Need for order

I woke up at dawn and posted my Morning Prayer YouTube link to WhatsApp an hour earlier than usual.  After breakfast I went to Carrefour to re-stock food items we'd used while Clare did her physio exercises and then went for a swim. By the time she returned from the pool I'd made progress in cooking our lunch.

Patricia sent me a message about the possibility of using the office computer for the Powerpoint slides at Sunday worship. I've not used it, as I discovered early on that its set-up and updating process had stalled. As it was going to be needed at some point soon, I took another look at it. Three hours of the afternoon later it had finished the process and was running as smoothly as was possible for a twelve year old laptop running Windows 10. Its version of MS Office is still unregistered, and its OneDrive account inaccessible or simply unused, but it runs Powerpoint presentations properly, even if it's a bit slow getting to the point where it can.

I realise that some of the problems I've had about finding relevant information since I've been here are due to it not being accessible how I expect it to be. The chaplaincy handbook, wedding and baptism register weren't in designated places. There's no compendium of information about the household. It's all there, but in piecemeal fashion. Loads of detailed directory information about who does what, displayed in a small print paper file pinned to a notice board, hard for me to read at the moment. 

None of this  information could I find available on the chaplain's computer. For someone unfamiliar with the setup arriving, with few people to ask and get explanations from, while getting on with the job, this has made life difficult. It would have helped if the study had been tidy and everything put away in the designated place. I didn't realise that the first thing I needed to do at the outset was tidy up. So much chaplaincy business is now conducted on-line that ordering the workspace, including a functional office computer is still desirable. This may have been no problem for returning locum clergy, but coming in from scratch is another matter. I've enjoyed the work challenges, but understand now why it's all felt so precarious on times.

We went for a walk on the senda litoral before supper. I watched a classic movie on BBC Four called Witness for the Prosecution, a classic British 1957 courtroom drama with remarkable twists at the end, starring Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Tyrone Power. Great entertainment, like going to the theatre.