Winds of change

This week the midweek Mass attended by a class of children from Tredegarville School moves to Tuesday from Wednesday. so I was out of the house by nine thirty to drive across town to St German's. After the service, four of us drank coffee and chatted in the church hall. In today's email was a copy of the Bishop's decree on the formation of the mew Ministry Areas. Like many faits accomplis, it's short on detail and not thought through in detail, and is not being well received. As a top-down edict its consequence is to reduce the number of lay people involved in decision making, while increasing the responsibilities of the few. The impact of changes imposed on churchgoing membership overall remains to be seen. If it doesn't work, an edict reversing the changes can just as easily be imposed.

When I got back later than usual, I cooked lunch, then went for a circuit of Bute Park. The sun had just set as I crossed Pontcanna Fields on the way back/ The sky was beautiful, mostly clear but decorated with colourful clouds. The temperature dropped in the waning light, and thick mist rolled over the grass. An enchanting scene.

More outrageous revelations in the news about Downing Street government support staff and cabinet members flouting covid regulations last spring's lockdown. Will this be enough to put an end to Boris Johnson's premiership? Several times he has denied law breaking by his office staff, and now a formal investigation is under way which may show that he knowingly lied. He has lied before, notably about  the promise of brexit, and got away with it, but now it seems loyal electors are losing patience with him. After all you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

In the evening we watched an interesting programme in the BBC2 series 'Digging for Britain'. It's best described as a news magazine programme on archaeological finds, reviewing work on digs going on in various parts of Britain. One of the five reports was on finding clear evidence of manor grange farm of the mediaecal Order of Knights Hospitallers in the Leicester countryside, on a previously unexcavated site whose surface contours led people to presume previously that it had once been an iron age fort. In a an Anglo Saxon cemetery in the city of Cambridge were found grave goods and ornamental clasps that had traces of mineralised fibre from the cloaks they belonged to, from fifth century Britain. The weave pattern in each trace was quite different, indicating local and continental weaving methods being used in the same era. 

Then there was a report on a palaeontological discovery in the mud of Rutland Water at low level, that has turned out to be the fossilised skeleton of a ten metre long icthysaurus, the largest of its kind ever found in Britain. TV news reporting at its most riveting - scientists on the job, enthusing! After this treat I remembered that I was two thirds of the way through 'When the dust settles' on More Four, about a murderous Danish terror attack, eight people whose lives are changed by it, as well as tracking down perpetrators. Well observed slow going, ten episodes long, but I watched one episode before turning in for the night.

Tight parking

Instead of walking to St John's to celebrate their midweek Eucharist this morning, I took the car, so that afterwards I could take it to Qwik-Fit, two streets away to get a dud sidelight bulb replaced, prior to my trip to Kenilworth tomorrow. I had to park in a tight space on the street outside the garage, the Golf manages this very well indeed, given the patience to execute a manoeuvre involving many turns of the steering wheel. 

The mechanic who fetched the car from the street and drove it into the service bay complemented me, and said that he'd not attempted the reverse procedure to get the car out of the space, but simply opened the door of the car in front, disengaged the hand brake and pushed it forward far enough for him to drive out easily. I assume the other car awaited collection, or a service, one for which he had keys, or it was unlocked. We laughed together about this. It didn't take long to replace the dud bulb. The guys remember the car from other occasions I've gone there over the past year. I suspect it may be one of the few 25 year old cars they deal with, and one which mechanics are fond of, for its robust durable qualities.

After lunch, more work on funeral preparation for next week, and a visit to members of a bereaved family in the former family home within walking distance, in the Parish, where their matriarch had lived for most of her life, until her last few weeks in hospital. This will be my fifth funeral in three weeks. I returned to cook supper, having promised to email a copy of the order of service to look over. I sat down after supper for the excellent 'Winterwatch' wildlife programme on BBC2. I saw it through, and nodded off during the next programme, and woke up after midnight, realising I hadn't emailed the text. I'd already made a start on it earlier, so it didn't take too long to finish and send. I just hope the 'send' timestamp isn't noticed, and the recipients assume from that I must be working extra hard, when in reality, I'm prone to nod off.

      

Happy encounters

Clare should have had her operation today, but postponement until next week means normal routine continues, and there are still office tasks to complete to ensure I can continue to do a few things from home that others won't need to pick up or worry about. On the way into the office I was greeted on St Mary Street by a Zimbabwean man who attended St John's when I was there. He was a refugee from the Mugabe regime who had a road accident and lost his memory, compounding his many problems. 

During the period when his identity and right to stay in Britain was being established, he was homeless and living on the streets, but still attended church, grateful for the fellowship and after service refreshments. Now he's settled with a room of his own in a community, possibly some kind of sheltered accommodation, although he didn't explain where. His English is limited, and I suspect he still suffers from those injuries of some seven years ago. He was cheerful, clean, well dressed, and remembered my name. Such a pleasant surprise.

On the way home, going in the reverse direction up St Mary Street, I bumped into Glenys and Bethan her grand daughter, lifelong St John's attenders, whom I haven't seen for eighteen months. Although I work next door to St John's I seldom have time or opportunity to go in there and meet people these days. I'd like to do that when I have a duty-free Sunday.

My attention was grabbed during an evening of otherwise dull and repetitive TV offerings by the BBC 2 Stargazing Live 2015 programme with Brian Cox and Dara O'Brien. It's like one of those 'Springwatch' natural history programmes that also make the most of the opportunity to open the eyes of TV watchers in a new way. It was superbly interesting and entertaining, and covered several astronomical subjects of current interest with enthusiasm and great clarity - a wonderful showcase for modern scientific adventures. It was as engaging a programme as editions of 'Tomorrow's World' were when I was a teenager.

I was taken with the appeal to viewers to send in digital photos of the constellation of Orion, which would then be processed using advanced photo stacking software into a composite hi-def image of that region of stars, to see what new information could be gleaned from the result. I remember Peter Hammond at St Andrews Fuengirola telling me about his use of photo stacking software to produce a quality image of the moon and Saturn, but crowd sourcing image data from TV viewers takes this concept to a completely different level. Must watch again tomorrow night, post eclipse.