Coronavirus diary, Thursday 16 April

While Britain waits for the pandemic to peak, possibly next week say the experts, some countries are beginning to make life easier. In Germany, shops are opening and children are going back to school at the start of May. China is trying to kickstart its stricken economy with workers going back to the factories. Austria, the Czech republic, Sweden and even Italy are lifting some restrictions. This gives us hope although we have just been told the lockdown will continue for another three weeks.

Don't add company - for now...

The government are being urged to tell us their plans for what will obviously be a gradual, long term return to normal, which may happen next week. They have also been urged to reopen schools, considered to be the first step to revive the economy. Britain has heeded the government's warnings and orders surprisingly well, realising the seriousness of the situation and agreeing that tough decisions had to be taken. No one could have imagined a few months ago, when we could go where we liked, when we liked, that we would have to stay at home for weeks, isolated from families and friends. 

Despite missing visits from family and friends, I am enjoying life here at Sunrise. One reason is being able to keep in touch with them thanks to the internet. Until now, it was a total mystery to me (apart from shopping online and emailing, which I have done for over 20 years). I thought I was too old to learn new tricks but thanks to Robert I am keeping in daily touch in ways I never dreamed of. Zoom, FaceTime - never heard of them. Now I chat with Robert on FaceTime and I've accepted an invitation to a drinks party organised by my granddaughters via Xoom. Amazing. 

Huw Tregellis Williams. Photo: Swansea University

Throughout my working life the phone (landline not mobile!) was the main way to communicate, and even that was difficult at first when most people did not have phones at home. As a reporter it meant getting out and about in all weathers for stories, but it was a phone that let me down many years later on one of my most interesting days. 

I was on a jumbo jet, British Airways City of Cardiff, en route to Japan, where the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra were to tour. We had been given a send off at Heathrow with the band of the Welsh Guards and were going to broadcast while in the air. I had to arrange for the head of music, Huw Tregellis Williams, to interview the Welsh pilot for the BBC evening news bulletin - by radio. At 35,000 feet above Sweden we were ready to go. There were to be two interviews, English and Welsh. Sitting cramped on the flight deck, Huw was ready to go. I got the signal from the radio transmitter at Portishead. The first interview went well, clear and loud. On to the Welsh version - but we lost the connection, the radio link was broken. Someone at Broadcasting House in Cardiff had put the phone down!