June 16

 Getting on with life

Being disabled has many disadvantages, many challenges, as I have found over the past ten years.

As have explained, one of mine is walking which I manage, if slowly, with my sticks, walking aid and scooter.

I am fortunate in having Melissa, my home help. I can cope with day-to-day tasks and twice weekly she helps keep the flat in good order carrying out jobs that I cannot manage, including taking rubbish to the flat’s recycling store which has steps, doing my laundry and generally keeping everything spick and span. 

It is often the simplest jobs that are the hardest. If you you are old and your hearing is not good phoning it can be a headache now that the human touch has gone, replaced by the automatic  response with its formidable list of options, often presented unclearly and confusingly. Even local shops are using this wretched system

I have to take my time in getting on with day-by-day life, a slow process in many ways, with dressing a problem due to thoughtlessness of disabled people’s needs.

Simple jobs can mean big frustration; for example, buttons on clothing are a real handicap, getting smaller and harder; this morning I took fifteen minutes putting my my shirt on.

More worrying is taking medication. I have difficulty in prising open tightly packed tablets and, worse, opening my insulin tubes. Today I had to ask one of my neighbours to do it for me.

My successes in looking after myself include my kitchen equipment. particularly my new chair on wheels. I can now safely and smoothly move around my kitchen, cooking, which I enjoy, and washing up  keeping everything clean and tidy.

I knew there would be challenges when I decided to go it alone but I am happy in my new home, number 10 Bridgeman Court, very well equipped to deal with my poor mobility and I am thoroughly enjoying my new, wider world.

but most of my problems, and often, frustration, is caused by simple ta

June 15

Walk-around 

I often remind myself how fortunate I am, living comfortably in my own home, looking after myself, doing what I want, going out on my scooter- even taking holidays.

Naturally I have regrets, mainly my lack of mobility which prevents me from one of my great pleasures in life - walking.

I have a store of memories of enjoying the world, not by serious hiking, but exploring on foot towns, countryside and seaside around the world.

No comparison with Robert’s astonishing cycling feats, the latest a 500mile Scottish marathon captured in remarkable daily videos, but my work gave me the ability to see the world.

One of my favourite walking experiences was Tokyo where in two months and with time on my hands I explored  the world famous Ginza, the city centre moated Imperial, Palace,  Ropongi, one of the sprawling suburbs where I stayed. There was the contrast of  Canada’s Niagara in snow, magnificent Sydney and tiny Cairns in Australia, Berlin before and after ‘The Wall’.

Seaside walks have been a favourite, with the most memorable, now sadly missed, the regular afternoon saunter along the shore opposite our home, Windsor Court  Penarth,  crossing the road and westward to Lavernock Point, climbing up the cliff and back along the cliff, at home for tea,

Now I appreciate, comfortably seated in my scooter, exploring Penarth that has developed remarkably well over the years, with its lovely parks, Marina and busy centre.

Still so much to enjoy.

 leusurely look at Penarth the busy town, Marina and parks. 

 

June 14

All at sea 

Thinking of taking a cruise?  If so it will be plain sailing over once they let you on board. But beware, there are obstacles. By my, experience of the preparation demands are like a tortoise obstacle race.

It has taken months and I would never have made the finishing line without massive help from Robert and Karen, Brenda and Ivor, handicapped by help from my Penarth surgery despite weeks of effort.

The worst hurdle was getting another booster injection for which I qualify as being old and vulnerable but which has somehow escaped the Welsh governments system.

It was almost in despair until, twenty four hours before sailing, I got an appointment for STAR community centre Splott, Cardiff - I was a founder member and finally its secretary more than forty years ago.

Boots pharmacy gave me the Cardiff and Vale Health Board Covid help line and I managed to hear well enough to persuade them to get the appointment.

Brenda and Ivor are taking me to the Cardiff for my vital last minute £22 test, then on to Splott and, if all goes well, lunch,

But my tortoise race won’t have been won until they wheel- chair me into my cabin on the Mediterranean deck on the P &O Ventura.

, 

June 11

Off the road

How lucky I am.  Unlike all drivers, my cost of driving has not soared. It will remain free, ,as for the past three years when I gave up motoring after more than seventy years, switching to a Motability scooter.

The cost, nothing. And with warmer summer days I am enjoying it just as much as car driving.

Not so comfortable, of course, especially when I drive on the road which I now do increasingly as I venture further afield. At top speed, 8mph, I bump along mostly poorly maintained roads as close as possible in the the gutters. I feel safer in the cycle lanes but never venture onto double lane ‘carriageways’.

I have recently become more adventurous , discovering new routes. Yesterday I explored the Cardiff Bay        area which I remembered as the old Ferry Road industrial estate with its car wrecking businesses.

Now transformed into a shopaholics delight, the biggest attraction is the vast discount hyper markets. Even better, the scenic three mile run up from Penarth town centre, through St Joseph’s park - the steepest hilled park I have seen, its smooth surfaced, wide path surrounded by brightly coloured bushes and flowers.

Down to the Penarth Marina and its hundreds of yachts over the lifting bridge across the river past kayakers at the International White Water Centre, under the main, two-lane main road to Cardiff and straight on to my shops.

My longest journey, even more interesting, was direct from Penarth Marina, across the Barrage with its18 kilometres of shoreline and scores of  scudding yachts and magnificent panoramic views of the city. Very similar to other major cities I have visited, Toronto and its island for example.

 My driving may not be comfortable but it is healthy and exhilarating, confirming my view that even at my age life can be full of interest.

June 9

Tall story

Prices are rising at the fastest level for many years but there is another inflation, the height of young people.

I and most of my family are average but our grandsons and one great grandson are soaring above us. All four boys - young men - age range thirteen to nineteen - are taller than their parents by several inches.

Robert and Karen’s son Owen has achieved that before his thirteen birthday next month Mylo, my great grandson, is well over six feet, at 18.

Compare that with Rosemary, my wife, who was under four feet tall,  her father, five feet four. Perhaps it is all down to diet. 

June 8

Off the rails

This country seems to be falling apart. So many failings, few successes. much frustration leading to angry action.

The latest is the threat of a national train strike with London likely to be hardest hit in an ongoing tube stoppage.

It set me reflecting on the days when travelling by train was apleasure. 

Most of my rail journeys were for work, including one memorable  trip when  Rosemary and I took a group of  Caerphilly schoolchildren to Ludwigsburg ; there was panic when one boy opened the door at midnight.

Most exciting were trips on the Japanese 125 mph ‘bullet train’ enjoying sushi snacks, and the most embarrassing, being transferred from the military hospital in Aldershot to Chepstow when I was deposited on the floor of Reading station waiting room, cap and large rug I had knitted on my chest, and being lifted into the train through a window.

Regular working trips to London were among my happiest mainly Forrest breakfasts and three-course dinners with wine on office expenses.

My last visit to London was to a an Institute of Public Relations lunch on the House of  Commons terrace when Robert was awarded his Fellowship, forty years after I had received mine.

My longest journey? Two days with Rosemary, from Northern Australia to Perth, the most boring ever, with nothing to see, almost endless open stretches, including the longest straight stretch in the world.

My big regret is that I never achieved my ambition take the three day Canadian Pacific across Canada which Bert, my brother, had done when he was in the RAF.

June 7

After the Lord Mayers show the……

From celebration to resignation? The country’s dramatic change of mood and direction is worrying. With the  turmoil  created by war and shattered economies, the decisive action is needed is dangerously absent, with European nations divided on their next move.

It is even worse in Britain’s government crippled by infighting and the prospect of months of dither and delay while hapless Boris Johnson desperately tries to cling on to his power and power  authority, a forlorn hope.

Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May lasted just months after their members gave the thumbs down. Mr Johnson will be lucky not repeat history.

Much of the country, and forty percent of his government think he should do the decent thing and go.

Bur when did he ever do the decent thing?

June 6

Settled in

It is six months since the day I changed my address and my life.

After an eventful, and probably life saving experience of being cared for in Sunrise Cardiff I am now completely settled and perfectly happy.

Everything has worked out even better than I had expected or hoped. The flat is perfect, bright, comfortable and, most important safe, well designed for disabled residents.

I am surprised how few of them there are in Bridgeman Court, and that anyone over 55 can buy one.

In the Platinum jubilee garden party yesterday - moved into the foyer by rain - some of the residents I chatted with are more than forty years younger than I.

It has not been all plain sailing since I arrived.

Robert and Karen had made sure I had heat and light but the very cold weather and the change to independence was a strange, but welcome experience. That independence was achieved, and is being maintained by the ever ready help and support of family and friends, with Robert and a Karen, my niece Brenda and Ivor ever ready to deal with any problems, including complicated dealings with the energy companies and the NHS.

As a result, and my learning to take life steadily and be patient, I am now feeling fitter and happier than for years and, as usual, looking forward to good days, and perhaps years, ahead. 

The next adventure will be my first cruise for four years, the last one cancelled at the start of the  lockdown. It is complicated by health regulations and I shall not really believe I am on my way until I get to my cabin.

Thank you everyone for making it all happen.

I adaptedv

June 5

Flying the flag

What a boost the Queen’s four day platinum jubilee celebrations has given the souvenir manufacturers. A bonanza, a gold rush, raking in multi millions.

The union flags for sale range from mini, hand wavers, at 50p, to monster 8ft/5ft ones you can buy for less than £20.

The Union flag dates back to 1606 when, as the ‘British flag’, it was ordered to be flown from all the ships in the navy; later it became the  navy’s Union Jack, with Union flag now the public version.

The oldest flag making company in the world is said to be Annin in New Jersey USA that produced the first for the  civil Civil War in the 1860s war in and is still flourishing - ‘flying high today, selling our Union flag 

The world’s biggest union flag, made from unwanted clothes, was made ten years ago by Marks and Spencer in a field.

The world’s largest existing one does not fly; it is painted on huge hangar doors Ventnor in the Isle of Wight, produced to mark the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1937.

This historic weekend has seen a veritable tidal wave of flags and flag waving.

June 4

 

Making hay…..

The excitement over the Queen’s four-day platinum jubilee celebrations has made for a happy and boisterous weekend, but there are two more historic events worth a cheer.

Seventy three years ago, June 4- D Day, saw the Allied Normandy invasion, the beginning of the end of six years of war.

And today, the Covid infection rate, at just 2,000, is the lowest for well over two years.

It goes some way to mitigate the daily gloomy news of war, the faltering global economy, and uncertain future.

This week-end we are making hay while the sun shines, even if that is fitful, too.

June 3

Unique celebration

It’s the celebration of the century. The Queen’s platinum jubilee.Truly historic. 

In am watching this unique occasion on television; the other royal occasions, from the death of King George V in 1936 were plated out on radio.

I have never been one for standing, flag waving, watching processions, but I enjoy and appreciate the spectacle and the obvious delight of millions of the Queen’s subjects - what an old fashioned word.

There was one exception - as a schoolboy I watched with my school friends the young queen’s visit to Wandsworth in 1937.

Another memorable day was the Queen’s silver jubilee but this time it was a working day for me. As a South Wales Argus reporter I was out and about in the Rhymney Valley interviewing  revellers and watching street tea parties. I think we even had a union flag hanging from my office/home in Caerphilly high street. 

I had thought of scootering along to the cliff top in Penarth last night to watch the burning symbol from the newly restored beacon - one of hundreds through the country but decided I have reached my take-it-easy age.

Tomorrow I will be at tthe garden at Bridgeman Courtb with all our residents for afternoon coffee and cakes.

I have had a timely message from my long term friend Werner Bleyhl from Esslingen saying how he and his family are enjoying our royal celebration.

 Our queen, he says, is ‘a charming who nobody could say anything negative about’.

Werner reminds me of our royal family’s German connection; her grandmother Queen Mary was the Duchess of Teck which, he says is a hill he can see from his hillside home in Esslingen.

the celebration