Coastal defences

I was passing through Swansea and arranged to meet my old friend Glenn. He was my first PhD student - his field research was with children in Cambodia, and he cleverly secured funding for me to go out and work with him there for a couple of weeks. That was twenty years ago. Since then he's settled in Swansea, his three daughters have grown up, his wife died suddenly and he soon afterwards came out as gay - quite a challenge for an evangelical Christian. This was the first time I've seen him since the funeral. We met in Mumbles where he now lives, at a cafe where his third daughter (adopted in Cambodia) works, now expecting her second child. After lunch he showed me the work on the sea wall being built to protect the community from rising sea levels and increasing storms. It's a huge project (details here ) and one wonders for how long it will be enough. Extras show Glenn and the work (which has recently speeded up).  
On the same visit to Swansea I also met the director of the theatre company who is planning to stage the play I wrote last year, coincidentally on the theme of climate change.