayo beaches" with almost 1,700 and just over 1,600 views respectively. These were taken in Lanzarote in early 202 (before the pandemic hit). They're miles ahead of the next highest viewed photo neatly titled "Centre Parcs" with a meagre 1,256 views at the time of writing.

Why are my photos of the road to Papagayo beach so interesting for people? Surely it's not because it's a great photo. It isn't as you can see here, it's a photo of a rubbly road taken out of an electric VW Golf back seat!

The road to Papagayo beach

No, I rather suspect that why this sits at the top of my viewed list is because Papagayo beach is knows as a nudist beach, and people weren't actually searching for a photo of a road, but rather something a little more raw as it were...

Even the one of the Papagayo beach itself wouldn't help them - it's a photo of a deserted beach!

One of the Papagayo beaches

The 3rd most viewed photo on my Flickr account is titled "Centre Parcs". Now I'm sure there are many people who want to, or have visited one of the Centre Parcs sites and want to see a little more about the place. However, this particular photo is a donkeys years old (2008) out of focus, low resolution photo of a road in Longleat Centre Parcs taken on a Palm Centro device (an early smartphone) with a whopping 1.3 megapixel camera. Consequently, it's neither interesting, nor an image of any reputable quality. However, it's been viewed over 1,200 times. If I had entitled it "A boring blurry image of some tarmac in Center Parcs"I doubt it would have got the same exposure.

The 3rd most popular photo I've uploaded!

Finally, just sneaking into the top ten most viewed is this beauty of my foot after a knee op I had in 2008.

No. 10 in the all time viewed list

I'm not entirely sure why I wrote this post other than as an observation that of all the decent photo's I've take over the years most of my all time viewed photos are pretty rubbish ones that people have come across inadvertently whilst searching for something else entirely. Maybe I need to get better at titling and tagging....

Hidden Cardiff

Our son has just moved out into an apartment at Atlantic Wharf in Cardiff and visiting him to take a few bits this morning, we took the opportunity to have a walk around. It was an eye opening experience, as it's not a part of Cardiff that we know very well, although we've driven past thousands of times. It's not quite the Bay and it's not quite "town".

East Bute Dock
This is (more or less) the view from his apartment window.

He's got a one bedroomed apartment in the left hand block in the photo below. From here he can walk straight out onto the path around the dock.

As you turn around the top end of the dock you walk past County Hall, Cardiff Council's offices.

County Hall

As you continue to walk along the left side of the Dock (walking towards town), there's some construction going on adding to the flats and apartments already there. You might also pass a fisherman or two. Apparently there are some big carp (and no doubt other fish) in the dock, and there are some serious anglers about - we passed one kitted out with three rods, and enough gear that he looked like he was on a week long exhibition. About half way down the dock, you come to a feeder canal. Crossing over a small bridge and following the path of this canal takes you to a part of Cardiff I've never seen before.

The feed canal entrance to the dock

The canal

Plenty of wildlife

A pleasant canalised walk

Towards Tyndall St and town

Junction of the canal and bearing right back towards
Atlantic Wharf and the dock

It's a lovely little walk alongside the canal, although sadly and possibly inevitably strewn with litter. As an aside, why can't people take their little home with them. Or those dog owners that take the trouble to clear up after their dogs and then leave the poo bags hanging on railings, or thrown into the bushes?

Anyway, following the canal round back to the wharf, you go past the impressive Spillers Bakers building erected in 1893 and now presumably converted to flats.

Spillers Bakers building

Passing the town end of the dock, you turn back up the other side of the basin adjacent to, but largely hidden from the A4234. Trees line one side of the path with the basin on other, fishing platforms regularly spaced along its side.

Fishing platform

About half way along, there's a disused but preserved crane, which is an impressive piece of machinery.

The crane

The path alongside the basin

I have to say, it was a pleasant walk. The circular walk we did was only about 1.3 miles, but has shown me a part of Cardiff I knew very little about. I'm quite jealous that my son has this on his doorstep. In the summer, and hopefully once the Covid restrictions have been lifted this will be a lovely place to wander and maybe stop off for a drink at one of the local cafes or dare I say it, hostelries. And less than 10 minutes walk in the other direction, he has Cardiff Bay with all its eateries and watering holes. 

Lockdown or Loosedown?

O'Shea's webcam Barry Island

The above image was taken the Sunday after Christmas when Wales was supposed to be a couple of days into its latest and more severe national lockdown (now along with the rest of the UK). However, the evidence of many is that the current restrictions are far from tight, and certainly in my experience with adherence levels nowhere near those we experienced in the first lockdown back in March 2020.

With the current surge on Covid cases across the UK, the constantly repeated 'stay at home' message seems to be flying tight over the head of many.

Perhaps its down to fatigue. As a nation, the UK has endured almost 10 months of differing levels of restriction. Confusingly different messages depending on which parts of the county you live in. Statements from the Prime Minister that Christmas would be 'near normal'. People ARE fed up, but we have to hang in there.

The brilliant news of several vaccines being approved and starting roll out is cause for optimism and hope. But it's going to take time. Todays news in Wales at least, is saying that the plan is to have offered/given all adults a vaccine by the autumn (though whether that's the start or end of autumn isn't clear), but who's arguing about three months here or there?

But that means we are still going to have to live with restrictions of some degree until then at least, and let's not fool ourselves - the Governments ability to deliver on it's promises and timelines hasn't been great these last few months.

So whilst there is light at the end of the tunnel, we're stuck with the restrictions for now. People need to listen and abide by them. But there are things happening that perhaps contribute to the idea that things aren't quite as bad as they are being reported.

Elite sport is one. In the first lockdown pretty much all sport stopped. Now we've got football wall to wall every day, international rugby is around the corner and so on. Yes, they're (supposedly at least) in contained, controlled "bubbles" and are being regularly tested, but it's evident that this isn't wholly working with many players contracting Covid, in some cases enough to have matches called off through lack of players or putting out makeshift teams as Derby did in the FA Cup this weekend. Whilst there are still no crowds (save a short period for some clubs just before Christmas), watching the players you'd be hard pushed to think there's still a global pandemic. And watching scenes from Crosby at the weekend of Tottenham's visit to Marine FC in the FA Cup, with people lining the streets, there was definitely no 'stay at home' going on there. Worse, there have been several reports of footballers breaching guidance to varying degrees. I'm not just picking on Crosby, and I'm not just picking on football - I'm a fan and season ticket holder myself and would be desperate to get back to watching Cardiff City (well perhaps not so much at the moment the way they're playing). No, my general point is that there's enough "stuff" going on to make people think there's near normality in some areas, which may then be impacting their own behaviours and bending the restriction guidance. It certainly gives ammunition to the 'covid deniers'.

I don't like the restrictions. I'm fed up of them, but if it helps keep the NHS from being overwhelmed (although I think they're pretty close to it now), I'll do my bit. I wish others would too.

The legacy of Donald Trump

I'm not a fan of politics, though I accept they are necessary. Of course, we have our own interminable politicians in the UK, of which there are very few that I would trust as far as I could throw them. Foreign politicians, are no doubt on the whole equally as bad, although there are a few apparent exceptions - New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacina Adern, the most notable who seem to do many things right and for there right reason, and understand and empathise with the people that voted for them.

I'm not quite sure what brought America to vote Donald Trump, a businessman (of sorts), reality TV show 'celebrity' but mostly golfer in as the 45th President of the United States four years ago (maybe they put something in the water before voting opened), but his tenure has had many bizarre, some scary and some just downright jaw-dropping moments including escaping impeachment by the skin of his bright white teeth. There are many that say once his Presidency is done, there are other questions for hime to Unser as well.

But if any one was in any doubt about this apparently narcissistic and occasionally delusional man, he's saved the best/worst (delete according to preference) in his refusal to accept defeat in last November's election, acting like the boy whose toys have been taken away from him in alleging voter and election fraud and that the presidency has been 'stolen' from him. All objections and allegations on this front appear to have been investigated and rejected, and yet still he will not concede. And yesterday, confirming that, it appeared that he encouraged, if not incited his followers to the Capitol building where Joe Biden's victory in the November election was being ratified, whereupon they stormed the building in scenes like something out of a movie, and unfortunately it seems where at least four people lost their lives in the resulting riot. And Trump's response to this was to say to these people? "...we love you; you're very special".

The global reporting on yesterday's scenes shows a level of insurrection that would have seemed impossible in what is arguably the West's biggest democracy (God knows what Vladimir Putin was thinking as this unfolded but he was probably having a little smirk to himself over a tot or two of vodka).

What legacy does the 45th President of the United States leave in his wake. Will he be fondly remembered for his caring policies, his sound judgment on foreign policy (I of course jest with both of this comments).

No, I think what he will be remembered for is the carnage that he arguably incited on the eve of his leaving office, which for me is best summed up in a tweet I saw this morning.

Day 1 vs Day 1,448

Please God America, never vote in someone like Trump again. And the most scary thing. Remember, he still has the nuclear codes.

Social media? It's anything but social

Image from https://www.mindfuljourneyman.com/blog/tmi

Remember BSM? Before Social Media. Life ran at a gentler pace. We got news from the radio, television and of course the newspapers. For many families a once a day update either over the morning coffee with the local or national rag, or on the evening and late night news - the BBC or IT depending on your preference. 

I'm not saying those platforms were not without their flaws. Stiff upper lip BBC, the more liberal (at the time) ITV, and the papers - the broadsheets and red tops with their undoubted political bias and sometimes (especially the red tops) ridiculous (and definitely made up) stories, but it all happened at a calm pace.

Now, we have social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and a plethora of other "platforms" pinging us with in your face news and comment 24/7. Before I get too far into this post, in full disclosure, I'm a user of all the aforementioned apps (and others).

Driven by the uptake in mobile devices over the last two decades, there are undoubtedly real positives to social media. Breaking news don't have to wait until the 6pm television news broadcast or the next days paper. We know stuff the minute it happens through Twitter post. I guess that's good, but it can be constant and also distracting, especially if you have notifications tuned on and your device is pinging, vibrating or just lighting up every few moments.

It's also great for sharing - the ability to share comment, photo's  audit and video with friends, family (and mostly complete strangers) can be fun as well as useful. I imagine that my children will stay in touch with friends from school all there life now, whereas I lost touch with many of my friends when I moved away from where I grew up (luckily, and through the very platform of social media) I've been able to reconnect with some of my best friends in the last couple of years.

The first is that it's far to easy to get overloaded

However, there are some significant downsides to social media too.

Some people believe what they read without any thought as to the accuracy of what's being said. Fake news, either unintentional or deliberate is a pervasive ailment in today's society. I have "friends" on some platforms who I'm sure just blind hit "share" or "retweet" without any thought as to the source or truth of the "stories" they are passing on. And that's when there's even a story. Some of the crap content on these platforms is unbelievable. I think I've mentioned before the type of post that urges you to name (for example) the car you passed your test in or your top 10 places to visit. Many people assume this is a game and give their info and share publicly, not considering that the "bots" that harvest all this stuff could be used by nefarious people to identify passwords. 

But the above is the tip of the iceberg. Often naive individuals who don't know what they are doing. As opposed to those who deliberately set out to misinform for reasons of their own making.

Sadly, throughout this pandemic and the Brexit shambles (the two hottest topics of news in the last year), we've seen more and more people using social media to flaunt their message, often seemingly doing this for the clicks and/or shares or to deliberately create controversial responses. The trouble is no one knows who to believe any more.

I'm paraphrasing something I read here, but who would you rather believe about issues around the pandemic? A qualified, practising medic or other health practitioner working on the front line, or Bob from down the snooker club who knows a friend of a friend who thinks Covid's only a cough?

The sad reality is that many people believe Bob, because they follow him on Twitter or Facebook and he's a good laugh or support the team they support. 

Confusing the situation even more, are those who probably should know better, but for some reason want to stir the message. There are plenty of examples of actual/alleged health professionals who if not Covid deniers directly, are certainly giving the message that it's not as bad as an Intensive Care consultant I follow on Twitter is saying. I cannot directly prove what the IC consultant is saying either, but I know who I'm more likely to believe.

Then there are are examples of supposed "experts" in their field who are saying the pandemic isn't as bad as it's being portrayed. 

When you delve into any of these posts and their replies, and other comment, it becomes a mire of disinformation, contested opinions and potential untruths wrapped around a very real and critical issue. And all of this is being played out in near real time, on multiple platforms where people are soaking it up through their platform of choice, and relaying it onwards. 

I have seen (I'm sure we all have) some horrific statements, accusations and comments that I can't believe that any sane and reasonable person would dare to say. But it's all "OK" because it's people hiding behind their alias on Twitter or Facebook. And it can be/is depressing. There's so much crud there, it's difficult to differentiate the real and positive stuff from the codswallop and bile.

So what to do? I could just turn it off I suppose, but I can't I'm addicted to - well I'm not sure if it's my device or the content it delivers, but I use social media for many good things, so I'm going to keep going.

Separating the wheat from the chaff is the challenge

Update:

Somewhat co-incidentally, a person I follow on Twitter posted this today...

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/1346092859146055680

I'm still here! Unfortunately so is Covid and Brexit

I've done it again....

My last post was on 28th October where I opined about the frustration of not being able to play golf in a local (well Wales wide) lockdown. Well a lot's happened since then.

The Wales' "firebreak" lockdown ended (yay!) and my good lady and I managed to get away for a couple of days to Pembrokeshire in West Wales for a couple of days after the firebreak ended. We had three days of glorious weather and the place almost to ourselves. As well as being away in a fabulous place with my wife, it was a release from looking at the 4 walls of the house and staying broadly within this locality for the last x months which was certainly good for the soul.

I got back on the golf course and shot my best ever score both gross (91) and Stableford points (43) and in doing so won the day's Men's Handicap competition. I won't be flying off to enjoy retirement in the sun on my £17 winnings though I'm very proud of my achievement. Breaking 90 is my next target.

Then as we approached Christmas it started to become apparent that despite all the local lockdowns and firebreaks, Covid cases were ramping up again, and despite advice that up to three families could meet up for up to 5 days over Christmas, that quickly became no meeting up (more or less) at all.

We, like most families therefore experienced a strangely quiet Christmas seeing no-one, and conducting  Zoom calls with our families rather than having them round the table tucking into turkey, and following Christmas Day we lurched into the next lockdown/firebreak/tiered restrictions (I't getting hard to remember the terminology now).

We're seeing more and more medics (genuine practising medics and healthcare professionals) stating the severity of the situation and the pressure on the NHS, especially emergency and intensive care services, with the concerns that this is likely to get much worse before it gets any better. Compounding the problem is the identification of a new variant of the Covid virus which is proving far more transmissible (though not apparently more severe) than the original. This seems to be exercising lots of people, but this is what viruses (virii?) do - they mutate all the time. That's why we need a flu jab every year (those of us old enough, or at risk enough to need one that is).

At the same time, we continue to see Covid deniers in mainstream media and unfortunately on the streets including the horrific sight of a protest outside a London Hospital on New Year's Eve with protesters chant "covid is a hoax". Honestly, this is beyond deplorable, and if I had my way we'd lock these people up, or take them one by one unmasked and un-PPE'd into a Covid pressured ITU to show them how bad things are. Sadly, whatever response is given to these people (and there are some well known and high profile people amongst them), they just won't believe anything that's said - they seem to be beyond all reason. As an aside, I think much of the media has behaved very poorly throughout the pandemic, reporting often for clicks/views than sensible and clear reporting and holding powers that be to account for their actions and decisions.

And now we are all back in some sort of national lockdown for the foreseeable future. Personally I can't see anything changing before February at the earliest. Annoyingly everything varies a bit from region to regions and UK country to UK country (I can't play golf in Wales in effectively a Tier 4 lockdown) but I could if I was in England for example. Travel (even local) is advised against unless deemed essential and all non essential retail, and hospitality (restaurants, pubs etc) remains closed - although thankfully you can still get a takeaway. Currently there's also a massive hoo-ha going on about whether schools should return this week and the risks and or impact on children getting or transmitting the virus. 

My main consolation with everything being shut is that I got a rather severe haircut just before Christmas so I'm good for a few weeks yet!

* as an aside, my earlier post about golf still stands. It's brilliant for my mental health to get out in the fresh air playing golf with a couple of mates, and the chances of transmitting or getting Covid out on the course must be negligible. Why can't we do this? Its got to be better for you than being cooped top indoors.

On the brighter side (if there is actually one), two vaccines have been approved in the UK and roll out has started. However, it's going to take months yet before we see the benefit of this as we'll need a significant number of the population vaccinated before we can start to reap the benefits of these vaccines. Even the vaccination programme has changed though - the Pfizer vaccine is a two dose 21/28 days apart protocol, but now the view is that we should vaccinate as many people as possible once and then worry about second doses. Sensible I suppose, but for those that have had one jab, this was on the basis they'd be getting second one. There is no data (that I'm aware of) about whether delaying a second jab of the Pfizer  vaccine for at least 12 weeks is acceptable, bad or not ideal but ok. I suppose we'll see.

And then there's Brexit (or Brexshit as I like to call it). We're officially out of the EU now, and whilst the "deal" we've got has been lauded in some quarters, we're still going to be a damn site worse of now, after the last four years buggering about than we ever were before it. But it's done, and we just have to live with  it. (it would be interesting to see how many of the covid deniers voted for Brexit).

So ultimately, we're still in the shit, but at least there is a (faint) light at the end of the tunnel. If we're anywhere near normal by June it'll be a miracle, but hey ho.

Anyway, I'll try not to leave it so long until my next post.

Happy New Year folks.....(I said that last year and look what happened.....)

Golf and lockdown

I know this is a first world problem whilst many people are suffering from the effects and impact of Covid-19 far more than me, but please tell me why I can't play golf in the lockdown?

I can exercise - but only if that exercise starts and stops at home.

Now the golf course will be shut 

I can't get in my car at home, drive alone (in my case about 8 miles to the golf club), get to the first tee and then play three and a half hours of golf in the open air, completely socially distant from my friends (I'm a bit wayward and frankly its easy to keep comfortably apart), walking around 6 miles in the process getting my exercise in a way that's entirely good for my mental health. Then get back in the car and drive home alone.

exercise - tick

social distancing - tick

sensible - tick

The "argument" I guess is that I could be putting undue pressure on emergency services if I have an accident on the way to or from the golf course. Not convinced. And yes I know I only have to wait two weeks before I can play again. 

But then logic and common sense has long been thrown out of the window by the powers that make these rules.

Until next time.... #isolationlife #staylocalsavelives

A brilliant book! This is going to hurt by Adam Kay

I don't normally write about books I read. Actually, I don't often write about much at all. However, a book I've read in the last 24 hours is a worthy exception to the rule.

"This is going to hurt" is quite simply the diaries of a junior doctor - Adam Kay, from qualification through to a post as a Senior Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It was first published about 3 years ago. Spoiler - the author no longer works as a doctor for reasons which will become apparent when reading the book.

My daughter had read the book and eulogised about it to the rest of the family, and my wife read it after her. I picked it up not expecting to enjoy it too much mainly because my maternity placement when I was training to be a nurse was the least enjoyable eight weeks of my three years training, so a book about the life of an Observer & Gynae doctor didn't sound too appealing, but I was hooked within two pages. I was laughing out loud within 10, enough to bring both my grown up son and daughter into the room wondering what the hell was so funny. It appears my sense of humour was right on point with the author's writing (hint - if you want to know, it was the water lilies that did it for me!).

Perhaps it was my nursing experience, enabling me to resonate with so much of what the author was writing about which also enabled me to bring back my own memories or perhaps it was his just his writing style with which he put down on paper his experiences, whether funny, mundane, or in some cases very sad. It was certainly an easy read in the sense that you don't have to be a medical encyclopaedia to understand what he's writing about, and his frequent use of footnotes clarifying medical terms where he used them would certainly help those without a medical or nursing background - or as he pointed out on a couple of occasions in the book, it might have served some of his medical colleagues well too! A lot of his anecdotes about other colleagues and consultants in particular brought back many similar scenarios I encountered during my relatively brief clinical nursing career - "Black Wednesday" when junior doctors changed over being one, or the consultants who only appeared when something important was happening, or the constant pressure from above (ie anyone in a non clinical management role or politician) to cut costs impacting front line patient care whilst spending hundreds/thousands/millions (delete as applicable) on new and "better" (although almost inevitably worse) systems.

Anyhow, the book was so good I literally couldn't put it down, and it took me less than a day to read it. 

I've found the author on Twitter at @amateuradam and tweeted that I'd really enjoyed the book. One thing he notes in his diaries is the lack of acknowledgement and recognition that doctors in particular, but health care workers in general get for what they do, and not just in renumeration terms (in todays context clapping for the NHS already seems like a lifetime ago), so it seemed the least I could do was tell him I enjoyed his work. He's liked my Tweet, so I'm glad he's seen it.

So, whilst you don't have to be of a medical (or nursing) persuasion to read the book - my daughter after all is a 23 year old averse to blood, needles and partial to fainting at the sight of both who enjoyed it immensely, I think knowledge of the "system" will  definitely give you a slight edge when reading it.

Finally, there's a telling open letter to the then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt at the end. Perhaps most sadly of all, here we are in 2020 and little if nothing has changed for the better when it comes to the management of the NHS.

It's only £1.99 on kindle, or £4 in paperback, although if you live in Wales, you're going to have to wait until the end of the current lockdown to by a physical copy from a shop as books aren't considered an essential item, but that's another story for another day.

Adam Kay has written more books, and I'll definitely be having a peek at these.

Go on.....

Until next time.... 

Haven't we all had enough of this?

Well, lockdown is back at least in Wales For 17 days (at the moment). But we're not calling it that. It's a circuit break, or fire break or loo break or something like that. 2020 has been bloody horrific so far, and there's no sign it's going to get any better soon. The UK Government and devolved administrations seem to be playing off against each other to score points causing confusion, irritation and general disbelief at how uncoordinated they are in dealing with a global situation, and frankly, nothing's really working. Statistics are being cast about left, right and centre and pretty much every theory, approach, or proposed solution has an alternate viewpoint with social media and the media in general being cast along with those who supposedly govern us as the triumvirate of fuel to the fire. 

Here's just some of the things that whatever happens, we'll remember 2020 for:

• Australian wildfires (nothing to do with coronavirus, unless you know different) but still pretty shit
• UK floods (as above)
• Coronavirus
• Covid-19
• Pandemic
• Herd immunity
• No PPE
• Wrong PPE
• Stay home
• Work from home
• Lockdown
• Government briefings
• Close the pubs
• Social distancing
• 2m or 1.5m or 1m (depending where in the world you live)
• R-number
• Toilet rolls
• Common sense
• Shielding
• Close the schools
• Covidiots
• No masks
• Next slide please
• Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives
• Furlough
• Led by donkeys science
• Bleach
• Masks
• Anti-maskers
• Conspiracy theorists/deniers
• Stay alert, Control the virus, Save lives
• Rule of 6
• Go back to work (but work from home if you can)
• Stay local
• Open the schools
• Eat out to help out
• Household bubbles
• Support bubbles
• Extended houselholds
• Hands, face, space
• Track and trace
• Test and trace
• £12bn track and trace down the drain
• Leaks
• Local lockdown
• Tier 1, 2 and 3
• Circuitbreak
• Firebreak

Until next time.... #isolationlife #staylocalsavelives

More money please - its for your own good

Some years ago, our dental practice went private. At the time I didn't think too much of it. The cost for my wife and I as patients wasn't wholly unreasonable, and the kids were still free. Costs have risen over the years. Not horrendously so, but enough to notice. My son who turned 25 last birthday now has to make a choice of staying with this practice or trying to find an NHS dentist accepting new patients. My daughter at 23 will be at that stage soon.

Obviously, during the pandemic, dental practices like most businesses had a hiatus. But now they're back and catching up. My practice which is now a BUPA one, wants - no, requires - that when patients visit the surgery they pay towards the costs of the PPE required over and above the normal treatment/plan costs under the guise of it being a "safety tariff". This is a minimum of £7 per visit and could rise to £25 depending on the reason for the appointment. They're arguing that their PPE costs have gone up a hundred fold and that this is only a temporary measure. I can accept costs may have gone up, but so has PPE for most businesses - hairdressers, restaurants, shops etc, most of whom never needed PPE or other safety measures in the first place, and they're not charging their customers for the privilege. The good old NHS isn't levying a tariff either. But it seems good old "private" healthcare customers are ripe for fleecing for a few extra pounds - it's not like private healthcare companies are short of a few quid either. 

We all have choices, and so it's hard to complain I suppose but this just seems unreasonable to me.

The frustrations of saving the planet...a little bit at a time

After almost a year of waiting, some significant changes to the management of household recycling are coming to our area. In some ways it's long overdue, and in others there's a strong feeling amongst some that it's just going to generate more problems.

I've long been a quiet advocate of recycling, and within our immediate family (myself, my wife and two adult children still living at home). Ever since home recycling collections became a thing, our authority (Vale of Glamorgan) has had co-mingled recycling in place. Effectively this means any household rubbish that's potentially recyclable all goes in one or more blue bags (no wheelie bins here). The exceptions are food waste and green waste and general black bag waste which are collected separately. Generally, it works fairly well although there are one or two challenges which I'll come on to in a minute. In a household of four adults with a schedule of alternating fortnightly collections for black bag and garden waste, and weekly food and general recycling we generally end up with two full blue bags each week (co-mingled recycling remember), and one to two bags of black bag waste destined for landfill a fortnight. I'll leave green and food waste aside for the moment.

The main problem starts on collection day, or rather the night before collection day. Many people on our estate start putting their rubbish out in the middle of the day, the day before collection (we put ours out late evening). This means that if they haven't secured their bags/food waste caddy's securely, by the morning there could be rubbish strewn everywhere courtesy of gulls, and probably cats, foxes, rats and other loitering animals.

On the day, the waste management team empty the containers and then discard the empty food caddy's and blue (or green) recycling bags. Generally they just get left (thrown) on the floor. Despite assertions from the Council on social media that their staff take great care not to just throw these down I've seen this happen repeatedly. In their defence, it's a hell of a job to have to do and they've got to empty hundred if not thousands of containers per shift - not a job I'd fancy, but at please take care. The upshot of this can result in bags and caddies everywhere, and it's even worse on windy days when the blue and green waste bags, despite being weighted can still sail off in the wind like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, never to be seen again. The plastic caddies are not immune either, and these can often be found on windier days scattered across the road, where they create hazards to traffic - I've seen more than one accidentally run over and smashed to pieces and have on occasion stopped my car to get out and move one safely to the side of the road - whilst others carefully swerve around them.

All this can create some angst as householders go looking for "their" containers. We, along with many others have written large on ours our house number, so it's not too bad. We also benefit from a small number of immediate neighbours who collect up everyone's and leave them outside our doors depending on who's first to the scene in the morning (...thanks neighbours 👍)

From next week though we will have a new system of separated recycling. The most immediate sign of this are our new containers. Now we will have to separate our paper (white bag); cardboard (orange bag); bottles and jars (big plastic caddy); other recycling - plastic tins etc (blue bag) as well as the usual food waste (green caddy), green waste (green bags) and general household waste (black bags). Whilst no doubt helping the recycling centres sort the waste more easily, it creates some further obvious immediate and potential challenges to those I've already mentioned.

Firstly, where do you put all these containers? We're lucky (I suppose). We have a small porch which until now has been kept clear and tidy but is now full of the various recycling containers. I could put it in the garage but it's a faff to go out every time to put something in it. I could leave them outside but the aforementioned wind might take them away or at the very least get bags with paper and cardboard very wet and soggy when it rains (yes the bags have covers, but frankly they're not wholly efficient).  But what about people that don't have the room in their house or live in a flat? It'll be a nightmare to be honest.

Secondly, whereas we only had to worry about chasing blue and green bags and food caddy's down the road after they've been emptied, we now had to add the challenge of getting the white and orange bags plus potentially the glass caddy. Recycling collection mornings are likely to look like armageddon on windy, wintry days, and it may need a while to find everything.

I'm sure this system will be better in the long run (at least I think I'm sure if I didn't have a deep lingering suspicion that all that all our environmentally conscientious recycling effort goes out the window as Councils end up either sending most to landfill or half way round the world to thrill world economies to deal with).

Is there a better system? Well I suppose it's long overdue the time that we all (and I include manufacturers in this) started being more conscientious about the amount and type of packaging used, and more careful about what we buy. It staggers me that just our household fills two co-mingled bags every week which generally is mostly cardboard (much of which comes from online deliveries - Amazon (and others) looking at your packaging strategies) and plastic packaging from foodstuffs. and this in a nutshell is the problem. As a population we are looking at solutions for the symptom, not cause. Deal with the packaging up front, and recycling would be far less of an issue.

Wheelie bins might stop bags floating down the street, but come with their own issues - storage, effort to get them to the collection point, unsightly, and so on.

Anyway, answers on a postcard please!

The older (oldest) generation

Tomorrow marks a sad and poignant day, but one to remember good things too. It's my mother-in-law's funeral, a lady I've known for almost the last 30 years. As a devout Catholic, stalwart member of her local church and matriarch to a large family, she would have wanted a proper send-off, something that's been denied her due to the Covid restrictions on funerals. There will be no church service, and a limited family and closest friends gathering at the crematorium. We will hopefully get a memorial mass at some point when churches re-open fully, so all is not lost, and despite the restrictions in place tomorrow we'll all do our best to remember her life and the wonderful lady that she was.

It also draws a line under her generation within both my wife's and my families. My wife lost her Dad in 2017, whilst my Mum died in 2002 and my Dad at the end of 2016. That means we, along with our brothers and sisters are now the elder (senior?) generation in both our families. Yikes!

Pembrokeshire - stunning as always

Well we finally got away in this annus horibilis that is 2020. A week away in a cottage with our two (adult) children, and a posse of family/friends just down the road on a campsite (21 of us over the first weekend, plus an assortment of dogs), just outside St David's, the smallest city in the UK.

This area has to be one of our favourite places. I've blogged about it before many times. And this year, despite the fact in my 45th year of visiting I've never see it so busy with "staycationers" it was as stunning as ever. We were blessed with several really warm days, although most days it was a tad misty first thing.

We beached, we swam, we went on a boat trip, we BBQ'd, we ate out, body-boarded, we had a bonfire on the beach and we walked. We saw seals, bats, raptors, porpoises, kingfishers, herons, kittiwakes, fulmars, shags and rabbits. We ate chips, drank beer and licked delicious Pembrokeshire ice creams. But most of we just enjoyed the fabulous coastal scenery that this westernmost part of Wales has to offer. Below, are just a few examples of the beauty I managed to capture.

It was a wonderful holiday. Who needs to go abroad anyway?

The southern (quieter end) of Whitesands beach

Sunset from our cottage garden

Rock arch on Ramsey island

Heather and gorse and calm seas near Porthlysgi on the Treginnis penninsula

The famous Blue Pool at Abereiddy - rarely seen without people!

Sunset at Abereiddy