Return of the rain

I woke up to find the sky overcast again, with rain threatened for later. After breakfast I started checking what I'd already prepared for the homily at Wednesday's Communion service, and realised that I'd made an error I'd not noticed before. When preparing the print ready pdf files for each week's bible study notes, I'd missed this Wednesday's set of notes, duplicating the following week's notes instead. No sooner than I had discovered this than Caroline emailed me to point this out. I was able to rectify it quickly enough, but the notes printed out already well need the dates on them hand corrected when I go into the office tomorrow. Then I had to write this week's homily to match the bible study texts, but I now have next week's homily already done.

An email arrived from Emma in diocesan HQ to ask if I'd be free and able take on a summer locum job in Lausanne. Lovely to be asked, but under these damned stupid Schengen visa rules, my first period of 180 days doesn't expire until the last week in July, so I couldn't offer two full months as required. Such a shame. I'm pretty sure I'll be asked to cover clergy summer holiday absences back home then as well.

I cooked lunch, using up almost all the remaining veggies in the fridge, and then walked to Mercadona to stock up again for the week. I chatted with Clare for half an hour when I returned to the house. She told me about the very unusual premiere of Mozart's 'Magic Flute' which she saw with Ann and Chris yesterday afternoon. There was quite different take on the staging and libretto in this production, she said. The Guardian's review of it was very critical, but it still sounds like something that would be worth going to see if the opportunity arose. It may well have suffered from being at the beginning of its run of performances, being so different, no matter how well rehearsed such an occasion always is. Not being there for this was the one big sacrifice I had to make in order to come here.

I then set about going into Fuengirola by train to buy myself a new shirt in Dunne's Stores, as I saw one I fancied a few weeks ago but still haven't got around to returning and making the purchase. Rain was in the weather forecast, so I wore my rain coat. It was only drizzling slightly when I left, but by the time I reached Los Boliches it picked up and turned into a downpour which went on for more than an hour. 

I decided to abandon the trip to Dunne's Stores, and ended up with a cup of coffee in the Granier panaderia next to the municipal market, waiting for it to stop. It didn't, but it slackened sufficiently to allow me to return to the house without getting totally soaked. Then after a while, heavy rain returned and continued throughout the evening. It's the first spell of rain in five weeks. Like it is in Britain this year, that's an unusually long winter dry spell. Rain has meant that I wasn't able to walk my full quota today. My rain coat needs to dry out in case there's more rain tomorrow.

After supper, I watched the news on telly for a while, and a programme in English which I found on a specialist channel, but soon lost interest. The internet went down for no apparent reason, so I rebooted the router and all was well. It's the first time I've had to do that since I'm here. Don't feel like reading, so another early night I think, listening to the rain.