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.