Rush Hour

“I don’t like Mondays”, or so the song said. Well, it looks like the world over, that sentiment is playing out in an all too different way. Rush Hour anywhere is looking a little bit like the one experienced here in the centre of the capital city of Cardiff. Not too many people rushing to the heart of the administrative and leisure centre down at Cardiff Bay

Lloyd George Avenue

Perhaps they are all heading for the offices of the newly established Capital Quarter? Or, maybe not…

Tindall Street

How about one of the seats of learning dotted around the centre of the city? Looks more like extended vacation time…

University of South Wales

Shopping with an event and pre or post restaurant visit anyone? Perhaps not…

Until we speak again, the main message seems to be one of…

Be kind

 

 

Lockdown Blues

The sky is blue, Cardiff Bay is blue… wow, do I love the blues just now! Who needs a garden when you have this on your doorstep?

Bay April 2020 [1]

Until we speak again, check out Samantha Fish (the singer not the contents of my local Bay!) for some great contemporary blues guitar.

Swan Hunter

And there was me thinking that was the name of a famous old shipyard in Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. But, here we are in our own private lockdown situations, left to observe the animal kingdom going about their ways with little care for human interference. Who would have known that a worldwide pandemic would have such silver linings?

Swan from 14

Swan hunting [1]

Swan hunting [2]

Until we speak again, I’m sure Juno would have been impressed by the shear ambition, if not by the inherent impracticability!

Social distancing

“You humans do like to convolute your language. How are you getting on with your self-isolating, eh? Some things just come natural to those of us who live uncomplicated lives. If you do manage to perfect your walking-on-water technique, you still need to keep your 2 metres distance, okay!”

Lonely swan Mar 2020

Until we speak again, go away!

The sound of silence

Taking the daily exercise walk in my local area I am pleased to report another busy ‘corona day’ down Cardiff Bay

Bay empty on Monday 23-3-20

Until we speak again, congratulations to the masses heeding the dire warnings, and stay safe, keep well! As for the small minority of mindless morons… did you know you’re cultivating careers as serial killers… stay home!

Flight interrupted

So, you think you’re having problems trying to get flying, with all of this pandemic stuff going on? Stay grounded, they said, in the jargon of psychobabble. Well, you try taking off with this thing strapped to your legs!

Bird Anchored [1]

Until we speak again, stay safe and well. The option of flight is a luxury many can return to at a later date. For some, it’s just what we do!

The Long Wait

In these strange dystopian times we all find ourselves entering, it is good to see that the traditions of good old British queueing have not been entirely lost!

Gulls queue at Bay [1]

But, on a less than typical (or, is this the new typical?) Saturday afternoon down at Cardiff Bay, it looks like there might be quite a long wait for any transport…

Saturday at Bay March 20

Even up the flow, at Cool Cat Central, the wait goes on as there is no sign of passing traffic anytime soon…

Waiting at feeder canal [1]

Waiting at feeder canal [2]

Until we speak again, have a safe crisis!

A female perspective

It is a sad indictment on society that we have to have a day of recognition of 50+% of the population; but sadly the world is still very much dominated by misogynist attitudes, and you just have to look to some of the leaders in the western world to see there is a long way to go.

I wish a happy International Women’s Day to all my relevant readers, and would like to take this opportunity to say I have learned so much from the women in my life, even those where we had our differences of opinion… you will never know just how much I learned from all of those experiences. Utmost respect.

940ae29d57f1d43ff360636e2b353fc6

Until we speak again, this is a good day for me to reflect back on just how much I learned from two special cats that were in my life… Juno, after who this whole blog is named, had a very special way of communicating unconditional love; while poor Bella suffered a series of serious health issues during her brief stay here, and she had a unique way of testing my patience!

 

[Special acknowledgement to RisaRodil.com for the card image]

 

Return to 2020 Vision

[Acknowledgements to the Bute East Dock for providing the full cast for the following drama].

Events across 2016 to 2019 , on both sides of the Atlantic, have arguably led to what can only politely be referred to as a foggy funk of an experience…

2020 foggy Bute East Dock

So, as a fully paid up member of the ‘UK Metropolitan Liberal Elite‘, I have to concede that the ‘Majority 38% Will of the People Brigade‘ have triumphed in the prolonged political battle of barefaced lies versus ineffectual bullshit.

I have never been one to believe in the power of new year resolutions, but as we all embark on the Brexiters’ journey to the most bountiful and wondrous promised land of 19th Century independent beneficence, I have a wish… and that is that the 38% now completely own their self-proclaimed victory. Once the hard right prospectus that has been bought into begins to deliver on its empty promises let’s hear no excuses, or deflection of blame onto those who still don’t buy the catalogue of deceptions, or onto the EU, or onto immigrants, or onto anyone else but their own deluded selves.

Talking of deluded selves; a glance across the pond to the incoherent rumblings of Dumbfuckistan prompt another wish… that the Twitter-fuelled comedic interlude of the last few years be terminated in November, and some semblance of sanity be reclaimed from the ‘orange peril’ that has swamped the free-thinking world.

Until we speak again, reality is likely to dictate otherwise, but we can only dream of a return to 2020 vision…

Long Dock