Phishing or not?

After quite a busy Monday, apart from routine duties and a walk in the park I slept an extra three hours in the day and evening, before finally going to bed at midnight - no change there, go with the flow. The only new thing that came in was a request from Mthr Frances to cover a funeral next Thursday morning, when she's away on leave. I already have a Eucharist to celebrate and a lunchtime funeral at the Res. Both funerals are with Pidgeon's, and the timing works, with a driver picking me up from St John's and taking me to their funeral chapel then a burial in Llandaff cemetery, then a ride to the Res for the second funeral followed bt a burial in Western cemetery. It's a matter of being fully prepared for all three and relying on the funeral directors' teamwork to carry me through.  

A landline phone call yesterday presented a new robotic voice, rather posh, speaking on behalf of the National Crime agency, saying that my National Insurance number had been suspended because it had been detected in use as part of some illegal or immoral activity, and that I should press button one to speak to someone to respond to this allegation or expect to be arrested soon. What juvenile nonsense! The cops would never notify someone before making a surprise visit. How can a NI number be suspended? What purpose would it serve?

I celebrated the Eucharist at St Catherine's with nine others this morning, then uploaded photos taken the previous day, and with a fresh burst of energy, recorded and edited tomorrow's WhatsApp daily prayer video and uploaded it to YouTube later in the day. I took our weekly contribution the the foodbank to the Rectory on my afternoon walk, and had a brief chat with Mthr Frances. It's the first time we've seen each other in person four a couple of months. She's looking forward to a holiday up north with her folks next week, as we look forward to a few days in Aberaeron the week after her return. I suspect most people need a respite from routine coping and confinement after a long and difficult year.

Spokespersons for the medical profession are speaking out about members quitting due to burnout or sheer disillusionment. I hear stories of slipping patient care standards and mistakes being made by exhausted staff, who have been forced to go the second mile all to often over the past year. And  ow we have the slow build-up of a third wave of the India coronavirus strain, and although the high number of vaccinated people does reduce the volume of infections and hospitalizations significantly, it means medics  can't relax as this casts a shadow over the resumption of normal planned treatments.

Clare had a live call today, a young man saying he represented the Co-op bank complaints department. We were both suspicious, as banks don't tend to call you except by arrangement, and Clare had no recollection of making a complaint about the Co-op bank, although the Co-op store's on-line grocery ordering service checkout can give rise to complaints on times because of slowness timing out purchasers. The caller asked Clare to prove her identity, and her response was, to ask if he would prove his identity first. Sensible. He referred to the contact phone number on the back of her Co-op debit card, and suggested she called and did the i/d check, as this would end up routing her back to him. Well that's on hold at the moment, to many other things to do apart from chase after a call about a complaint you have no recollection of making.