Sunday funeral

We were up at dawn this morning, watching the sun rise above the scorched hill to the east of us, about ten minutes after the sun appeared on the far side of Estepona bay, An early email from Andrea told me that I was mistaken about Fr William's arrival time, so I had to email the funeral arranger and apologise for mis-informing him about his availability.

We picked up Patricia at nine for the drive to the service at San Pedro, which this week used service books and hymnals again. Following the service a party of seven came with Auntie Jessie's ashes and I officiated at a full funeral service for her before they took her remains away to scatter off her favourite beach. 

We used a new bluetooth speaker linked to my phone to provide music for the three hymns we sang. It worked fine, except that the rendering of hymns they had chosen wasn't easy to sing along to because of the way the organist paused un-necessarily between verses. That was my error unfortunately, but we muddled through.

Then I joined Clare and Patricia and other members of the congregation at Cafe Tradicional for a much needed drink before driving back to the house. Several people remarked how I seem to have been busier with additional pastoral duties than other locum chaplains. For me it's made my stay worthwhile. Next Sunday is my last, and there's another baptism this time at the Sotogrande service.

I cooked while Clare went for a swim, then while she had a post-lunch siesta I worked on my end-of-duty report. As it wasn't very hot at the end of the afternoon, we went down to the Play Guadalbon so Clare could have another swim in the sea at a different location. There are some places where conditions within safe distance of the shore are better than others. A matter of trial and error.

After supper, I slumped in front of the telly and watched Countryfile and Antiques Roadshow before turning in for the night. Although that wasn't such a hot day, I found it rather tiring.