Lighting frustration

The feast of the Annunciation today. The Parish has given up the routine observance of major saints' days that fall during the week unless it's on a Wednesday. It means going to the Cathedral or to a church in a neighbouring parish which maintains the tradition. Apart from the travel, there's the hassle of finding out what the service times are, and it's not always possible to fit this in. Retirement often feels busy, not least because it takes much longer to do perform domestic chores, take exercise and go for medical checkups! Anyway, I wrote two reflective haiku on the Gospel of the day. So far I've been able to write one on each day since Ash Wednesday. It makes you think about what is the most important point in the Gospel text.

Mild and dry today with clouds and sunshine.  Getting to bed half an hour earlier last night was beneficial. I must make more effort to resist late evening distractions. After breakfast Clare went to her study group in Penarth. I prepared, recorded and edited next Wednesday's Morning Prayer before cooking lunch in time for her return. Writing a biblical reflection on Christ the Good Shepherd after lunch came quickly. Making the recording will have to wait.

I went to Cardiff Central station to buy tickets for the trip to Derby for Geoff's funeral. I'll need to get up very early to catch an eight forty five train. It'll get me to Derby Cathedral half an hour early to give me time to meet his family and any colleagues from the Diocese in Europe who may be there. I'll have plenty of time to return on the three thirty eight train. Amazingly, commitment to particular trains means the total cost is forty pounds, a flexi-fare costs over a hundred!

Before returning home I walked around town and checked the progress of the demolition of the former Debenhams department store building. Not much is visible over the safety screens enclosing the site but since I last passed by, the interior of the building has been hollowed out, with the excavating machines digging down from the rooftop parking bay. It's a pity I've not yet been able to find a viewpoint over the site above street level.

I took the bus back to Canton and walked home from there. After a cup of tea and a bun, I went out again and walked in Llandaff Fields for half an hour to complete my daily distance quota. After supper the strip lighting installed under the kitchen cabinets over the working surface came adrift from their mounting, not for the first time. There simply aren't quite enough clips attaching to each long florescent tube to ensure it's sufficiently stable, to survive the lightest of glancing blows from beneath. Easy enough to touch it if you're using the working surface. There are three units attached to each other in a chain, if one goes they all go. I'm surprised they have come apart without breaking to tubes. In desperation, I used gaffer tape to suspend the units while I manipulated the three feet long chain of tubes into their mounting brackets and then reconnect them. That gave me a lot of stress and lost me an hour's relaxation, so I watched the last episode in the current series of 'Astrid - murders in Paris' before going to bed