SIM update.

Rachel, on Skype from Kenilworth reported that it wasn't the UK SIM card that had bricked her iPhone, but some annoying piece of software she'd not removed correctly. This required a trip to an Apple store to get the phone restored to (locked) factory default settings, then a trip to Coventry market to get it unlocked again, once updated. Now it works properly how she wants it to, and accepts foreign SIM cards. What a lot of fuss.

Saturday morning Mass at St German's, an excursion into town for a cursory inspection of end of sale tech bargains just in case, and a quiet afternoon of sermon preparation and early evening waiting for prime time episodes three and four of 'Borgen', sustaining its interest and excitement on sheer intrigue, with no blood and guts anywhere, and some superb acting. We really should make more effort to get out on a Saturday, but when the weather is lousy and colds linger unpleasantly, it hardly seems worth while.

Today, I sang the Sunday Mass at St German's for the last time during the interregnum, from here on I'm booked each Sunday morning until April - mostly in Cowbridge Benefice, but with a couple of Sundays in Pentyrch as well. Frustratingly, Dean's induction has been deferred for yet another month. He still can't move into the Vicarage as the builders have yet to complete remedial work. There are some problems he will have to live with as there were things which can't afforded to be done for some time. At least the house is large enough to give him some choice of rooms when it comes to making a decent living space for himself. It wouldn't be like that if he had a family to provide for.

The usual congregation of a dozen was present for Evensong and Benediction tonight, plus a woman and three girls, all aged about eight, who were very well behaved and joined in nicely, saying 'Amen' loudly and clearly at the ends of prayers. I thought the woman must be a parent or carer of one or more of the children, but it seemed they had shown up at the church door at the same time as she did, and at their request she took them in to join in the service. The girls asked if they could see the organ, so I took them up the steep winding stairway to the organ loft, where Brian the organist was happy to let them explore the manual and pedal keyboard to their hearts delight, producing an amazing cacophany of sound, worthy, as someone wryly said afterwards, of one of those modern French organ composers. I hope the children felt welcomed and accepted.

I've enjoyed the past six months of doing duties at St German's, and I must say that I've felt welcomed and accepted along the way by a congregation getting used to the absence of a much loved priest and pastor. It's a pity Dean won't be fully in action in the Parish until Ash Wednesday. I know how pleased they will be to welcome him into every areas of their life together.