Monday 10 August 2020

If Only Life Was As Simple As A Nineteen Seventies Mickey Mouse Radio


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well.

It is you know very easy to be depressed about the world today. And well, I'm not going to say shake yourself out of it because I'm equally depressed as well. Not I stress the sort of depression that makes me want to jump off a cliff. But what Michelle Obama called a called the low level depression.  I know what she meant. It's the sense that everything is conspiring against you.

Obviously the initial cause is the Corona virus. But then you have the knock on effects of the virus. Already many thousands of retail jobs have been lost in this Disunited kingdom with the possibility of worse to come. Especially as to quote the catchphrase @Winter is coming@. Are we already in a second wave of Corona? Could we be in a third in the winter? Furthermore the possibility of more lockdowns cannot be ignored.

Oh for the days (as those of us old enough will say) that when you heard the word Corona you thought of a soft drink brand in the eighties.

And remember Brexit? The effects of that will start to be felt January next year. What if the pandemic is not stopped then? The double whammy will hit.

But in terms of Bridgend in South Wales the whammy might be triple. For next month is when the Ford company will close it's engine plant there. I will properly chat about this when the closedown occurs but as I've mentioned before the effect on the already weak local economy and the lives therefore will be devastating.....and that was before the pandemic.

I cannot recall a situation where more than one disaster has been inflicted upon us at the same time. That I would argue is the most frightening thing of them all.

So if only life was as simple as a Nineteen seventies Mickey Mouse radio.

And here it is.


I was given it as a child and for some reason which I cannot recall now I'm weary and craggier later it's emerged from the detritus of my life. Obviously it needs a clean but after all these years, no decades later, it actually works.

Being from the seventies it wasn't operated by conversation with an imaginary female in your house that the wife will not wonder about. Or old style by pressing a button to reach the next station. No for the volume you move the dial between the ears. And for tuning it's the dial between the ear and the pointy nose.

You won't be able either to access all the radio stations on the planet young people. It won't even give you all the stations in Britain. Or even Wales for that matter. It's reach is just those stations on the AM frequency. The sound quality would be, well, variable. So I suspect that the only stations I would be able to listen to would be BBC Radio Five Live or BBC Radio Wales.

If only life was as simple as a Nineteen Seventies Mickey Mouse radio.

But reality bites.

As do real mice.

Until the next time.

Saturday 8 August 2020

The Bravest Pub Restaurants In South Wales And Other Corona Virus Meanderings In Wales


Hello there. Hope you're  feeling  well. 

If you take the road from Penarth to Sully in South Wales you will pass the village of Lavernock. To say @pass@ is overdoing it a bit, as probably going through it's side roads would give a better picture of the village. The road I'm mentioning would be full of suburban houses and countryside.

However it also had a large pub restaurant of the Harvester carvery chain. I went there once. The food was just edible. Every item was so drab you wondered whether led by the vegetables the meal had just committed suicide.

So it was no surprise to me when it closed down. Before I should stress this time of Corona. But now, still in this time of Corona, it has been reopened. Not as a Harvester but as a Ego group pub/restaurant  called The Schooner Inn serving Mediterranean food. 

Meanwhile on the A48 between Cardiff and Bridgend there is a pub restaurant called The Red Lion. There are now signs around the pub saying that it's "Under New Management".

In one respect the timing is perfect. The Welsh government having just allowed the reopening of pubs/restaurants. Still it's a tremendous risk starting such a business in this time. especially as the number of cases in Wales, though relatively small, have started to increase. So their vulnerability to any further lockdown is immense.

As I've mentioned before I cannot remember the last time I went to a shop deemed "non-essential" since this began other than l last month's trip to the hairdressers. Everything retail is really hanging on that slender thread at the moment.

I am not a drinker or the greatest visitor of restaurants. So I wouldn't be a regular visitor during the old normal times. Still I wish both establishments the best for what it's worth. For they are definitely brave.

Here in Wales when it has come to face masks things are really odd. The Welsh Labour government has been (rightly) very cautious with regard to bringing things slowly back to what was the old normal. Yet when it comes to face masks they have gone out on a limb even compared to England where at this moment you don't have to go into a shop wearing a face mask. 

Why? Who knows? After all you have to wear a mask if travelling by public transport. For Wales to be England on this issue is just bizarre.

Even so. More and more people are wearing the masks. Thanks to Corona the whole world is gradually looking in a fashion sense like bandit country.

On a more light hearted level I've never mentioned my job and I'm not going to here. But I've stressed it's not fundamental to world existence. Even so I need to wear a mask and am happy to do so. A few days back I suddenly realised that I'd forgotten to buy razors. But it quickly occurred to me that it wasn't the disaster I originally thought . Partly because the mask itself covered the face fungus but also as the light is blocked by the mask the stubble grows less than it would normally be. So I suppose add Gilette (other razor manufacturers are available) to those companies affected by the times we live in now.

Until the next time.



















Monday 3 August 2020

The Second Biggest Enemy Of The Older Reader Makes An Entrance. Cuban Style


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well.

Just like The Penguin is the second biggest villain for Batman after The Joker, or the Cybermen come second in the Premier league of enemies to Doctor Who, then for the older reader after failing eyesight the greatest foe he/she will experience is the knowledge that if you distill the plot to it's barest essence then you have read similar stories before.

The Price Of Paradise by  Susana Lopez Rubio is the latest novel where this enemy has returned.  

Basically the plot is as follows:

1)  Boy sees girl and is in love.

2)  Boy meets girl and they fall in love.

But....

3) Girl is already in a relationship with another. And he's not a nice guy.

And the point is this. When you realise that then you know that whilst not knowing the route that will be taken you've a pretty good idea of certain landmarks in the story and crucially the final destination.
 
I won't spoil it for those of you lucky to be young enough to still be surprised. But basically I knew it was going to end in one of two ways.....and it did. 

It's a long book and to be fair it is readable. But that doesn't mean to say it's any good. It's set through the generations from 1947 in Cuba and is filled with various characters Unfortunately none are beyond cliche level and that includes Cuba itself.

So I go through the novel hoping to be surprised, but knowing I won't be. That I tell you is one of the greatest hells a reader can go through.  Especially when my expectations prove justified (And don't forget when I start reading a book I operate on the Mastermind principle that I've started so I'll finish).

I am a 56 year old man with n occasional back problem. I don't really have the time to read a relatively recent work of fiction just to be reminded of novels past.
Until the next time.