The sky was less hazy when I woke up and the early sun lit up the coast down towards Gibraltar, with the rocky promontory sticking out of a distinct layer of low level cloud. I uploaded today's link to Morning Prayer and after breakfast recorded next weeks Office and reflection. A fair morning's work, although the proximity of the A7, not to mention neighbours chatting in the parking lot outside, made it harder to get a clean recording than at home. Except right now, builders are working next door and noise is unavoidable eight to five. Clare says the house has been gutted as well as the back garden. Everything, doors, radiators, pipe, floorboards china has been taken out and dispatched in a couple of skips. So I'm in the right place at the right time!
After lunch, I spent the afternoon preparing for the visit of Karol and Alison, whose wedding blessing I'll be celebrating a week Saturday in Sotogrande. I found an edited text to work with in my digital archive, suitable for the occasion, but came to grief trying to print it out. The multi-function printer is a wifi device, identified by my laptop, but inaccessible as it required a security PIN number to complete the process to complete setup, and this I couldn't find.
The workaround solution was to save the file on to a SD card and transfer it to the office computer, which dates from 2010, and may be older. It's very slow running Windows ten, and needed updating, as seldom used computers in chaplaincy vacancies generally seem to do, Like me, others bring their own devices to work on. Many use phone or tablet to read text and may not need to attach their device to a printer in the first place. For me, large print on paper requires no battery to be legible. End of story.
There was a version of MS Office 2010 on the office laptop, but it didn't work as it was considered as an unregistered app by the operating system. So I downloaded and installed Libre Office which took half an hour. My document transferred loaded fine but refused to print, despite being attached physically by USB cable to the printer. Nothing I could change in the printer's configuration menu would change its mind. The clock was ticking for Karol and Alison's arrival. As a last resort, I unplugged the USB cable and pressed print. Hey presto! The wifi link worked as designed and printed the wedding document.
I had a good briefing session about their wedding with Karol and Alison, both marrying for the second time with children old enough to take part in the ceremony. It will be a family service in a special way for all of them. I arranged with them and Patricia for a rendezvous in Sotogrande church this Sunday at two, after the Methodist service there is finished. It'll give me a chance to learn the route for the twenty mile journey from Beverley Hills, the day before my first Sunday on duty there.
After we parted company I walked along the coast road beyond the marina and into the central area of the town. There's a huge municipal construction site blocking off the road to the frustration of motorists but I turned inland trying to identify where the central business and retail district was located, but failed to find anything resembling this. I was astonished by the dearth of small shops and markets, let alone supermarkets in this central zone, Restaurants yes, no banks or other agencies visible. Was I looking in the wrong place? I found two streets of one storey modernised fishermens' cottages. No corner shops.
I walked uphill inland several blocks and eventually came across a 'Dia' supermarket. The Mercadona branches were further out again. There may have been no more than a small fishing hamlet here until Franco's grand plan for the Costa del Viento re-branded it as the Costa del Sol. Town planning focussed on accommodation for visitors and holiday service industries not on enabling neighbourhoods to evolve, socially and commercially. This is speculation on my part. I'd love to find out more. But where to start in decoding this town planner's 'utopia' where normal life without a car must be a nightmare. Finally I spotted at town bus on the route back to Beverly Hills - almost disguised in slate grey livery. Trendy or what?
The only thing I lacked was Flora margarine, but I bought some olive oil and a couple of cheap cans of beer, one of which I drank on the way back, as I was flagging having walked nearly two hours. It wasn't too hot thankfully, but I was tired and hungry when I got back, and really enjoyed eating a simple meal of bread, olives, tomato and a tiny tin of tuna for supper, before turning in.
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