We walked through the slush to St Catherine's for the Sunday 10.30 Sung Eucharist, for which I was due to celebrate and preach. The roof has sprung a couple of leaks due to valley gutters overloaded with melting snow. Surprisingly, given recent weather there were over forty adults and a dozen children. The choir of eight sang a couple of anthems, rehearsed at the last minute, refusing to let bad weather be an excuse for not making the effort. The change of pace this last few days with people either getting extra rest or additional activity out walking or sledging, seems to have contributed to a good mood all round.
I had a late night call from Gail last night asking for help in supplying an extract of recorded music which Mike in a diary entry last year said he'd love to have at has funeral, as it was so serene and beautiful. William Croft was a seventeenth century English church music composer, who turned the scripture settings of the Book of Common Prayer Burial Office into a collection of choir anthems. One of them, I remember us singing at Holy Trinity Geneva twenty years ago: 'Remember O Lord not our offences', but the opening processional sentences which Mike loved, I didn't know, but well understand why he thought so highly of them.
Finding a suitable recording to use wasn't a problem, but acquiring it to burn to a single use CD was more of an issue. It's years since I last did something like this, using the free Open Source 'Audacity' sound editing software. I simply couldn't recall how to go about this, and needed to Google for vital instructions. It may be years before I need to do this again, and be then will probably have forgotten how to do it, or suitable software will have changed beyond recognition.
Today it rained, clearing much of the remaining snow from the pavement and roads. We even had a short sunny spell. The shops are struggling to re-stock, as the supply chain routine is still being disrupted by weather in other places. Any company that has over- centralised its warehousing on the grounds of cost saving efficiency must be questioning the ultimate wisdom of this, for if central hub or road network grind to a halt nothing can be distributed, and meanwhile, shops that manage to stay open are emptied of food. Bigger is not always better. Heaven help the country in any period of real prolonged crisis, with road and rail networks paralysed.
Owain came over to see us for a couple of hours this afternoon. As he walks to work, he was able to go into the office and carry on as usual. He always takes Mondays off and does his week's worth of work in four days. He's just been given another contract extension, and while he's relieved about this it doesn't prevent him continuing the hunt for a permanent job. He's been with DVSA long enough to be entitled to be considered for a permanent post, and while they'd find it hard to manage without him there no certainty that he'll be considered for one, let alone offered a job, as he's a specialist 'contractor' to the department he works in.
The agency has a budgeted employment spend to meet set targets. Established employee numbers aren't enough to cover the workload, but there's a discretionary budget for hiring 'temporary' workers to cover the excess plus special projects, some of which are long term undertakings. All this policy achieves is to rob some workers of the security of a permanent civil service post, no matter how good they are. Public spending cuts lead to budget revision, regardless of workload - making bricks out of straw, I call it. This, in its turn, makes for added insecurity among the workers. Governmental sleight of hand I call it. Owain is philosophical about the situation. It's been like this since he graduated. Our children deserve as good if not better than their parents. How were we so short sighted to allow this to happen?
The evening was devoted to packing for my trip, but first, I had to finish the last two episodes of 'Before we die', another excellent ten part Scandi-crime drama series in the Channel 4 'Walter Presents' show-case. The way it ended seemed fairly conclusive, although there was just enough unfinished business to hint at a possible second series, if a budget can be found, I guess.
It met mixed reviews portraying the complex relationships between a mother working in the crime squad and her initially wayward son, who is actually risking his life as an informant employed by a Balkan criminal family with a tragic history and ambitions to run Sweden's illicit drug trade. It's rather low key, understated, though there are occasional excitements. Most importantly, it maintains a level of dramatic tension throughout, due to the danger the son exposes himself to willingly to earn his mother's respect, without her knowing about it until half way through the story.
I was motivated to complete watching the story before my departure, as wretched digital rights management restrictions make it impossible to view this channel for free abroad. Even so, both bags were packed and I was in bed early for once. Is this a record for me?
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