White liberal

Unlike many, I'm still on Twitter because my timeline consists of golden retrievers, police dogs being brave, Welsh rugby, and the occasional left wing political comment. I responded to one of the latter along the lines of, "Yes, I'd rather live next to a refugee than a Reform MP," and suddenly I receive a torrent of abuse.

I say torrent; I mean twelve abusive comments. Actually make that eleven as I count white liberal as a compliment. I reported one as it wished harm on me but I can ignore the rest.

It confirms my suspicions that Reform voters are not only unpleasant people, the majority of them are thick as two short planks.

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Went to Mumbles this morning to buy fish and take back my library books - with the serious intention of not borrowing any more for the time being as I have loads to read. I'll just take a little look, I say to myself, and come home with five books I couldn't resist.

As the shop was waiting for more fish it necessitated me wandering around for a while. I have a couple of dresses that I've been thinking need a cardigan without sleeves to go on top. I couldn't think what the word was. I said to myself, "What's the word for waistcoat?"
"Oh, that's the word!"

I googled waistcoats and find out they're on trend at the moment. Get me, a trend-setter. well, maybe not exactly a setter but definitely on trend. So I bought myself one in Mumbles. Tried the charity shops first but they didn't have any - obviously because everyone's wearing them not getting rid of them.

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Out on High Street last night with the friend who works with the girls working on the street. I know there are women who say they personally choose to do it but not the ones on the streets, who are driven to it by poverty, addiction, boyfriends. Their stories are so tragic.

Last night one of them was asking if we had any crop tops. I went into full Welsh mam mode saying, "You'll get a cold in your kidneys, child!"

We had several requests for condoms. I have undertaken to find out where/if we can get free condoms to hand out.

Another bit of Icelandic wall art

Icelandic wall art and statues

Ice cream with Vivien for brunch then jigsaw. Feel I should be doing something but can't be bothered.

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Reykjavik is a city of statues and wall art. Here are a few of my favourites.

There was a QR code on this bench so you could listen to poetry by Tomas Godmundsson.

You can't see this one very well but it's a stone from Hiroshima commemorating the victims of the 1945 bombing. Every year on August 6th a candle lighting ceremony of remembrance takes place with the candles being released onto the lake.

I don't know what this man did to upset the sculptor to make stop halfway! Apparently the statue is most often called The Unknown Bureaucrat.

Trains and bridges

Trying to make sense of the notes I took during the meeting for the records took me most of the morning. Then I went for a lovely walk in the woods with Husband, Elder Son, and Theo. Walking itself isn't too bad; it's going up steps or coming down steps, or sitting down, or standing up, that pains me.

Now I've made a lamb and spinach curry for dinner to have before we go to the theatre. Hopefully there won't be a recurrence of what happened yesterday, on first night, when the call had to be put out: "Is there a doctor in the house?"

I've shown you before some examples around the village of green Post Office boxes that have been painted with local highlights. Here are a few more I spotted recently.

The Mumbles Mile was a famous pub crawl, where drinkers could go from pub to pub all along the sea front. People used to come from miles around to do it, and they even made t-shirts saying, "I've done the Mumbles Mile". Mumbles used to be a big drinking location but the focus has changed a bit these days or maybe people aren't drinking as much.

The Mumbles train was the world's first fare-paying passenger railway. (Just don't get into an argument with Husband about whether it was a tram or a train!) It was closed in 1960 because of competition from the buses.

Every so often someone says, "We should bring back the Mumbles train," but it's not going to happen. Sadly.

Note to self

Do not put yourself on the bible study leading rota on the second Tuesday of the month when you also lead writing group.

I also went back to exercise class yesterday morning for the first time since before Christmas. People said, "Take it easy first week back," and later, "Well, you didn't take it easy, did you?"

What was I supposed to do when paired up with a woman thirty years younger than me? I had to try and keep up. Although I did let her take the heavier weights.

Today I can't walk upstairs without groaning and moaning. I can't even get up from the toilet without an "Oarh."

Nobody cried in writing group, and the only person who walked out of bible study did so before I started so that was an improvement on last time. One man did put his head on the desk in exasperation but that was probably good.

I asked, "Why did Jesus have to die?"
He said, "Blah blah scripture verses."
I said, "Yes, but why?"
He said, "Blah blah scripture verses." (Louder.)
I said, "WHY?"

That's when he sank his head into his hands.

In the middle of the night it struck me: some people just don't question, or doubt, or wonder. They just spew out verses. Or don't think. That explains why, when I say, "Does anyone else have a problem with this verse?", they all look blankly at me.

Life must be a lot easier that way. 

Anyway, that was my manic Tuesday. 

Currently planning an art workshop in the church hall in aid of Zac's. It's going to be a paint-along, so should be fun for us non-artists.

We also had a lunch in Zac's for volunteers to catch up on how the new food provision is going. It's a great success with numbers going up every month. And the fact that we have staff and volunteers there on Thursday and Friday to provide breakfast means the members of the Rough Sleepers Intervention Team can spend all their time talking to and helping guests with questions, accommodation, and form-filling. Plus the various nurses pop in to give advice or treat.

And this afternoon I've started a new jigsaw! At last!

Tomorrow I have to resist the urge to go to Rough Edges to 'see how they're doing' having said I'm stopping and handing it over to the new managers. So it should be a reasonably peaceful day. We're going to the theatre in the evening to see Daughter-in-law, amongst others, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

And I'll try and catch up on washing etc! (Not me; I'm clean. Clothes.) And try and finish pruning the front garden roses. And here's Bring Me Sunshine to remind me of what I have to look forward to.

And another birthday

Out for lunch today with Daughter, Husband, Elder Son, and Daughter-in-law to celebrate Daughter's birthday. We'd planned to go to Gin and Juice only to find it doesn't open on Mondays so we ended up in Bistrot Pierre, which was fine.

Daughter is vegetarian but Husband likes his meat so trying to find somewhere suitable, that has more than one veggie option, easy parking, and is open on a Monday, is quite a task. I had a very nice brie and caramelised onion tart with a yummy pear and lettuce salad.

Lunchtime enjoyment added to by getting a Seasalt dress from the charity shop for £15 - normally would be around £60 at least.

The rest of the day I've been prepping to lead bible study tomorrow night, in between firing off emails to people listing my brilliant ideas. I say brilliant; I think they're good. Whether anyone else will remains to be seen.

It's fascinating where prepping for a study takes me. I've been down the child sacrifice route this weekend, as well as trying to get clear in my head the difference between penal substitution and its alternative, which doesn't seem to have a name.

Yesterday was National Snowdrop Day so here are some from our garden.

Could have been worse

It could have been 50-0 instead of 50-7.

Yes, the Welsh team was well and truly beaten by England. In what seems like an ever-deepening ridge of lows over the last few years, yesterday's performance ranks up there with the worst of them. In the autumn internationals there were at least tiny glimmers of hope; yesterday none.

Husband said they were passionate and didn't give up, kept trying to the end, and blamed their mistakes and penalties on determination/desperation, but he's English. He can look at it from a non-Welsh viewpoint; he doesn't feel the . . . ache.

Rugby has long been the primary sport in Wales, and we have a history of success, of incredible teams and world class individuals. Yes, we 've had our down periods before but not like this. This is more funereal, like death throes. Ah well.

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Youngest GrandDaughter3's 7th birthday today in Italy. Wish we could have been there with her although they went ice skating, which is definitely not my thing.

I did babysit (!) for them yesterday for a couple of hours. Younger Son was working and Nuora had lots to do to finish making birthday presents, so I tried to keep them amused via facetime. It was fun.

Troll or Assassin

One thing I noticed on our Icelandic trip was that there were lots of isolated homes in the middle of nowhere. As any fan of Scandi Noir will tell you, this is a sure setting for a murder. While Daughter sought out trolls and elves I was picking out the assassins. 

Even the cathedral wasn't immune although that's rather more the fault of Morse than the Norse. Choir master found dead in the vestry after very public argument with leading soprano.

I decided, on the plane over, that the girl sitting next to me - not Daughter obviously, the one on the other side - was working as a detective in the south of England but was returning home to Iceland for the first time in a decade because her estranged mother is dying. 

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As a charity Zac's has to submit an annual report and accounts to the Charity Commission, and yesterday was the last date to submit for 24-25. The accountant/auditor kept our accounts until the last minute so there's been a final dash to get them in. 

It sounds simple but the CC asked lots of questions about the accounts. If they read the accounts they'd have seen the answers for themselves but, no, as secretary to the Trust I had to do that for them. So they wanted things like total income, then separate sub-categories relating to source. I added up all the relevant figures, with paper and pencil because that's how I do things, and then totalled them, and they came to £1 less than the figure in the accounts - from which I'd taken all the numbers.

I tried using a calculator, same result.

Husband, who was helping me but mostly grumbling about why the accounts weren't in a spreadsheet ("Because they're not and we've got to live with it." "But why not? They should be." "Well, they're not!") finally put the numbers into a spreadsheet and having done complicated things with them came to the same conclusion. 

He suggested it was probably because of rounding up and down. 

I gave up and submitted my answer as it was, £1 less than the accounts. If they want to fight me about it they can. Oh, yes, so my plan had been to do it before going to Rough Edges, but there was information I needed to find out in order to answer the questions, so emailed people, and resolved to finish it off after Rough Edges.

Tea-time I got to the point of submission - of the documents not me personally although it came close - and . . . "Our online services will be unavailable from 5pm on Thursday 5th February 2026."

I might have started twitching at that point.

Tried again later and success! But I haven't recovered from it yet.

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Speaking of websites causing problems, I have an account on Substack, where I write about my 'pilgrimage'. Yesterday I received an email from them saying they'd been hacked and my address was one of those taken. So if I have your email address and if you get any dodgy-looking emails from me, please delete.

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My mum died fifty-four years ago yesterday. What a very long time.

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I decided yesterday would be my last full, regular day at Rough Edges. As with other things I need to prioritise what's important, like seeing my family!

The shop and work room are looking pretty good now, at least compared with what they were. Three of us have worked there for about twelve days altogether over the last three months to clear it, and we've filled three skips. We could probably fill another but we can't afford another one.

At our trustee meeting today we agreed that the team of four volunteers who were committed could have a go at managing the shop for a trial four-month period to see how it goes. If it's a success, great; if not, it will have to close.

After the meeting today I had to go to the charity shop to drop off some things that were more likely to sell in a 'normal' charity shop, like a typewriter, and a dvd player. I'd forgotten it was the shop that sells five books of £1 . . .

When I got to the till I realised I had six books but the woman said, "Oh, that's okay." As a would-be rich author I should probably disapprove; as a reader I love it.

Plus two jigsaws.

So it was back from Iceland to a bit of sickness followed by a flurry of busy-ness. This weekend I will definitely sort out the washing and do a jigsaw and chill. Oh, and watch, on the television, Wales play England at rugby. The WRU who run rugby in Wales is in a state of chaos, players are uncertain about their futures, and even our local club, Ospreys, is under threat. Which is just a way of building up to saying, "I am not expecting Wales to win anything in this Six Nations Championship."