Home alone weekend

This morning, it was Clare's turn to travel to Kenilworth by train to look after Rhiannon over another busy working weekend for Kath and Anto. I drove her to the station for a train, just before lunch, and then spent the afternoon doing nothing much of consequence apart from updating to the latest version of Libre Office on various machines. 

I continue to be impressed with the incremental improvements which appear. It's an outstanding project in Open Source Software development, a real flagship for free collaboration in producing apps that address many key user needs. Since I finished working for CBS RadioNet, I no longer need to use MS Word to ensure my files are seamlessly compatible with office use, I don't need to use anything other than Libre Office, which is installed on all the PCs I have in use, with MS Office now kept in reserve for emergencies on my mothballed former study workstation.

At tea-time, I drove over to Roath for a bereavement visit in relation to a funeral next week. Yesterday I was asked to book a date for another funeral, details to follow. That'll be my sixth in the past four weeks, and I know Fr Phelim, our parish priast has done even more. Other parish clergy are also reporting larger numbers of funerals than is usual for this time of year. It's not extreme weather, nor a reported 'flu epidemic, although there has been a pernicious and long drawn out virus which has hit many people with chesty catarrh this year. I thought I'd escaped it, but seem to have had a milder version of the same over the past two weeks. Heaven help anyone with a weak immune system!

Most worrying, to my mind is the impact this has on work load for the diminished number of working clergy that get called upon to do this. I wonder who is keeping an eye on this at a diocesan level, and taking into account the additional stresses and strains this imposes on clergy.

By the time I was finished my visit, traffic was heavy in all directions, so I drove back across Roath and into Cathays, so I could do some weekend shopping at Lidl's near where we used to live. Since I was last there, some months ago, It's undergone an internal makeover I think, although not expanded. It can't get any bigger on this site. Now, two ranks of self service tills replace a couple of manned checkouts, as in other stores around the city. I'd rather queue and speak to a human at checkout, so I avoid these. Nevertheless, self service tills shoten the queues as they get well used by the young - and this area is still a student ghetto, so the store is always busy with youngsters from around the world.

When I have to cook for myself, I still can't cook just enough for one meal at a time, so I ended up after supper with another meal ready for tomorrow. But what shall I do with tomorrow on my own, I wonder?