Perennial scanner

At Fr Phelim's request, I drove over to St German's this morning to celebrate the term time 'Class Mass' with two dozen children from Tredegarville School. It's still an enjoyable experience for me, working with Junior School kids, so I'm always pleased if I'm asked to stand in for him. It was good to catch up with the regulars over a coffee at the day centre afterwards. Apparently the winter night shelter in the hall has been successfully run for a second year with a big group of volunteers, not all of them church people, helping to accommodate and feed fifteen rough sleepers regularly.

After lunch I took my second funeral of the week, this time at St Luke's. The eulogy was given by a niece of the deceased and a daughter in law read a lesson. I don't recall taking a funeral there before, so I had to figure out beforehand where to place myself in relation to the congregation and the coffin. It's a big church with a central altar. Fortunately everyone in a congregation of fifty sat in the same central block of seats, so I conducted the service from behind the altar, as the lectern was too far back.

In the evening there was nothing on telly, so I got out my film scanner, as I have a bag full of wallets containing film negatives, and picked out one at random from 2000, just before I bought my first digital camera, when I was working in Monaco. The scanner won't work with any PC save my 2009 Windows Vista desktop machine. This still boots up, although its CMOS battery is kaput and there's no point in going on line because none of the browsers are fit for purpose. But it still runs the scan software, Adobe Photoshop and MS Office perfectly and with an acceptable turn of speed once it's settled down. An always online Windows device isn't always what you need to get jobs done. I will run it until it dies, and then look for a replacement of similar vintage to plug the gap.

Anyway I now have a set of seventy plus photos from the time when we first settled in Monte Carlo,  and of our top floor apartment in rue Montbrillant Geneva, close to the Place des Nations. There may be more to find and scan eventually.