Bye bye booster

A mild and cloudy start to the day. Clare went off to her study group after breakfast. I archived my latest photos from Spain and prepared lunch for Clare's return, The news media are obsessed with the state ritual of handing over the role of Prime Minister from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss, and endless speculation about her cabinet appointments, policy plans, and whether or not her first speech will be broadcast from outside Number Ten or indoors if it rains. An awful waste of time in my opinion.

I went for a walk along the Taff after lunch, saw and took photos of a solitary egret on the eastern shone, a place where I've seen just one hunting for food on several occasions in summers past. Apparently there are more of these birds upstream around Forest Farm area, but I've only ever seen a single one this far down.

We had an early supper as we had a six o'clock rendezvous with Fountain Community Choir members at a house twenty minutes walk away from home at the city end of Canton. Ten of us gathered to rehearse for a concert before Christmas of mediaeval liturgical and devotional music, some interesting and challenging things to learn. I felt completely out of my depth, and my vocal cords were stiff and unfit. The music was all new to me, and will be fun to learn. The rehearsal and concert schedule shaping up cuts me out of any more locum duties this side of Christmas, and that's just as well, given the gaps to be filled in maintaining the ministry of the church to its faithful remnant in coming months. I expect to be busy most Sundays and on weekdays.

Mother Frances has joined the singing group. I really hope she finds it's a fun adventure. As we arrived she sent me a message about a funeral a week Wednesday. Tomorrow I stand in for Emma at Fairwater's midweek Eucharist.

Our EE signal booster has stopped working, after seven and a half years of pretty decent service. I got in touch with EE by Direct Message and was told that the device was being phased out, replaced by 4G voice over internet mobile calls. Well and good if it works, but we can't get enough 4G signal on the ground floor of the house to be able use this facility - IF we have a phone designed to do this. Clare's phone does, my Blackberry is too old. There we are, built in redundancy at work. And no compensation. The signal booster and my phone are destined to become electronic waste for no good reason, and there's been no improvement in mobile phone service in the house since we moved in.