A good day

It is strange how some days bring nothing but problems yet on others things go right from the beginning.

For me, so far today, it is one of the better ones. In fact it is shaping up brilliantly. 

After a spell of feeling out of sorts and unusually listless I am better, more alert and active today.

I am enjoying the efforts of all the carers and staff to make life more interesting and enjoyable. 

It’s another ‘dress up’ day. Sunrise is Italy. The flags are out. The music is lilting and the costumes are fantastic. I have just had a request from John, the catering head, to borrow a bow tie to complete his Pavarotti outfit. A fun day.

My first email added to the celebration. P&O has solved the problem of my refund for my lost cruise.

After months of asking for a refund, I was despairing - so Robert suggested asking Julia Brookes at The Times to ask P&O for help. Julia is the paper's travel consumer champion and successfully got P&O to look into it. It turned out that the company had sent my refund cheque three months ago to my old address in Penarth. and couldn't contact me by phone as my number had changed.

So I am richer and happier today and my faith in P&O has been restored. It is also a wonderful example of the positive impact journalism can have on people's lives. 

My day is only a few hours old. I hope it continues like this!

Postscript

I knew it could not last. I've just been booked for parking my scooter...

This story has legs

In all the years I have been involved with ‘news’ I have never known such wall to wall coverage of the current few topics by today’s media.

There is an unhealthy obsession with how the Prime Minister paid for the refurbishment of his flat. 

While it is important to find the answer does it need to be front page lead and first news item on television and radio for a week or more? Old reporters had a phrase for it ... the story has legs.

To me, this one is a marathon.

Coronavirus has inevitably dominated the news for over a year and yet we are still have the Health Secretary giving solemn press conferences.

And with the UK basking in its success with vaccinations, the emphasis is now on India. We are plied non stop with harrowing stories. 

The BBC this week devoted a whole day to running the sad story.

It is right that the world knows of this but do we need to see burning pyres and do photographers need to be getting in the way of stressed nursing staff to get us ever more distressing views? There is so little we can do and the only benefit of such coverage might be to galvanise international support. But what of Brazil and other countries so much worse than the fortunate countries.

There was the death and funeral of Prince Philip and now attention has switched to Prince William and Kate’s tenth wedding anniversary.

For me, there is too much public relations and not enough news in much of the coverage, apart from political manoeuvring.

What has happened to editing?

Set us free!

There are nearly half a million residents in UK care homes, and after many disastrous months and distressing stories, the tide has turned.

With almost all of us now having had our two injections the number of deaths, in line with the overall national figures, has dropped dramatically. 

Down to an average of less than thirty a day overall and, apparently, none recently in care homes.

A cause for relief and celebration but the mystery is why are we are not reaping the benefit in having our lives opened up.

I am fortunate in having permission for an occasional foray on my scooter, provided I do not stop to talk to anyone.The other residents here are not so lucky although we enjoy welcoming visitors.

Why the hesitation, the delay? It is down to the governments, not the care homes.

Sunrise has just announced that all the homes throughout the Sunrise and Gracewell group are 100 percent clear.

It is time governments stopped dithering and gave us and our families our lives back.

Steady as she goes

The awful scenes from Indian hospitals struggling to cope with a massive increase in infections and the horrific funeral pyres, is in stark contrast to the picture in Wales. 

For the second time in a week there has not been one death and the infection rate is the lowest in Britain.

All very encouraging and enough for the government to announce further easing of restrictions.

It is not just good news for us, the public, but for the Welsh government as it will surely influence the result of the Senedd and local government elections. It will decide the future handling of the pandemic, an unenviable task but which has been tackled intelligently.

The twists and turns over many months, the ups and downs in public confidence, has taught us not to be carried away by the latest improvements. 

Britain is faring better than most countries but the arrival of new virus strains is a menacing development.

The disparity in vaccination programmes is another cause for concern. 

The long awaited return of sporting activities, entertainment, holidays and hospitality - that drink inside a pub - is tantalisingly close, but  we have learned that it may not be all plain sailing. 

It is a case of ‘steady as she goes’.

Chocolate heaven

I won a small bar of chocolate at the latest Sunrise bingo session. A very small bar compared with the one I enjoyed as a youngster.

When I look back I realise that downsizing does not apply to the cost of chocolate. 

My favourite bar was Milky Way, first produced in England in 1924. It cost just a halfpenny - I could splash out and get two for my weekly pocket money. 

My other favourite was the Mars Bar. I was six when it was first produced. It cost a penny and it was a was a real treat, very substantial.

In those days you could buy four ounces of excellent chocolate for twopence.

Today, even the smallest chocolate bars cost 70p or more and are gone in a few small nibbles rather than bites.

It set me thinking about the chocolate as the vast multi billion pound industry it is today. 

Two British firms were among the pioneers, Fry’s of Bristol and Cadbury of Birmingham.

It was Joseph Fry who produced the world’s first chocolate bar 1847. 

The mid and late 19th century was the golden age for chocolate lovers with many countries competing in the exploding market.

Today the chocolate business is worth billions a year for many countries including the UK, USA, Germany; in Belgium and Switzerland it is a top earning industry.

I became interested in the subject and my research has led to my latest quiz formSunrise residents, ‘So you like chocolate’.

Mouthwatering.

Calling foul on football's breakaway

How strange is 'news'. After days of blanket coverage of death and mourning, the emphasis has switched to football. Even the Prime Minister has joined in, writing in The Sun newspaper today how he hopes to scupper the decision of six English premier league clubs to join an elite new European super league. 

He is taking the side of the soccer fans rather than big business. Strange, if you think about it. Football is an international business and I assume he would have taken the free market approach. i do not know if Mr Johnson supports Arsenal or any other team. He does not strike me as the sporting type - at least, not soccer - so I have a suspicion that next month's election might have something to do with it.

The Duke of Cambridge is also calling 'foul' at the possble soccer revolution, but at least he is the president of the Football Association. 

I have followed soccer all my life and I regret how it has become big business, but I have no idea if the new plan will harm or revitalise the sport. After all, it is dominated by a handful of clubs that have the resources to buy success. Meanwhile, the lower league clubs like Newport County are always struggling to keep going.

Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool, said, football was more important than life or death. 

One consolation - at last we have a different topic to argue, and shout about.

Great adventures

No wonder Wendy and Kev are proud of Daniel and Adam for their parachuting adventure that raised £300 for charity.

I am, too, as I have never been much of an adventurer. I have enjoyed travel and different experiences, including helicopter trips including a momentous flights covering the infamous Berlin Wall, and even an airship over Cardiff,  but nothing dangerous.

Owen 'coasteering', Dorset, 2020

I would never have thought of jumping out of a plane - or off a cliff, as Robert and Owen did last year.

Rosemary in action, Australia

Come to think of it, I am a coward and much less adventurous than Rosemary. It was she who enjoyed the unusual, riding a camel or elephant, handling snakes (which I hated), and all, sorts of animals and insects. She even once had a huge live cobra wrapped around her, with two men holding both ends. I steeled myself to take a photography which I have lost.

In our visits to Barry Island fairground with young Siân and Ria, I was happy to hear them screaming on the big dipper and flume ride -  by themselves.

At my age I am satisfied with a quiet life. I have no desire to seek new experiences, certainly not if any danger is  involved. 

But there is one ambition I would still like to achieve - taking the controls of a light aircraft. I always wanted to learn to fly but it was too expensive.

Who knows, when this pandemic is over and we can take to the skies again, perhaps a birthday trip from the former Rhoose airport might be the answer.

The Queen, the Duke - and me

A difficult subject to write about this morning. The death and funeral of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

For over a week there has been a ceaseless national outpouring of grief; countless hours on television and radio, and massive press coverage in words and pictures.

The death was indeed historic and worthy of national and even international attention and respect, but to me it was overdone.

In fact, it was in some ways, dare I say it, like a soap opera. A merging of fact and fiction, real life with imaginary memories.

Royal deaths are invariably cause for sadness, of celebration of service, but royalty in Britain is far different from that in some countries. More distant and formal. 

No one has ever seen our queen on a bus or riding a bicycle in the street; in fact 99.99 percent of the population have never seen Queen Elizabeth in person. 

I have. Six years ago I was invited to Buckingham Palace for an evening reception to mark the 60th anniversary of the Winston Churchill Fellowship scheme. 

It was a lovely evening,  After stopping at the Buckingham palace entrance where the car was checked for possible explosives,  I was driven to the front door and with no fuss escorted to the reception,

After a buffet meal with drinks we were lined up to meet the Queen, She spoke to each of us as did the Duke of Edinburgh who was at her side as he was for 73 years. 

He asked me where my travels had taken me and seemed genuinely interested as he did with my Fellowship colleagues.

Over the years I had seen the Queen several times, reporting her visits to Cardiff and later at official lunches on her official visits to the city. I even went down a coal mine with her.

So, yes, I appreciate the wonderful service she and her husband have given and am sad at her loss. 

She is the same age as I, and my 66 year marriage with Rosemary was a very happy one. It was sad to lose her after almost a lifetime together.

But, to go back to last week’s  events, I am worried that grief should not be overplayed, almost dramatised.

Cry freedom: treat the elderly like adults

The pandemic has affected everyone, our lives and our health, but it is the elderly and vulnerable residents in care homes who have borne the brunt of restrictions.

Care homes have been in the news from the very beginning, and almost always for the wrong reasons.

We can breathe a little easier now. After our second vaccine dose we should be able to look forward to some freedom; to be able to welcome friends and family, go out for a walk, if we are mobile, and enjoy a quiet lunch or even a drink at the local pub.

But it is still just a hope and it is not good enough.

The fault does not lie with the care homes; Sunrise Cardiff is brilliant as I am sure are most homes with their dedicated staff. 

It is the timidity of governments that is inhibiting our lives. They are over cautious, probably fearful of repeating past mistakes.

In England, care home residents who venture out face quarantine.

We elderly, especially those over ninety, have had experience of dark days, bad times, and we have learned how to cope with them. To be treated like children and told what we can and can't do is a blatant infringement of our liberty. 

It is not only illegal but dangerous. It shocking that that the pandemic has created an enormous backlog of treatment for other illnesses -  estimated at 4.7 million, threatening more deaths than the pandemic.

It affects so many of us. I have now been waiting for three years for an eye operation and almost two years for three more important clinic appointments Yet the possibility and fear of another wave is dictating government decisions, even though the number of deaths has plummeted and  the number of hospital patients is down to 2,500 - amounting to one large hospital.

It is time to weigh the level of risk to old people, and give us our lives back.

Scooting to the shops

As usual with coronavirus, one step forward, two steps back. Yesterday I  took advantage of a sunny, if chilly, morning to go out on my scooter to return library books I have had for a year.

It turned out to be a bumpy ride. Although there have been many road improvements at Lakeside, including more pedestrian crossings, better road surfaces and a 20mph speed limit, driving on the pavement was an uncomfortable experience.

In Winnipeg Drive, our former road, cars were parked on the pavements leading to the junior school, forcing me to take to road. It was bad enough when we were there, with cars blocking our drive twice a day and one of my former neighbours yesterday said it was worse now.

I can see a letter to the council coming.

Another disappointment - the library was closed, presumably as it is now community centre with a gym.

One positive result of my morning out was a successful shop at Tesco Lakeside when I stocked up.

The Discovery pub is still shut but the shopping parade has returned to life with all the new shops open and doing business.

It was fortunate I went out yesterday as later, at Sunrise, we were told that one of the team has proved positive. 

Another step back. We will all be rested again tomorrow.

And another abrupt stop to my scooter trips.

A strange world

What a strange world coronavirus has created. After more than a year we cannot predict what lies ahead. Uncertainty still rules with countries experiencing widely different results. Some, which had been hailed for their success in their prevention methods, are now struggling to cope with worse than ever infection and death rates, while others, including the UK, seem to be edging towards normality.

With our vaccination process going full speed, deaths down drastically - below ten one day - and fewer than 5,000 hospital patients, there is reason to be cheerful.

But coronavirus is still a threat and will be for months, years even, and we must ensure that the risk is kept low.

We will have to accept it as we have accepted flu, with regular annual vaccinations. As with coronavirus, flu, with its many variants, is still a danger, especially for the elderly.

If the next month on the recovery road is benign the demand for a quicker route to normal life will grow, presenting the governments with a dilemma.

If they give way and there is the predicted third wave they will be blamed, if they remain cautious they will still be criticised.

The position is further complicated by next month’s elections where present leaders may be replaced and political opponents in charge, with their own ideas.

One obvious need is greater co-operation between the four administrations. The Prime Minister’s antagonism towards Scotland is a danger to the UK, but even worse in the long run is his reluctance to work with Wales and Northern Ireland.

Since he gave up the Cobra meetings they have been left in the the dark on many decisions which affect them. This must stop. If not there is long term risk of the devolved nations rebelling and going their own way.

More uncertainty to add to the coronavirus conundrum.

Let's go shopping

It’s off to the shops day in England. The grand opening. Millions of pounds saved during lockdown by the fortunate ones will disappear in a glorious spending spree. Just what is needed to cheer us up and to help businesses get back on their feet.

Ever since I was a young schoolboy I have loved to ‘go shopping’, from street markets to department stores.

Petticoat Lane market

In prewar London there was Petticoat Lane market in Spitalfields, Arding & Hobbs in Wandsworth - my first experience of department stores - and the even bigger Gamages in Holborn where Rosemary and I, catalogue in hand, spent the money we had collected all year to go Christmas shopping.

Those money making stores were nothing compared with the monster shops I sought out overseas.The dazzling Ginza area in Tokyo, the KDB in Stuttgart, with its food department, said then to be the largest in the world.

The Hudson's Bay Company mall in Toronto, one of the earliest shopping malls, which went bust when Rosemary and I were on holiday there. We went every day collecting bargains as the price was reduced by 10 percent  daily until everything went. 

Cardiff was a shopper’s paradise with its Howells,  David Morgan, Debenhams,  Seccombes, Mackross and Evan Roberts, where I bought my Cardiff High School uniform.

All long gone, with Debenhams closing now. Even their successors, huge shopping centres and hypermarkets are under threat.

Cardiff has had bustling open air markets, the first above a canal, which moved a few times as the city centre was developed, before disappearing. 

But although our shopping experience has changed over the years the urge is still there.

I can’t wait to go on my scooter to Albany Road and perhaps, if someone will take me, to Marks and Spencer.

On this historic day I could not resist joining in. I have ordered a tube of superglue from Amazon.

Parking bullies

My annoyance at P&O’s reluctance to repay my cruise money is nothing compared with my anger at a company that pursues motorists for parking penalties.

Almost three years ago,  after shopping in a Penarth shopping centre, I saw an ominous looking envelope on the windscreen. 

It was for failing to show my disabled driver’s blue badge. I looked down and saw the badge on the floor, where it had fallen.

I wrote explain this and was asked to send proof that I had a blue badge. I did so. They replied thanking me but saying I still had to pay part of the penalty. I wrote protesting but they persisted.

Since then I have had a dozen or more letters from the company or its collection arm demanding that I pay up.

They have even tracked me down to Sunrise Cardiff where I now live. And the pace is hotting up. Yesterday the ‘Collecting Team’ of DCBL (Debt Collection Bailiffs Limited), sent me, for the second time in less than a month, a ‘Final Notice of Debt Recovery'. They now want £170.

At the bottom of the letter is a notice. ‘Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away’  (as previously featured on popular TV show)’

Yet the last sentence of the letter explains, ‘This case is not subject to High Court or bailiff action’.

How is this bullying allowed to go on?

Shameful P&O won't refund my cancelled cruise

I have heard a lot about airlines and other travel organisations reneging on their legal obligation to refund payments for pandemic cancelled bookings, but I did not expect P&O to be among them.

That has happened to me and I am surprised and disappointed.

Rosemary and I enjoyed many cruises with them and appreciated the quality and the service.

After Rosemary’s death I booked a cruise for last April and when it was cancelled P&O offered a future, discounted cruise.

I now find that I am unable to accept the offer. I am recovering from coronavirus and the doctor advises me me that I am not fit to do so.

I have for four months been trying to get my substantial sum repaid but have had no response.

P&O, you should be ashamed at treating a previously satisfied client - especially a 94 year old disabled war pension - so shabbily.

Remembering dear friends

Sad news yesterday from Nancy, daughter of my friends Jim and Betty Wise, telling me that they had both died, within four days of each other.

I had known them for over forty years, from the day in 1980 when they stepped off a plane at Cardiff airport with 400 Americans, visiting Wales under the Friendship Force programme.

Jim had organised it and I was involved, helping find families in South Glamorgan to host them for a week.

The scheme had been unveiled by President Carter to encourage international friendship. Jim was the American organiser for many years and it is still operating.

It was the start of a marvellous friendship between Rosemary and I and Jim and Betty, with visits in the USA and Wales.

Big Pit, 1994

We had a trip down the Big Pit coal mine museum in Wales and a speedboat ride during a break in Cornwall when Robert came with us. In Iowa they took us to a German Hamish community town and to President Hoover’s presidential library and museum.

Looe, Cornwall, 1994

Although we met for a relatively short time over the years Jim and I kept in regular touch, with long emails discussing all sorts of subjects. 

We had a lot in common. All four of us were the same age and had wide interests. Jim was an education head in Des Moines and Betty was secretary to the State’s finance minister at the Des Moines parliament. Their daughter Nancy was, like me and  Robert, in public relations.

Jim and Betty had been living in a care home for the past few years. 

Their death has left a gap in my life, I shall miss them both, my dear friends.

The future of care homes

After a desperately difficult year, Britain’s care homes are facing an uncertain future.

While more homes are needed over the next ten years to meet the demand from an increasingly ageing population, hundreds are closing due to the pandemic.

The closures affect all parts of the UK, and different types of homes, the majority of which are privately owned.

The number of council owned homes has dropped steadily due to the lack of funding. And one of the largest private home groups is closing over fifty while investing in some new ones.

The country is facing a national crisis, says property firm Knight Frank, reporting that 6,500 homes with 140,000 beds risk closure yet the demand for places will increase.

The anomaly is that the number of spaces is soaring - in some South Wales homes up to 20 percent.

The GMB union say that, with tens of thousands of homes deaths, some families are reluctant to send elderly relatives to a home. It blames the government  for its ‘appalling lack of strategy’.

Some private home groups, realising the need and the potential, are investing heavily, improving homes and facilities and even building new ones.

Caring nicely: Sunrise of Cardiff

Sunrise/Gracewell is one. My home, Sunrise of Cardiff, is modern, well-equipped and staffed, and is being totally refurbished over eighteen months, expanding its services.

Some private homes see the need to specialise, with ‘theme’ homes featuring nautical, artistic and other subjects.

There is an ominous silence from the government on their plans for care homes and social services in general

They say they have provided billions in extra funding during the pandemic, including many millions for care homes.

To avoid the threatened crisis a concerted approach is needed, with more responsibility, and funding, for local government whose health services are proving valuable in combating coronavirus.

Moaning gets you nowhere

After the Prime Minister’s announcements yesterday about easing the lockdown in England, I am feeling more optimistic than usual - risky, I know but why not? With Easter behind us and brighter, warmer days ahead I think I am justified.

But the feeling is not general, depending on which newspaper you read. Just look at the headlines:

‘Cheers! We”re Opening for Business’, says the Daily Express. ‘Call this Freedom?’ asks the Daily Mail, listing ‘Weekly tests, no foreign travel, jab passports, social distancing and new doomsday warning of THIRD wave.’

The Daily Telegraph headlines the PM's caution that ‘no end in sight’, while the Guardian reports his comment of ‘a return to a semblance of normality’.

Take your pick. I prefer to look on the bright side.

If you have been ill and are recovering you should feel pleased. You should not complain because you may still have aches and pains, or breathlessness. Be grateful. Look forward to being as ft as possible again.

Moaning gets you nowhere.

A visitor to my room

A big day, yesterday. I had a visitor in my room - Robert. The first time for over a year. 

When he came in December it was in the library downstairs, with a separate entrance, and he was masked which made conversation difficult.

This time he had to arrive half an hour early to be tested and then kitted out with full PPE. It was a knock on my door I had been looking forward to for so long.

We had time and a lot to talk about but I had a list of jobs I could not manage myself so he was working most of the hour.

One task was redesigning my living room by moving furniture. Others included solving problems with my iPad. As usual, he solved them all.

Karen had also been shopping for me and they had added some Easter gifts including an egg and some sparkling wine.

The hour passed far too quickly and Sara, the Sunrise head who had welcomed him, called to escort him from the building. 

Robert enjoyed his bike ride to the Senedd, Cardiff Bay

I watched from my window as he rode out, not in his car but his bicycle for a sunlit ride in the city.

A memorable day. And if all goes well I might soon be able to welcome family and friends again.

A lovely thought.

The publican's lament

A lockdown pub, Bucks, March 2020

What have our governments got against the drinks industry? If I were a publican or pub worker I would be puzzled, and angry. It seems that their contribution to the nation’s well being - and its economy - are not worth worrying about. And yet, before the year of stop tap, the beer and pub industry - 48,000 pubs employing 895,000 earned £22 billion for the UK coffers. 

Now it is a neglected industry, and how much more neglected can you be than the Welsh government’s ban on them selling beer.

The first sign of revival will probably come within the next fortnight, but even that is half hearted - outdoor drinking only - and it will be another month or so before our pubs echo again to chatter and clinking glasses.

To add to the publican’s lament, there is the continued frustration of seeing favoured, profit boosting supermarkets, allowed to sell cheap beer and other spirits.

They have, sensibly, spent heavily to keep their customers safe but so too have pubs yet their doors are still closed.

We have not stopped drinking during lockdown. Far from it. We can drink at home from morning till night, whatever our tipple.

Research suggests that pubs are not a danger and the industry feels it is being victimised and that hundreds more pubs are threatened with calling last orders.

Excessive drinking is a danger to the health of the imbiber and, these days, to the public if it is gets out of control, but the pub is still one of the most sociable places to visit and enjoy

So, if you enjoy a drink, pop into one as soon as they open and help get the industry back on its feet.

I will drink to that.

Life is looking good this Easter

Out on my scooter for the second day. Life is at last getting back to normal for me. Yesterday I went to Penylan library, a 40 minute run, only to find it closed. Although libraries can now open, Penylan also has a community centre which remains shut. I will have to wait another few weeks.

On my way I was shocked to see four masks littering the pavements and in today’s papers pictures of the mountains of rubbish in open spaces and parks.

Fortunately, this does not apply at Roath Park where there was not a spot of litter despite the large crowds of adults and children. People used the plentiful rubbish bins and I followed a council waste disposal lorry as it emptied each one.There is no need for laziness. There should be more fines.

My outings confirm my belief that unless the pandemic has other tricks people will soon enjoy life again; holidaying, shopping, going out with family and friends when and where they like and enjoying sport and entertainment.

With many fortunate enough to have amassed savings in lockdown the spending will flow again, boosting the economy.

I was pleasantly surprised to see our local shopping parade ready for the revival. With only three still open a year ago, all the shops are now taken, with new businesses including a doughnut shop, an upmarket restaurant and a discount store. Entrepreneurism is alive, probably people on furlough seeking a new start.

Across the road, the Discovery public house is due to open soon.

Life is looking good this Easter.