Shifting sands

I didn't sleep as well as I hoped to, even if I did wake up a little later, missing the song of a lone blackbird at first light. In the news, Tory spokesmen keep harping on about Keith Starmer being a man with no plan, and saying 'but we have a plan'. I'm waiting to hear someone calling them out, simply by saying 'yes you have a plan - to make your supporters richer by making the poor poorer'. I've not even heard one of Radio Four's satirists say this yet, let alone a politician.

The pool filtration system seemed to run all night as well as much of yesterday, suggesting a problem with the timing clock. When Jorge came by late morning to clean the pool, I explained in Spanish what I thought was a problem and was relieved he understood. I must keep an eye on this in the next few days, as it may mean the clock needs replacing.

After breakfast I did a small amount of hand washing, then spent another futile half hour trying the decode the TZ95 camera manual, with little success. What I think I understand, but must put to the test in the field is that when it beeps a warning to me on half depressing the camera shutter, I can ignore and press harder to take a photo, although it seems to be this is rather slow, unless you activate the fancy mechanism that records a series of images either side of the full shutter depression, for you to choose from on review. This feels messy and confusing to me, having grown used to film cameras before the digital era when you got one shot only at a time, and having decisive sharp shooting wits about you was what delivered.

I prepared lunch, leaving a large piece of frozen hake to thaw out, then went shopping and called in at the filling station near Asda for petrol. As it's pretty warm now, the hake was thawed and ready to cook along with steamed veggies when I returned. Quite pleased with the result.

Later in the afternoon I walked to Torre Calaceite and back. The sea was fairly calm, a few people were out sunbathing, or fishing, but nobody was swimming. As the tide was low, I noticed on one of the sandier beaches a sharp drop of nearly a meter in the level of sand from where people were sunbathing to the level where waves were landing, the sea is sucking away sand which at some other time it threw up on to bedrock to form a beach. I imagine weather conditions play a great part in this. The changes may be far less predictable with the impact of global warming. 

This winter like last has seen several Costa shoreline chirungitos badly damaged due to wave action. Even if it's possible to anchor a building structure to bedrock under deep sand, it's a different matter when the sand is washed away and the rest of the building is de-stabilised. In Mallorca last night there was a tragic incident at the Medusa Beach Club, across the bay from Palma. This building is across the road from the beach, and had just opened a new terrace above the restaurant. It was open for music and dancing, but this collapsed under the weight of people partying killing four and injuring sixteen. Not the sea in this case at fault, but bad building design of another kind.

When I returned from walking, it was time to get all the printing done for this weekend - the pew sheet, my sermon, and the tribute to Linda Hammond to deliver at her memorial service on Sunday afternoon. Then, after a supper of salad and chorizo slices, I did some writing, and read some more of Dai Troubadour, before surrendering to sleep.