Time zone snafu

It's still cold, but at least it's been sunny and dry today, something for which I was especially grateful as I had a trip to Western Cemetery for a burial after driving to St Luke's to take this morning's funeral, very much a local affair. One of the funeral directors' men and the cemetery worker supervising grave digging had been contemporaries with the deceased in secondary school. Unusually, the family decided to organise their own live stream of the service for one of their members in prison. Covid safety measures would not allow an inmate to attend in the company of a prison guard, (something I've witnessed occasionally over the years), but the authorities were willing to arrange an exclusive live video link from church to be arranged. Credit is due to the prison governor for agreeing to this.

I returned home just before two o'clock for my Safeguardng training session on Zoom, only to find that the session had been running already for an hour in Central European time. When I was contacted about the session I explained that there was a slight risk of traffic delay which might make me late, but that I did expect to be back by two. I don't know if the person I was in contact with arranging this was in London, where the Euro-diocesan Safeguarding team is based, or in Brussels. I said I was in Cardiff and would be back by two, but this had evidently not registered, otherwise I wouldn't have been booked in for the session, allowing someone else to take my place. 

It was rather embarrassing, as I got a brief impression that the session was for serving chaplains not locums, whose experience of working in a chaplaincy isn't quite the same. If the Zoom was organised on behalf of the London office by someone in Brussels for people in the dioceses, this was just a simple communications error, neither of us picked up on. But, I'm now wondering if the fact of my being a locum in the UK was taken into account at all. Ah well, I have let the organiser know of the mistake. That's all I can do for the moment.

As this gave me a couple of free hours in the afternoon, I walked into the city centre and enjoyed being out in the streets and shopping centre along with lots of other people, out looking for bargains on the first day all shops are open again for the first time since Christmas Eve. I went to the Camera Centre to investigate a possible lens purchase for my little Olympus, and because I thought of it bought a clamp to use to attach my mobile phone to a tripod while making a video. Because of its shape it's called a 'dog'. Clare was quite bewildered when I told her I'd bought a dog for ten quid! 

I went into John Lewis' store which has also reopened and has huge stocks of discounted goods, especially tempting tech bargains. The top floor is like an Aladdin's cave of red ticket items. Possibly goods from some of the JLP stores nationally that have closed recently have been shipped to stores remaining open. Much temptation. I did buy a box of three cordless phones. Ours are ancient and their batteries are dying. Clare says they are the wrong sort, a health risk. I don't really know what this means. Why would they be on sale if they were?

Another cousin lost

I celebrated the midweek Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning with a dozen people. I wasn't quite on top form, as I put on mask and gloves when I went up to the altar for the Lord's Supper, instead of donning them to distribute Communion after the Eucharistic prayers. I was audible it seems, but the mask worked loose with the movement generated as I spoke, then nearly came off as I started distributing Communion. I should have tested wearing a new design of mask beforehand. I also overlooked one communicant and was puzzled for a moment to find I had one host left, before I was alerted to my omission. 

Oh dear, I didn't have this trouble at St John's the week before last. Working around all the pews to distribute to people in a much larger space is more difficult, you can't build a mental map of the whole congregation to work from so easily. I'm here again on Sunday for my Golden Jubilee Eucharist, but Emma has agreed to distribute Communion, when I have preached and presided, to emphasise the partnership in ministry we share. That already seemed right to do, when we first organised it. 

I went into town in the afternoon, and succumbed to the temptation to buy myself an Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera, second hand, with two lenses, at half the original price. My curiosity about the Micro Four Thirds digital format got the better of me I'm afraid. It's the first model in a series of three, the OMD E-M10 mark one, and came out six years ago. Its great virtues are its lightness and compactness, plus its tech wizardry producing sharp images. I shall enjoy getting to know what it's capable of. If I'm not happy with it, I can part exchange the kit for something different to try out. This year I've earned more than I've spent, so I'm trying hard not to feel guilty about indulging in my hobby, and maybe learning a few new things.

By the time I got back home, I was too tired to take it for a walk, and the camera battery needed charging. We had supper, and ony then did I notice that the sun was already setting. Earlier twilight seems to have crept up on me this last few weeks. We're well into autumn now, and trees are starting to change colour, though not yet shedding huge quantities of leaves, despite recent winds.

I had an email from cousin Dianne to say that Cousin Ivor had died, after a few days in hospital following a massive stroke. It wasn't easy to keep in touch with him. His phone often out of service, no answer to letters. The last time we saw him was five years ago in his new retirement flat in Cambridge, still coming to terms with wheelchair life after losing his leg. We've not gone that far by car since then. 

Life in retirement was cruel to him, losing a leg to diabetes, breaking neck vertebrae in a fall. Before that, he was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, having got away with being a creative workaholic for most of his life. In the last part of his career he taught architecture in Newcastle University, and enjoyed mentoring students, but maybe it wasn't best move, as it's such a competitive hierarchical environment, far removed from working with artists, engineers and craftsmen for most of his life. Right to the end, his design work was done with immaculate, precisely detailed pencil and paper drawings, good enough to be scanned and printed for use. He didn't like using computers or tablets and only did the minimum with any smartphone. Very Old School.