April 23rd: St George and booze

As a born and bred Englishman* today should sit proudly as a day to recognise the patron saint of England, St George.  Which is odd, really given he wasn't English, as far as we know never came to England and didn't slay a dragon. I'm not going to go into any more detail about him, as there's plenty of information out there, so if you're really interested a quick Google should give you what you want. If you can't be bothered, then this Wikipedia page might be of interest, with all the usual caveats about the accuracy of that database.

However, it seems to me that there's nowhere near the same fervour held over dear St George than for the other national saints of the Great Britain and Ireland and the days allotted to them. Indeed, here in Wales, St David's day on 1st March is usually marked in many ways, with kids dressing up in school, St David's themed stuff everywhere and more daffodils than you can shake a stick at. It probably helps that it arrives off the back of the 6 Nations Rugby tournament where country pride has been fanatically displayed, and the red shirts are easily to hand. St Patrick's Day goes far and beyond being celebrated in just that part of the world, and the Scot's too with St Andrew seem to make a real thing of it. I'm not sure why this doesn't happen in England, (perhaps him not being English has something to do with it) or is it just that I don't see it?

St George

* Whilst I was born in England and lived in various places there until I was 20, I've been in living in Wales for over 40 years. I married a Cardiff girl. My kids are both Welsh, born and bred in the area. I feel more Welsh than English, and will be found supporting Wales over England in most things (football included).

The current coronavirus pandemic has affected business massively, and small, local businesses are one of the hardest hit. Some will undoubtedly and sadly go to the wall as a result of the current situation, others are struggling on, or have closed and are waiting for the lockdown to ease in the hope that things will pick up. Others, where they are able, have taken the bull by the horns and changed their business model and seem to be doing ok.

One example of this is the Roath and Penarth "Bottle Shops", independent wine and beer merchants (Twitter @CF64BottleShop and CF24BottleShop). I've been buying beer and the occasional wine from their Penarth shop for a couple of years. Their range of craft beers is amazing, and there's something for everyone, with prices from fairly decent (around £2.50 a can/bottle) to anything up to, and occasionally beyond £20 a can/bottle.  Similarly the wine we've bought from there has always impressed. They certainly aren't and never claim to be the cheapest, but the quality of what they source and stock is highly impressive supported by knowledgeable, friendly staff. I've always found them to be extremely helpful. You can also (though we never have as it's a bit too far away) pop in and drink on site (outside of the current lockdown of course), although it's primarily a shop, not a pub/wine bar. They also run wine tasting events and I'm keen to try one of those when I can.

With the shop closed to customers  during lockdown, like many businesses they've taken a delivery service (email orders only) and seem to be doing very well. My delivery arrived yesterday after I'd sent them my budget and 'brief". They know their stuff, and come highly recommended by me if you're ever in the area. It's good to support your local independent businesses.  Note there's a minimum £50 order at the moment, though delivery is free.

My CF64BottleShop stash

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelivesA

April 22nd: DIY distasters

I couldn't put it off any longer. I've started to decorate. It was meant to be my rainy days project, but we haven't had any precipitation of note, and there's none forecasted in the immediate future so I just have to bite the bullet and start. There's a long old list of rooms to be done.

Some of my procrastination is down to my level of DIY competence. I'm not very good at DIY and do my best to avoid it at all costs. I'm not terrible, but on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a member of the master guild of builders/decorators/plumbers etc., I'm probably no better than mid-table at best, and possibly as low as a 2 depending on the job at hand. When decorating I've steadfastly shunned wallpaper for years. Just the thought of taking a radiator off a wall to paint behind it brings me out in a cold sweat, and so on. Age has certainly improved my abilities, so you can imagine how bad I once was. For a start, these days I take things more slowly. Back in the day I wanted to finish a job as quickly as possible and tended to go at things like a bull in a china shop. There are two legendary episodes in our household that exemplify why I'm best leaving this stuff alone. 

The first comes from 20th October 1996. The reason I can remember this date so vividly is because I was decorating our then spare room ready to move my almost 2 year old son from his small room and cot into his new room with his first big bed. And whilst I was decorating I was listening to an epic football match on the radio between Newcastle and Manchester United which the Magpies won 5-0.

Anyway, the room had been stripped and carpet lifted to allow me to do the decorating (at least I'd done that - I often paint around things). We'd had a plumber round to service the boiler that afternoon, and I'd taken the opportunity to take out an emergency contract for plumbing emergencies - seemed like a sensible thing to do at the time, although I could've done without the £60 odd cost (times were harder then). 

So boiler serviced, painting ongoing and a temporary halt for dinner after which I returned to the room to carry on my decorating. As the carpet was up, I thought I'd take the opportunity to fix a squeaky floorboard (do you know what's coming yet?). So powered screwdriver in hand (all the gear, no idea) I took a nice big screw and screwed the offending floorboard down. Right through a hot water pipe. I managed to quickly lift the floorboard, but what do you do then when hot water is squirting out through a pipe? Call the wife? No, she said, call the plumber. So I did. You can imaging that he was slightly incredulous both at what I'd done, and that I'd taken him up on his emergency contract so quickly - I reckon it was about two hours from the point he'd left the house after servicing the boiler. I never screw down floorboards now. 

The second occurrence was in the same room. We'd bought a three door flat pack wardrobe from somewhere. I was assembling it (taking my time and following instructions, honest). I'd assembled the outer parts (sides, base, top and the instructions then said, "carefully lift the casing upright". So I did (on my own and that's probably where it all went wrong). It stood upright for a few seconds as I admired my work to date, and then slowly fell to one side ripping out the fixingsas it collapsed into its constituent parts on the floor. In the end I managed to salvage it, although one of the side had to be put on back to front due to the damage. 

I haven't had any real disasters since then, and have even managed to rewire light switches and fixings without electrocuting myself, but normally whenever it's suggested that there's some DIY work of any description required, my wife's first response is "Let's get a man in". Well I would, but we're on lockdown, so it's down to me.....now where's the paintbrush?

Queen of all she surveys

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 20th: Apologies, data and bread

Firstly an apology to those who got excited about yesterday's Starlink post and went out last evening to look for the supposedly excellent pass at around 10am (I know my sister and her family did).

It was a very disappointing. Starlink satellites were visible, but they were much fainter and much more widely spaced than the night before. Those who know about these things better than me say it's very hard to predict exactly how "good" one of these passes as the satellites move towards their final orbit, unlike the International Space Station passes which are very predictable. On the upside, a better pass is predicted at around 9pm this evening. I also understand there's a launch of the next batch (60) of Starlink satellites tomorrow (Wednesday) in the US, so there's a chance we might get to see an even better "string of pearls" pass a day or so later. And remember, we're also in the middle of the Lyrid meteor shower which peaks tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning, so if you've got nothing planned, just go out in the garden tonight and look up. You might see a spaceship, and you might see meteors. Assuming the sky is clear, you'll definitely see loads of stars!

How easily do you give up data?

Barely a day goes by when I don't see and get irritated by a Facebook post from someone imploring me to fill in a list along the lines of:

"I'm bored during lockdown. I bet none of my Facebook friends will do this, but just for a bit of fun let's see who does. Then share your answer with all your friends"

Things like:

1. Your favourite colour
2. Name of your first pet
3. Best holiday destination
4. Your favourite meal
5. Colour of your car
6. Month you  got married
7. Your computer passwords

Ok I made the last one up, but had I not, I suspect there might be a few people out there gullible enough to do it! 

Whilst these seem like a bit ion innocent fun, in reality, these sorts of "challenges" aren't your pals idea. They've more than likely been instigated by persons unknown as a co-ordinated way for someone to "scrape" data about you. For example, if you filled in the top five answers in the first example, everyone (including the people that instigated this) knows that you like blue, you had a pet called Bertie, you like going to Ibiza, your car is red (why didn't you buy a blue one if it's your favourite colour?) and you got married in September. Imagine that list being 20 or more items. That's a lot of information about you. Then imagine you sharing that list with everyone of your contacts, and they sharing with every one of theirs and so on. Imagine how many people freely giving up data about their "favourite things" that is (incidentally, that's also a bit like how coronavirus spreads so quickly which is why you should be staying at home!).

And all this can (and most likely is) used at the very least for tailoring marketing advertisements towards you. Worse, it could be used by unscrupulous individuals (yes I know some people think marketeers are unscrupulous, but let's not go there), to start mining accounts for passwords. Too many people use basic passwords based on their favourite things, and also repeat those passwords over multiple accounts, so with enough people filling these in, some people will inadvertently leak their passwords, or at least give people a head start when it comes to cracking them.

That's why I don't fill these things in. It's not because I'm a grumpy old git (although that may be true) and I don't want to engage with my "friends". Honest.

Made soda bread again today. Looks like a better effort than my first one a week or so ago. Only time will tell - tea-time!

Home made bread

And finally, my son had a blender out this afternoon making iced coffee. The following short video on slo-mo on an iPhone shows what happens in a blender when there's water in it. Quite transfixing.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 20th: Part 2 - Needles in vain (see what I did there?)

The second of a double posting today.  I wanted to get my earlier post about Starlink satellites out so that anyone interested had enough time to read and then prepare for tonight's pass should they want to - and it was a very specific post rather than my usual general "some stuff about some stuff" sort of post.

Back in the real world it's Monday (I think). How easy is it to lose track of the days?  Mrs H has gone off to work at the hospital, my daughter's working from the kitchen and my son - well now he's been furloughed he's just chilling.....

Following Friday's abandoned blood letting for my latest blood test because of my arthritis medication I woke this morning and downed almost 4 pints of water to ensure my veins were suitably full for this morning's attempt. Sadly, despite the best efforts of (more than one) clinician, they couldn't find a decent enough vein again this morning, and so I have to go back again on Wednesday. They were wholly apologetic, although I pointed out that it wasn't their fault if there wasn't a decent vein to stab.

On the bigger stage, it's evident that we've moved from a "we're all in this together" mode to tensions, and finger pointing as people start to see the curve flattening and other countries starting to loosen their restrictions on whatever flavour of lockdown they had installed. The critical point though is that we're far from out of this yet, just because the numbers of infections is plateauing. Deaths will undoubtedly continue to rise for a while, the pressure on care and services will remain for the foreseeable future. We might (or might not) see a second, or even third wave. God forbid we might see coronavirus as a permanent fixture, like seasonal flu, or perhaps worse, an altered strain that's even more deadly. I saw a headline today (one source is the New Scientist) saying that the UK’s coronavirus science advice won’t be published until pandemic ends. Well knock me down. I'm not surprised as we're still in the middle of this thing. It appears we (and most of the rest of the world) is still grappling with the pandemic - why publish the science now. It would be like publishing a novel that stops half way through.

I'm all for holding the Government (and anyone else such as scientists, journalists etc.) to account but it's also easy to adopt a holier than thou attitude (how many of you have done non-essential shopping in the last month, or made a trip you didn't need to?). It's easy to blame someone that they did something wrong, listened to flawed advice, took the wrong action or say person X or political party Y would have done better. We just don't know yet. The time will come when we can do that in a planned and focused way. Not now.

Don't forget - if you have clear skies, the Starling satellites will be over about 10pm tonight. Look up!

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 20th: Part 1 - The aliens are coming...

Last night I watched an incredible sight. And (clear skies permitting), you can do the same again tonight at around 9.55pm.

I saw in excess of 40 bright Starlink satellites trailing across the sky in a train one after another - around 20 seconds apart. If you've ever watched the International Space Station fly across the sky, it was a bit like that (not quite as bright, but not far off). They were so bright because the sun was reflecting off them. You certainly couldn't miss them, and they just kept coming. I took a couple of time-lapse shots on my iPhone but they didn't come out that well. The  time-lapse trail photo below is one of a myriad you'll find on Twitter that shows how many of these things there were. The long lines are the time-lapse trails from the satellites, the shorter horizontal lines are star trails due to the length of the exposure - the vertical streak in the bottom left quadrant may be a meteor (we're in the middle of the Lyrid meter shower currently).

Starlink timelapse April 19 2020
Credit @HH_Bert

If you didn't know what these lights were and were watching them, it could have been fairly unsettling. I've certainly never seen anything like it in my life

These satellites form part of what will ultimately be a "constellation" of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX company intended to provide global internet access (plus undoubtedly many other uses). As I understand it, there are currently around 360 of these satellites in LEO, but ultimately it's rumoured that there might be as many as 40,000 (yes you read that right - forty thousand!).

Musk is a controversial character - he's the chap who launched a Tesla Roadster into space with a space mannequin in February 2018. Whilst these Starlink satellites will no doubt perform some useful scientific purpose, they carry major concerns on two fronts.

Firstly, that they just add to the space junk that already exists up there. The US Space Surveillance Network already calculates that there are over 20,000 items of "debris" in orbit, ranging from tiny bits to considerable chunks of used rocket/satellites. If rumours around Starlink are true, this adds a further 40,000. And we don't yet know what other space capable countries like China, Russia or India for example are putting up there. That's a massive amount of clutter, and whilst it may be "out of sight", it proses real issues for the International Space Station for example that has to regularly manoeuvre to avoid space junk.

Secondly, those that observe the night Skys, from professional and commercial researchers to amateurs including astrophotographers are massively concerned that the night skies may eventually become unobservable due to the amount of clutter up there. And they have a real point. Anyone who's  ever taken a night photo will probably have captured the odd satellite of plane in their image. If there are tens of thousands of these satellites up there, it will make astrophotography nigh on impossible.

It's countered that as these eventually make their way to their final orbit they'll be too high to see with the naked eye, and SpaceX is apparently also trialling some with a non-reflective material. Whether either statement is true we'll just have to wait and see.

Whatever your view, there's no doubt that last night's display was an awesome sight, and tonights promises to be even better. I literally stood open mouthed in my garden for nearly twenty minutes watching these things pass over.

If you want to get into observing the night sky follow @VirtualAstro on Twitter - he'll tell you what's around and what's coming over. The pass tonight will be around 9.55pm - get out and have a look. If you're feeling bold, you can also try to photograph these using just your phone.

I use an iPhone app called NightCap from the App Store - I'm note sure what's available for Android, but I'm sure there must be something similar. It has a number of modes including ISS mode, and light trails mode. Set it up pointing at where you think the ISS (or in this case satellites) are going to come from, press record and that's it. Press stop when you're done. Use a tripod if you can, or secure it from moving however you can. You might not get it right first time. It's trial and error.

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 17th: Rain, pincushions, death and football

Well the weather's turned (hopefully only briefly), and sunshine has given way to rain, the first rainfall in these parts for getting on for four weeks or so (bar one short overnight shower). That means a couple of things.

• Firstly, I'm not doing any more gardening. That can wait until the rain stops, although the garden  and my fledgling crops will be thankful for the precipitation as my clay based soil has set like concrete and opened up big cracks.
• Secondly, I wonder if the inclement weather will see fewer people at the shops - especially as over the last few weeks people have been standing out in the sunshine. If you go today you'll need an umbrella.
• Thirdly, whilst I can, and have frequently walked/hiked in the rain, I think I'll just stay at home today and have a day off the daily walk, or jump on the exercise bike for half an hour (I did the latter).

I did get out today, but it was in the car. I was out early to the surgery for my (currently two weekly) blood test. However, my veins weren't playing today despite me having drunk copies amounts of fluid yesterday and a couple of pints of water before I went to the surgery this morning, but despite three valiant tries, I'll need to go back on Monday for another go.

As the death toll from/with coronavirus continues to rise, I suppose it's inevitable that more people who were well known during my childhood succumb - in some cases just because it was their time, but others have been tragically hastened to an earlier than planned audience with St Peter due to coronavirus.

Today it was reported that Leeds footballing legend and hard man Norman "Bites Yer Legs" Hunter" has died after contracting coronavirus. Now I've now been a die hard Cardiff City fan many years, so whisper it very quietly, but for a brief time between the ages of about 10-12 before I knew better, and when I lived in rural Lincolnshire I, and most of my childhood peers supported Leeds. We never actually went to games - too far away and the nearest club of any substance was Boston United! I can still remember most of the squad of the early 70's off the top of my head including the likes of left back Terry Cooper, Welshman Terry Yorath, captain Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer (reckoned to have the hardest shot in football at the time), Allan Clarke, Mick Jones (who famously played in a cup final with a broken arm), Jack Charlton and many others. Norman Hunter was a renowned hard tacking centre back who left his stud marks on may an opposition player when the game was still considered a contact sport.

I also recall the Leeds kit of the era had little tags with the players numbers on that went on their socks - something that seems to have been fairly unique and a passing fad. Anyway, my flirtation with Leeds was brief before succumbing to the lure of the then all powerful Liverpool, led by an equally ferocious Tommy Smith and starring the likes of Ray Clemence, Steve Heighway, Emlyn Hughes, Ray Kennedy and of course Kevin Keegan and John Toshack amongst others. In my later teens I lost a bit of interest in football before the family moved to Wales in 1979. I came to Cardiff to study nursing in 1980 and have lived in the area ever since. It wasn't until about the mid 80's when through some friends I started attending a few Cardiff City matches, although wasn't really a regular until the late 90's. In 1999 when my son was 5 years old I started taking him, and the following season we both became season ticket holders and have been ever since, and we were joined by my daughter a few years ago.

Leeds United players with sock tags

My son and I in 2002. Blimey I looked young then...

And a slightly later one, and perhaps one of my favourite photos (and I've got about 25,000 in my library -  not all Cardiff City ones I hasten to add), my son and daughter celebrating a goal against Manchester City on 25th August 2013 in a famous 3-2 win. This picture needs no caption.

Until tomorrow....

#bluebirds
#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

April15th: Sparkly Sirius

I've mentioned before that I'm fascinated by space and the night sky. Inspired by a post on Twitter a few days ago, last night I made an attempt to photograph the star Sirius (also called Alpha Canis Majoris or the Dog Star). Its name is derived from Greek meaning glowing, sparkling or scorching". Easily visible in the night sky currently lowish to the south in early evening, it's very bright (though not as bright as Venus at the moment). Of particular note is that it's probably one of the "twinkliest" stars in the sky, and even with the naked eye you can see both the twinkling and as well as some apparent changes of colour as it twinkles.

The collage photo below is the result of my efforts last night. The change in colours from this star are literally over a period of a couple of seconds whilst I took a burst set of photos and are both amazing and stunning in equal measure and are largely due to the light from the star combined with the atmospheric conditions as the light hits the earth's atmosphere. I'm dead chuffed with the result of this as my first effort at this.

Sirius - changing colours captured 9pm 14 April 2020

I achieved result this by tripod mounting my binoculars (Olympus 10x50 DPS1 - excellent for star gazing), focussing on Sirius and then defocusing slightly (to get a more blurry and therefore deliberately fuzzy shot of the star) and then hand holding my iPhone XR camera lens to one of the binocular eye pieces and holding the shutter down for a couple of seconds to get multiple burst images. It's a bit hit and mis-using the phone hand held to actually get the shot, but after a couple of goes shooting nothing I managed it!

Once I got the shots, I needed to post-process them as the star was just a tiny coloured dot in each frame. I exported all the images from the iPhone, and then used software called "BatchPhoto"to import and crop all the images in one go so the crop ratio was 100% (doing them individually/manually would be a disaster). Then after exporting the cropped images, I used a Mac application (sorry - no Windows here), called CollageFactory Free from the Mac App Store to pull together the image above in a grid.

The night sky is truly a wondrous thing, and with the current clear skies and relatively mild evenings, it's a perfect time for getting out in the garden and having a look around. There are numerous people to follow on Twitter who provide all sorts of great info about the night sky, but if you only follow one I recommend @VirtualAstro (website at meteorwatch.org). One imminent thing to watch out for is the Lyrid meteor shower which occurs this year from tomorrow (16th) to 25th April peaking late 21st/early 22nd.

Back in the world of #isolation life and Covid-19, my son has somewhat expectedly been put on furlough. Daughter is still working from home, most of her IT issues seem to have been sorted, and my wife has a week off from work this week (well her normal 2 days anyway). She's been to see her Mum today and do some shopping for her - all ok there. After yesterday's nice walk over on the local golf course, the next highlight of my week will be a trip to the doctors surgery on Friday for my routine blood test.

I can assure everyone that the cat is fine, but living a pretty dull life currently. Sleeping most of the time, as evidenced by this shot of her underneath the rosemary bush next to the compost bin!

Spot the cat

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

April 14th: Herons, golf and callous opportunism

Me and my good lady were up (relatively) early for our daily exercise. Our neighbours had told us about a walk up a path near our home which I didn't even know was there across a road, through the local crematorium sounds and onto one of the golf courses in the area. We did about a three mile circular walk. It was nice (if cool early in the day), and the golf course was obviously deserted. I should have taken my irons for a few practice swings (only joking). I am though looking forward to getting back to playing once we're allowed back on the courses. As I've mentioned before, if nothing else, these short exercise walks are a way to get to know you're local area much better.

Walking on Wenvoe Castle Golf Club course

Before we set off I saw the remarkable sight of a heron sitting right on top of our neighbours roof, being attacked by a group of gulls. I managed to get a few decent shots of him. I suppose he might have been eyeing up local ponds, including mine for a goldfish breakfast. I've only got three toddler goldfish in my pond, and can happily say all were accounted for.

That's not a pigeon!

Impressive chap - keep away from my fish!

The death toll from (or with) coronavirus continues to rise, although it's reported that there are signs that the lines are flattening. If so this is encouraging, and together with reports that some countries are starting to ease their lockdowns, there will no doubt be calls for the UK Government to do the same. However, we must remember this we've "only" been in lockdown (and in many ways only a loose lockdown) for just over three weeks. Personally, I think it's too early to be getting too excited by the prospect of easing of restrictions. The last thing we need is an easing off followed by a second wave of infections and the deaths that would inevitably follow.

On my Twitter timeline today there has been a lot of chatter from a company (@NightSkyLantern) selling Union Jack sky lanterns in support of the NHS. Sort of "let's set fire to one of these, send it up in the air to show our support sort of things".  Almost exclusively people are saying this is both an incredibly stupid thing to do (at all) given these are a danger to starting fires (and consequently diverting emergency resources), leave litter and pose real health threats to wildlife and farm stock. On top of that the crass opportunism of this company promoting their products as a way to thank the NHS seems incredible to me. There are lots of ways to thank the NHS (clapping with on a Thursday for a start), but setting fire to things and letting them float off into the night sky doesn't seem a clever idea in my view. I thought the things were banned anyway.

For those of you desperate for cat news, I'm afraid I haven't got any.

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 12th: Easter Sunday, idiots and another Cat.

Well this isn't the Easter we all imagined it was going to be, but if we get through this current event maybe there's a chance for some sort of local and even global redemption and resurrection of society on many levels.

I struggle with faith.  I don't even know if I have any. I was brought up Church of England and whilst I attended Sunday school, sang in the church choir (I wasn't very good) and undertook confirmation in my teenage years any sense of real religious intent is long lapsed. My wife is from a strong Catholic family background and attends church regularly and I admire, or perhaps unconsciously I am slightly envious of her faith.

I just can't get my head around it.  I do go church with my wife on high days and holidays (Christmas, Easter etc) although once received a rather pointed comment from another regular member of the congregation that I was only there because it "...must be Christmas" (and perhaps that's the sort of attitude that puts me off).  We got married in church. When I eventually pop my clogs I think I'd like some sort of religious service, but I can't on a day to day basis articulate or demonstrate whatever faith it is that's lingering inside me. I'm one of cadre of "I believe in something, but I don't know what and I don't want to be force fed it". Incidentally I had a boss who late in his career became a vicar (as an aside he was also a magistrate, and a school governor as well as holding down his full time job - I've no idea how he managed it all) and we had a few conversations about faith during the time I worked for him, but it never really got me anywhere.

But for those that can and do believe, I fully understand what an important time in the Christian calendar this is, beyond the commercialisation of chocolate eggs (not that that stops a load of chocolate eggs appearing in our house at Easter time) and especially so this year when people cannot get out to attend their local churches. And therefore to everyone, I truly wish you a Happy and Peaceful Easter. Oh, and enjoy the chocolate.

And for no other reason than it brings back nostalgic memories for me and I don't have any other photo to share today, here's a picture of the church I attended in Donington, Lincolnshire during the 70's - St Mary and the Holy Rood. And for those unfamiliar with that part of the country, it's flat. Very flat. The district of the county we lived in was called "South Holland" for good reason. And with these architecturally terrific Norman churches  in most villages, you could stand in fields locally and see anything up to a dozen dotted around the horizon.

Whilst undoubtedly most people are adhering to the #stayathome principle (more or less), it's staggering that some members of the supposedly intelligent human race still can't do this, or think it doesn't apply to them, or assume that on balance that they'll get away with it. Today the BBC reported a story of a family who had driven 200 miles from London to Devon to go fishing!  On Twitter South Wales Police Road Policing Unit (@SWP_Roads) posted about someone who drove from South Wales to Leeds to see their uncle (and back again, and without insurance to boot). What sort of stupid are these people? There is no way on earth that they can not be aware of not only the advice to stay home, but the reports of people flouting that advice, and yet they still choose to do it. I'd name and shame them.

It seems almost terrible now to single out individuals who have passed away given that the the latest daily figures from death with coronavirus (note the with not necessarily from) are over 700, and the total now runs over 10,000.  But today saw sports of three individuals who in their own way were icons and certainly two of the three I closely associated with my childhood and teenage years.

Firstly Sir Stirling Moss, a British motor racing legend who passed away after a long illness, then Tim Brooke-Taylor who died with coronavirus aged 79. One of the brilliant comedy team called The Goodies, the other two being Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. Interesting fact. My sister who was a nanny in an earlier life worked for Bill Oddie (and a number of other celebrities/pop stars). And then later today we heard that former Chelsea and England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti had died. and finally, with no local cat news to bring you, today's cat link is that Peter Bonetti's nickname was The Cat.

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 10th: Dreaming of Mythos

Don't let the nice weather deceive you. The latest death statistics for the UK are horrible- a further 900+ deaths across the UK taking the total of (hospital) deaths from coronavirus to almost 9,000.

Apparently the Government have said we're allowed to go into our gardens. Erm....thank goodness for that. I have been in my garden every day since the lockdown began despite the fear I might get thrown into jail for doing so.  Seriously though, we've been in a relative state of lockdown for 3 weeks, so this advice is probably a bit late, although probably meant to reinforce that this is ok and to be done instead of heading to the beach or the hills or in fact anywhere that's not a short walk from your house.  I have to say, I'm still conflicted between the advice to stay at home, which I am doing bar the odd very short walk for exercise - I haven't gone more than 15 minutes from my from door in three weeks - vs this that argue you can be out and about providing you're distancing. Seems to me a lot of people are taking a lot more exercise (walking, jogging,) than they ever did before (and probably won't do when this is all over) and bending the guidance to suit them. The guidance is you can go out for essential shopping, medications, and one episode of daily exercise - a 30 mile bike ride, or 10 mile run or walk run isn't I think what the Government had in mind. Please stay at home.

My garden is one of my happy places. I spend a lot of time just pottering about (it's an age thing). I always marvel at how the place comes back to life after winter, although I'm staggered that some of my hanging baskets from last year made it through the winter and have started flowering again now. This lobelia for example, was put in this hanging basket a year ago. It's would normally die off in late summer, but it's hung on through autumn and winter and is going again...remarkable.

It's been a roasting day today. Seem churlish to complain after such an abysmal wet winter and early 2020, but if it's going to be this hot, frankly I'd rather be on a sunbed in Greece with a cold Mythos in my hand. We're booked to go to one of our favourite places in June - a small village in the north west of Corfu and a small family run hotel - this would have been our fifth visit, but although I hold out the slenderest hope, this June is looking a goner....😕

I'd quite like to be here....

And as for the cat. Well it's too hot for her...this was her flaked at 11am!

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

7th April: Lazy days and sticky chicken

News last night that PM Boris Johnson had been not only been admitted to hospital but was on intensive care. I'm not his biggest fan, but I wish him and everyone else in similar situations well. This is a terrible virus.

My wife says things are still generally quiet where she works, although there are multiple COVID-19 patients in the hospital, including on intensive care, and they're just waiting for the inevitable explosion of cases. She says staff in her own area are feeling very emotional about family and friends and what's to come. Meanwhile, I stat home in the sunshine. It doesn't feel right, but it is right.
We did go out for a short walk when she got home.

Today was the first day that I really felt like I wanted to get out and go somewhere. Maybe it's because I had a relatively lazy day, maybe because it was yet another nice sunny day and with the promise of more to come before the end of the week, but I definitely had itchy feet. You can bet your bottom dollar, that as soon as we get given the all clear to go out a little more it'll start to bucket down with rain! But I'll take that.

I spent most of the morning writing up the notes of last evening;'s cricket meeting which we held over Skype and despite my apprehension beforehand, it all went relatively well. Eleven of us (with ages ranging from teenage to old, and with several luddites amongst our number) held an almost 90 minute meeting over the web - and it all worked. Impressive. As far as cricket goes, we're in the same boat as everyone else - all cricket activity is suspended until further notice. The general feeling is that it's likely that we won't get to play any cricket at all this summer, but we'll wait and see. If anyone local is interested in joining our club, and playing (if we ever do), give me a shout. Our website is at Dinas Powys CC and you can follow us on twitter @DinasPowysCC.

Continuing the culinary theme I set yesterday with my soda bread experiment, since retiring I've pledged to cook at least once a week. Tonight I rustled up sticky chicken (a Mary Berry recipe). There's a few variations out on the web so I won't link as I got this particular version from one of her books. Good result and the family all gave it a thumbs up (lush, as we say in these parts). I even gave it the old rice dome treatment.

Mary Berry's Sticky Chicken- lush

Later this evening it's another video call as my wife and I check in with her brother and sisters for a virtual drink/chat.

No cat news. She's slept about 98% of the day.

See you tomorrow

#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