Paid in full

Another good night's sleep, another cold cloudy day. One of the roofing team arrived as we were having breakfast to remove the last traces of the work done and tidy up the front garden. Clare went off to her study group in Penarth, and I took the bus into town to pay the roofing bill at Santander Bank. I was rather annoyed to discover that the bank's computer system was out of order. I was expecting the last person to arrive at the house to collect a back alley gate key at twelve thirty so I caught a bus straight away rather than hang around in hope. When I got back, I made the slide show to go with next week's Morning Prayer video and then cooked lunch. Clare was back just after midday and was able to hand over the last key herself.

After lunch I took a bus into town and re-visited Santander Bank. This time everything was working as intended. Give the size of the invoice I was paying, I was impressed at how thorough the bank clerk was in questioning me about the payment I wanted to make; about the job done, how we chose the contractor and whether any advance payment had been made. She explained that it's part of their anti-scam protocol when dealing with large amounts. Given the rising prevalence of banking fraud I must applaud this, even if it does add a few minutes of Q&A to a visit to the bank. 

On-line banking with Santander is also thorough with its own in-built protocols to ensure you know what you're doing and haven't been pushed into making a transaction by a third party you don't know. I could have made the payment on-line, but as it was such a big sum, I wanted an official receipt containing all the necessary details, for the record. While I was there I was able to leave a notification on our account of my next stay in Spain. I was also told of a new current account set up called 'Edge' which promises favourable interest rates and no fee withdrawals and payment when in Spain. I must investigate this, as it could be beneficial.

While in town I visited John Lewis' but couldn't see any bargains worth contemplating, the popped into Wally's deli and bought a chorizo and some Greek Black olives before taking a bus to Canton and walking the rest of the way home. Before supper I watched the remaining one and a half episodes of 'The Drought', which was, I thought, an impressive piece of movie making, portraying a good relationship between two investigators and the teams backing them up, with some lovely townscapes of Caceres in Extremadura and Lisbon in Portugal. Both places worth visiting. 

Then after supper, with no urgent jobs to do, settled down and watched a couple of episodes of 'Vigil' about a murder on a British nuclear submarine. An interesting way to showcase the role the Navy plays in deterring global superpowers from wiping out life on earth by accident or design. Interesting detective work with limited resources in an unnervingly claustrophobic environment.