Maundy Thursday events at a distance

This morning I posted my Morning Prayer YouTube link to WhatsApp just before 'Thought for the Day' as usual. Later on, I watched the live broadcast on telly of the arrival of the Spanish legion in Malaga port. It happens every Maundy Thursday morning, so the legion can perform its traditional escort duty for the trona de la Buen Muerte in tonight's procession. 

The Armada troop transport ship didn't dock in Muelle Uno by the Palmeria de las Sorpresas this year, as when I was here in 2018. It was out on one of the quays used by cruise liners. This meant a couple of kilometres march for the regiment from there to the far end of Muelle Uno, where coaches waited to take them the last stretch to their destination. This way, there aren't the same traffic management problems as a marching column of soldiers would cause.

It was amazing to see the soldiers marching at double time 160-180 paces a minute, with the front rank platoon making 360 degree turns every dozen steps and juggling with rifles over their heads. Much of the footage was shot by a helicopter camera. giving a vivid impression of just how fast the column of soldiers covered ground.

After seeing this we made another grocery shopping trip in an effort to get everything ready before the shops close for Good Friday. Clare cooked some large pieces of merluza in a creamy gingery salsa for lunch, a nice contrast to the pequinitas we had yesterday.

At five thirty I went down to St Andrew's to take part in the Lord's Supper Eucharist, led by Fr William, the chaplaincy's home grown NSM Curate. He celebrated, preached and did the foot washing. I was in the congregation along with ten others, and was invited to have a foot washed. The altar was stripped at the end, but there was no Watch of the Passion, and strangely no reference to Christ's Gethsemane vigil.

Afterwards, I went down to Los Boliches Parish Church, which was full to the doors. The parish priest was in the midst of the sermon. I didn't stay long, but it was good to see a well attended Maundy Thursday service. I went back to watching the live broadcast events from Malaga. I don't have the extra energy to go and watch in the streets, due to my unstable ankle, as I did nine years ago. Opportunities to watch events on telly are richer now than in times past thanks to improved broadcast and production technologies. It's not nearly as emotionally powerful, but more informative from what I can make out from the commentary.

We ony just realised Kath, Anto and Rhiannon are coming on Saturday morning, not tomorrow. We'd both mis-read the original booking message Kath sent us. When I checked with Owain what time his flight would arrive on Saturday, he looked at his phone booking app and discovered he booked his flights the wrong way around, return flight on Saturday, outward flight on Wednesday. Fortunately he hasn't yet checked in, and flights can be changed up to 24 hours before departure, so that's given him an urgent task to do this evening. And he's gigging tonight. Poor guy!