Usefully busy

I emerged from a good night's sleep to the return of sunny weather this morning. After breakfast I phoned the neighbour who is acting as executor for a man with no next of kin, whose funeral I am doing next Monday, and arranged to visit him tomorrow afternoon, following my post op optometrist visit.

Then set about making this week's prayer video, only to discover that the Photos app I'd been using had been removed by Windows 11 and replaced by Clipchamp, much more complex, and maybe find if you are stitching videos together, but not if you're just doing a slide show  with audio. A Clipchamp pop-up note said I could download the old Photos app, now rebranded as Photos Legacy. A ridiculous and annoying waste of time aiming to impose on you something you don't need and wate time seeking out the thing you do need. Ah well, I finished the job, and then moved on to digital task number two.

The Church of England Pensions Board, as mentioned previously, is going paperless next year, unless you make a special appeal against this. Well, I decided to try out their sign up system first, and followed the instructions in the letter, which included a registration code. The one given me looked odd and initially I couldn't figure out why. I entered all my details plus the code, and I got an error message in response. The code was in square brackets, I tried with and without the brackets. Nothing. 

It occurred to me this was not my personal code, but a tiny piece of mail merge programming language. I called the helpline and found I was one of many whose batch mailing had failed to deliver a personal number. A week of apologies to every caller for the help desk clerk. What a nightmare! Another properly error checked letter would soon arrive, but the registration code was also printed on a document notifying me of a pension increase which was mailed out last February. I retrieved it from my almost orderly pension file folder, and successfully used it to register my new on-line CofE pension account. I must get around to doing the CinW equivalent. I think we have one, but I haven't bothered yet, as we still get paper documents - running behind the CofE.

Quite a good experience in the end really. There was almost no helpline queue, and I spoke to a kind lady, rather than a robot pretending to be human and failing the voice test.

After a busy morning, I lost track of time and had not long started to cook lunch when Clare returned from her study group. Fortunately the meal didn't take long to make so we were eating by half past one. Then Ruth's weekly email with the Morning Prayer texts arrived. When I checked the scripture passage for my Thursday offering, from Revelation 21, I noticed something I'd not registered before, and it gave me an idea for writing a reflection on it. In just under an hour it was written and recorded, which was satisfying. Then I went out and did the weekly grocery shopping at the Co-op, and walked until it was dark.

We had a Fountain Choir rehearsal in St Catherine's at six thirty, so we set out early to arrange chairs of the seven of us who were able to attend. It got very cold in church as we had no heating so it was rather a struggle to get through, especially as the ancient Latin music we're singing is both unusual and hard to remember. I'm out of my depth really. It was great to return home to a warm house, even though the heating at home had been switched off three hours earlier.

A little more preparatory work on a Lent Course for St Andrew's Fuengirola before turning in early. My ankle has been giving me extra trouble today, perhaps because the ambient temperature has dropped to the level that's normal for this time of year, even if it's happening much later than usual.