Wallander redux

Glad to return to St German's for this morning's Solemn Mass, and to invite the congregation to pray for Hamid, as he is to be stripped of all support prior to deportation this Wednesday. People are very fond of him, and much troubled by the news. After the service I had a visit from a lady who is asking for a church wedding blessing this coming Friday. A hasty civil wedding had been organised ten years ago, when she was diagnosed with cancer, just in case. She's cancer free now and the family has survived other tribulations too, so there's much to celebrate and thank God for. 

I don't think she's a regular churchgoer any more, although she lives just around the corner from the church, but like many others, such good-will and gratitude is evident, and she knows where to come to give thanks. Fr Mark has asked me to do a funeral on Thursday, of a lady who could see St John's Canton from the front gate of the family home. Even though it's not a funeral in church, a sense of connection to the church and its ministry locally still persists. These modest local bonds of affection and sense of place still have potential in helping the church to reach out to the community it is planted in to serve.

Despite the good weather, neither of us felt inclined to go far after lunch. Clare enjoyed her garden and I completed my labour of love, editing and uploading photos. The job's completed now, and you can find them posted

Day five photos here

Day six photos here

Day seven photos here

At least now they're in a place where I can study them and reflect on the journey through history, with so many layers to it. The tour guides were marvellous, and naturally, perhaps, emphasised the grand European public figures, royalty, musicians, artists and the suchlike. I would like to have heard about the landscape and ecosystems, wealth creating trade, agriculture, industry and science that made life possible for all those top layer people. But maybe that would have required a two week voyage!

I noticed a new series of the English made series of 'Wallander' crime stories airing on BBC 1 tonight, starring Kenneth Branagh. As this had started last week, I watched the first on iPlayer, then the next one live. It's well produced and acted, no doubt, but still leaves me feeling that it doesn't quite capture the Scandinavian ethos, despite being set in the same western Sweden landscape as all the previous series. 

Not hearing any Swedish spoken feels incongruous. After years of scanning English subtitles and hearing the original dialogue, I may not have learned much Swedish, but voice and gesture convey more than words. In fact having the whole thing all in English made it feel, well, more foreign than usual. In fact, the Swedish originals are never short of English, or Danish phrases in the mix, as that is the nature of discourse in a linguistically diverse society, part of what gives it richness and colour.

What gives this series an interesting edge is Branagh's interpretation of Wallander as early onset Alzheimers disease starts to impact upon his work. It can't be the same as Krister Hendricksson's portrayal, as their personalities are different, but therein lies power of the impression made. Seeing this story re-enacted by different men in separate series and languages brings home a painful tragic reality affecting millions today worldwide.

Back into routine

Feeling quite tired yesterday after a busy weekend, so had a lazy morning, catching up on uploading photos to Picasaweb. Already last week's active leisure time enjoyment recedes into the distance. I went into the office in the afternoon to complete preparations for the evening's BCRP Board meeting. Chairman Gerry arrived early and briefed us on recent meetings with various interested parties, giving me a head start on things he wanted to say to the Board. Very helpful, as I am the default scribe for the meeting. It was a lively meeting securing our plans for a Business Crime Manager appointment and an annual meeting with a timetable. More work for me in pushing forward the publicity element of who we are and what we do, to my mind rather neglected until now. Having an active and interested management board makes all the difference.

After another tired and lazy morning, I turned to my scribbled notes from yesterday's meeting and set to work on producing a coherent set of minutes. Three hours later, despite enduring a fifteen minute migraine aura which came and went without further consequences, the job was complete. I was quite surprised at how much detail I did recall, once I joined notes to emerging thoughts. Sometimes it seems that I forget minor details very quickly, but the reality is that things are slower to register, but can be recalled, given time. Just like an old hard drive with little empty space left. For the moment however, I can still turn out a decent job, providing I work hard enough.

This evening I rejoined the Chi Gung class in St Mary's Church Hall. It's a year since I last attended, and it did me a power of good. There were were a good mix of familiar and new faces, and Christie was on excellent inspiring form, gentling us all back into action. A perfect antidote to excess mental effort. It was dusk when I walked back home. How the nights are drawing in. The chill of autumn promotes brisk walking rather than a leisurely stroll.

  

Virgen de Soledad and other images

We hosted the monthly Ignatian meditation group at home this lunchtime. Thee were six of us. I offered to lead, as I wanted to share a discovery made during Semana Santa in Spain of one particular image of the Virgen de Soledad - Our Lady of Solitude. Some portray Mary weeping, wringing her hands in sorrow, lamenting the death of her son, but this one struck me as quite different, memorable.

The cross behind a kneeling Mary is empty. It is finished. She is alone with her grief, and emptiness. If indeed the body of Jesus had been laid in her arms, as imagined in the Rosary and the great tradition of pietà sculpture, this moment is past, and he has been taken away for burial. It's that empty moment unmentioned by scripture, in between Jesus saying to John, "Son behold your mother" and John taking Mary into his own home. It's the tragic counter-point to Annunciation. "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word"  

It makes me think of all those grief stricken mothers you see in television news stories about wars, natural disasters, accidents, and those moments when we say "Oh God, why?" and there is nothing else to say.

After lunch with the group, I had intended to go to the office, but inflated sinuses made me feel groggy and tired so I went to bed and slept away the afternoon instead. Clare's colleague Sandra came to stay the night, and that left me to my own devices, idly watching catch-up TV, while uploading Costa del Sol pictures to my OneDrive site, so now I have a second Cloud photo archive. Frankly, accessing photos through Google+ is irritating, because of the attempt to create an all purpose user interface to compete with Facebook. I liked Picasa a lot better, and now it's relegated to being a background option. Getting into photos with OneDrive is simpler and the interface is nice and clean. Despite my annoyances with Microsoft, some things they do very well indeed.

  

 

Photography with Rhiannon

I seem to have spent an excessive amount of time on line and on the phone through the weekend and since dealing with urgent business concerns. Not quite what I hoped for with Rhiannon spending the week with us, just something to be coped with, by getting up early and working late. Monday she went shopping with Grandma and did some baking. Tuesday we went on an expedition to Dyffryn Gardens, and I gave her a camera to use. The weather was very kind and congenial for picture taking. I was much taken by her skill and enthusiasm for taking pictures with our little Sony Cybershot W690 point 'n shoot with telephoto lens. 

In fact, she took over two hundred pictures of which no more than half a dozen were out of focus (as the battery was nearly empty and its motor functions slowed up). Most of the pictures she took were well framed and without motion blur, with some interesting close up selections. Quite something for a nine year old. I was quite thrilled to think that I have an accomplice who finds pleasure in capturing visual beauty and interest the way I do. Oh yes, all our family have cameras and take pictures as a matter of course, but what I saw yesterday was the hunter's glint in her eye as we wandered the gardens together.

Today, I showed her how to upload pictures to the Picasa website from her own Gmail account. It'll take a while for her to learn to use properly, and learn photo editing, but there's nothing like an early start. I had difficulty accessing Google+. It required date of birth and gender, if not a photo for her profile, information I had no right to give or encourage her to impart. She's old enough to use her account responsibly, but has no need to disclose any information that might make her vulnerable on-line. She's not too young to hold and use an account, which is, in any case, supervised by her parents, but why should such personal details be of any interest to anyone? Or the personal details of anyone supervising her? I used to take no interest in the issue of personal data acquisition by Google and others, but suddenly it's become personal.

Anyway we got her pictures up on the web and looked at them on the Asus Transformer when Uncle Owain came around for supper happily home from a great weekend of gigging in Berlin. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved out there before too long.

Catching up

I stayed up late uploading all my holiday photos to Picasa web albums while working on a sermon. You can look at them here - four albums with Pembrokeshire in the title. Yes, I know that Picasa has been taken over by Google+, but as long as it's possible to revert to the Picasa User Interface that's what I'll so, as I don't like the new version. Although it's glossier and smarter, the very fact that it displays larger thumbnail pictures makes it slower to load, and the controls aren't all in the same places. It's like Windows 8, pushing new features on the users that didn't ask for them and don't like using them. Trouble is, clever guys only seem to talk to other clever guys, not ordinary routine dependent mortals.

I made it to Ystradowen to celebrate the Eucharist by the skin of my teeth today. I met red traffic lights at every junction from Ely Bridge all the way there. Leaving for a service later in the morning, there is more traffic around and that's reflected in the control system. Half a hour out to Cowbridge is usually more than enough. If this happens again I must be sure to leave an extra ten minutes.

After the service I had an interesting conversation with a doctor who, along with his wife is a cancer specialist. She works locally, and he travels globally in the course of his professiono, so he hasn't been there when I've celebrated before. There's another medical couple at another church in Cowbridge Benefice. How many more doctors attend their local church I wonder. It's always good to discover scientific minds that are not closed to religious faith.

It was nice to have lunch outdoors in the garden again. It's still a bright blaze of flowers and our little apple tree has a dozen fruit growing on it. We seldom ate outdoors while on holiday. Not only were we not around much at the cottage during the day, but when we were there, the weather wasn't good enough. We both spent several hours on the phone catching up with friends and family - a bit more grateful than usual for the connectivity we tend to take for granted, here in the city.
     

Don't be so complex

After dropping Clare off at her class in Dinas Powis yesterday evening, I had time before Tai Chi class to spend fifteen minutes out in the mild fresh air and evening sunshine out by the sea lock on Cardiff Bay Barrage, watching a yacht pass through. After a day of sunshine spent mostly indoors, a moment of sheer pleasure. Photos are here.

It's a pity that it's now so much more hassle to manage uploading of pictures to my photo website, since Google started to absorb the Picasaweb service into its Google+ offering. Google plus is so smart and shiny, in many ways it's brilliant, but with so many options flashing up you end up feeling like you've lost control over the user interface you thought you had mastered. Picasa evolved slowly and consistently. There should be no need to re-learn how to do simple straightforward things. This is not an improvement.

OK you can still use the old familiar Picasa user interface, but like other things due to be phased out, a switch back option appears as a floating drop down menu seconds after the Google+ photos  has loaded, but for how long? Can't we have a user interface switch button that's more prominent and permanent, as is the ubiquitous green 'Share' button. The Google+ share option is very slick, but demanding too much in your face. 

Everyone should have the responsibility to stop and think before they use this, or else they will end up inundating others with links to pictures they aren't interested in. My dear sister still sends me the same photo share link serveral times, and sends me back links to photos I've shared with her. She's far from stupid, in fact she's very methodical, getting control over these tools is dauntingly difficult and she's had a lifetime of working with graphic tools. But this shows that the way the green Share button system works is not as clear and user friendly as the smart young people running the world at Googleplex think it is. It presumes you understand jargon and popular phrases. Not a good idea.

Like junk mailers, there's an intention here to be helpful and offer services Google thinks you want, but that's not the same as asking you if you want things. Frankly, all I want is something simple and speedy that I understand and feel I can control. Likewise my sister! Give us a break Google - make it look as pretty and clean as you like but remember how important familiarity is to technology users. Learn from the disaster of Microsoft Windows 8 abandonment of the Start button (soon to be re-introduced). Don't be evil, Google, but also don't be so complex also.

 

Picasa demise

Back in College to start the working week with bi-lingual Morning Prayer as usual, then a learning hour after breakfast on using Moodle, a meeting with the Principal, and a student before lunch and another student after lunch, then another hour's work on getting Moodle to accept user data alongside the Residential Training administrator. In between times I found that the March edition of the diocesan newspaper 'Croeso' had published an article about my Taormina ecumenical experiences and one of my photos. I scanned it and emailed to to the FMM sisters and St George's Church secretary. It's a pity the article wasn't attributed to anyone - an unfortunate little editorial omission.

By mid afternoon I was tired, desperate to stop, despite a good night's undisturbed sleep, but that's how I am after a spell of distance driving these days. I don't recover as well as I used to. Last night, I drove home from Bristol with an acute spasm in my rear ribcage, due to sitting awkwardly. It diminished to an ache by bedtime and didn't stop me from sleeping, but it was there all day, goading me to slack off a bit. 

I'd intended to go into the CBS office in the afternoon, but thought better of it. I went home, missed the Family Eucharist for once, and rested. Owain came around for a belated Mothering visit and supper. It was good to be indoors with that chill wind at freezing point making life miserable outdoors all day, as it has done for the past couple of weeks. Yet, daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses all seem to thrive on it, giving a splash of colour to parks, gardens and hillsides, to compensate for frequently grey skies.

Pottering around in the evening, with time to explore, I opened for myself a Flickr account for uploading photos too. It's highly spoken of by many, but I find that I don't like the user interface as much as that of Picasa, soon to disappear into the less than friendly over-complex Google+ Facebook challenger. I've started to find others complaining in web forums about the demise of the Picasa way of doing things, so it's not just me and my sister June who are resentful about this.

Before logging out for the day, I found an email from Suore Tarcisia thanking me for the article and returning my ecumenical greetings and promises of prayer for the election of a new pope, which starts tomorrow.
  

Google blues

I started the week with a home visit to my friend Father Graham Francis, as his 'tech consultant' to help establish a simple and straightforward means for him to upload a .pdf file of his weekly church bulletin to the website I set up for him about four years ago. We've both been so busy that it's taken a long time to get around to sorting this out person to person. I started the project using Google Pages. Since then the website I made has been relocated to Google Sites, fortunately without breaking the URL or appearance. One time when we needed to do a site update, we lost the password and it took ages to recover - that was before Graham had broadband. It's much easier to manage these things now. 

This time the new Google Sites interface had me puzzling for ages to find out how to make a simple functional way of attaching .pdf files to an archive page. I'd simply forgotten how the web layout editor worked - and really it's very simple to do once the penny drops. The site appearance has changed, and this fooled my memory. Google cosmetic changes create problems for older users like my sister June, and her contemporaries, a decade older than me. I wonder how many more people find this a difficult issue? We have quickly learned to hate Google+, and the appearance changes which the Google+ absorption of Picasaweb have led to. Does anybody at Googleplex listen to people over sixty?

After lunch, mission accomplished, I made my way to St Mikes to prepare for a Family Eucharist with a group of students experimenting with a traditional style of ancient liturgy adapted to the setting of the college chapel, with pews cleared to one side so that everyone was standing together or sitting on the ground in the cleared space. The preparation and parts of the service were filmed for a documentary programme being made on one of the students. I wonder how that will work out? I'll be interested to hear what reaction the service designers get from those who took part also.