MORNING SERIAL
LIKE Brian Mfula, a lecturer in mental health nursing at Swansea University and a father.
Professor Ceri Phillips, head of the College of Human and Health Sciences at Swansea University, called him “An inspiring teacher and role model who taught from the heart.”
Brian was also described as having a generous spirit and a “highly infectious laugh”.
He left behind a wife and four children, one of whom, Kato, posted on Twitter: “I never even got to say goodbye to my hero, my dad Brian Mwila Mfula. I’m so broken right now I don’t know what we’re going to do without you. I love you so so so much.”
When we read the figures for coronavirus deaths, every single one is a Brian with a Kato.
As we move on to Wednesday, April 22 it is probably worth outlining what an average day looks like working as a political journalist in Wales.
In ‘normal’ times, the daily work of a political reporter has a greater degree of consistency than in general reporting.
On a Monday you can look at your diary and see when the committees, speeches, interviews and key announcements are going to be.
Clearly these are nothing like normal times and, if politicians are flying by the seat of their pants, by necessity so are you.
For four years our elected representatives have nearly worn out their idiomatic pants much to the detriment to the social life and sleep patterns of the poor political reporter (and err... the detriment of the entire country).
Despite this there were still regular events through the crisis and a typical week looked like this:
Senedd/Westminster committees: These tend to happen every day except Friday;
Plenary (Wednesday either at 11.30am or 1.30pm): This is a chance for MSs to grill the First Minister and Welsh Government;
Prime Minister’s Questions (Wednesday 12pm): In principle a chance for the Opposition to hold the PM to account in a verbal sparring of oratory and intelligence but more often than not descending into a series of dodged answers and soundbites for Facebook while our representatives bellow and bleat like horny walruses on a block of (probably melting) Arctic ice.
a different place.”
A short walk up the hill from the harbour there is a pub with a beer garden. Actually, to merely call it a beer garden would be to do it a disservice, given its scale and position high above the sea. The Black Lion looks like it was designed for a time when people would only be able to drink outside. So much so, its landlord isn’t going to open indoors at all this summer. He says it’s just not worth it.
“I won’t open indoors at the end of May if that’s when we’re allowed to,” said Mike Young, originally from Derbyshire, but who moved to west Wales aged 18 and has run the Black Lion since 2013.
“I didn’t open inside last year until much later on; it’s just a decision we’ve made because we feel it’s much safer for my staff and everybody due to the extra space we have outside. I am very cautious when it comes to Covid. I didn’t re-open after the ‘firebreak’ last October because I felt it was a mistake at that time to allow people to travel wherever they wanted to across the country. I just knew things were going to get worse so we stayed shut.
“Since the first lockdown last March, I’ve been open for three months.”
Crucially, however, Mike will be re-opening this time around on April 26, and he has a large number of benches, both in a marquee and around the beer garden, which in total can cater for up to 180 people.
“I’m looking forward to it but I’m nervous as well,” he admitted. “Last summer when we were open the majority of customers were fine but you will always get some people complaining about this and that, or something to do with track and trace, and we will need to do all that again.
“That’s what we need to do to reopen, though, to make sure it’s safe for everybody.”
The alternative, he said, was further lockdowns and restrictions which could spell the end of the road for many.
“I’ll open inside in the autumn because New Quay calms down a bit by then, but if there’s another lockdown at that time a lot of people will be struggling; a lot of businesses will disappear. It’s hard enough in the autumn and winter: anyone who says they make money in New Quay in the winter is lying.
“If we can break even in that time we are doing well.”
New Quay is not the only beachside haven in Ceredigion that has started to see the crowds re-emerge, and will continue to do so, infection rates permitting, in the coming weeks and months.
Eleven miles south along Cardigan Bay sits the tiny village of Llangrannog. It’s a mini-New Quay, if you will. All the beauty and the tranquility, but tucked away down a narrow road which always makes arriving feel like you’ve unearthed a hidden gem while aimlessly driving through the west Wales countryside.
Again, there are people here, sat on the beach wall, walking around, sat on benches having purchased a coffee or a takeaway pint from one of the two local pubs, but there’s a calm in the air, and it’s probably the calm before the storm.
“It’s busier here than it would normally be at this time,” said Tirion Dowsett, an RNLI lifeguard stationed on Llangrannog Beach. “People are allowed to travel again from all over the UK and they’re excited to get to the beach. They’re not going abroad so they come here instead.
“Going on last summer (when restrictions were eased) I think it will be really busy this year. Not only are more people choosing to stay at home rather than go to other countries, but lots of people have holiday homes in this area and want to return to them having not been able to get to them previously.
“I personally like it when there are a lot of people here. It’s good for the local businesses, as long as people are safe, and being outside on the beach is the best place to be.”
While people have been legally permitted to travel into Wales from England since last Monday – something which ties in with the second week of the school Easter holidays across the border – Tirion has not noticed a huge influx of holidaymakers making the trip from England to west Wales. But that is something that could, and probably will, change.
“I have friends who live in England and of course the pubs and restaurants are open there now [they opened outdoors on April 12],” she said. “So maybe the idea of coming to Wales just yet isn’t the same as it will be once the pubs here are open again.”
One business owner who doesn’t need to wait until April 26 to get some trade is Huw Reed, who runs Tafell a Tan just yards from the sand – a business that started out by setting up a stall at different locations selling homemade pizzas and street food. In January, 2020, it took over an empty building in Llangrannog and got to work on turning it into a permanent home for a thriving business.
We all know what happened next. “Covid put a stop to our plans to start with last year and we finally opened here in August,” said Huw. “It’s really picking up now. It was nice to have people here over the bank holiday weekend and it’s been nice to have consecutive weekends recently where we can give hours to staff.
“I do think numbers-wise this year can get back to normal a bit. Last year a lot of people maybe found Llangrannog for the first time because of travel restrictions, and that might happen again this year because I don’t think many will be travelling abroad. People can then find diamonds in this country that they didn’t know about, and that will help smaller local economies like ours to kick on a bit.
“Although the rates here are very low we still need to strike a balance. We don’t want to send those rates up for the sake of making money, but at the same time it comes to a point where if you can’t make any money then everyone will have to close anyway. Most people I see that have had a vaccine are very excited about it and there is a positivity in the air. That will hopefully ease any concerns that some might have had last year about coming down here.”
Across the car park from Tafell a Tan is Caffi Patio, run by Julia Palframan alongside her husband Mervyn. She has lived here for 40 years, and she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
“You have to continue to change and evolve your business as different challenges come your way, and a lot of businesses here have done that,” she said. “We are very lucky: we live in Llangrannog, and who wouldn’t want to live here?
“I’m quite happy to see the crowds come, everyone is welcome here. You need good management of the situation for your staff and for your own personal safety, and as long as we’re doing that then it’s all we can hope for.
“I would like to think that by midsummer the chances of Covid transmission will be extremely low. I’m looking forward to the summer now because everyone deserves a holiday and I hope people come back to enjoy themselves. Some people have been through a very, very tough time, some have lost relatives, and most have been locked up in towns and villages.
“Everyone behaves differently but we are very lucky in this area. At the end of the day, young people want to be out. They are not fearful and I can understand that.”
Put simply, seeing people in Llangrannog and New Quay means that people are on holiday. They are not working, and they are away from the concerns of everyday life, concerns that have been amplified over the past 13 months since a new and immediate worry landed on these beautiful shores.
A return to that sense of normality is no longer feared in this corner of Wales, it seems.
It is being welcomed with open arms, for the sake of businesses, jobs, and life itself.
As Julia puts it, sat overlooking the sea: “When people are on holiday the whole world seems wonderful.”