Sunday 27 February 2022

February 24

 February 27



After two lost summers I cannot wait to enjoy what I hope to be the best for years.

I have all sorts of plans and ambitions, some of which I hope to achieve.

I have been taking extra care since I moved to Penarth to get as fit as possible and it is paying off. I am now much more mobile and active.

I am achieving new goals one by one and it is exciting and rewarding although I know my limitations and am careful  not to overstretch myself.

One of the most enjoyable things  about looking after myself in my own home is…. cooking..

My little kitchen is now fully fitted with a whole range of equipment and I am becoming more ambitious by the week. In our last few years at Windsor Court I learned, thanks to Rosemary, to enjoy getting our meals and I am now quite ambitious, producingwith a range of meals. I am using the internet to remind me how to produce my favourite meals and working out menus.

This week I made my first cheese burger, quite a meal including mushrooms, tomatoes and chips and my first ribeye steak dinner was a success.

The biggest attraction ahead is to sit in the sun on the pier and watch the world go by.

I am even considering having a swim at the leisure centre if I can get in and out of the pool.

So much to do after those long lost months.





 











Saturday 26 February 2022

February 26

The news coverage of the Ukraine war is minute by minute, 24 hours a day. 

Television, radio, the press and social media vividly pour out a disturbing and deeply worrying running account of the first war in Europe for over seventy years. 

I remember the six years wartime years from September 3 1949 when another melogamaniac leader had  ambitions of conquering the world.

At the start I was 13; later, for three years I reported it and when it ended I was in the army. Throughtout that time I took an intense interest in the battles that raged.

In those anxious years the main source of news was radio. Vivid words, not startling television pictures, 

All brought to us by some brilliant, brave commentarirs and foreign correspondents. 

The most famous included Richard Dimbleby and Wynford Vaughan Thomas whose exploits included flying on bombing raids over Berlin. Another BBC man, Guy Byam was killed recording in a USA bomber on a daylight raid in Berlin in 1945.

Travelling by train fromCardiff to London with Vaughan Thomas, I was enthralled by his calm description of his exploits. A very brave and humorous man.

This week I have been equally impressed by the BBC’s coverage of Ukraine. The organisation and timing has been perfect, the reports magnificent.

Clive Myrie, the, main presenter, reporting from Kiev, has been masterly in his handling of a complex  task in television bulletins, and all the correspondents and photographers, from the UK, Moscow, the,USA and Europe have vividly brought to us the historic story.

I am not sure which of the two contrasting presentations of war I prefer, but surely none.

War is such madness.





Richard Dmbleby 







Friday 25 February 2022

February 25


War

After weeks of uncertainty, the worst expectations of Russia’s threat of war against Ukraine have been realised. For the first time for over seventy years Europe faces its biggest threat.

Not since the ‘cold war’ with Russia in the 1970s has the world faced such a forbidding prospect.

What can be done to halt what is sliding into a full scale war against Ukraine?

The fact that the USA, the UK and Europe cannot take up arms to support Ukraine makes it more complicated and dangerous with Putin shrugging offer sanctions.

It takes me back to even more perilous days when full scale atiomic war fare was a distinct possibility. 

Today’s youngest generation will have no recollection or even interest in that era but for people of my age it was an immediate and long lasting danger to the world.

What I learned about the risk and the consequences was stark and frightening.

As county public relations officer for Cardiff and South Glamorgan I was directly involved. 

Had war come, my job would have been to tell the public what to do in case of an atomic bomb attack. 

I attended a government course in Yorkshire and twice spent weekends in a secret bunker in Cardiff with a team of army and emergency services.

Had war broken out I would have been preparing messages to be broadcast from loudspeaker vans touring a  devastated city. A frightening thought.

The operation was considered so important that we would have had to leave our home and family. County chief executives would have been in overall charge with unprecedented  power.

Those days are long gone, but today’s threat is ominous.

World pleaders are reviewing the grave situation, none more so than our prime minister whose career might have been saved by the war, just as Margaret a thatcher’s was  by the Falklands conflict.

It is indeed a strange world,

Wednesday 23 February 2022

February 22

 February 23

Happy Days 

It may seem strange for someone so old but I am finding real pleasure at having so much time, not to ‘stand and stare’, but to think, consider and tackle everything more calmly than I have ever been able to do.

In a working career of more than sixty years it was mostly hectic, quick thinking, quick writing, which I enjoyed. No one seemed to talk about stress. We got on with our jobs.

Now it is so different. The world has changed. My world was never slow but today everyone is in the fast lane and it is having an effect.

Instead I have a life of luxury on my own time scale.

I still have daily ‘job lists’ but now have no time limitations, no ‘must do it today’.

The result, I am using my time efficiently, thinking better - apart from anything involving technical DIY skills that have always been beyond me.

The army taught me O and M - Organisation  and Method - and O and A  Organisation and Administration- and it works. 

I now enjoy more than ever reading, listening to music and, especially, writing and still keep up to broadcast news and current affairs.

 Life is still full of interest. I still have ambitions and goals.

There will obviously not be enough time for everything but I have so much to interest me and to give me pleasure.

These are, indeed, happy days.


Monday 21 February 2022

February 21

February 21

Not goodcenough

I like life to move smoothly, with no panic and a sense of calm satisfaction, but my ambition is being thwarted, too often by incompetence.

The latest example is what should be the straightforward task of obtaining repeat medical prescriptions.

In the two months since I rejoined the Penarth surgery I had used for many years I have had problems. 

Instead of following the instructions I had given in writing they have twice sent me a wrong item for my daily diabetes injections. As a result I have run out and have had to phone and go to Boots pharmacy, braving bad weathers, to get it sorted out.

They were efficient as they have been since I returned to Penarth, delivering the item within two hours.

And I am still waiting to find out how to safely dispose of my diabetes needles - ‘sharps’. Boots gave me details of a company but when I contacted them they said they needed confirmation from my surgery. I have been seeking advice for them for weeks and am still waiting.

 I appreciate that doctors are extremely busy but this does not excuse the mistakes that are being made. 




Sunday 20 February 2022

 February 20

Another milestone in my road to a normal life. Yesterday I made my first visit back to the Yacht Club for almost three years.

After a quick shopping trip up town I scootered along the almost deserted windy Esplanade, parked outside the front door and carefully made my way in, negotiated the lift and limped into the ‘main deck’ where I had a warm welcome from the steward who remembered me. And that pint! Memorable.

As I sat savouring it and the whole experience I thought of the happy times we had at the club over many years.

Rosemary and I used to go regularly for lunches, dinners, special evenings and family celebrations.

I gave an annual dinner talk when my book Don’t hold the front page’ was published. 

And we introduced our grandson Owen to the pleasure of the bar.

The sadness of that quiet hour was softened by my pleasure at my achievement and by the realisation  that I can still enjoy life and new experiences.

Back at the flat I celebrated with a special dinner, ribeye steak, and a glass of red wine. 

A lovely end to a special day.

Saturday 19 February 2022

February 19

Storm over!

You can’t blame the met office for trying to keep us safe, and that is what they did this week forecasting Storm Eunice racing across the Atlantic at 200 mph and hitting Britain with a predicted record 100mph force.

But it was a damp squib in Penarth.

I woke up yesterday, my apprehension made worse by screaming newspaper headlines, Storm of the Century.

To Sunshine! The branches of the mass of trees overlooking Bridgeman Court were shaking but no more than they had over the past few days. And the sea was not a raging monster.

In fact it was a typical rough winter day, as Therese our neighbour in the seafront Windsor Court told me.

High tide came and went, not even spilling onto the Esplanade.

In the fifteen years we lived at Windsor Court I can only remember three times when the road was flooded and even then the water did not enter our foyer with just one step to prevent it

We were much luckier than some parts of  Britain especially Scotland and the north of England, but thankfully, storm Eunice was less dangerous than had been feared. 

The main BBC television news bulletins were filled with dramatic pictures of fallen trees that cased one death and damaged houses and there was the inevitable ‘chaos’ on the railways although advance warning had been given that most services would be cancelled.

Once again I blame the media for making a mountain out of a hill, of exaggerating and adding to people’s worry. 

They love those ‘War declared headlines. It sells papers.

I am glad this time it was a less serious than threatened

It was a case of all’s well that ends well - more or less.





Thursday 17 February 2022

February 18

 Bad News

Good news is at a premium these days. No one seems interested. It is all gloom and worry.

The loosening of the covid grip, at least in Britain, is a cause for quiet satisfaction, cautious celebration, but it is being overshadowed by bad news, trumpeted hour by hour in the media.

For weeks the possibility of war between Russia and Ukraine has dominated the headlines, fuelled by warnings from anxious world leaders.

It is being described as the new Munich, a reminder of those fraught days in the late 30s when we were on the brink of the worst ever, most destructive world war.

In London, public air raid shelters were being hastily built. Homes were provided, free,with their own shelters, Anderson for gardens and Morrison for indoors. I helped Dad build a blast wall for our garden one. We were all provided with gas masks.

There was foreboding, worry, but not today’s media interminable obsession posed by the threat of a Ukraine war.

And our government cannot resist joining in, with threats and warnings of dire consequences if Putin invades, well aware of our impotence.

The best advice, I think, is the old slogan, Keep  calm and carry on.

The world has seen and endured worst crises.


Wednesday 16 February 2022

February 16

 Cookery  Lesson

With everything go at number 10, my next task is to learn how to cook again.

It is four years since I prepared and cooked meals for myself in Windsor Court and for a few years before that I managed, with Rosemary, whose  eyesight was failing, teaching me.

But I am now rusty. I produce three meals a day; a simple breakfast, snack lunch and dinner at 7pm, to suit my diabetes.

At Sunrise I had lunch in the restaurant but as the 5pm evening meal was too early for my diabetes, made a snack supper at 7pm.

In my new kitchen I have plenty to work with including my trusty microwave, an air fryer, tabletop oven and hob,  plus toaster, sandwich toaster,  omelette and poached egg makers.

For dinner last night I produced baked chicken breast and vegetables, experimenting with three different cooking methods, and it worked. Tonight, something easier - sausage and mash.

I am enjoying cooking, working out recipes from the internet. 

Who knows, I might even compile a recipe book, ‘Never too old to Cook’.





Tuesday 15 February 2022

February. Airy 15

 Shipshape

It’s taken nine weeks but I have achieved my aim of  a new life after almost three years being cared for in Sunrise Cardiff.

It was a challenge and a risk, with my family understandably concerned about my ability to go it alone, but I could visualise the difference it could make and was determined to go ahead. 

Last September, as soon as I saw the advertisement for the retirement flat near Windsor Court, our seafront home for over fifteen years, I knew that was the answer.

And here I am, thanks to huge help from my family, especially Robert and Karen and my niece Brenda and Ivor.

Having got rid of almost everything apart from my furniture which I had moved into SunriseI, had to start from scratch, a massive, expensive exercise but affordable with the end of the drain of care home fees. 

Like many people, the only way I could meet them was by selling up our home and hoping that my funds would not run out. I thought I could manage survive to my centenary.

With fees going up twice a year that became doubtful but it was not finance that decided me to give up but the prospect of becoming, like most of the residents, willing to accept a descent into an interminable routine with diminishing interests and minimum social contact.

 The result, success and confirmation of my hopes and ambition,

My new life is entirely different.I am happier than for years. My days are full and interesting and the challenges of the past few weeks have been daunting, but exciting.

I am now doing all I can to get fit  and am more active than for years. 

The worry of finding home help ended with the arrival of Melissa, as much a carer as helper.

With my now fully fitted kitchen I am again enjoying cooking and getting out on my scooter regularly. I have rejoined the Penarth Men’s Fellowship and the Penarth Yacht Club and am having a stream of visitors

Life could not be more interesting.

As I have recognised all my life, I am an amazingly lucky man. 






Monday 14 February 2022

February 14

Rugby

Almost eighty years since I played, rugby still fascinates me, for many reasons. The complexity, its thrills, robustness, camaradarie. A nationalistic obsession. For Wales, a religion.

My rugby career was short. It began at Emanuel school in Wandsworth where, as part of our extensive and expensive school clothing, we needed three rugby shirts - strip these day - school, house and white.

There was a whole series of stepping stones for us, competitive school fifteens starting at the prep class level at seven and a half.

I remember well my first, and, as it turned out, my only rugby teacher, Mr Shaw. He was brilliant. He even told me I was a great tackler. The highlight of my short rugby career was  to be chosen for the Emanuel under thirteen side. The first match, away to Dulwich  College, travelling by school coach.

I remember it well. Wearing the school jersey for the first time. I played at outside half - ‘fly half’- and was enjoying myself.

I scored a try. Then, disaster. I damaged my ankle and had to go off.

That was the end of my school rugby. After leaving Emanuel when the school was evacuated at the start of the war to Hampshire and transferring twice in two years to Cardiff High School where I never made a school eleven - or even Robert’s - my house fifteen.

In my cut-short army career I played once for the Intelligence Corps depot team - no great0achievement as there were so few to choose from. Then I badly injured a leg in unnecessary battle training and was invalided out. At 21 years old, my playing days were over.

But I still love rugby, now watching on television but for some years, sometimes at Cardiff Arms Park, now the Principalityb stadium.

The highlight was, when working for the city council, I would attend our  pre match receptions on international days fo visiting officials, going on to the game in blthe best seats.

Even better, when I worked for the BBC there were lavish pre match receptions at the Llandaff  headquarters, meeting Welsh rugby heroes.

Last weekend I watched on television the latest Wales international match, lying on my bed. A thrilling game. And we won!

Rugby is flourishing again, adding to my pleasure and the delight of Wales.
























Sunday 13 February 2022

February 14

News?

As a newspaper man I have always been intrigued by news. What it is and what makes it so absorbing.

But after all these years I have lost that thrill of it,  the newspaper headlines and broadcasting’s minute by minute ‘breaking news’.

The reason? We are being swamped by it, an avalanche of facts, rumours, scares and, worst of all, untruths.

And everyone is at it. Endlessly. With the pandemic obsession fading there are new nonstop subjects, the latest, the Ukraine, Brexit and royalty

Just look at some of the headlines….

‘Russia’s false flag and a whiff of Munich’. One for the historians

‘Charles and Camilla to be crowned side by side’. Fascinating?

‘Harry bombshell fo Queen Camilla.’You don’t say!

Coming soon… Brexit big wins for Britain. Make believe.

‘Met boss  must be robust on culture change…Khan’. Blindingly obvious.

So much churned out rubbish. Certainly not news. 

How I wish for the old days when reporting was more basic, but at least more realistic.




February 13

February 14

Friendships is one of the greatest pleasures in life, made even richer and more appreciated as we grow older.

That is what I have found as, settling in to my new home, I now have the chance to see more of them again, some after months, others, many years.

It is one of the many advantages of being able to live my own life in my own home.

In the past few cases weeks I have had a happy procession of visitors, family and friends, to revive memories.

I had not seen two of the friends for many years, one for fifty years, but that heightened the pleasure. 

And I treasure the long distant links with old friends in Europe and America via Email, surely the most valuable communication method ever found.

Living alone does not mean loneliness, not if you have so many strong links with the past, to relive happy times and recognise your good fortune.

Thursday 10 February 2022

February 10

 February 10

Intensive care. In the pandemic that has meant harassed medical teams desperately trying to save lives.

But for me it also has another, totally different meaning which was proved again yesterday at the Heath Hospital.

I know the hospital well, too well in some way.

I remember the official opening 51 years ago. I had returned to work at city hall just days before after being away for three months so was not involved in organising it.

A neighbour of Rosemary’s parents in Penarth, Bill Jeffcott, the chairman of the hospital board, formally welcomed the Queen.

Since that day I have visited the hospital countless times, mostly worrying or sad occasions, visiting sick relatives and friends and spending her last few days with Rosemary.

Most of the visits were to clinics, usually involving hours of waiting.

This week I was back again, for an eye clinic appointment deferred almost three years ago when the pandemic struck.

It was a long but successful day. From the time I was picked up by ambulance at my flat and delivered home six hours later I could not have been better treated or looked after.

There was warmth and friendliness, with everyone making sure I was safe and at ease. 

I was called in for my first examination precisely on time and over the next two and a half hours had a succession of tests and scans with a team led by the professor who had seen Rosemary many times.

I was watched over by the staff who came with me to each of the treatment rooms and made sure was comfortable.

They explained clearly what was being done and what was needed and when I was given a complicated health questionnaire, a young trainee eye doctor sat with me and helped me complete it.

During the long wait in reception for the ambulance team to take me home I was kept up to date on timing.

It had been a long day for them, too, more than twelve hours, but the driver and his assistant were cheerful and efficient. It took them them ten minutes to get another patient into the ambulance and they managed to almost carry me into my seat.

Then came the drive in the dark, a mystery tour as I tried trying to identify the route we were taking.

Home at 7pm but it had been worth the time and effort.

And it proved that, despite the long hours and stress, our NHS staff are superb.





















































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Tuesday 8 February 2022

February 8

 February 8

At last something is being done about the parking pirates, the private companies that have been mercilessly targeting motorists for years. 

Fines will be generally limited to £50, half that now demanded.

I have personal experience of the relentless hounding tactics that have plague motorists for many years, unhindered by periodic newspapers campaigns,

Three years ago I parked in a Cardiff Bay shopping mall, displaying my disability blue badge.

It was just out of date and the previous day a local council obligingly left a note on the windscreen telling me to renew it.

The hawk eyed private warden left a penalty notice demanding £70. I wrote explaining that I had ordered a new one, and was told to prove it. I sent a photocopy of the new badge as soon as I received it but they replied that I still had to pay up. 

Three years later they are still, chasing me, even finding my new address after I went into a care home. I took up it up unsuccessfully with Citizens Advice Bureau.

Now at a new address I am expecting another letter warning of impending prosecution, this time probably for more than the £170  they last quoted.

For them, a forlorn hope, but, in a way, I would welcome the chance to tell the story in court. 





Monday 7 February 2022

February 8

 February 8

Yesterday I eulogised over the kindness and help I am getting every day but there is also a different, more difficult aspect of life for the elderly and handicapped - the insensitivity and downright inefficiency of many organisations.

Moving to a new home involves a frightening range of decisions and actions and I have at times almost despaired at the unnecessary obstacles I have had to overcome.

I am fortunate, even at my age and with my physical problems to still be alert and, thanks to the support and skill of my family, be able to handle the complicated procedures needed.

But it has been made difficult and frustrating when the essential needs of the elderly are not recognised. 

I am reasonably aufait with the internet but there are five million people over eighty in the UK who  have probably no experience who find it bewildering.

Providing detailed information essential for a home move must be almost impossible for them.

My experience yin setting up home - including lighting, heating, telephone and television - is has proved difficult for me and a worry for my family.

Yesterday, after six weeks of effort, I finally managed to arrange direct debit for the gas supply. 

I tried many times to do it myself on the telephone but with my poor hearing I failed to negotiate the hurdles of the automated reply system with its baffling list of alternative actions, made even more difficult by lack of clear, deliberate speach by call centre staff.

I succeeded at last, but only by Melissa, my home help/carer and  I spending one hour on the phone.

After giving essential information we were ‘put on hold’ for over half an hour for a human voice to deal with us.

I sat holding the phone while Melissa carried on working around the flat.

And  tomorrow we I will be at it again, this time for the electricity company. Thank goodness that at least the services, arranged by my son Robert, have been working since I moved in.

It has also been difficult getting my tv licence - after weeks of effort I was threatened with action.

Other obstacles include detailed questionnaires on the internet and even finding the correct adddress to make a query or provide information.

I am still waiting for my winter heating allowance after failing to give the Department of Work and Pensions my new address even though I sent an Email message.

Even the the NHS are not free of inefficiency. When I cancelled an operation appointment helped by my son there was utter confusion with them making a series of phone calls and letters over many days.

There are some exceptions to this bewildering maze, including notably the Vale of Glamorgan Council, who have been excellent, and Motability, but generally in my experience old people, especially especially the handicapped. are being poorly served.

After many years in local government public relations trying to inform, interest and involve the public, I urge government departments and major companies to recognise that they must do better.











Sunday 6 February 2022

February 7

 February 7

After being fit and active most of my life I am learning to live with disability.

I am grateful for the help of my family and friend and am heartened too, by the every day thoughtfulness and kindness of strangers.

When I decided to try to return to a normal life in Penarth I knew I would have to adapt, to accept the limitations of age and poor mobility.

I have been surprised and delighted with the support I am getting.

After a few weeks of struggling to fend for myself  in my new home I have had the amazing good fortune of finding the help I needed.

Thanks to Melissa, I am now achieving my aim to live comfortably, safely and happily.  

Three times a week, for two hours, she ’mothers’ me, keeping the flat immaculate, doing my laundry and ironing, making difficult phone calls, doing some shopping and offering advice, always efficient and cheerful.

I could not be more lucky.

And that applies to my now regular trips to Penarth town centre where I have learned to ‘drive’ in and out of most of the shops on my scooter.

I am pleasantly surprised at the consideration and help I get from staff and passers by.

Yesterday I decided to get a haircut - my first for three months - but was not sure if I could manage to get into the salon where I used to go three years ago.

I need not have worried The staff came out to help me and,  after my haircut, helped me safely back out onto my scooter.

I am having the same encouragement and help in all the shops, with staff taking the trouble to serve me and pack my shopping onto my scooter. 

When I cannot reach something on the shelves, inevitably other shoppers have got it it for me.  

Unusually, perhaps, I enjoy shipping, choosing what I like and my trips up town are always a pleasure.

In my recent hospital visit to the ear clinic I was having difficulty ordering a coffee when a man next in the queue took over, got me a coffee and a cake, helped me to a table and even paid for it.

How is that for kindness.

It is making such a difference.














 












am learning to live with disability Being disabled involves problems but many are solved or at least eased by the thoughtfulness

Two of my complaints are caused by impatience, as yesterday afternoon showed.

The first was the telephone. I use a land line, not a mobile phone as I have difficulty hearing its ring or the messages.

I had three calls and was unable to reach the phone in time for any, although it is only just across my living room.

On each occasion there were only seven rings. It takes me a few seconds to stand up and move with my walking aid. Each time the caller gave up as I was lifting the receiver. After the third call I sat by the phone for ten minutes but there was no further call

I appreciate that they probably did not know I am disabled but the impatience to wait a few more seconds is inexcusable. A little later my door bell rang. It took me a little longer to get there and by that time the caller had gone. 

This is  retirement home with some of the residents also old and with mobility problems so others might also find this frustrating.

I am not usually a complainer but there are other examples of thoughtlessness that could be avoided in dealings with elderly people.

In call centres, the now common use of automatic answering giving a range of options is difficult as often the details are given too quickly and not clearly enough. It was a rare treat in one of my calls when the young-I think-woman slow clearly and slowly and was really helpful.

Firms dealing with the public need more training to meet our needs.