When Science Loses To Emotion : Hinckley Point Nuclear Plant Sediment Is Coming To Cardiff

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have always thought of myself as a man who accepts what science tells me. That science is there to provide the facts whatever your gut instinct tells you otherwise. Scientists have the qualifications, they have the knowledge that I do not. My interests was in books or watching sporting physical activity than Physics.

Yet when it comes to the sediment from the Hinckley Point Nuclear Plant in Somerset coming to Cardiff Bay science suddenly loses to emotion. I become the person who will scream in protest despite what science tells me otherwise. Whether it is right or wrong does not matter. It's what you think inside that wins.

Hinckley Point is the site of a new nuclear power plant. Replacing the old one that is being disused. The sediment and mud from the disused plant that it's replacing is going to be disposed of a mile outside Cardiff Bay.

Now Science in the form of Natural Resources Wales who have done tests tells us not to worry. Perfectly acceptable results they will say. Now move along please.

Of course they may be right, no they are probably right....but...

Emotion tells me....no nags into me...something different.

What (emotion will ask me) if science is wrong? Or, as has been suggested, the tests are inadequate?

Then you would have the situation that radioactive waste has been dumped on Wales in the same way that criminals are being dumped on Port Talbot if the proposed super prison is built. This is the impression that's being given. Rubbish that Westminster does not want England to handle? Toss it over the Severn Bridge?

If the science is wrong/inadequate then you will have this dumped mud endangering the coastline not just of Cardiff but also nearby Barry Island and Porthcawl.

And what if the science is really wrong? What if there's a possibility that it endangers not just the environment but the lives of people as well? This is being dumped not in an isolated spot where there lives one man, his dog and a flock of sheep but near the capital city of Wales, Along  the coastline there are places such as the aforementioned Barry Island and Porthcawl where people come for breaks or days out by the sea.

Emotion tells me that this isn't right.

And if you tell me that I should just accept the science and shut up. I'd ask you this. Would you take the sediment where you live?

Bet you'd get emotional then.

Until the next time.

S4C...The Welsh Language Channel....Not The Responsibility Of Wales...Let's Pause And Reflect Here

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Welsh Language channel S4C received the news yesterday that from 2022 it's funding will be mainly from the TV licence fee. It was also announced that the recommendations of a review of the channel would be accepted and announcements on how it's implementation would be made in due course.

This decision was not announced as you would think by Carwyn Jones in the National Assembly building in Cardiff but by the Conservative Secretary Of State for Wales, blog villain and all round political slimeball Alun Cairns.

That's right. Westminster and not Wales has control of Welsh media issues. Even though some right wing commentators would disparage the language they do not understand they seem happy that they and not the devolved administration has responsibility for it.

Now of course Westminster has responsibility for the English language Welsh stations as well. With regard to those it would not be difficult to spilt UK and Welsh parts of say, BBC Wales between Cardiff and London. But for the moment let's focus on S4C. The station is after all for the Welsh language and yet politicians living outside of Wales can have influence over it's future.

So for example S4C is to be given more responsibilities with regard to digital services (which I would hope, as I've mentioned before would include another channel. S4C suffers at having to provide a full range of programming in just one channel) however there would be no extra money provided for these services.

The National Assembly urged on by Plaid Cymru would have made sure that S4C would have got that money (the Labour Party is only a minority administration). But no. London Parliamentarians, most of whom would not be Welsh  or have never even visited Wales will make the decision.

And as a side issue. Remember the furore of "English laws should only be made by English MPs"? Yet here's a Welsh TV channel whose future can be decided by non Welsh MPs.

So you would think that the Welsh Government would want devolved broadcasting powers for Wales. Particularly in such an obvious case such as S4C? Well....err.. no. Independent AM propping up the Labour administration, Welsh Government Culture minister,former Plaid Cymru leader and Welsh Fame Is The Spur candidate Dafydd Elis-Thomas (see my previous post) says that devolved broadcasting should not be considered at this present time. Welsh Labour, with the inability to grow a pair when it really matters, have acquiesced.

S4C then...the Welsh Language channel.....not the responsibility of Wales but Westminster. Let's pause and reflect on that.

Until the next time.

Ryszard Kapuscinski : Truth or Lies?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Firstly a correction. I said a couple of posts ago that the poetry reading organised by Griffin books in Penarth and featuring Carol Ann Duffy was going to be in May. In fact it's in June. And, work permitting I intend to go, becoming if it occurs the first poetry reading I've ever attended.

Anyway I've finished the Penguin pocket book of Ryszard Kapuscinski's An Advertisement For Toothpaste, a collection of four non fiction essays from the early sixties set mainly in the Polish countryside unlike the work across the globe that he's remembered for.

He was a journalist in when Poland was Communist. And the thing with him is that with his book The Emperor he became to my knowledge the only non fiction Communist writer translated into mainstream fiction in Britain. In that sense he was unique

As I said when I bought this book there is a feeling of trepidation surrounding it. As since I last read one of his works decades ago allegations have surfaced with regard to the veracity of his writings. I'm not sure, in Wales over half a century later, whether I read fiction or non fiction. "Magical journalism" which is how he described his work (and of what I read remember liking) is not really an answer.

(And as a quick aside. If you think I'm saying all of this because he was Polish. I'll have the same fear if I ever read a book by either Norman Lewis or Patrick Leigh Fermor again. Writers who I loved when I was much younger, but who have had similar charges put against them.)

So obviously what I'm going to say next is a guess and should be read as such. To be a reader and to be unsure what you're reading is a true account is a new and unsettling experience for me. Remember we're not talking here about viewpoints, but actual events.

I finished the book thinking that what I had read was probably an exaggeration of the truth, which is of course a lie. But like all really good lies there seemed to be a foundation of honesty.

Let's take a mild example. He is helping in "The Stiff" to transport a body of a dead coal miner with a group of other men across a Polish region where they meet a group of young women, who are of course pretty. Their joie de vivre a counterweight to "the Stiff" of the title. My view was .....really?

Incidentally "magical journalism" seems to be a way of allowing unnecessary long words into a narrative (and yes I'm making assumptions here as this is a translation). Girls view a fight in a dance hall as "metaphysical". Personally I've always assumed they view a fight in a dance hall as something they should move away from . Also he somehow was able to in this very same essay set in a Polish dance hall in the early sixties to include the words "Egyptian hieroglyphics". The question here is.....why?

The Emperor his most famous work about Haile Selassie is considered as an allegory for Communist Poland. After reading this book I have my doubts. For although the picture it presents of early sixties Polish countryside is not a good one on the other hand two of the stories seemed like Communist propaganda to me.

The title essay: An Advertisement For Toothpaste has an assertion that to obtain material possessions people in a Polish village are not buying toothpaste. I mean that's just a load of rubbish. Did not believe that for one second.

The other story where Communist propaganda seemed to be in play was The Taking of Elizabieta. Here the Catholic church is seen as a secretive and sinister organisation. Now I have no love for the Catholic church but at that time it was considered the only real opposition to the Communist authorities. So clearly there's an agenda here.

Magical journalism? The magic has gone for me.

Until the next time.

The Return Of The Library

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now that things are slowly shifting back to normal I can return to those things abandoned due to Essex exile. Yesterday was the turn of the library.

And my local library, no matter how small and unglamorus it is, was there for me.

I know you're impressed

So for the first time in a long while was able to pick two books at random to borrow. This was the first.

Cathy Bramley - The Lemon Tree Café

Now what I'm going to say is based on first impressions but I don't think I'm going to like this. I read a similar book last year by Carole Matthews. There seems to be now a sub-genre in chick lit which has to include cakes. Patisserie Passion as you were. Anyway we'll see how things turn out.

The second book seemed at first glance more interesting.

Lucy Wadham - The Secret Life of France

This is an account of an Englishwoman's life marrying and living in France. It appears to have garnered good reviews. As I've mentioned previously when chatting about another book. These are worth reading now if only because as a genre they will wither away because of Brexit.

It was good to be back.

Until the next time.

The Brief Return Of The Bookshop, Penguin Paperbacks and A Quick Word About Greetings Cards

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Wasn't working today (Monday) so the wife had some tasks for me to do.

"Get some ham as long as there are no purple bits in it".

Which I did. Apparently though the look was so white it was inedible so in the bin it went.

"Why did you get me Wholemeal bread?"

"I thought you liked it".

"I like Wholegrain idiot"

Oops...

But the one thing I did do without any argument or comeback was to post a couple of birthday cards the wife bought the day before. I went to Penarth to get some stamps before posting the letters. Job done.

Now a quick aside about cards. My wife is not the only woman I know who takes an interest in cards to such a forensic level it's CSI in it's thoroughness. She particularly takes interest in the verse.

Unless the card is humorous (rarely find them funny) I however have no interest in reading the verse. As long as the event, the picture and to whom it's referring to are OK I'm happy enough. And just for the record, when I receive a card I read what someone has written but the verse could be in Chinese for all I care.

Anyway back to Penarth and I was walking past the local bookshop where I noticed a series of miniature Penguin Paperbacks called Penguin Modern being displayed in a sought of light olive green cover.

The bookshop is called Griffin Books and it's that type of quirky place which is slowly disappearing from the local high street so more power to it's elbow. Unfortunately as we currently live in an apartment in the hunt for a proper home my book buying ways have been curtailed so much as though I would like to as there is no space currently for me to be a regular customer.

Ditto my collection of Penguin paperbacks which is locked in storage as I speak. Held until the moment arrives when I can open them and start reading "properly" again. At the moment the Kindle holds sway. And although as I've explained before the e reader has it's uses, there is something about the quiet pleasure of turning a page the electronic usurper can't match.

But here was a situation where the books were just £1 each and they were pocket book size....so....yes I was tempted......and having succumbed I went in.

Looking at the shelf where these Penguin Modern books were (fifty of them) the shop assistant/manager mentioned that they had been popular and were selling well. I could see why. There were works from authors from many parts of the globe such as Italo Calvino and Chinua Achebe. Eventually though I plumped for these two.

Different

Ryszard Kapuscinski was a Polish journalist who wrote The Emperor about the last days of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia and a collection of journalism called The Soccer War which I have read as well as other works that I haven't. I read once a review of a book that questioned a lot of the veracity of his work but as I haven't got round to reading that book I've no idea how valid that critique was.

Susan Sontag is a writer I've never read (so many books so little time) but I'm looking forward to reading her.

And so I was thinking. You know what I could just collect them. They're only small and wouldn't take that much space. I'd also be supporting my local bookshop.

Then I'd realised I'd made a mistake. I remembered too late that I didn't collect Penguin paperbacks with coloured bindings after 2013, Because their new owners did not recognise trade unions. I was so excited to buy an actual physical book it just slipped my mind.

Obviously I won't buy any more. But I feel I owe a debt to the Griffin Bookshop even though they wouldn't know (or probably care). So this is what I'll do. They are arranging a poetry reading in May (including Carol Ann Duffy). If I can make it I'll go there. If not I'll buy a hardback book from the shop.

Support your local bookshop.

Until the next time.

The Occasional Sunday Ritual Of Going To IKEA....Starring A Swivel Chair

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now that regular churchgoing is a thing of the past. The Sunday pastime that comes closest to it is the visit to the Swedish furniture giant IKEA. Occasionally we pay homage as a family to the store that sells furniture we build ourselves and yesterday was just such a day.

As I've mentioned on this blog before. I'm not anti-IKEA as such. I like it when they produce furniture with clean Scandinavian lines. The other half of IKEA? The furniture that looks like the designers were on drugs? Not so much.

We were there to get a swivel chair and a desk for daughter. And immediately as we entered she and I played the well known game of insulting each other using the names of IKEA furniture.

Examples included:

"You no good Skrigg".

"You have a Tidafors for a brain"

"You look as ugly as a dying Vejmon" (That was my daughter to me)

Wife didn't really get involved until she told us to stop taking the Micke. That being the desk we eventually picked but couldn't take on the day as it was too big for my mighty Kia Picanto to take.

But we did pick the swivel chair. Or rather two pieces of the swivel chair. The base bit with the all importnant wheels (the Sporren) and the chair itself  (the Vasberg).

As in:

"Do you have the Vasbergs with the Sporren?"

"No it's just the way I walk".

So we took it back to the apartment and whilst wife/daughter had to go out again it was my responsibility to put this swivel chair. This I did slowly and completed it. I carried it by the seat.....only to have the Sporren drop from the Vasberg and almost crash onto my feet.

Thankfully it missed and I sorted the situation out before wife/daughter were able to come back and laugh at the old Vejmon.

It moves up and down, it swivels, it glides.

I did this.....I Know You're Impressed

Until the next time.

The Continuing Rambling On An Early Sunday Morning British Summertime Post. Including Plaid Cymru,An Old Blog Villian And A New One

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It is as I'm starting to tap this 6:17 on a Sunday morning. Not too bad you might think. Until I realise that today is the first day of British Summertime (seeing Spring would be nice) and so the clocks have moved forward by one hour. So essentially my brain is on 5:17.

It seems that now I've settled back to living in Wales the insomnia has returned....yippee.

Wife wants to spend today going round IKEA getting a chair for our daughter. IKEA on a Sunday....I'd rather not.

You know given that the first few months of this year were spent looking after my mother in Essex I've lost the sense of sense of time. Only now am I beginning to sense that it's nearly April.

Plaid Cymru have had a Spring conference and the headlines is that it's "lurched to the left" to attract more voters. Of course words have their power "lurch" describes a sudden and violent movement whilst driving when you suddenly realise you've gone the wrong way.

Personally I feel that as long as the perception is that the party is not trying to out Corbyn Corbyn there is nothing wrong with this. Any policies though have to be catered for Wales and the people living there. There is nothing objectionable about "Socialism With A Welsh Face".

Old blog villain Bridgend Labour council have raised their heads from the Porthcawl sand and have suddenly apparently realised that there are empty houses and shops in the borough. Particularly in Bridgend Town and are setting up "a taskforce" to find out why and deal with it.

Regular readers of this blog would not be surprised that such a situation in Bridgend exist. Particularly with regard to the town. Perhaps the Labour council don't realise the problem because they have helped cause it with the rates, the pedestrianism, the car parking charges and I could really go on.

It seems that part of their social housing solution is for people to live over shops. That's fair enough but in Bridgend Town there is a good chance that those shops will be empty. You know Bridgend Town could be the first place in Britain where the town centre might have more accommodation than it does shops. Now there's a thought. Welsh Labour....supporting the community.

From time to time the National Assembly of Wales forgets that it's a Labour run administration and tries to act Conservative. Last week it's proposed a merger of local authorities throughout the country. Presumably to get "efficiency savings". How very Tory.

Now personally I'm against it. Particularly because it would be very administratively difficult to control the large swathes of area involved (for example Bridgend/Rhondda Cynon Taff). With regard to the proposal to merge Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan council though there would be a particular problem because of new blog villain Cardiff Labour council.

As I chatted about earlier this week. The attitude towards the Vale of Glamorgan by Cardiff Labour Council has been very Captial City. What is clear is that Cardiff Labour looks down on it's neighbour (Barry Town being "A town without purpose" according to one councillor which was not the only example) and this will only create antagonism. Let me make a prediction. Any Cardiff/Vale merger is not going to work because if this.

As I'm writing this the Australian Formula One Grand Prix is on. Have lost interest in this sport for a long while now. Probably the remaining bit will die next year when it goes pay TV. Trust me that I wasn't interested enough to pay money in TV subscriptions on it. I suspect that next year that there will be many people like me who hold the same view. Formula One will become like cricket. Slowly withering away.

Anyway that's enough rambling for today.

Until the next time.

Going Back To Watching The Pobol In The Cwm

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

During my roughly two nearly three months of Essex exile whilst looking after my mother many things that I used to do had to be put to one side. Watching the Welsh language soap opera Pobol Y Cwm  (People of the Valley) about the goings on in a village in West Wales on S4C was one of them. Now of course even in Essex I could have just downloaded it and watched the programme as and when I could. But I won't lie. For most of the time I'd other things on my mind and I neither really had the time or the inclination.

But that was then and this is now. Mum is better and I sit before you on a Saturday morning watching a recording of the omnibus edition I did last Sunday......as you do.

When you miss a soap opera for a considerable length of time you are conscious of the changes. The omnibus opens with a mother and her daughter (Sioned) arguing over the theft of a wallet. Something obviously happened during my absence. Also teenage Chester seems to have a girlfriend. A fellow student with multi-coloured dreadlocks. Presumably common in the Welsh Valleys. Last time I saw the soap he was in jail.

Sioned's partner. A man who she beat up and was practically bald seems to have grown a full head of hair and become a window cleaner. Did not recognise him at first

Both their relatives disapprove of the relationship. So they want to leave the village of Cwmderi? Where do they want to go to? Australia! I've written before about people leaving Wales since Brexit. Now here it is in soap opera form. Eventually they don't go. Instead there's an (accepted) proposal of marriage at the airport as the young couple are about to leave.

To get the money for the fare Jason borrows it from Gwyneth (with interest!). A woman who has turned into the local moneylender since I last saw the show. The man (Sion) who she was with seems to have turned his attentions to another  (Anita) whose niece is arguing with another character over the ownership of a cat.

When the couple do leave the village his mother and her grandmother panic. These are two characters I remember from when I started watching the soap oh those years ago. You do anchor yourself to those type of characters. A sort of soap nostalgia I guess

The new doctor came as a surprise. Bryn Fon. Actor, singer and as I remember it when my daughter was a toddler the Welsh language voice for Bob the Builder.

Sheryl the hairdresser is having a fling with Gethin the mechanic. Which is all very ironic as the man she's with (Hywel) was the Cwmderi Casanova when I started watching the soap. Gethin was living with Ffion who was the wife of the local priest years ago before as I remembered it he turned to murder. As a career change goes that's dramatic.

Interestingly in a pub scene in the Deri arms there were books in the background (?). One of them happened to be by Sue Grafton. A writer of private eye stories who died recently. Was this a subtle tribute or just coincidence?

Of course there were more plotlines than those I've chatted about. One particularly emotional one with regard to abortion.

It was an omnibus after all.

It was good to be back.

Until the next time.

UKIP In Wales. The Comedy Continues.....As Does The Ignorance

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Since this has been the first proper week I've been in Wales since looking after my mother for the past few months there have been some issues that I've not yet feel able to chat about since returning from Essex exile. Simply because I'd not the opportunity to look into them properly (such as the Barry furnace, the dumping of mud from mud at Hinckley Point to Cardiff and what has been described as a potential "lurch to the left" by the party I support Plaid Cymru - Gut instinct nothing wrong with that unless it's perceived as way of out Corbyning Corbyn. Then it will fail).

So what I'm saying is that if you think for the moment I'm avoiding chatting about particular subjects. Well guilty.....for now.

But one thing that apparently hasn't changed during my time away is the regional comedy that's UKIP in Wales. From appointing Neil Hamilton as it's leader. To watching another Tory defector move to UKIP and then move back to the Tories (Ignorance is bliss...it's also Mark Reckless). To seeing Nathan Gill choose between his roles as Assembly member for in the Welsh Assembly or as Member of the European Parliament....and choosing Europe.....let that sink in.

The point is that even before the party looked stupid on a United Kingdom level it has become a laughing stock in Wales long before that.

A few days ago Neil Hamilton continued in this vein as he sent this tweet @NeilUKIP protesting about the Brexit transit deal and what he sees as it's dire effect on the fishing industry.

I'm calling on Britain's fishermen to get their rods out and march on Downing Street, to send a message to Theresa May that Britain's fish cannot be used as a bargaining chip at the EU negotiations. @FishingforLeave

Now my first reaction was to go all Carry On and Oh err Missus at his call for fishermen "to get their rods out". But then something else occurred to me. Something much more serious.

UKIP are talking about the fishing industry around Britain as they understand their concerns and fight for them. But even I, a man who has never been on a fishing boat, knows that the people who work on these boats don't use rods..... they use nets. 

Anglers use rods.

UKIP claim to care about the fishing industry and yet here is it's Welsh leader being ignorant of it.

UKIP are a party without a purpose. Like the dead fish Nigel Farage threw into the River Thames (was that legal?) it's just there for show now and nothing else.

Until the next time.

The Farewell Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 5: The Fillet O Fish Burger

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers of this blog will be aware. I have decided to abandon eating fast food after going through the standard McDonald's menu as and when opportunities occur.

A couple of days ago it was the turn of the Fillet O Fish burger. Why they describe it that way, as if it was created by a leprechaun , is one of the of the great mysteries of Western civilisation. But for now I'll let it pass.

I must admit when I was younger this was my burger of choice. Only to show people that I was different, an individual. No bits of cow, oh no. I follow a different drum me.

However I soon learnt that not following the crowd meant that in a drive thru you had to park in a designated spot and wait whilst they cooked the thing. This happened so often that I just gave up and joined the masses asking for a Big Mac medium meal with a Diet Coke so at least I'd get the stuff there and then.

And you know what? Although I went inside the McDonald's on Tuesday. When I asked the young woman for that meal she said "It will take a little time as we'll need to cook it"(!!)

Anyway here's the result.

I know you're impressed

You might notice the hole at the top of the burger. The bit of bread that was there was stuck in the box. Was unimpressed by that.

It was of course edible but really it's no more than a fish finger with sequins on. Although the more I'm doing this exercise the more I'm growing to dislike the McDonalds' fries. Puny thin things aren't they? There really is a need for them to butch up and become chunky.

But there we go. Another medium meal knocked off the list.

Until the next time.

Barry Town: It's Purpose Is That It's There

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Had to go to Barry Town this morning for a few pieces of shopping which I couldn't get in Penarth. Nothing major you understand. Went in. Did my business went out. Job done.

But I was caught out in a newsagent when I saw a headline in the local newspaper. Where Barry Town was described as "a town without purpose".

Now I didn't need to read on to know that the remark would have only been said by councillor from Cardiff City Council. It has (and I know this as a Londoner) a kind of arrogant capital city mentality that some (note the word some folks) people in any capital city possess.

The Labour councillor Russell Goodway (who amazingly lives in Barry and was born in the Vale of Glamorgan) was discussing the pan South Wales "Cardiff City Deal" which is designed to create jobs and investment throughout the region. He was asked about investment in smaller towns to which he said that Barry Town was " a town without purpose" because the "purpose it was created no longer exists".

I have said before and will repeat that I like Barry Town. Rather like Harlow it's a place that whilst I wouldn't compare to Paris or Milan is far better than it's reputation. It seems a friendly town with an adequate array of shops. It's not escaped austerity, but it seems to have made a better fist of adapting to it than Bridgend Town

By Mr Goodway's skewered logic. You can argue that if you exclude it's centre and the Bay (as that's where the National Assembly is) Cardiff is a city without a purpose. Of course it's a rubbish argument. All town and cities evolve when circumstances occur. Even if (as I'd argue with the case of Bridgend) these circumstances were (Welsh Labour Council) self inflicted.

The Cardiff Council Labour Leader (not Goodway) spoke of towns outside the capital needing "a reason to exist" beyond being a commuter town. Even that comment smacks of crumbs from an arrogant Welsh Labour man's table.

Barry Town has investment in housing, infrastructure, roads and new factories. Being outside of the capital city but being close to it will do the place no harm at all. And of course if local businesses need to do business overseas they could always use Cardiff Airport....which is in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Of course Barry Town's original purpose no longer exists. No one ships coal from the docks in Wales anymore. But to denigrate as merely a "dormitory town" and nothing more shows the contempt of Cardiff Welsh Labour and needs to be countered.

Until the next time.

Let's Chat More About Snow,The Vale Of Glamorgan Council And The Metropolitan Police

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

The more I thought about it. The more I felt I should return to something briefly mentioned in my last post.

There was I. Aimlessly on the laptop on a Sunday morning looking out at the snowy scene outside and suddenly thinking "Is my daughter's school going to be open tomorrow?"

So onwards to the Vale of Glamorgan council website I go and find to my surprise that (for what I learnt later is a six month experiment) they are trying to earn extra dosh by putting ads there. Now personally I don't think adverts should be put on state websites anyway as a matter of principle. But in the midst of Hotels.com and tour operators that tell you to "go mahoosive" (and again no idea what that means) one ad catches my eye.

It's for the Metropolitan Police.

YOU CAN KEEP YOUR CITY SAFE

Then it goes on to say that there are incentives for people to join the Metropolitan police in London and become Police Constables.

Which makes me (and yes this is another ad on the website) Confused.com

Now you have to ask what is the Vale Of Glamorgan Council doing showing an ad that appears to encourage people to move from the borough and indeed Wales? (And let's make it clear here. The website stated that the council choose the ads).

The council really should stop this ad. It does not do them or Wales any good at all.
Are they saying that South Wales does not need anymore to apply for it's police force? Of course not. Potentially what they are doing is allowing for an emigration of talented individuals away from the Vale and Wales (with - and did they think of this at the time? - the consequent loss of council tax revenues).

But of course the key point is this. Wales is not considered by the UK government capable of running law and order through the National Assembly. This means that the Metropolitan police can poach talent from South Wales without reproach. Another emigration route from Wales begins.

Until the next time.

Being Random On An Early Sunday Morning Including the 6 Nations, Alun Cairns And Why I Don't Like Gerald Durrell

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Because of Essex exile whilst looking after my mother it's been a while since doing this but here I am at 6:48am on a Sunday morning. Wife and daughter are asleep. Nothing I can do at this time but go online and chat.

First things first. It's snowing outside. Nothing at first glance that suggests it's as bad as a few weeks back. But it's settling...and continuing.

Highlight of the day weather permitting are the two FA cup quarter final matches on BBC1. That's my Sunday sorted. Don't feel sorry for wife/daughter. They'll have their own back later on with Call The Midwife and The Durrells based on the early life of Gerald Durrell.

I feel you know that I'm one of the few people who doesn't particularly like Gerald Durrell. This though is a consequence of reading books out of sequence. For I've not read (not out of choice more so many books so little time) My Family and Other Animals. I.e Gerald Durrell as little kid fascinated by the wildlife around him. No the book of his I've actually read was called The Beaufort Beagles. This was Durrell as adult zoo professional. Taking animals from their natural surroundings and shipping them off thousands of miles away. And whilst no one will ever remotely suggest that I will challenge David Attenborough as naturalist of the year that is just not right.

A quick word about Wales performance in the six nations. They came second and this is used as a justification for the Pro 14 league. Well no. People like me who are against the current structure argue about the affinity of some supporters in their designated area (eg the Rhondda Valley to the Cardiff Blues) not about the ability of players. Of course though in the old system Wales produced their best rugby being the Brazil of the egg shaped ball in the seventies.

John Inverdale. A broadcaster I once liked but now seems to be focused too much on England for presenting duties on the Wales/France game wanted to focus on reasons why they did so badly. They were tired from the British Lions tour of the summer seems to have been the general consensus from the Welsh and French summarisers with him. Ok. They obviously know more about rugby than I do. But that's really no excuse for them coming fifth in a league of six.

It's 7:44 as I'm writing this paragraph now. And about that snow.....worse now.

On Twitter there is mention that Secretary of State for Wales and professional slimeball Alun Cairns (who has blocked me on Twitter...something I'm proud of) has put out a job vacancy for a director of media communications. Knowledge of Wales is apparently not required. Again Wales is treated in a way that no one else would be treated. I've said it before and I'll say it again the problem with the majority of the Welsh people is that they're far too nice. They should rebel in the way the Scots and the Irish would.

Of course when I say the majority of the Welsh people are nice Alun Cairns is not included. Caring about Wales didn't stop him becoming Secretary of State so why does knowledge matter when trying to spin things around his way?

Well wife is awake so one final thing. Snow is so bad that I've just accessed the Vale of Glamorgan website with regard to school closures. They have ads in that site. And August those for a booking website and a travel company that's "so mahoosive" (I'm fifty four. No idea what that mean) There's an ad for people to become police constables in London. 

Are they saying that South Wales is a crime free area?

Until the next time.

The Farewall Tour Of The McDonald's Menu Part 4: The Quarter Pounder With Cheese

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have mentioned before in this blog that before abandoning all fast food outlets I intend to eat everything from the standard McDonald's menu. Today on returning from Essex the opportunity came up to do that so I took it.

The menu in the local McDonald's revealed that the next one on the list was the Quarter Pounder with cheese so I took it.

Here it is.

The word we're looking for is pathetic

I always imagine the quarter pounder to be the jealous little brother of the Big Mac. After all everyone looks up to the Big Mac. It's after all Big, with the manly word Mac by it's side.

This was just,well,pitiful. I mean look at the splurge of yellow between the buns that's apparently cheese. Or the bit of cow for the burger bit. It is (not in another burger chain way) Wimpy.

For heavens sake the most impressive thing about this meal were the fries.

Definitely not going to miss this meal anymore.

Until the next time.

Why Eddie Jones Should Not Come To Cardiff During the Next Six Nations

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

English national rugby coaches have been, whatever you think of them otherwise, diplomatic when discussing their opponents. Polite, quiet and very careful as to what they are going to say.

So it's a shock that the most unpopular English National coach in my lifetime to other countries in the Six nations championship turns out to be an Australian. Eddie Jones was unpopular before yesterday's video came to light but now things have reached such a level that he should have sent a thank you card to Vladimir Putin or else he would have been undoubtedly headline news.

The Irish I'm sure can defend themselves from being described as "scummy". But let's talk about Wales shall we and his description of the entire country as a "little s**t place".

As I've said often on this blog Wales is not without problems for reasons that are probably too complex for Mr Jones to understand.....but so does England  . A fact that Eddie Jones would appear to be more like his namesake Mr Ed in that he approached the subject with blinkers on.

Having a quick look at his career it would appear that the only part of Wales he knows is Cardiff on Six Nations matches. It doesn't seem he's visited any other part of the nation as well and yet there it is, in all the diversity of it's regions North and South East And West described as a "little s**t place.

Has he seen the golden beaches of Tenby? Or just taken in the views from the South Wales Valleys? Of course not.

I have seen tweets that suggest that all he was doing was providing "banter". Well that's rubbish. As I have said, national coaches should be diplomatic with their opponents. But also the point needs to be made. Eddie Jones wasn't insulting the Welsh team....he was insulting a nation.

I have said before that if there is a problem with the majority of the Welsh people it's that they are just too nice. What needs to happen is that the Welsh Rugby Union need to grow a pair and insist that Jones does not attend the six nations match between Wales and England in Cardiff next year. To allow Jones to attend would reduce the WRU to a sporting lapdog and would be an insult to Wales.

Until the next time

The Essex Exile Epilogue....Hopefully

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well after a period of about three months I've left my mother back in Essex and have returned to Wales alone. Whilst she is not one hundred percent better, she is well enough to look after herself now allowing me to come home with a clear conscience.

What have I learnt in all of this? Well I now know that Harlow is a far better place than it's reputation and that the TV series Bones has become a surprising favourite with me, creeping up as if unawares.

And of course I've missed seeing my wife and daughter during this period. And yes, I've missed Wales as well. For as I think I've mentioned before whilst I would certainly defend Essex to all comers it's not home.

But of course the most important thing is my mother's health. And although she is better a line has been crossed that all children no matter how old have to face. For when you have seen a parent in hospital for a length of time then there comes a moment when you realise that you're the parent now.

I have mentioned to her that she should move to Wales and live if not near then with us. For the first time she has not argued.

That is how much the events of the past few months have hit her.

Until the next time.

Wandering Again Through The Welsh Labour Shame That Is Bridgend Town.

Hello there. hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers will know I have chronicled the decline of Bridgend Town since I began this blog a few years back in view I would argue of the rule of arrogant incompetence by the Labour council.

I haven't done this for a while. Partly because I've moved from the area (though I still work there) but of course for the main reason that as I've been in Essex exile looking after my mother I haven't been in Wales let alone Bridgend for the past few months.

(A quick aside. I'm writing this from Essex at my mother's home after her week's recuperation with me and my wife/daughter in Wales. But tomorrow will be leaving her to return the Vale of Glamorgan, She is not 100% but well enough that I can leave her alone with a clear conscience. Barring a disaster Essex exile will be over. I'll chat about that tomorrow)

But yesterday for reasons I won't bore you with I had before work the chance of wandering around the town and decided to do just that. Now before going on need to say that it was just two hours including grabbing a carton of chips and trying to eat it on the go without dropping them for lunch, a sort of potato jenga. So this was no scientific survey, just a wander.

So let's start with good news.

This store closed down last year but has now reopened. Never seen this in Bridgend Town before but worth mentioning. However for the most part nothing seemed have changed. A few new shops cannot hide the many empty ones.

The Latest Example

I wanted to see whether there are any changes from some particular examples I've previously mentioned. Let's start with the case of the Mcdonalds. Closed down in 2000 and left to rot for seventeen years until demolished late last year to be replaced by social housing and, incredibly given the aforesaid many empty shops in the town, retail units.

Anyway three to four months have passed since I last saw it so let's see how the building work is going on.

Err....

So at this moment it's the closest Bridgend Town shoppers will ever see a gap there. Let's hope that this is not going to take as long as the resolution of what to do with the Mcdonalds.

And what about the Nolton Arcade? Where aside from the two shops that back onto Nolton street every single shop has closed down?

Unchanged

And the Bridgend Indoor Market where there are many empty stalls. Well that was unchanged as well. Personally if I was a stall holder I would think that the council didn't really care for me. Little things you understand such as this.

It's March But The Christmas Decorations Are Still Up

Even when work is done to improve the town there seems to be potential problems, One of the buildings being renovated was First minister and local Assembly Member Carwyn Jones' old office (yes even he left Bridgend Town). All very well you might think, except whilst the work is being done there is a sign TO LET on it. The question is why do this when there are empty units in the very same street and those nearby. What purpose does this serve?

There was a particular shop closure that caught my eye. The business (a florist) didn't close down but said in a notice that it wasn't able to operate in Bridgend Town and was moving to nearby Porthcawl. Now what I'm going to say is off the top of my head and I might be wrong but I think that there are no florists in Bridgend Town.

It used to have two not that long ago.

Porthcawl has two.

It occurred to me that in any region what should be the biggest town should be the one that has more to offer than the other towns in the region. In the Bridgend borough though there is more of a debate in comparing Bridgend Town with Porthcawl or Maesteg.

Bridgend Town deserves better.

Until the next time.

It Might Have Been International Women's Day But Fathers And Sons Is Better Than Wives And Daughters...And Other Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today,

Well have been reading a few books since we last chatted. So let's start with a biography of Robert Burns by John Sharp. If this book was a meal I'd describe it as edible but nothing more. I'm sure there are better bios to use your time on instead.

You may remember a few posts back that I chatted about Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and that I didn't like it. Well in the random way I pick books to read the next book turned out to be Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (and it was random....honest!).

Whilst not perfect I enjoyed it. On the one hand you get the sons, with their youthful hopes,ideals cynicism, and disdain for their elders. Also properly discovering for the first time the mystery that are women. On the other there are the fathers. Men you feel are dissatisfied. The feeling that as their best years have passed them by they haven't yet found a certain peace within themselves.

There is more of the sons than the fathers, and as now I belong to the former I would have rather seen it the other way. Still of the books I'm chatting about today this was the best in my view.

The Angel of Terror by Edgar Wallace is one of those books that's perfectly acceptable as long as your brain is cruising in first gear. That said, Erle Stanley Gardner is better.

To be clear with regard to my criticisms of other Wallace thrillers it didn't strike me as racist and regard to sexist whilst the heroine has moments of dimness where she needs the help of men the cleverest villain is a woman. So I suppose that is some sort of equality.

Beowulf then. No one knows who wrote this epic poem but I think we can hazard a guess that it was a man, Indeed I'll go further by saying that it was not the sort of man who would wander lonely as a cloud and chat about daffodils either.

At the risk of being beheaded by the ghost of some Viking warlord what it didn't do is become one of those exceptions to my disregard of poetry. Ditto The Dalby Bear and Other Ballads by George Borrow.This time though I think this was my fault as I downloaded writers mentioned by Robert Macfarlane in his book Tracks ( W H Hudson was another) but in my eagerness to download everything I disregarded the fact that this is a ballad so probably better appreciated with music. I'll give George a pass.

Regular readers will know that there are certain writers that I describe as literary Switzerland in that whilst I don't dislike them I don't understand why they're considered great either. Anton Chekhov falls into this category and taken as a whole The Schoolmistress and Other Stories does not change anything.

There are exceptions. The title story (which is the best of the collection) and a few others make you sit up and take notice. But for the most part I just shrugged and moved on to the next tale.

In another tick off the literary bucket list the book I'm reading now is The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. Can't say I'm happy with the portrayal of the villain but I'll chat about that when I've finished.

Until the next time.

Perhaps...Just Perhaps...The Lack Of Top Tier Free-to Air Welsh Rugby Might Be A Good Thing

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am writing this, after all these months, in Wales. My mother is with me but next week I'll take her back to Essex and can leave her with a clear conscience. For whilst she's not a hundred percent she is well enough to look after herself. Barring an unexpected disaster Essex Exile has now finished.

One thing I discovered by accident when my mother was discharged from hospital but too ill to look after herself was that Welsh club rugby (shown on BBC Two Wales) was in fact available in Essex on the red button. So I had the very odd but almost comfort blanket feeling of watching it from far away.

This however is soon to be a thing of memories. Because the BBC have lost the rights to show Welsh club rugby (from the Pro14 competition) to pay TV operator Premier Sports.

It's not clear whether free-to-air top tier Welsh club rugby will be unavailable from next season. Premier Sports also own the FreeSports channel and negotiations with S4C are still ongoing. But for the moment let's assume that free to air coverage will be at the very least curtailed.

I've chatted before (whilst I'm not an expert on rugby) that I'm not a fan of the current structure of top tier Welsh Club rugby. Believing that it's greatest failure was that an assumption that because a place might be in a region's catchment area fans would automatically come to it (the South Wales Valleys and Cardiff Blues come to mind). The crowds, with or without free to air coverage have been I would argue consequentially pitiful compared to what would have been expected.

Taking away free to air matches would mean that the Pro 14 league will slowly fade away for most people. Out of sight out of mind. It will I'd predict in Wales anyway whither and die.

And for those of you who would trumpet the Pro 14 "product". I would point out that it's not just BBC Wales who've lost the rights. So have SKY. Don't you think if they really cared they would have battled tooth and nail to have kept it?

But perhaps....perhaps...it might be a good thing. S4C already and probably so will BBC Wales shows Welsh rugby games in the lower tiers. With clubs that are more connected with their community. With the focus on these clubs. Perhaps their crowds will increase. Perhaps more people will ignore the top tier and instead come together to support their local team.

Perhaps therefore there will be, all be it by accident, a return to the old values of Welsh club rugby.

Perhaps.

Until the next time.

More Reading At Outpatients

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well last Monday I was at outpatients with my mother. And as per usual there was the wait, and then another wait, and then another wait. And in the meantime I read. Some of these books were started before we went into the hospital and others were finished afterwards but they all bar the first had the outpatients reading vibe upon them.

Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance) by Elizabeth Champney then. When I started this read I said I didn't know what it was going to be. Now that I've finished it I can truly say nothing has changed. I wasn't really sure whether I was reading a historical novel, or a biography or art history. One moment the Borgias were being discussed. The next there were quotes from William Morris. My head hurt.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell was the next read. The good thing about this was that it's definitely a novel. And..... well.....that's it.

Written to be published in a magazine between 1864 and 1866 whilst this was (though obviously decades later) in a Jane Austen manner it was nowhere near as good. As regular readers will know Jane Austen is for me in that group of writers that comes in that neutral "literary Switzerland" territory.

Elizabeth Gaskell is however (based on the books I've read) more moving into the D H Lawrence blog villain category. Possibly this is to do with the reputation of North and South (which I haven't read) as a social novel in the Dickension mould. Wives and Daughters is anything but. Inconsequential is the best word I can describe this....and the most kindest.

A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov is another book which I didn't like, Essentially a collection of tales with the overall arc surrounding them all I can say is that I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I was Russian.

So now it's a biography of Robert Burns by John Sharp. Let's hope I like it better than this lot.

Until the next time