It's getting warmer by the day now, so it's no longer necessary to take the chill of the bedroom when I get up as the sun rises. In the mood for a change, I cooked myself a small portion of rice pudding using soya milk, honey and cinnamon for breakfast. Then I put together a video slide show for next week's Morning Prayer and uploaded it to YouTube. In addition to praying, reading articles on-line and sending messages the morning slips by very quickly.
I came across an interesting article about Big Bang cosmological theory, a salutary reminder that findings from the James Webb telescope observations are providing new puzzles for theorists, as they describe an unexpected array of mature galaxies originating from very early on in cosmic history which cannot be accounted for. All this and dark matter too! The article points out that while it's possible to figure out how these observations fit, no theory can explain how time, space and the primordial matter from which the Big Bang originated the universe came into being in the first place.
After it started happening, the process of Creation itself is describable, but not what happened before then, nor how Creation turned Nothing into Something. The writer even quotes the philosopher Kant's First Antimony - a statement in the form of a question about the Universe. By its very nature, the Universe embraces all that exists, with all causes and effects determining how things exist. So what can exist outside of such a Universe to bring it into being? This took me right back to undergraduate days, studying Philosophy of Science. Happy times!
Yesterday I read an article by US Episcopalian Bishop Pierre Whalon entitled 'God does not exist' reminding us of the truth, that the author of all that exists is above and beyond existence itself. We may appropriately attribute existing qualities to God when we describe our experience of the divine but the paradox doesn't go away. It rather warns us to beware of getting stuck with making God in our own image. As Hebrew scripture has reminded us for three millennia! We struggle to describe and explain Creation as its wealth and complexity keeps on revealing itself to science. And, we struggle to describe the unknowable undefinable uncreated Creator whom we worship acknowledge to be God, source of our being. 'Twas ever thus.
After lunch I walked to Mercadona and did my weekend grocery shopping. Then I decided it was about time I tried out the free bus service. There are five circular lines covering Fuengirola, Los Boliches and Playa Carvahal, and their routes interconnect in places, so it's possible to get from one end of town to another once you've studied the map!
The Line 3 bus stops at the entrance to this urbanizacion and runs every half hour, although there's no obvious timetable on display at the bus stop or on-line. It was a fortunate co-incidence that one arrived as I reached the stop. It goes over the hill, then left down the main road all the way to the roundabout by Fuengirola's Cercania train station, also free to travel on at the moment. Then it doubles back along the avenue running alongside the train line to Los Boliches before turning left up the hill to when I got on. If you didn't want to walk down or up the hill for any reason, and have time to wait, a circular line bus is a real asset.
I got off at the train station and walked in the direction of the zoo and bullring. I found a camera shop open, which sold a good range of Panasonic and Canon cameras, and just a couple by Sony. I struck up a conversation in Spanish with the man behind the counter, and while I struggled to find the words for some technical words appropriate to a digital camera, I did converse without either of us reverting to English. I found out there's a bigger better stocked tienda than this high street one, on the Avenida de Coin. I must go and take a look when I'm next in that vicinity.
I went as far as the church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, next to the Ayuntamiento. As it was the end of the afternoon, the church was open, so I went in and sat there for a while, as dozens of people were gathering well before Mass. I think the Rosary was about to be recited beforehand. The parish was established just after the second Vatican Council in 1968 and the present church building dates from the 1990s. Its exterior is quite traditional, but internally it reflects the revised liturgical arrangements which the Council recommended - a broad narrow raised sanctuary, square nave with good sight lines, simply furnished, a font on its north side and the sacrament reserved on the south. Designed like this I suspect, and not adapted, so the whole has a harmonious feel to it.
As I made my way back to Los Boliches my ankle began to give me trouble and walking was intermittently painful. Just as I reached the Line 3 stop opposite the Los Boliches football stadium, a bus pulled up, with perfect timing to take me the last and worst mile uphill to the stop I'd started from a few hours before!
After a couple of days with very little pain, previous instability has returned. It's not as if I walked too much yesterday, or was wearing different shoes. I can't figure out how or why it happens. When I take my shoes off and walk around the house barefoot, the ankle joint stops misbehaving. It might be an indication that all my shoes, one way or another aren't giving enough of the right support for my ankle, but there's no way to find out until I return home and find an orthopaedic specialist advice about shoes. It's so frustrating because of the inconsistency. What a bother!
I was delighted to receive an invite from Peter and Linda to a party on April 1st, celebrating thirty years since they arrived on the Costa del Sol. Linda's parents were already settled here, so they got to know the region before they both retired. What a splendid thing to do, coming back in style after a tough year in which Linda lost a leg to an incurable infection. Such determined defiance!
Clare's at the opera tonight with our friends Diana and Pete, so we haven't talked. Owain posted a photo on the family WhatsApp threat from his usual position on the bridge over the river Spree in the heart of Berlin. He's there visiting his deejay friend Jamie, and having a well deserved chillout weekend after a very stressful and busy few months. A much quieter evening for me, writing, reflecting, reading, and if I'm honest, missing company.
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