Mission reported

Another overcast day with showery spells. Promptly at eight the door bell disrupted our slumber. Our fish order for the month arriving from Ashtons. After breakfast, Clare spent ages unpacking and bagging up the content of the order ready for freezing. Fish soup for lunch!

I sent the final revision of my end of stay report to Emma at diocesan HQ. Later we talked about it on the phone. I heard that I wasn't alone among locum chaplains in not receiving invitations to visit or meet with congregation members. A habit which seems to have been lost in the aftermath of COVID. Gathered church becoming nothing more than a gathering of religious consumers, hospitable when gathered, but not otherwise? 

Clare ordered Venetian blinds for the front room, and a man arrived to install them just before lunch. Then a fancy airbed with built-in pump was delivered. We expect a houseful when Rachel and Jasmine arrive at the end of the month, and everyone here for Owain's birthday. Poor guy, his iMac won't power up after ten months in storage. Heaven knows what's wrong with it. He's expecting a big pay rise eventually but getting to know the worst, and whether it can be fixed will have to wait until then.

After lunch, I worked on a reflection for next Thursday. It's difficult to think of something fresh to say in 500 words on The Rich Man and Lazarus when you've covered it so many times. Impossible not to repeat some ideas, but important to find a new insight, even if it does take ages. While I was writing, Clare had her first clarinet lesson with a loaned instrument. While she's mastered basic flute playing she feels the strain on her shoulders from the transverse playing position. The vertical playing of the clarinet could be more amenable to her. She's not afraid to give things a try, that's for sure.

As soon as I set out for a walk at tea time, it started to rain. Rather than get soaked, instead of ending my walk with a visit to Tesco's for a bottle of wine, I went straight there and back in between showers. It's so frustrating, this unpredictable weather. 

As I have my MRI appointment at eight in the morning, I rang the Radiology department at UHW to confirm attendance, I asked about parking and was told Saturday is the best day of the week to get a place in the multi-storey car park. So I don't have to get up extra early to walk there, in order to avoid having to hunt for a parking space in competition with thousands of others.

After supper, I went out again to complete my daily steps quota on a damp drizzly dull evening, before an early night.