Christmas 2020

 

A time for sharing?

Not this year.  We spent the most magical time of the year on our own.

Our son didn't understand.

Our daughter thought we were being overly cautious but was surprisingly understanding when we called to break the news.  Instead of decamping to Bournemouth (Tier 2) to spend Christmas with the grandchildren playing games, eating and drinking (too much) and laughing, we were alone in Sandhurst (Tier 4).

We decorated the trees (3) pottered around, went for a long sunny walk, cooked a bird in a bird in a bird instead of a turkey and watched TV.

We did join the family on Facebook and watched the children open their presents whilst we sat in bed with a cup of tea.  Later we chatted and played games like online Pictionary and did a Harry Potter/Ninjago quiz in between catching up.

In normal times it would be unheard of for us to miss a family Christmas.  Every year for as long as I can remember I have spent the day with some of my family.  Unless we were out of the country on a trip with Dad we would have had a full Christmas dinner and presents under the tree.

But after a year of being cautious about Covid we didn't want to take unnecessary risks for the sake of one day.  Even though the government guidelines said we could.  I just couldn't see their logic.  It would be such a shame after nine months of real vigilance for it to go down the drain for one day.  It's not worth it.  It also doesn't change the fact that indoor unventilated settings are the worst possible environment for the virus.

We just binge-watched Designated Survivor on Netflix and ate and drunk as much as we wanted without worrying about driving.  I am probably the most cautious person in my family.  But I don't care; it's worse if I infect someone than if I'm a bit overly cautious.  If I had spent Christmas with them I'd have felt guilty, coming from Tier 4, aware I might be spewing the newly, more contagious, mutated form  whilst we were all trying to have a good time.

It was not a typical Christmas, but nothing about 2020 has been typical.  And I still count myself lucky.  We didn't spend the 25th with the family, but we will definitely celebrate once we have the vaccine.  We might even do a second Christmas of  our own, perhaps on the beach with a tree and Christmas hats.  And I will drop a line to Father Christmas to see if those naughty Elfs on the Shelf - Elfie and Hugo - will be allowed to join us just for the day and it will be fun for the grandchildren to get a second round of gifts and I imagine there might even be some waiting for me too!

                                                     Mike taking a dip on Christmas Day!!

                                                      Sadly Phil could not join him!!!

Put that cake DOWN

I underwent a routine blood test only to get a call from my doctor.  You have prediabetes, a condition where your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

A prediabetes diagnosis sounds scary and it was.  But, the good news is reversing prediabetes is possible - with simple lifestyle changes.  With the help of the NHS and WW I have done this,  I am now NORMAL and more than one stone lighter.

Its a diagnosis that should be taken seriously, but with early intervention, such as following a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting regular exercise you can reduce the risk.

The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme together with WW helped me to take control of my health, supporting me to make changes to my diet, weight and the exercise.

If you've had a bad day at work and the kids are driving you mad, we all know what will help: half a packet of chocolate digestives, that's what.  Except, of course, it won't.  So why is it that, when we're feeling stressed or hard done by, all we can think about is gorging ourselves on something tasty?  When we have any negative emotions (and with Covid 19 its especially hard) such as stress, boredom or fear, we want something to take our mind off it.  Some people turn to shopping, gambling or drugs.  But most of us use what's right under our nose - food.  From birth, food is our coping mechanism.  We're born, slapped on the bum and handed to our mother so she can feed us.  The comfort eating continues from there: a lollipop when we fall over in the playground, chocolate cake when our first love dumps us, a takeaway after a bad day at work.

We're not given the tools we need to cope with anger, hurt, resentment, pain and loneliness, instead we're taught that food can make all our disappointments more bearable.  The good news is that no matter why we comfort eat, we can break the cycle.  As long as we know how.

OK I know it's not that easy but the amazing WW coaches helped.

Choose the right foods (and don't forget to practice portion control).  Consider switching to a smaller plate and drinking a full glass of water with every meal to curb your appetite.  Avoid certain foods.  Diet has a big impact on blood glucose levels.  Limit saturated fats and refined carbohydrates.  Minimise your consumption of processed meats and anything made with white flour such as pizza, pasta and sugary foods such as ice cream, milk chocolate and juice.  Other foods to avoid or limit if you're working on reversing prediabetes include fried foods and high calorie, high fat foods.  Increase your fibre intake.  I thought I was getting enough but 30 grams of porridge is NOT 30 grams of fibre!  Eating non-starchy vegetables is a great way to reach this goal. Talk to family and friends about pre-diabetes.  It's just really important for your health you keep a close eye on what and how much you eat.  Don't let pressure from anyone else sway you from your efforts.

To help WW provides an app which allows you to track everything you eat, providing point values for common packaged and branded food, fresh ingredients, and even chain restaurant dishes.  If packaged items don't come up when you search, you can add them into the app by in putting nutritional values.  You  can even use the app to input the recipes you make frequently at home, and it'll calculate how many points make up one serving.  But the best part is that it has a barcode scanner, so you can essentially just take a picture of an item at the supermarket and immediately know its point value.  This feature has really helped me to understand how and why certain foods are valued the way they are.  When I first started WW it was extremely helpful to pre-track all the things I planned to eat in a day.  I did this by mapping out my week's meals so I knew exactly what days I'd need to save extra points for, and what meals would take up more or less of them.  It takes time and patience to lose weight, but the app really does work.  I've lost about one pound a week on average using the app but I've learned to give myself the flexibility to occasionally stay stagnant or put a few pounds back on especially when we will be allowed to go on holiday again.  It has helped me to think about weight management and healthy eating as a lifelong goal as opposed to a short-term diet.

Drinking water is also important to stay properly hydrated.  The amount of water you drink can play a role in how your body regulates blood sugar.  Most people need to drink 8 -10 cups of water each day.  I also cut down on my wine intake!!!

Based on my WW coaches recommendations I also focused on daily exercise for at least 30 minutes per day.  Exercise helps with weight loss, but also trains muscles to become better at removing sugar from the bloodstream.

Getting at least seven hours of high quality sleep per night is also very important.  Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase insulin resistance.

The key is to change your behaviour around weight, diet, physical activity and sleep.  To be honest this isn't easy and must be an ongoing personal process.

So I did all of the above for 6 months (3 months in lockdown) and went for another blood test fully confident that my sugar levels would be lower.  BUT NO they had gone up.  I was distraught but after talking to the nurse decided to stick with the programme.  The NHS were paying for this and I didn't want to waste their money.  The nurse told me to eat less fruit, especially tropical fruit as this is very high in sugar and not to drink orange juice for breakfast.  But the biggest factor was probably due to STRESS and the Corona virus.  When we're stressed, our body releases the hormone cortisol, which keeps our brains on danger alert.  By maintaining high blood-sugar levels, we feel we're ready for action - which is why we want sugary foods when we're stressed.  So I have learnt to relax more.  Everyone has stress but doing things that make you happy - like watching the sunset or chatting with a friend - can help you stay calm.

I really found that attending the workshops weekly (initially at the community centre and then via Zoom) helped.  Workshops are like therapy.  It's a community and all the members are happy for me and that spurs me on.  I also get some great tips.  The support is wonderful.  To be honest we all struggle but the coaches help to keep me positive and on track.  

It's easy enough if you've got an iron will.  Sometimes you can get bored with eggs.  Bored stiff avoiding the french bread.  Really very, very bored with staying off the booze.  I must be strong though.  I have been taught it isn't a total disaster if I encounter the odd slippage.  I'm sure EVERYONE breaks the programme at least once a week.  Slips can be compensated for by reverting to the attack phase and being firm.  You have to make an effort.  It is a small war and you have to be a good soldier.  I want to eliminate the problem of diabetes for the rest of my life.

Thank you NHS for putting me on the WW programme and an especially large thank you to my coaches, Mandip, Nina, Lin and Lisa.  The app is great but your support is better.  I was so sad this week to learn that a lot of hard working coaches have been made redundant.  

Chloe's Birthday

 It was Chloe's birthday at the weekend, she turned NINE.  How did she get so grown up?!?!

Congratulations!  You are making history.....as I sit here and write this, we are living through an historic moment, and your ninth birthday is happening slap bang in the middle of it.  Life is very different.  But here's the thing, while I've heard so many people say they are worried about "the kids" - I'm not worried about you.  Because there's one special birthday gift that the Coronavirus pandemic has given you above all others on your 9th birthday my darling - A huge dose of empathy, a barrel of gratitude, a resilience like no other, and an enduring can-do attitude and independence which is going to keep you standing strong with the wind in your sails well after this historic moment has passed.

We gave her a metal detector to use at the beach.  Hope she finds her pot of gold.

Chloe had fun hunting for treasure.  The haul?  Four bottle tops!  Cleaning up the beach one bottle top at a time.

Chloe requested fake glasses for one of her birthday presents this year because her best friend has just been told she has to wear glasses and was upset - so Chloe wanted to look like her to make her feel better.  (So lovely).

Chloe is pretty much obsessed with Lego at the moment.  She spends hours building, taking apart, and rebuilding Lego sets so her birthday cake was, of course, a Lego beach theme.  Love it.

No party invite this year.  However, we did manage a visit to Kingston Lacy with the grandchildren where we walked the woodland trail, which was lovely, especially at this time of year with it's carpet of fallen leaves.  Sadly our picnic was a little damp but hot chocolates and a piece of birthday cake soon warmed us up.

So here's to you Chloe.  You are everything to me, and even though the world has been shaken in this new norm, I feel beyond lucky to have you organising our giggly dance parties on Houseparty as we enter another lockdown and we can't get together for a month.

Happy Birthday Chloe.  There are many wonderful things about being nine.  My advice to you: Don't wish away the present even though we are in a pandemic.  Love you and hope to see you soon.

Tree-mendous

Emmie came to stay for the weekend and we decided to book Go-Ape in Swinley Forest, Bracknell.

Grandad, Alun and Emmie signed up for the Treetop Adventure + with a mixture of excitement and trepidation: Alun was looking forward to the experience but was also a bit worried that he would develop vertigo up in the trees.  I worried in case a harness would give out and they would plummet to the ground below but thankfully there were no mishaps and they had a great time.

After a downpour of rain as we left the house the morning turned out to be dry with a blue sky when we arrived to undertake the treetop adventure.  During the training session they were encouraged to stand apart and there was hand sanitiser available at the starting point.  The training lasted about 10 minutes and consisted of an explanation about how to safely connect the harness to the apparatus above and then they got to practise doing this at ground level. 

 The difficulty of the courses increased as they progressed round the park. Each course was made up of a mixture of different obstacles, including wooden crossings that moved beneath their feet, a tunnel they had to crawl through, hanging ropes to grasp, rope nets to crawl over and high speed zip lines to get you back down to ground level.  They said it was really good  fun (Nanna stayed on the ground as official photographer!!!) and really got their adrenaline pumping!  Some of the crossings looked and are really challenging as the wooden steps swayed under their body weight so they needed to strike the right balance to keep the step they were on stable enough to progress to the next step.  They also needed a bit of upper body strength, mostly in their arms, to be able to grab the hanging ropes or spider across the rope nets.  Emmie was amazing - all that gym training has paid off.

The highest platform was 50 feet up in the trees.  Go Ape Bracknell is located in Swinley Forest, which comprises over 11 square kilometres (2,600 acres) of woodland and is a beautiful setting for the adventure.  The air is clean and scented with the sweet, fresh smell of the Scots pines that populate the forest.

It was an excellent adventure in beautiful surroundings.  Well done you three. 

Saving Milford on Sea from the Sea!

Coastal properties in Milford on Sea are at "imminent risk" of damage this winter after the sea wall was smashed by two ferocious storms earlier this year, resulting in the failure of a 270 metre section of the concrete protection, which lies to the west of the Grade 2 listed White House.

The analysis by contractor Jacobs suggested stabilising the wall in the short-term and compensating for the loss of beach material which caused the failure.

Storm 'Ellen' hit on 20th August with high tides and 60 mph winds and sadly finished off the wall with the last beach hut standing succumbing to the sea.  If we get another winter like the last one, goodness knows what the impact would be.

Last beach hut still standing but not for long.  So wild - note the figures on the spit.

Beach hut down.

Sad evidence of the lost beach huts.

"Emergency work" is due to start.

The sea wall had been showing signs of "progressive failure" in November last year before a 95 metre section began to move in January.  Storms 'Ciara' and 'Dennis' exacerbated that, and another 70 metre section in front of the beach huts fell away.

The failure of the seawall was down to loss of material at its base.  Because the beach had lowered, the deeper water allowed larger, more powerful waves to strike.  The wall had no "recovery time" between the storms and once its failure started "a continued and accelerated rate of dilapidation" occurred resulting in part of the wall "catastrophically" collapsing during Storm Dennis.  The wall is believed to have been constructed around 60 years ago.  Beach erosion was mitigated in front of new beach huts to the east by the installation of large rocks, which was not done at the affected site.

It is estimated the Milford cliffs would retreat at an average rate of 1.3 metres per year, leading to a loss of up to 16 metres by 2025, 50 metres by 2055 and 85 metres by 2105 but this is depends on how many large storms attack the cliffs.

Two very telling photos of the fence shutting the footpath on the cliff by the original collapsed Westover sea wall.  First one taken 21st August at around 4 p.m. during the storms and the second at 2.30 p.m. on 22nd August as the storms continue.  Compare the two photos - shows that the cliff has eroded 1 to 2 metres in under 24 hours.  The second photo shows that the cliff has eroded some 4 metres since the fence was erected to the edge of the cliff a few weeks ago!

The coastal footpath was closed in February 2020 for safety reasons.  The South Coast of England is a world heritage heavyweight with countless iconic landmarks - one being The Needles, beautiful sandstone cliffs on the lovely coastline of Alum Bay, Isle of Wight.  They can be enjoyed from this wonderful coastal pathway where you get a marvellous view of The Needles and sweeping ocean views.  So sad to have to leave this path and walk inland.

In a nature emergency, what really matters is action, not just words.  New Forest District Council need to invest now and deal with the whole problem straight away.  Ironic (or crazy!) that NFDC's current plan for defending the wall will leave the original breech (90 metres) and eroding cliff not repaired and unprotected for some 2 to 3 years! This will leave a weak spot which will concentrate the forces on a smaller area causing untold damage. The footpath is unlikely to reopen for a similar period!

This damage has been caused by years of neglect by the council.  As Rachel Shattock wrote:-

For want of a good groyne the shingle beach was lost. For want of a shingle beach the sea wall was lost.  For want of a wall the coast path and seafront was lost.  For want of the frontline Milford-on-Sea will be lost.  And all for the want of a good groyne.  ("For Want of a Nail" is a proverb, having numerous variations over several centuries, reminding that seemingly unimportant acts or omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences.)

It will be a matter of luck whether Milford on Sea will escape major flood damage this winter if the whole stretch is not repaired.  The wind here is constant and the sea never sleeps.  Erosion goes on all year round, sometimes unnoticed and sometimes dramatically when there is a big storm.  For many weeks of the year, a potent mixture of high spring tides and south-westerly winds can prove fatal.  When the weather is severe enough - as it was recently - to describe the coastline as being at the mercy of the sea is no exaggeration.  The aging sea defences west of the White House have been turned to rubble in minutes.  Metres of sandstone cliff, battered and weakened by the wind, is literally blown out to be scoured away in the boiling surf of an angry sea.

Times move on, and with sea defence, time is not on our side.  Coastal defences should be at the forefront of NFDC's action files to build public confidence for the winter.  The government is promoting a number of schemes at the moment - I urge the NFDC to take advantage of them and rebuild the flood defences completely.

The coastal defence team are ready to start very soon.  Tonnes of rocks arriving from Norway and battle commences, man against the sea!! 

Love the irony of the sign

                                                               Workers accommodation

Is this a Quinquereme of Nineveh from distant Ophir?

(Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,

Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,

With a cargo of ivory,

And apes and peacocks,

Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.)

Nope, nothing so romantic its the Afon Cefni barge with Larvik rocks on board.

And this is how it's done.  Tuggy McTugface shoves the barge into a dredged bit until it hits the land.  Then the dredger pushes on the barge while the digger picks the rocks off one by one.  All clever stuff.

The reason for the convoy was that the sandbars that form along the frontage had moved since the last bathymetric survey that was undertaken in July.  The tug, using the echosounder, found the sandbar too far offshore and too high to traverse over, even at high tide, to be able to get close with the barge and hold it on the seawall whilst unloading took place.  The tug is powerful enough to get round the currents at Hurst Spit and sail along the frontage.  The Liftmoor is then able to connect to the barge and deliver it and the rock to the seawall.  The excavator that is sited on the barge then picks off the rocks and places them in the general location required for the placement to begin.  The first three loads of rock are small loads to ensure that they can traverse the bar, as well as gauging the tide and current strength on the site.  These first loads have been dropped near the collapsed section that is going to be used to access the front and will be used to create the ramp for the machines.  Once this has been done the contractor will then drop down onto the front to begin work on the timber groynes and to start placing the rock on the revetment profile beginning at the White House revetment.  The barge will be used to deliver the rock during the high tides in daylight hours only.  Now the granite deliveries have begun it is likely that deliveries will be occurring daily.  Let's hope the good weather continues for them.

UPDATE - October, 2020

Another section of the Milford Sea Wall has failed but

some good news from the Milford-on-Sea Parish Council meeting concerning the project.  NFDC have ordered a further 3,000 tonnes of rock in addition to the 8,000 tonnes already ordered and mainly delivered.  Some of the additional rocks will be used to defend Area 1, i.e. 90 metres at the western end of the 270 metres span of frontage needing work.  This was not originally part of the current Phase 1.  These rocks should provide some defence for Area 1, in particular to reduce the risk of further cliff erosion.  This is a further positive sign of the determination of the council to sort the Westover sea wall problem.

To this end, the community needs to demonstrate its support for the New Forest District Council's funding applications to the Environment Agency and various Government bodies.  Please sign our online petition to show that you back the Council's efforts to 'Save Milford from the Sea'.

https://www.change.org/p/environment-agency-save-milford-from-the-sea-by-funding-a-long-term-coastal-defence-plan

Copy and paste the above into your browser.

  1,350 signatures on the petition at the moment on Thursday, 22nd October.  Going up nicely but come on everyone, let's get it to 2,000!

My spies tell me both our tugs are on other duties now.  Tuggy is apparently setting out for Halifax, Canada!!!! and Liftmoor is doing something in Ramsgate.

This means the next shipment of 3000 tons or rock will be delivered by road.  Meanwhile, there's quite a pile of rocks in the sea and on the cliff top waiting to be placed properly.  The large stones have the weight written on them.  At about £70 a tonne you can do the maths (a lot of money).

This is a photograph from the White House end.  They have filled another bay between groynes with rocks.  Just one bay left.  Meanwhile as you see elsewhere, they are concentrating on truck deliveries to the failed wall section.

A lorry reversing at the bottom of Paddy's Gap slope - very impressive driver's skills!

Looks like good progress as Larvik rocks now placed behind and on the outside of the failed wall to add protection where the erosion is worst.

And this is a very famous Milford-on-Sea resident - Archie

Archie is very impressed by the Earlcoate Construction and Plant Hire Ltd. work taking place.  He's put his paw mark on the petition, please add yours too!  We love watching the daily progress video report from Archie on Facebook  in the group We love Milford on Sea.

It's true, the Afon Cefni is off across the Atlantic.  Bon voyage TuggyMcTugface and we'll miss you.

We know it was extra but thank you NFDC and the Coastal Team for this additional protection while we wait - hopefully finished before 2023 - to discuss the next phase with the Parish Council, NFDC and Environment Agency.