Study day

Again I woke up early enough to see the light of the full moon shining through the shutters an hour before dawn, and then fell asleep again. After breakfast, I walked down to the Suma supermarket in La Cala de Bou to get some deodorant, and happily came away with a jar of tahini as well. It means I can make my own hummous now, with the jar of chick peas I've already started. With fresh lemon from the tree outside the front door. Wonderful!

I spent the rest of the morning and some time after lunch preparing for an early evening bible study group on Outreach in the Acts of the Apostles. Then I went for another walk and returned just before they all arrived. Seven women attended. No men. We explored scripture for an hour and then prayed for half an hour. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Afterwards, I thought I'd watch telly for a change. I haven't had time to switch it on since I've been here, there's been too many other things to do first. I got all the devices working OK, but kept on getting a 'no signal' error with no idea of how to remedy this. Whether it's a physical connectivity fault or something in the setup routine I have failed to engage with, I've no idea. No doubt someone will show me in due course.

At least I've got the computer to work, and was able to print off copies of the bible study schedule and a page of notes on Christian healing to give to the group as they left. The device is a minimalist desktop PC, linked to internet input from the huge satellite dish in the garden. It's connected to a peripherals, all of which look strange to me. They deliver signals for the telly and for the house phone, as well as internet for the computer.  It offer no temptation to tinker with. It works and does so pretty quickly, not surprisingly as the PC is a Core i7 job with 8Gb of RAM.

I work on the old Chromebook I first bought. It came back to me from Owain when I gave him a newer one. I brought this with me, rather than my newest one. It's every bit as dependable, and if it breaks or gets nicked, it's already had quite a long life for a digital device. I simply transfer files for printing on the office system via a USB stick. That suits me just fine. This is probably the most up to date office system I've used of all five of the Spanish chaplaincies I've worked in, on a par with the set up in Montreux. Generally these assets, if they work and serve their purpose, lag behind the currently accepted digital norm. Although I suppose that could all have changed in the eighteen months I have been away from locum duty.