Of Planes, Trains and Voles in Holes!

Most of this was written several weeks ago and I have just realised that I never pressed the 'Publish  button.' So here is an updated version, so that my growing band of devoted readers get the bonus of two posts in 24 hours. I hope you both enjoy them both!

I had reluctantly left New Zealand on the 13th April, my considerably earlier than intended departure had been hastened by my mother's rapidly deteriorating health: 95 years of age with a serious pneumonia did not augur well. Mr Trump's recent 'initiative' in the Middle East had resulted in considerable chaos among the world's airlines and having to change flights was a frustrating and expensive process. So with my credit card squealing, I bordered an Air NZ flight to Shanghai; this was the first time in many years that I had flown this route.

Shanghai Airport - technically Shanghai Pudong airport - is a modern impressive facility which is just as well because I had 18 hours to wait here! I had booked a hotel for a few hours so I had to clear customs. This process, which would have taken 2-3 hours in Los Angeles, was concluded within minutes - but it took me an hour of aimless wandering before I found the hotel, situated as it was a hundred metres or so from the exit point from which I had emerged. After a sleep and a shower I still had time for a great meal of local street food and a lot of people watching. And you do see some interesting sights, as people of all nationalities, sizes and shapes transit through this friendly and efficient airport. First prize goes to the gentleman sitting opposite me who spent ten minutes wrapping a roll of toilet paper, (bandaging might be a better term,) around his left arm; I never did figure out why.

I flew into Gatwick and the efficiency picture changed somewhat. As I arrived in the baggage collection hall I was pleased to note a vast array of trolleys, until I realised that you need a £1 coin to access one. How many people arrive from an international flight with a £1 coin in their pocket. I certainly hadn't! Eventually I found a machine that dispenses 2x £1 coins - as long as you have a debit card, possibly one issued by a UK bank, as most passengers were failing to extract any money. Eventually, I managed to get 2X£1 coins and get a trolley! I gave the other round to a little old lady and loaded another case onto my trolley to help a third person. All around me people were struggling to carry their luggage away! Remember Gatwick Airport: "You never get a second chance to create a first impression!"

Next I negotiated the UK's newly re-nationalised railway system via Reading and then the Great Western Railway(GWR) to Swansea and beyond. The railways were first nationalised in the late 1940's and I recall my father, who had done his national service on the privatised GWR, commenting many years later that he had left "because no good would come of nationalisation." Having been re-privatised by Mrs Thatcher in the 1990's, the railway system has suffered from poor performance and underinvestment, as the various contractors slowly walked away. The current government has concluded that the only option appears to be re-nationalisation! (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c392x83rgweo)  And they used to call it "God's Wonderful Railway"! But to be fair, the trains worked very well for me on this journey.  There was a little confusion about which half of the train was travelling beyond Swansea with the computer saying the rear half and the guard insisting it was the front portion; the guard was subsequently proved correct and I arrived in Haverfordwest 4.30 pm on Wednesday, some 60 hours and two books after leaving NZ.

Mum's heath had improved a little but she was still very frail. The last month has seen her leave hospital to settle into a home. There are times when she is totally aware, and other times when she is living in the past. She is slowly settling into her new home - she was 96 in April and she is doing amazingly well. Time will tell what happens next.

The garden at Roose Ferry beckoned. There is no logical reason why I should attack a bank that was once covered with bracken with such zealous zeal but there is something in my DNA, which is after all the DNA of a long line of Welsh peasants, that says spring is the time to plant vegetables. So I repaired the greenhouse, cultivated the ground (which was far too wet to attack last Autumn) and coaxed the germination of a lot of vegetables, most of which I will probably not eat, as I plan be back in NZ before they are edible.

  The Voles

I was gifted 15 cauliflower plants - the voles ate half of them one night. So I built  a cage of netting, the voles broke in and ate the other half. They destroyed my first transplanted lettuce, ate all the peas and appear to have dug up and consumed many runner bean seeds. So the Vole Wars have begun! They are sweet little creatures, I think mine are Field Voles and so much nicer than a rat or a mouse: but they had better find another bank soon!

Socially it has been fairly quiet with a lot of time being consumed with Mum visits and arrangements. The weather has been mostly dry, with a cold easterly wind, just terrible conditions for trying to germinate little seeds. You may have heard something about the hottest days ever in the UK in May? The media loves these sorts of records! In west Wales this scorching hot week, translated into two days hovering around 30C before the infamous Pembrokeshire Dangler descended again and normal grey, cold conditions returned. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembrokeshire_Dangler)

I did grab one half day of reasonable weather and walked the nearby Preseli Hills. Starting Clyderwen I walked the ridge line, which sounds dramatic but is really a series of rounded hills, and descended conveniently some 12 Km later, near one of my favourite pubs, the iron clad 'Tafarn Sinc',  https://www.tafarnsinc.cymru/eng/ which has one of the best pints of Guinness hereabouts. I enjoyed the route but decided, as I walked down the rough lane towards the pub, that I must invest in a new pair of boots before I walk very much further. The soles are getting little thin.

 

Bedd Arthur and Preseli Rocks

The route was littered with crags and rocks, some of them left behind by the last Ice Age but others deliberately placed by the people who lived here thousands of years ago. One stone circle, Bedd Arthur, dates back to the same time as Stonehenge It is mis-named as the grave of Arthur, who was certainly not around then and anyway, he is buried in about 20 other places throughout the U.K! It has been conclusively shown that the very stones forming the inner circle of Stonehenge originated just a mile or so from this spot. (https://www.landoflegends.wales/location/bedd-arthur-stone-circle-mynachlog-ddu) 

I was again reminded of just how achingly old the land and culture of Cymru is, compared to the juvenile New Zealand.

 Security protected steak!

Economically the UK appears to be distraught, with the government nervously watching the bond markets as the cost of borrowing more hangs precariously in the balance. But few people seem aware of this.The insidious creep of poverty is noticeable; everyone complains about the high cost of living but many of the causes (e.g. Brexit, Trump) appear to be beyond the control of the current government.  The statistics say real wages have not risen for over 20 years but the productivity of the economy is lower than any other G27 country. I went shopping and was surprised to find that the steak in the local supermarket is now protected by a security device, such as you might find protecting a bottle of whisky. Apparently shoplifting is a major national issue and I guess if you have to steal your food, it may as well be steak?

Other family events saw me sweating over a BBQ as twenty odd family members turned up to greet the NZ family, including grandson Mac as they made a brief visit to Wales. Fran and I enjoyed a short walk through glorious green beech trees of Minwear Woods.

 Minwear woods in Spring

And a day in Port Talbot was spent at the Welsh Powerlifting Championship, watching my stepdaughter Mel become the strongest woman in Wales after effortlessly deadlifting 240Kg! Truly inspirational.

More soon! I will be posting more regularly on this blog. If you are interested, become a follower and you will be notified about new posts. Just click on the button top left of this blog, to follow me and be informed of future posts. And tell your friends!