Bob ventures out for the first time in a year

'Went out on my scooter', I wrote in my diary today: Tuesday 30 March. Mundane? No, historic. One of the most memorable days in my long life; the day I drove out from Sunrise into Cyncoed Road and into a new world. 

It was the first time I had driven anywhere except in the Sunrise garden for over a year. Yesterday I had tentatively asked Sara, the Sunrise head, when I could drive out and was surprised when she said, tomorrow. I charged up the scooter overnight and at 10am on this lovely sunny morning I set off on my historic ride to Roath Park, less than half a mile away. 

Our old home. Bigger than in our day!

There was one stop I had to make en-route, in Winnipeg Drive. I drew up outside number nine, looked at our old home and sat, thinking of our life there over almost three decades. So many memories, from the first day, in 1971, when I came to our new home after travelling around the world for three months.  I sat on my scooter in the warm sunshine seeing in my mind's eye Robert growing up, Beverley, off on her wedding day, and later driving Robert to university at Leicester. Family celebrations, garden parties and barbecues. Rosemary, always a marvellous host at special events and welcoming our friends from Germany and the USA. 

I remembered the happy band of neighbours, Lou and Rita, Jean and Roy, Jennie and Harry, Darrell and Gizelle, from Germany.

Roath Park Lake

Just a few minutes of reflection, the inevitable sadness relieved by the love and happiness of my life with Rosemary and the family, Mum living just down the road with Dorothy and George. Then down to lovely Roath Park where little has changed over the years. The old fashioned tea house has been demolished, replaced by a restaurant beside the lake, still waiting for permission to reopen, the wooden public shelters around the lake, once lovers' delights, long gone. There are more swans than ever, hundreds of them. 

Enjoying the spring sunshine

The big surprise was the crowds of people, more than I imagined possible on a weekday morning; sitting, basking in the now warm sunshine or queueing, safely spaced, for ice creams, feeding the swans. 

The gardens are a blaze of spring colour. A festive, holiday mood. On my homeward journey I passed the Discovery Public House, still two weeks away from opening after months of lockdown. it was a pleasant surprise to see the parade of shops flourishing again. A year ago it was a sorry sight with just three businesses still going, the rest boarded up. Now there are new enterprises, including a garden shop, an arts and crafts store, even a craft beer mini brewery and a takeaway. 

I resisted the temptation to go into Tesco to buy a celebratory mini bottle of sparkling wine but was bold enough to extract some money from their 'hole in the wall' machine. 

Back to my new home, Sunrise, for lunch. and now to try to describe adequately my feelings on this amazing, wonderful day. How can I be so fortunate to have such a store of happy memories and still have time, I hope, for many more.

Bob's travel talks

Bob in a meeting in Japan, 1971

After completing a year of my daily coronavirus diary which Robert and I are editing as a book, I have time for other writing and new ideas.

These include giving talks to the residents, suggested by Diane, a Sunrise activities organiser. I gave the first ‘Bob’s Travel Talks’ last week.

Quite a change from the television audience, a dozen or so residents, spaced out in the activity room. 

The title was ‘Around the world in 80 days’, about my Churchill Travelling Fellowship fifty years ago this year.

I spoke for 20 minutes - short enough to avoid anyone going to sleep - about the flight out with stops at India, Hong Kong, and on to Japan for two months. It was followed by five minutes of photographs shown on screen by Diane. 

Everyone seemed interested and in my talk next month I will describe the month I spent in North America before flying home.

I am enjoying preparing more talks which will cover visits to other countries for work and pleasure.

At least it adds to the range of activities in Sunrise.

A barbecue summer?

Bob and the barbecue he built

The prospect of being allowed out after months of restrictions has led to a boom in the sale of barbecues.We can’t wait to refresh our skills, burning steaks, hot dogs and beef burgers.

I am a barbecue enthusiast and can look back on some magnificent meals, and some embarrassing failures, as an outdoor chef.

Most of them have been family affairs with our Winnipeg Drive, Cardiff garden providing many memorable evenings. There was plenty of space - we had as many as twenty people sometimes - and I built a brick barbecue in one corner. 

I am no brickie and it showed, but I was proud of it - it even had a shelf - and although it leaned it lasted many years, and may even still be there.

Steaks were my favourite although we had mixed menus, including fish.

There were sumptuous barbecues with David, my daughter's father in law, as head cook in their Cardiff garden and for many years Braydon Manor was a perfect setting. The speciality there was mostly Spanish style meat from a local farmer. Steak and red wine, what a treat!

Barbecues are a favourite in many countries as I discovered. In America, home of the hot dog and beef burger, it is an art form.

Rosemary and I had wonderful times in Jim and Betty’s lovely garden in Des Moines and his alfresco meals were among the best ever.

He had a very large barbecue, big enough for a family roasts. Sitting there in the evening, fireflies flashing, was magical.

More down to earth even though it was on a hillside was an amazing mass barbecue in Phoenix, Arizona.

I was attending a convention of American company chief executives, promoting the UK for conferences.  A big affair with 6,000 delegates.The highlight for me was the night time barbecue above the city. 

At dusk, a fleet of 100 Greyound coaches took us into the hills.

We then walked up to the site being offered gin and tonics or whisky from dozens of stalls set up on the roadside.

The site had hundreds of benches in three different coloured sections and we were  given red, green or yellow scarves. 

Then the feast began; massive steaks, beef burgers and hot dogs with unlimited beer. Quite an evening.

Holiday memories include traditional ones in the Australian outback in Alice Springs, and on the riverside terrace of our hotel in Bangkok.

So I say, bring out those barbecues. I hope to enjoy a few.

if you are thinking of holding one I would not mind an invitation.

Free Wales!

Tenby: open for tourism again

It’s always been good to live in Wales but the pleasure is much greater today with the news that we have suddenly become the ‘freest’ nation in the UK.

First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced the lifting tomorrow of a whole raft of restrictions imposed months ago. 

The miserable winter is over. Spring is here.There is something for most of us, with the most welcome move, the scrapping of stay home. We can now roam, take holidays in hotels or campsites, anywhere in Wales. 

We are the first country to open up our borders and very soon we will welcome a rush of holiday makers from around the UK when they follow our lead. Robert and family have booked a week in Tenby in July. No doubt they will call in to see me as they pass Cardiff.

Other new freedoms allow six people from two households to meet outdoors, sports for under 18s outdoors, reopening libraries - that reminds me, I have three books to return to Penylan library as soon as I can scooter out -  some historic attractions and gardens.

We will have to wait a little longer to go to a pub and shop other than at supermarkets but the mood is more optimistic than for months. The number of cases is down drastically and the First Minister said the health position made ‘headroom for changes’.

He did not agree to setting dates, he said, as they could not be guaranteed and it was safer to play it stage by stage, depending on progress made.

I am delighted with the news as it means that Robert will be able to come to Sunrise - actually into Sunrise - to chat in my room for the first time for months.

Well done Mr Drakeford. Well done, Wales.

The sad saga of Penarth's Pier Pavilion

Happier days: the reopened Pavilion, April 2014

The news that Penarth Pier Pavilion is again in trouble comes as no surprise. The charity that was running it since it reopened in 2013 after a £4 million Lottery Fund grant was incompetent from the start. They had ambitious plans that could have worked but there was poor management and muddle. 

Among the attractions of the magnificently refurbished building were a boutique 70-seat cinema and a small high class restaurant on the first floor and, on the ground floor,  a main auditorium for art exhibitions, concerts and a range of events, a cafe and a shop. It sounded perfect. 

To  achieve its aim, the exciting project needed a team of volunteers which it soon achieved but they became confused and frustrated by those in charge, and many gave up.

Troubles escalated. The restaurant never opened, the shop closed and the cafe ownership changed frequently.

With losses mounting, the management was changed but the cinema, a big success, closed when the company running it complained of not being paid.

To try to save money, pavilion management changed but it did not stop the decline and closure was inevitable.

The charity has given up its lease on the building - the Vale of Glamorgan Council are the ground landlords.

A sad story for a project that seemed perfect for an attractive town with a population with wide artistic and entertainment interests and home for some international artists.

My involvement in the pavilion goes back almost 80 years when, as the Penarth Times reporter, I covered plays and other events there. 

Rosemary knew it even better and she thought it had the best floor for dancing, which she loved.

I knew Bob Blundell, who managed the Marina in prewar years. I met him when, as Captain Blundell, he was a patient with me in a military hospital. In his day the Marina, as it was then called, flourished, alive with many activities

In recent years I was involved in Penarth Arts and Craft. a charity company expertly run by Maggie Smith who was based in the Washington building, where she staged many artistic events.

Open day at the Pavilion, July 2013

I voluntarily helped her plan the new pavilion project. Rosemary and I were in charge of a long running pavilion exhibition in a converted shop on the Esplanade next to our home.

Maggie would have been the perfect leader for the new project but she returned to Australia when her husband took up an academic appointment there.

Her departure was a huge loss to the town and I am sure she is dismayed at the failure.

The pavilion has now been taken over by the Vale of Glamorgan Council which plans to make it ‘community facility’ - a typical dull local government term.

They are calling on public support and ideas. I hope they succeed but I am not too optimistic. 

They have been involved for years with a director on the board but the charity kept the public in the dark about plans, finance and management. This must change.

Penarth Pier Pavilion should be a huge asset for the town. It must not be wasted.

Coronavirus diary reflections, Friday 19 March 2021

Yesterday was my last coronavirus year diary blogpost. Robert and I are now editing the year's diary entries to make it into a book which we hope will be published.

It has been a very enjoyable experience and I think it will make an interesting story.

I am carrying on with my blog but not concentrating on the pandemic although I will keep up to date, probably weekly. It will mainly be my personal thoughts and memories.

I am now able to get on with other interests including giving short talks to residents here - Bob’s Travel Talks.

I have given a lot of talks over the years to different audiences but this will be a different. Most of the residents are in their eighties or nineties - like me - and their attention span is probably very short. The first talk, next week, will be in the afternoon so I expect most of them will fall asleep!

‘Around the world in eighty days’ will about my Churchill Fellowship trip 50 years ago in 1971 to Japan and America.

It will include pictures of the countries I stopped over at en route which Diane, one of the activity team, will put on screen.

We will see how it goes.

It would be great, now I have more time, if I could get out and about on my scooter and that might come sooner than I think.

Coronavirus diary, Friday 19 March

A year ago when I started this diary I had no idea what lay ahead. No-one did, but throughout the days and months I have always felt confident that it would all ‘come right’.

And on this anniversary day that confidence was strengthened, if not finally confirmed, by happy coincidence: my second coronavirus vaccination.

I am used to injections - over 700 this year for my diabetes and scores more to keep me going - but this one was was special.

It took just a few seconds and as I sat resting in the Sunrise lounge with the other residents I reflected on how my life has changed.

Despite all the turbulence and upheaval it has been a positive and reassuring experience, It has made me appreciate the courage, unselfishness and kindness of so many that has made my life calm and contented.

I cannot believe how fortunate I am.

Coronavirus diary, Thursday 18 March 2021

This is the final chapter in my diary of a year of coronavirus, but it is not the end of the story. COVID-19, and whatever variants follow, will be with us for years, affecting all countries and peoples around the world.

For Britain it has been an unprecedented experience, a reminder of the two world wars. A time of anxiety, fear, loneliness and sadness. And of courage, adaptability and resolution.

What lies ahead? The future is uncertain but it brings new problems and new opportunities - and hope.

Life can never be the same as in March 2020 but the pandemic can be a catalyst for unity and development as nations rise to the challenge.

Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 17 March 2021

Having to leave your home and go into a residential home is the ultimate turning point in your life. Everything familiar and homely changes. You miss your family, neighbours and friends.

I did when, after Rosemary died, I  came to Sunrise 18 months ago.

It was the right decision.

My life is different in many ways but it has been happy and fulfilling, despite the pandemic.

I could not be better looked after, thanks to the Sunrise team, especially the carers, who have been marvellous.

Typical of them are Helena and Alice who have helped make my new, permanent home safe, comfortable, and, yes, homely. 

Helena 

Helena left her home and family in Slovakia to visit her brother in Newport 15 years ago.

She wanted a career in care and nursing and began as a home carer, joining Sunrise five years ago

She could not foreseen how difficult and important it would be, due to coronavirus.

Like all the residents at Sunrise, I benefit from her help, kindness and quiet efficiency.

The past year has made big demands on her family life.

Helena and her partner Gavin live with Leo, six and three year old Mia. When she is on her ten hour shifts, Gavin looks after the children.

It has been a dangerous time for carers and Helena did not escape the virus, recovering and quickly coming back to work.

Her main concern is our safety and wellbeing as I have come to appreciate and value

She shows this in many ways, including solving a problem that had worried me for years -  having to collect my medication prescriptions on time. She makes sure that they are delivered regularly to my room.

Like all of us, Helena misses her family, but hopes to make the trip to Slovakia as soon as the travel ban is lifted.

Helena and the Sunrise team make this such a successful and happy home.

Alice 

After studying theology at university, Alice did not follow her father, Alan, as a church minister. She was interested in the elderly and their care and welfare.

She started giving lessons in woodcraft at Ty Enfys with her church and became a carer at Sunrise four years ago.

‘I like elderly people. I like to talk to them and get to know them’, she says.

I have come to know how well she succeeds.

It’s a busy, tiring job, looking after our daily needs: pushing wheelchairs, serving in the restaurant, taking our temperatures and seeing we are comfortable and safe, but she still finds time to stop for a chat and solve problems.

When my temperamental laptop and printer pack up she soon gets them and me back in action.

Alice, born in London, has two sisters, Beth who lives in London where her father has his parish, and Laura who lives next door to Alice in Cardiff.

Seventy years or so younger than most of us residents, Alice’s affection and kindness bridges the gap. She likes us, and it shows. 

She shares our concerns, especially the loneliness of not seeing our families for months and like us is relieved that at last this is changing.

Alice also made the right career decision and it is making such a difference to ours.

Helena and Alice are typical of our Sunrise carers, men and women from different backgrounds and different lives, but all with the same determination to make Sunrise a comfortable, safe and happy home. How well they succeed.

Coronavirus diary, Saturday 6 March

Bob, back on air!

Another television interview and another chance to express my admiration for and gratitude to carers at Sunrise and other care homes across the country.

This time it was for the Sky News 9am bulletin on Saturday. I was asked last night if I would do it and I agreed, although I was a little concerned whether I'd be able to hear the interviewer.

As with the two previous interviews for ITV's Good Morning Britain, Carley, a Sunrise administrator, did the organising, setting me up with my laptop in my room. To help me hear the questions, I wore my headphones. 

The theme was the ending of  lockdown and what the return of visitors meant to nursing homes staff and residents. 

The Sunrise group was represented by the head of its COVID taskforce, Anna Selby, and I spoke about the residents. I enjoyed it and was pleased to be given ample time to give my views.

Being back ‘on air’ after so many years has been an added pleasure.

Coronavirus diary, Tuesday 16 March 2021

After every emergency, disaster comes the reckoning, the inquest, the debriefing - the ‘wash up’.

And it is important. It is from success and failure that lessons are learned, that the same mistakes are not made.

We know from experience, however, that they can drag out over years and that too often their recommendations are ignored.

The pandemic has presented opportunities that can make the world happier, safer and more equitable.

There is so much than can be done if nations accept the challenge.

Life in post coronavirus Britain can be improved and revitalised in many ways, creating a better standard of life for everyone.

Just look at the opportunities for better health, transport and travel, education, housing, the environment.

On health, improving the NHS  and social services is a must. Despite the country’s huge debt they must have the funding and resources to match that of some European  countries. A healthy nation makes for a contented, vigorous nation.

Our education system, bedevilled for years by chopping and changing curriculum, confusing to teachers, parents and children, must be rationalised, made simpler and more effective. Here too we can learn from Europe.

Transport in many forms is a key to improving lives. Despite the billions being spent upgrading our roads system, driving is a bore not a pleasure.

Rather than pursuing outlandish projects like the latest idea of a tunnel or bridge across the Irish Sea, money should be better spent on upgrading existing roads with. 

Air travel can be improved by spreading the load more evenly across the the country by government support for the regional airports that have been left to fend for themselves for years. Forget the Heathrow extension.

This would make flights nationally and internationally more convenient, and cost effective and better for pleasure and business.

Britain’s railway system, ravaged by Beeching in the early sixties, needs a make-over. 

Lost links between towns and country areas should be restored.

The. vastly expensive HS2 project will be money well spent if it improves the country’s mobility and profitability, as will an extension of electrification.

Environmental issues are, rightly, international, and Britain is beginning to take a more active role. Nothing is more important. It is not just a question of ‘saving the planet’  but making the world safer and healthier, using its resources better; more efficient use of the land and farming and reducing pollution.

The cry is for levelling up, reducing the imbalance between affluence and poverty reflected so starkly in parts of the UK, specially south England and the north.

It will probably take decades but future governments must see it through.

The past year has, despite the intrigues and animosity between nations, emphasised the importance of a unified approach, especially in health matters. Vaccination will be a common factor for years and collaboration, not competition is vital.

Brexit, a once in a generation change, has to be made a success if Britain is to prosper both at home and internationally.

So much to learn  So much to do, but the disaster of coronavirus can lead to a rejuvenated, revitalised Britain.

Coronavirus diary, Monday 15 March 2021

No conflict or crisis in history has been so instantly and more intensively recorded.

The media has played a leading role and has kept up an hour by hour running commentary as historic events unfold. We cannot escape the non-stop barrage.

Unlike the past, when public information was limited, first to the press then to radio and television, we now have a huge range of information and news  available on social media platforms. News now comes to us in minutes.

This plethora of facts - and fiction - has its advantages and drawbacks. It creates awareness and interest but also can become boring or make us worried and angry.

It has become vital, for people and governments. 

For me, an old newspaper man, the press is a Jekyll and Hyde character.

Its genial side gives us essential information but the other side - mainly the best selling tabloids - creates fear and tension by magnifying bad news with screaming headlines.

The media attracts more blame than plaudits but good editors agree that a free press and reasonable controls are essential.

The danger comes from the internet giants like Facebook and Twitter.

Our press and television is not state controlled.

We may not get the complete, honest picture, but at least we can choose what we want to read, hear or watch.

And even the government has to listen to the powerful media.

The pandemic, like other international crises, has emphasised the importance of honest, factual presentation of news and information.

The media should acknowledge the importance of their job and the government should ensure that the present trend to trivialise and distort be curbed.

Coronavirus diary, Sunday 14 March 2021

Bob is vaccinated, January 2021

The nightmare coronavirus year ends with a success story - vaccination.

Last year, the prospect of finding the answer to the virus threatening the world was an almost desperate hope. 

From experience it could take a year or more to create a vaccine; there was the threat of a soaring death toll, hundreds of thousands in the UK.

Almost miraculously, but achieved through brilliant, lightning quick work by scientists around the world, new vaccines were developed, doses manufactured in billions. Then started their distribution world wide.

The UK has since been a leading nation, setting up from scratch a vast organisation, involving the NHS, GPs, pharmacist, the army, and thousands of volunteers with vaccination centres throughout the country.

They had announced what appeared to be a far too ambitious target, a practice that had already proved unwise, but it has excelled itself.

So effectively that we are months ahead of Europe and on track to vaccinate all adults by June. An amazing achievement.

Spring this year is a world apart from last year. There is still some uncertainty and the pandemic may still have devilish tricks but there’s is so much to look forward to and to be thankful for

Especially our answer to coronavirus  - vaccines and those jabs.

Coronavirus diary, Saturday 13 March 2021

From stay at home to stay close. That is the message for Wales from First Minister Mark Drakeford, ending the latest three month lockdown.

But he remains as cautious as ever. Going out means up to five miles unless we live in country areas. 

My former neighbours tell me that Penarth, conveniently close to Cardiff, will be bustling with visitors again.

The travel limit is a blow to tourism that will have to wait another month before fully getting back to business.

Hairdressers can get to work from Monday but they are the exception: non essential shops stay closed with supermarkets allowed to sell a wider range.

You can now ask a couple of neighbours for drinks in your garden and you can play outdoor sports including golf and tennis.

One nominated  visitor will be a able to go into care homes, the first time for a year.

With the infection rate down to 41.1 per 100,000,  Mr Drakeford has not opened the door wide, but enough to let us feel that freedom is on the way.

I am hoping that England will later this month allow wider travel so  that Robert can come to Cardiff for the first time for over three months.

In contrast to Wales, Italy, with its infection rate soaring, has just shut all schools, shops and restaurants. 

Coronavirus is not finished yet.

Coronavirus diary, Friday 12 March 2021

Throughout the campaign against coronavirus the slogan, the battle cry, has been Save the NHS, and the public has rallied to the call in many ways, from symbolic clapping to fund raising. 

The most encouraging news of progress comes from the heart of the service, our hospitals. 

Just a few months ago they were almost overwhelmed. At the peak, they had over 40,000 coronavirus patients, many of them in intensive care.   

Today that figure is down to 15,000.

Emergency ‘Nightingale’ hospitals were created around the country to avert disaster.

All magnificent, but, in the end, it was the NHS that saved itself, thanks to the bravery of the 'front line' of doctors and nurses, and a whole army of support staff, ambulance crews, porters and hospital staff administrators. 

They worked on despite the danger to them and their families. Thousands were infected, many died.

We owe them a huge debt. 

The country must see that the NHS is strengthened and with £400 billion already spent on the pandemic, we will have to find billions more, but it is vital to do so.

We have no idea what lies ahead and there is no higher priority for our future wellbeing than an efficient health service, adequately staffed and fairly paid.

Equally essential is the need for a comprehensive overhaul of social services, especially for the elderly.

National and local government must work closer together to make the most of resources and finance.

It will take time but this and future governments must make it happen.

The NHS deserves it, as do the public who have come through a difficult year, accepting all the restrictions and supporting the government in its unenviable task.

Coronavirus diary, Thursday 11 March 2021

What will Britain be like when coronavirus is tamed. Will it follow the pattern of the two other major catastrophes of the last century? 

Let us go back to 1918.

The British people were exhausted, the country bankrupt. After that first flush of Armistice euphoria the national mood was sombre. 

The boys came back from the trenches only to be demoralised by the vastly changed world and life. That war weariness lasted for years until the people and the economy revived.

On to 1945 with its two V for Victory days, Europe and Japan. 

The country was again on the crest of the wave of rejoicing and celebration and this went on longer. We had the Festival of Britain in 1951.

It helped to overcome the after-effects of war - the crippled economy and our huge indebtedness to the USA, the sad sight of shattered cities.

An adventurous, far seeing government led by the quiet but brilliant Clement Attlee introduced the new health and welfare service. Prosperity was on the way.

Sixty five years on, we face another time of reckoning and revival, so different from those past two national experiences.

Our homes are not shattered, no-one has perished on the battlefield but every person in the country has been affected by the pandemic. Over 125,000 have died.

Dramatic technical progress over the past thirty years or so has helped to prevent an even bigger death toll while the development of new vaccines and vaccination of the whole population allow us to look ahead with so much more confidence.

There are still uncertain, worrying times ahead as we struggle to contain coronavirus, whatever form it may take, but we can face the future with benefits and greater confidence than our parents and grandparents all had those years ago.

Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 10 March 2021

Sitting looking out of my window onto the sunlit street below, the world looks inviting. Normal. Not exciting. People driving cars and vans, riding bicycles, pushing prams, jogging, walking, dogs training.

Across the road a man is working in his garden. Beyond, I see the lighting towers of the university training ground.

A typical suburban scene on a typical afternoon, but it is deceptive. Almost a mirage. I cannot go out to join it.

Like countless millions throughout the world I am a prisoner in my own home.Trapped. For a year, because of the plague stalking our planet, creating a living horror story.

The world has seen many fanatical leaders, dictators and despots who have held their subjects in thrall, but this is Britain in the 21st century, beacon of democracy.

Sixty million of us who can no longer call our lives our own. Leaders have changed the rules and the laws.

Unlike heroes of the past, we have not rebelled, risen up in anger to break the chains. We have agreed with our leaders, followed their dictats and changed  our whole way of life - voluntarily.

But freedom is nigh. Human ingenuity, courage and patience is winning the battle. Our leaders have told us.

Apprehension and danger receding, we hope we face only a few more months of isolation when we will be free to resume normal lives.

And I will happily ride my scooter out onto Cyncoed Road and rejoin the real world out there.

Coronavirus diary, Tuesday 9 March 2021

If there is one thing that has made life tolerable in our lockdown society it is being able to keep in touch with each other by instant communication.

We have the telephone, invented in 1876, but technology has transformed how we communicate internationally and locally.

The email, I think, is brilliant. Anyone can master it and use it work or leisure. I ‘chat’ almost daily with family and friends across the road and across the world.

Even more personal is Zoom and other similar systems. Being able to sit, face-to-face, talking to each other is, to me, a minor miracle

In the pandemic it has been the vital bridge linking families and friends, a godsend to the millions confined to home - or in care homes.

It has turned into a massive money spinner for the company. Zoom was founded by Eric Yuan ten years ago for business meetings via the internet. Mr Yuan, chief executive, is now worth £12 billion as people all over the world Zoom every minute of the day.

I use it every few days to keep in touch with my family and friends. Last week we had a family quiz organised by my grandchildren

We have had television since 1936 (at least for early adopters in London), giving us a window on the world.

What a difference from my early days, and how much more interesting it has made our lives.

This advance in communication will make for changes after the pandemic, especially for work.

One likely change will be less commuting, with businesses of all sizes encouraging employees to work from home, at least part of the time. That will save a lot of time, money and make Britain safer and more healthy.

It’s a small world.

Coronavirus diary, Monday 8 March

Many of Britain’s prime ministers over the centuries have had to deal with crises - wars, financial disasters - but few have faced a harder task than Boris Johnson.

The vicissitudes are enough to trouble a Titan and inevitably he has struggled as would most leaders in this complicated era and world.

How will his historic role be judged once the coronavirus storm has passed?

And what of the other leaders, the three first ministers; how are they shaping up? How do the people rate their performance?

For them, too, it is the most difficult task they could ever have imagined.

Take Wales. I have been interested in devolution for fifty years. In 1979 I was county public relations officer for South Glamorgan when the first referendum was held. It was essentially political but the council decided to spend public money to publish its view and recommendation. Clearing it legally, they went ahead. I wrote a pamphlet urging the public to turn down devolution, giving a list of reasons.

Before the council’s final vote on their action, I had also written a version supporting it.

By chance, Wales's second First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, was the former county Industrial and Business Development Officer who worked with me promoting the council.

Rhodri was a brilliant, if unusual character. Son of a Welsh professor, he was eloquent in Welsh and English, prone to imaginative turns of phrase and with a seeming haphazard lifestyle. He preferred a mobile home to a car and was notoriously unpunctual. Reminded by phone of meetings at county headquarters he would dash from his garden in his creosote spotted clothes. It masked the sharpest of minds and he attracted national and international companies to the county.

I have not met Mark Drakeford, the present First Minister, a totally different character, and I wondered how effective he would be. I am impressed. He is low key, serious and, I think, good for Wales. He has met the unprecedented challenge calmly and sensibly.

My knowledge of first ministers Sturgeon and Foster, is  slight but they have shown commendable assurance and dependability in the crisis although Ms Sturgeon is in political hot water over her long running feud with its former First Minister Salmond. She could do without that. .

Leading your country at this unique time is the chance and opportunity of a lifetime. Our leaders are making a brave attempt.

Coronavirus diary, Sunday 7 March 2021

Just as the Prime Minister thought he could relax a little, savouring the satisfaction of his chancellor’s budget going down well and the pandemic weakening, he is brought down to earth by one decision: giving NHS nurses a one percent pay rise. 

One percent. A disgrace, say the nurses. After all we have done for you and the people.

The Royal College of Nursing, representing 450,000 nursing staff, described the offer as ‘pitiful and bitterly disappointing’. They have set up a £35 million fund ready for a possible strike.

The nurses certainly have a point, but the government is in a tricky position. They have frozen the pay of public service workers again, and they don’t want to have them up in arms as well.

As the chancellor said, it will take years to lighten our economic load and that everyone is going to feel the pinch. 

Politicians are, or should be, tough characters. They know the public is fickle and ready to rebel at the drop of a hat, or a perceived snub to our nurses.

They either have to bear it or give in, to face more trouble ahead.

I wonder why anyone would even consider being an MP.

Coronavirus diary, Saturday 6 March 2021

Care homes should be safe havens, allowing elderly people to experience and enjoy life in comfort and safety.

Most homes achieve this. Certainly my home, Sunrise Cardiff, does, but all of them throughout Britain have suffered a cruel year.

They have seldom been out of the news, almost always for the wrong reason.

It began in the first months of the coronavirus outbreak. 

Panic over the impending danger led to sick, elderly  hospital patients being off-loaded to care homes that had no choice but to take them in

The result was devastating. Hundreds of homes, far from being safe havens, were death traps, with some losing dozens of residents. Relatives, unable to be with them, were shocked and distraught.

Carers, no matter how brave, were helpless. They had to cope with danger to themselves and their families, and the stress and frustration, enduring inadequate personal protective equipment for too long as they looked after their residents.

It became ‘the ‘home care scandal’, with accusations that vulnerable elderly people had been forgotten by the government. 

As the months passed, the anguish and heartbreak of families unable to see and comfort elderly relatives especially those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's, heightened.

The families were helpless, with just a pathetic wave from a window to a tearful parent or grandparent. Even worse, they could not arrange funerals as we knew them before the pandemic.

Today, in Sunrise, we have just restarted visiting, with one nominated person allowed, in a safely sealed room.

It is better than for a long time as now we don’t need masks so we can hear clearly, and we at last have more cheerful things to talk about.

Hopes that the chancellor would set aside extra billions towards restructuring social services, especially for the elderly, were dashed. Not a penny was promised. 

What happened about the Prime Minister’s pledge, made a little over a year ago, to solve the problem ‘once and for all’?  Not a word.

He and this government have a duty, an obligation, to ensure that the elderly are never put in danger again, are better cared for and can live comfortable, safe lives.

Coronavirus diary, Friday 5 March 2021

Money, money...

Money, money. All the talk is about money after the chancellor told us how much we would have to find to pay for the wild, forced extravagance of the year - £355 billion.

He talked in billions, of coronavirus costing £355 billion in twelve months; we are still working out in pounds what we will have to pay.The sums are conflicting, creating gloom or euphoria.

For the pessimists, there will be, even according to Mr Sunak, decades dogged by debt. For those who look on the bright side, things could be much worse.And for the lucky ones, there is the prospect of new opportunities and new wealth.

It all depends on how you view the figures, do your sums.

The Times piled on the good news with the headline, ‘Euphoria as Britons can’t wait to spend lockdown cash’.

Another story told us that the vaccine success would ‘put a rocket under the economy’- in 2022. Convenient as some of the chancellor’s demands start in 2023.

The highly responsible Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that households will spend a quarter of the £180 billion they saved in lockdown splashing out on new cars, TVs and furniture to ‘treat themselves’.

Turn the page on the bonanza story and you uncover some not so good news.

One million more people will start paying income tax, millions more will pay more. 

The scale of the country’s debt is historic - the worst ever apart from wartime.

One redeeming feature is that, boiled down to understandable figures, the cost to each seems manageable.  

The richest household will pay £826 a year, less than one bottle of fizz a week

It will not be all champagne or beer and skittles; millions, short of money and prospects, will find life hard. Those who have lost their jobs and can’t find work, young people whose education has been blighted, families in deprived areas who still need the food banks.

And the elderly, especially those in care homes. I am fortunate in being able to pay my way but I have not saved a penny this past year.

It does not worry me. I will be happy to see the world right again, people doing what they want to and spending their money as they wish.

Mr Sunak has certainly made us think of the future. It will be what we make of it.

Coronavirus diary, Thursday 4 March 2021

Budget day. A day of reckoning. High finance with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor juggling truly staggering figures.

He does it all so calmly that it suggests confidence even as he warns us there are years, perhaps decades of penny-pinching pay-back stretching ahead.

It was a stopgap, playing for time exercise. 

Freezing allowances will mean millions will pay more income tax by 2026.

The most significant, controversial, unlike Conservative move - was to raise the tax on company profits to 25 percent, delayed until 2023.

On the plus side, he found billions more to save and create jobs. taking the borrowing to £355 billion this year.

The millions still on furlough will continue to get 80 percent of their pay met until September and there is the long campaigned for money for self employed people. 

Coronavirus, said Mr Sunak, has fundamentally changed our lives for years ahead.

He admitted his decisions were not popular but insisted that, though challenging, they were honest, positive and possible.

It was a unique budget day, the chamber as quiet as a dentist’s waiting room. 

No cheering, order paper waving by Conservatives or head shaking by a boisterous opposition. 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was even more subdued than usual. The government, he murmured, was just papering over the cracks.

A quiet end to an historic day.

Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 3 March 2021

Politics  has taken a back seat at this perilous time. Defeating coronavirus is the government’s over-riding task and party politics cannot intrude. Not a problem for the Conservatives, riding high with their big majority, but frustrating for the opposition, especially for the new Labour leader. Sir Keir Starmer.

Not that the Prime Minister has no restraints, demonstrated by the niggles and nudges from some rebellious backbenchers, and sometimes even by some of his cabinet team, whom he can mostly afford to ignore.

Sir Keir has a more difficult task. He cannot risk condemning the government’s life or death decisions at a time of such  uncertainty, but must establish his credentials as a dangerous opponent and potential leader.

He may have four years to achieve this but time passes quickly and there is little opposition parties can do except to suggest they could handle things better.

They have to hope that nothing disastrous happens to the country while they watch as they have to be bystanders.

We, the public, are fickle, mostly fair weather supporters.

After a lost year of public anxiety and constant questioning of his many debatable, often wrong, decisions, Mr Johnson is enjoying something of a surge in popularity but he is wise enough not to think everything will now be plain sailing.

He knows the importance of putting Britain on the road to health again is matched by that of getting Britain out of the huge hole in its finances.

The Chancellor’s budget today is one of the most significant financial juggling tricks for years and he must get it right.

If he succeeds and Britain moves forward confidently, Mr Johnson might then get on with politics.

Coronavirus diary, Tuesday 2 March 2021

Throughout the country, in high streets and town centres, businesses, including shops and pubs, have been disappearing at an alarming rate.

Many of them, once flourishing and attractive, are now sad sights with failed flagship department stores and shops and other once busy businesses boarded up, defiled by graffiti.

The 2008 financial crash hastened the decline and the slight recovery since has been stopped in its tracks by coronavirus.

Now we have the usual cry, ‘Something must be done!' But what? By whom?

The problem is not new. The collapse of coal mining and other traditional industries laid waste to many town centres while others have survived and flourished. 

They have done so by being innovative; by attracting new businesses with highly paid jobs that support shops and entertainment services. Among those are big cities including Birmingham and Manchester 

Cardiff, a modest sized capital, has bucked the trend by developing its national and the international tourist and sporting attraction of its city centre assets like the Principality Stadium - on the site of the former, revered Cardiff Arms Park.

Its once down-at-heel city centre has been revitalised by BBC Wales’s magnificent new headquarters and studio complex that dominates the heart of the city.

Despite losing all five of its traditional family owned department stores, it still has an excellent shopping centre and its famous arcades with traditional shops.

Dozens of hotels have been built to cater for the boom, halted by coronavirus, which has devastated traditional destinations including Blackpool and Brighton which had depended on tourism.

Action should have been taken years ago after a government ordered survey and report on ‘ghost’ town centres and how they could be revived.

Mary Portas, an expert with 30 years' experience in the consumer business, spent six months delving into Britain’s  high street maladies.

Her decisive, clear and jargon free report made 20 specific recommendations. 

She had wasted her time. Not one of them was taken up by the government.

There has since been a flurry of studies and reports, another by the government in 2018 ordered by the ‘High Streets Minister’Jake Perry MP - whatever happened to him? - followed a year later by the City Centres, Past, Present and Future report by a research and policy institute.

So there has been plenty of advice but an inexcusable lack of action. Let us see if the four countries listen and act this time.

Coronavirus diary, Monday 1 March 2021

I am always glad to see March the first, not just because it is St David’s Day, but because it gives the first glimpse of spring and the promise of brighter, happier days ahead.

Never more so than this year and just what we all need. There, at last, is something to be cheerful about.

Even the statistics lead us to believe the worst may be over. The infection rate is lower over most of Britain, 20 million have been vaccinated and the number of coronavirus hospital patients has halved, in two months, down 16,000. And the vaccines seem to be coping with the new virus variants,

England’s plan for lifting all restrictions by late June, if all goes well and if we stick to the rules, suggests that we might even go on a summer holiday

Countries are trying to work out a system of proof of vaccination to make world travel safe again, including certificates and apps, with Greece the first to say it is ready to welcome tourists again.

Airlines and the travel trade throughout the world must be holding their breath; for some it is make or break time.

It has been a sunny weekend, made even more welcome by Wales winning the Triple Crown by defeating Scotland, Ireland on Saturday England at the empty Principality Stadium after a scintillating match cheered from afar by fervent Welsh supporters.

I had time to ride out into the Sunrise grounds and sit, basking in the sun, thinking of the time, soon perhaps, when the crowds will pour back into the city.