Goodbye Golf

I walked to the doctor's surgery before eight yesterday to queue for a 'book on the day' appointment, and got one for ten forty with a young doctor, Dr Mullaney, who I think has joined the practice fairly recently, as she shares a consulting room with Dr Dyban, and has a name plate on the door. I gave her a summary of Friday night's little drama, and as a result, she booked me in for a blood test. Also she ordered an appointment for an ultrasound scan of my gall bladder, about which I should hear in the next few days, hopefully. It's a good idea to get as early an assessment as possible so a treatment plan can be made.

Phil of NG Motors got in touch to say that the VW Polo the garage has for sale is ready to be seen by us, now a small amount of remedial work has been done. He arranged for a couple of his mechanics to drive over with a spare charged battery to get the Golf working and drive it back to their place. It will save me lots of hassle. These guys are so kind and helpful. With a live battery plumbed in it burst into life with gusto, as it usually does. I admit I felt a small pang of regret at letting go of it. This car I've kept longer than any other I've had in fifty years of driving, and it's certainly been the best value to us, scruffy or not. Here's the Golf, taking its leave of us.

If we're happy when we've seen the Polo, Pil will MoT it and take the Golf in part exchange, rather than dispose of it or send it for scrap. I arranged to take a look today, and went over to Splott at noon today, all the way on the 61 bus. I was surprised by its good looks. Even more surprised by the fact that its number plate ends JKK - my initials. It has my name on it, evidently!

The car is twelve years old, with one owner, looked after by the garage for most of its life. It's in immaculate condition for its age, and in a stylish metallic slate grey. It only has thirty nine thousand  miles on the clock. It's a bargain at £1500 for someone like me who prefers a car that isn't internet connected, with lots of advanced technology. Having said that, it does have electric windows and central locking, I think. It has a 1.2 litre engine, so it's in a lower tax bracket and does 50mpg at 50mph. Adequate performance for me, with no need to commute to work, or drive great distances non stop any longer, and best of all, it's economical.

I transferred ownership of the Golf to the garage, and will take ownership of the Polo when I return tomorrow to with the money to complete the exchange. I only sat in the car, to make sure, as Clare insisted, that it was big and comfortable enough for me to sit in and drive. At full stretch I'd take someone with legs three inches longer than mine.

Mission accomplished, I returned home via the city centre, on the 'clockwise' city centre circle number one bus, making the same mistake as last time, as it went a time consuming roundabout way back to the centre, from thence I caught the usual 61. I can't yet identify where to pick it up over in Splott. Next time I must try the anti-clockwise circle bus instead.

Back home, after a very late lunch, I modified my Aviva car insurance policy to cover the new car, using the excellent  MyAviva app on my tablet. The change only cost me seven quid, which was most pleasing. The rest of day, I lay low, watching catch up episodes of NCIS on My5.

Sub zero days

It was around freezing point when we walked energetically to St Catherine's Sunday morning, where I celebrated the eight o'clock Eucharist. We returned home, and didn't go out for the rest of the day, although the weather was bright. With such a chilling wind neither of us felt like venturing far. Even though the days are lengthening noticeably, even though we have plenty of warm outdoor clothes, we seem to lack the motivation to go far. Except in imagination that is. My mind drifts south toward Málaga, where it's eighteen degrees by day at the moment.

Monday morning, I had to take the car in early for its pre-MOT diagnostic at our Golf specialist garage N G Motors in Splott. If it needs lots of costly work doing, we really will have to make the effort to buy a new one in the coming week before I leave for locum duty in Málaga. I caught the 61 bus back from Adamsdown as I couldn't establish where the nearest stop was over in Splott, so I had to walk about a kilometre to where I knew I would find one. There were three women waiting at the stop, and I let them board the bus before me. The last one, a lady about my age turned to me as she got on and said: "Thank you there aren't many gentlemen around these days. No please and thank you either" lamenting the lack of common courtesy that seems to pervade some aspects of life today.

Tuesday morning, I had a phone call from Mike's widow Gail, in response to a letter I'd posted to her yesterday with my written personal tribute to my oldest friend. She said she'd like it to be read at his Memorial Service, as she felt that I'd well captured the person she knew and loved, and expressed it beautifully. Indeed, as part of my mourning him, I put time into crafting and editing the text, so it would be beautiful. As a poet and writer, he so loved words. It was our shared delight. I wanted to do him proud. 

I suggested making a recording of my text for use in church. Gail liked this proposal, so I did just that, using the Windows 10 voice recorder app, and the Audacity sound editor to render the output into an MP3 file. I tested in on PC and Smartphone, and played it through my office HiFi, to check sound quality. I was pleased with the result, and emailed it to her straight away. Happily she thought the result was fit to use, and asked if I'd be willing to contact the Vicar, Fr Andrew Todd to arrange it with him, once she'd obtained his email address.

Later in the day, the garage called to say the car didn't need as much attention as I'd feared, given that it's 23 years old. With one minor welding repair, it passed its MOT and is fit to be re-insured and taxed again for another six months. This gives us longer to consider a replacement, and find a keen DIY enthusiast who might be glad of it for a restoration or race 'modding' project. After receiving the call, I had call from Fr Rufus to bring me up to date with his parish news. We chatted for so long that I no longer had enough time to go by bus and retrieve the car before the garage closed, so it had to wait until this morning.

I had to be out of the house and on a 61 bus by eight thirty to make the 45 minute trip to Splott, amid flurries of snow at minus four degrees. Still, the bus was warm, and this was far more relaxing than having to drive through rush hour traffic. The return trip in the car took twenty minutes, and Fr Mark arrived for a chat, and to hand over church keys, just after I got back. I was good to talk face to face, before I went to St Catherine's to celebrate the Eucharist on his behalf. It frees him for other duties in a crowded schedule, working without a colleague. I feel somewhat ashamed of my divided loyalties, going away to do similar duties abroad, leaving him here overburdened. There's need whichever way you look.

While I was out collecting the car, Gail called with her Vicar's contact details. This meant I could email the MP3 voice file to him. A little later, I had a reply, asking if I could provide it on a CD. He explained that there were few people around he was confident would be able to manage an MP3 player with the church public address system during the service. Having a CD guaranteed to play of typical church legacy equipment would be for him the line of least resistance. This is something I understand only too well, from bitter experience. 

Thankfully, I still have a small supply of blank writable audio CDs so was able to set about the task promptly, and post it to him later in the day. My only problem was working out how to burn an audio CD in Windows 10. This aspect of the system interface has changed considerably since the last time I needed to use Windows for CD burning. In fact, I have relied on a Linux driven computer to burn CDs for ages, as its old fashioned app interfaces are simpler, more straightforward, although just as feature rich. It's fit for purpose if you understand how it works and can control it without needing to spend too much time learning new features and layout. That's half the trouble with a lot of Windows products.

It's minus four tonight. Probably too cold to snow, even though it's overcast. Many parts of the UK have been disrupted by snowfalls. All day rolling news coverage about the weather makes this sound like the major crisis it isn't. Snow has always temporarily brought normal life to a halt in Britain and we moan and worry rather than do something about it. We don't manage adverse weather conditions to make daily life weather resilient as they do in the Alpine. It's a huge anxiety generator, along with brexit, if you listen to the news reportage. No wonder so many people resort to medication to cope with the impact on their emotions.

      

Car quandry

It's been cold, dry and clear skied this past few days, snow elsewhere, although not here. I've been asked to take a funeral in two weeks time. It'll be a burial. Never easy, especially in winter. Clare is slowly recovering from a cold, so I did the big shopping trip of the week, on foot to the Coop store on Cowbridge Road. I'm always amazed at how well planned Clare's shopping lists are. Everything is ordered around the sequence in which they can be found on a walk through the store, very logical, and most helpful. My lists aren't nearly as thorough. I figure out what I need, and take from what I see and recall, then walk around again to find what I missed first time. It's much more haphazard.

While I was away, the car heater died again. It could be a fuse, but may a solenoid burnout, judging from the smell after it stopped working. Well, it is 23 years old, and whilst it is mechanically sound, the cost of replacing the heating unit, parts and labour, is likely to be more than the car is worth. In this cold and damp weather, it's less than safe to be  driving a car whilst having to clear condensation manually. Sad really, after eight years of reliable use, I'm fond of it. It's still a good drive. 

I wonder if we could do without a car altogether, use public transport and hire a car if needs be for occasional use, but this has limitations when you need to ferry other people, transport bulky objects, or make short trips to places not well served by public transport. Getting out to Duffryn House or the coast for a few hours would take up much more time and planning. Neither of us is prepared to use a bike any longer, and that's not such fun in bad weather or on polluted congested city roads. We don't use a car that much either. It's relying on the convenience of having one to use that matters, it fits with lifestyle habits we're not yet ready, or compelled to change.

So, what kind  of car do we look for? Another Golf would be my choice. For Clare it'd be a Polo, as long as its seats are comfortable enough for longer journeys we make. We have to dispose of the car we have as well. It seems that may not be difficult as there's still interest among old car hobbyists in the Mark II Golf, either for restoring, customising, adapting for racing or rallying, because they are reputed for their robustness. To those who are keen of fixing things with money to  burn, replacing a heater is less trouble than it would be for us. I've driven a variety of cars on locum duty, so I know I can adapt to anything, though too small is less than fun, and the simpler and more standardised the dashboard layout the better. We'll have to see what's out there among affordable second hand cars around town.

Final Sunday in Montreux

My last locum Sunday here today, and it was such a joy to welcome my cousin Dianne and husband Ian, who had driven down from Champex Lac to join us for the Eucharist. We had intended to meet up yesterday to see the desalpage des vaches in the Val d'Herens, above Orsieres. They had timed a week's holiday to coincide with this special autumnal alpine festival. I'd have had to arrive at 08.45 at Orsieres station to be driven up to where the event was to start at 10.00. 

After three hours travel on Friday, I thought it better to lie low yesterday and keep some energy in reserve for today, so they decided to drive down and worship with us instead. Dianne and I have known each other for over sixty years, having been raised in the same mining village in the years of our youth. Both of them have remarkable careers in journalism behind them and we share a love of Switzerland and alpine life. These days I still have considerable energy, but fewer reserves to draw upon. All part of getting old.

As with other visitors while I've been here, they marvelled at the typical traditional Vaudois nature of Church House, with its all wood upper storey after the service. They couldn't be persuaded to stop for lunch as they had others to meet after an hour long return journey, but we did spend an hour together drinking coffee and talking before parting company. Then I had to get my affairs in order for another journey up to Villars to celebrate Holy Communion again for a dozen appreciative faithful in Aiglon Chapel.

With the roads being clearer, and no diversions this time, the drive up to Villars and back via Ollon, the shorter route, was easy and enjoyable, although descending a steep road with hairpin bends at twilight required careful attention, especially after the nightmare with fading brakes on the slower steeper descent via Bex, last time round. I sensed my slower speed was an annoyance to some other motorists, who overtook as safe opportunities presented. It was only in the home stretch I realised the supplementary read fog lights were on unnecessarily, and I was mortified. 

Driving an old Subaru Impreza, apart from my aforementioned scary experience, has been quite a pleasure. It handles with the reliable precision of a sports car, reassuring when precision driving is essential to avoid trouble. It's as good as my VW Golf back home, albeit with lighter steering. Even so, it would have been far nicer to have been able to timetable and carry out a train journey to Aigle connecting with the narrow gauge mountain railway to get to Villars and back. Evening trains, like buses, are few and far between.

When I chatted with our English organist at the service, he told me that he was an entomologist with an expert interest in alpine butterflies. He worked with a Swiss expert, surveying or you could say auditing a immense variety of habitats and their species across Switzerland. It was amazing, he at this time when rare species are disappearing throughout the world, that there are remote places in alpine meadows where site specific species survive, so long as habitats remain undisturbed by anything foreign to their local ecosystem. 

For this reason, he declined to offer his services as a tour guide to butterfly watchers, preferring to keep these locations secret, as camera toting enthusiasts were capable of losing awareness of their environment altogether, end up trampling the habitat the creatures rely on to survive. This reminded me of the news cameraman in Latin America, who filmed himself being murdered by a soldier at a public demonstration. Also of wedding guests toting video-cams attempting to interpose themselves between priest and couple during the solemn vows. It's so easy behind a lens to lose awareness of the impact of your presence on your surroundings. The acquisition of the image becomes everything and this is, in a way, akin to idolatry - note to self, beware!

   

A swings and roundabouts day

I drove to St John's to celebrate this morning's Eucharist, and then on my way home took the car into the Kwikfit garage a few streets away to see if could get the car's heater fan fixed. It had stopped working and I assumed it was due to a burned out fuse. It was surprised to discover however that there's no fuse, but rather a thermo-couple switch, linked to a similar switch in the radiator fan. It turned out that the heat exchanger which supplies the fan with air had finally given up the air-lock which had caused the fan to deliver only mildly warm air instead of hot air, for the past two years. 

Before the heat exchanger filled with cold water, the relay had stuck in the 'off' position. All that had been needed was to top up the radiator by the volume of the air bubble and run the engine until the main radiator fan started and with it, the heater fan. Anthony, the garage supervisor did the detective work on my 25 year old VW Golf Mark Two and got the heating working again. He's worked on it before and taken pride in helping keep it on the road. It cheered me up no end. On previous occasions, I've tweeted my thanks to Kwikfit for going the extra distance for me as a customer. It's been noticed and appreciated by the team, who remember me when I bring the car in for them to work on occasionally.

It wasn't until I got home and tried to switch on my mobile phone that I discovered it wasn't working. As I was getting into the car, my outer jacket pocket, containing the phone drooped outside the car and took an unlucky hit from the door, closing under gravity, without me noticing. Thankfully, I was able to slip the phone SIM into the my spare old Blackberry, and use it until I worked out what to do next. I walked to Canton Mobile Zone on the corner of Severn Road, to see if a newish Samsung J3 screen could be repaired, or if the phone was broken beyond repair. The manager told me replacing the screen would cost £100. He showed me on his smartphone the cost of an OEM screen, inevitably increased lately due to the drop in sterling. I paid £95 in a discount deal before Christmas. Now the best price on offer is around £120. Before going ahead with the repair, the manager found a replacement screen, attached it to the phone and started it up. It worked fine. If it could do that much, I was in luck. After half an hour's wait, phone and I were happily reunited. Walking there and back, wandering around the street of shops, I picked up and binned forty nine items of litter.

I drove to St German's early enough to set up the office PC with a Powerline Network Adapter. I still have a couple of redundant spares. It worked first time in finding the internet, but I wondered about the quality of the signal passing through a large ring main with secondary router and wi-fi device in-line, as the actual speed of downloading was glacially slow. At the outset, I'd expected the system to be more responsive, as it's a Core i5 machine containing few extra programs and no new data. We left it running while we were in church for Stations of the Cross. On return an hour later, Windows Defender update had stalled and needed re-starting. I checked to see if anything else had updated, and it looked as if Windows 10 updates hadn't started either. After a restart we decided to leave it running overnight, just in case it was running slowly due to competing demands, once it had been recognised by the Microsoft servers after a ten month break and change of address. I can check after the lunchtime Mass tomorrow. In the meanwhile, home for supper and a couple of hours of telly before bed.
  

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.

      

A car and a new sofa to use

I  caught a crowded163 bus into Malaga this morning at 9.15. It took ten minutes longer than usual due to rush hour traffic. It's fifteen minutes walk from the port bus stop to the English Cemetery, when I was due to celebrate the midweek Eucharist at eleven, but I needed first to visit a nearby bank and cash an open 'Al Portador' cheque, received from the church for locum fees. The rest is paid in Sterling. This was , I have enough euros to see me through my stay. For each there's a receipt record for use when I next make a tax return.

There were five of us for the Eucharist, including Doreen the NSM Curate, and a lady visiting from Sevilla. After the service I was handed over the chaplaincy car, a VW Golf Mark II estate just a couple of years younger than mine at home, in good repair, just serviced and tested. Splendid. This will permit me to drive to Fuengirola tomorrow to prepare a funeral with a family for Saturday.

I've also arranged a visit to Salinas for next week, where Doreen takes a service once or twice a month. I'm keen to see the area where she lives and works, a new part of the world to discover. We'll spend part of the day looking out for birds in their mountain habitats. Doreen is an expert who runs birdwatching tours in Andalusia. I'm not sure what kind of photo opportunities will occur, but ready or not to take pictures there's a lot to learn.

I stayed in the church office writing for over an hour after our meeting ended on the promise that I'd lock up, since I'd arrived first and unlocked before the service. When I drove to the cemetery gate, the lodge was shut and the gates seemed locked. Unfortunately, I didn't register the cemetery opening hours and wondered if the office was shut for siesta time or for the day. I knocked the door hard enough to set off an alarm, and couldn't decide whether to laugh or feel nervous about a possible unfolding arrest scenario. With the church door key, however, there was a functioning padlock key and so I was able to open the gates and drive out, though not before calling Rosella to report my mishap. Just in case.

It's six weeks since I last drove a car in Spain, and that wasn't in a big city, so I was a little nervous setting out. Having familiarised myself with this part of town by walking around on this and previous occasions, remembering the way to the coast road was no trouble and in half an hour I was parking the Golf up behind the SuperSol supermarket, five minutes walk from the apartment, since there were spaces in the parking area opposite due to demand from holiday makers. I'm told it'll get easier from next week onwards.

After depositing my work bags, and having a late lunch, I returned to Super Sol to top up my essential food supplies for the week. Not long afterwards Rosella and Tomas and a colleague arrived with a new sofa for the lounge. The existing one, a sofa bed, replaces an old single bed in one of the unused bedrooms. The new sofa is not quite so large and gives a little more sense of space to the main living room. And now, supper.

  

Unhappy meal

This bank holiday Monday morning, I walked into town, as the crowds slowly began to drive in and queue for city centre shopping car parks. I needed to visit the office to retrieve a file which was meant to sync to OneDrive, but once more failed to. Microsoft puts more effort into driving people to rely on cloud based storage without being able to provide necessary total reliability. For years I carried all I needed to work on around with me on a flash drive. I've rather got out of the habit this past year, but the inconsistency of syncing operations on OneDrive, on which we rely so heavily for work, are causing me to re-think. Oddly enough, Google Drive never seems to present any problems, although it's helpful or otherwise insistence of converting everything in and out of Gdrive format for editing and sharing is rather annoying when all you want to do is work with your chosen tools in your own work setting in your own way.

Once in the office, I got drawn into entering data on recent acquisitions into our newest database, and testing a barcode scanning application that I'm hoping will ease the task at little cost. Then before I knw it, Clare was calling, wondering when I'd be back for lunch. Hours slip by very quickly in the fact of a pile of detail to be attended to.

After lunch we drove to Bristol to see Amanda and James. Her new wifi printer has failed to work since the batch of replacement inks purchased with the equipment are not recognised as present by the machine. The inks are genuine enough, but it's as if the sensor meant to recognise them isn't working. It's going to be difficult getting this sorted, as they don't have the means to get to the nearest branch of PC World to sort it out. Frustrating and very disappointing.

As we were approaching the Seven Bridge on the drive home, I suddenly noticed that the car engine was overheating, and stopped underneath the junction with the M49 to see what was wrong. I wasn't yet another leak, but apparently no fluid was passing through the radiator, suggesting either a blockage or a radiator thermostat stuck in the shut position - probably a legacy of using radiator sealant compound to cope with previous leak problems which eventually turned into a head gasket rupture. Once the engine had cooled enough, we drove over the bridge to Magor services, and called Green Flag services for help. In an hour a mechanic arrived from Abergavenny, confirming my tentative diagnosis. Then we had another hour to wait for a tow truck collect us, arriving from Stroud, on the way home to Newport,. 

We'd promised ourselves fish and chips for supper, for a change, and the only resemblance to this to be found was a McDonald's 'Happy Meal' from the one fast food outlet still open late in the service area. A little bag of over salted dry stick-like frites and another bag containing three fish fingers. Another bag contained a couple of plastic kids toys. The frites would have make a Belgian lose the will to live. Why on earth? A children's meal was the only way it was possible to obtain a few small pieces of fish. The plastic toys pulled apart into to sections, one of which was the right size for a small child to get in its mouth, swallow and choke on. Incredible! It has to rate as one of the worst and most ill conceived meals I've ever had. It may even have been the first time I've ever eaten McDonald's style and it'll certainly be the last. Next time I'll go hungry.

By just after eleven we were home safely, enjoying a little cheese and a glass of wine before bed. It's rather strange to think that on my third journey to and from Bristol in a row there have been problems with the car's cooling system. Last week we went to Monmouth without any cause for concern, plus trips around down in traffic. Let's hope that this'll be the last occurrence, or else it'll be time to say goodbye to our beloved ancient Golf.

I drove the car across town to N.G. Motors our VW service garage in Splott this morning, hoping that the car wouldn't overheat on the way. Almost every traffic light was red, so I switched off the engine while I waited. It was just up to normal temperature by the time I arrived and handed it over. Then a walk into town, during which I discovered that the Lidl store on Tyndall street which offers a handy place to shop on my way back, has been demolished, and the adjacent land cleared for new buildings, one of which will be a new improved Lidl, to open by the end of this year. I wonder what the neighbouring buildings on the site will be?
   

Urdu BCP discovery

This morning, the car was covered with a thick white frost. I drove to St German's for the midweek Mass without incident. We celebrated St Agnes' Day, a day early, one of the Parish patron saints, as it was the main church dedication of my first Parish in Bristol. No school class attended this week, perhaps because staff had experienced trouble getting into work on time, given how icy it might be out of town. It struck me this time how contemporary is the story of this fourth century teenage martyr. The prospect of a forced marriage, and what was from another angle the Roman equivalent of an honour killing, after she refused to recant her faith, or to marry as required. These are still themes that are being encountered across the world today. Civilasation? The human race is still lacks it, despite our pretence to sophistication.

Afterwards, I transferred to Hamid's phone a .pdf file of the Book of Common Prayer translated into Urdu Latin script for him to explore. It was something I'd found in Google's free digital text library, scanned from a hard copy in a California library. It really needs some editing to make it easier to navigate, and I must print out some of its texts for him to be able to read more easily. 

A more modern Sunday Missal in Urdu I have so far not succeeded in tracking down. But it's a start, and an important one, as the BCP is such a great milestone in the history of vernacular religious texts, available to everyone. I imagine it will read as more quainly and exotic than any contemporary biblical translation, but it its deeply biblical content says a great deal about Anglicanism as an expression of Christian discipleship, everyone needs to be acquainted with in some measure.

I then took the car back to the garage for checking, and walked to the CBS office to put in a few hours before returning home. At the end of the afternoon, Clare said the garage had been in touch and had reported a cylinder head gasket had gone. Not surprising given the succession of recent overheatings due to a leak I failed to deal with. She gave them the go-ahead straight away, but we will be without the car for several days, and it won't be a cheap repair either. Ah well, we made a decision to stick with the car for now, and the consequences are unavoidable.

     

Valuing confidence

I had to take an early bus into town inorder to walk to St German's for this morning's Mass with a class of children from Tredegarville school, as the car is still at the garage being repaired. Not long after the Mass ended however, I had a message to say it was ready, so I was able to walk just a mile from the church across from Adamsdown into Splott to collect and pay.

Hamid's stray baptism certificate turned up, so I countersigned it and sent a photo of it to his lawyer, before handing it over to him, ready for his tribunal appearance tomorrow. I'm very glad to have the car back from repair, to drive me to church for a nine o'clock rendezvous with him and Peter tomorrow, thus avoiding an even earlier start to get across town in good time, than today. 

The repairs were as expensive as when the tyres and exhaust were replaced. More than the car is worth maybe, but despite the wear and tear, the car is still worth the TLC. I think this whenever it's been serviced and runs well. It has an old fashioned solidity about it, and handles well on demanding roads. Finding a replacement to compare with it will be difficult. I don't suppose we'll get quite the same value for money expended on a wasting asset ever again. So we'll keep it a little longer and feel grateful for its general reliability. 

I remember the previous garage mechanic who serviced our cars, Terry Gibson, in Yate outside Bristol thirty years ago, saying that the time you must sell a car and get a new one is either when it is broken beyond economical repair, or, you lose confidence in its reliability and are not prepared to invest any more time, money or effort in it. Wise advice, and I'm sticking with this good counsel.

As I had to collect the car, I forgot that I had another eye test appointment after Mass. I couldn't have reached the clinic in time without a car anyway, and that hand't crossed my mind when I booked it in. Later in the day the eye clinic texted me to flag this up, and I was able to rearrange for a fortnight's time. What a nuisance for them. Yet, the receptionist was most gracious about my lapse.

Car decision

I took the car in for repair this morning, and walked back most of the way, having shopped at Lidl's on Tyndall Street en passant. I took the bus from Westgate Street to Canton Cross, to bank a cheque in my local branch, then popped in to Constaninou's next door for a haircut before heading home for lunch, well shorn and exercised.

I went to the CBS office in the afternoon, and met with Ashley to enquire of BT about SIM unlocking. It's not necessary on phones we issue, he was told. They come unlocked, presumably so that any of the network SIM card providors BT has take over in recent years are not a cause of un-necessary problem to users. Everything now comes under the umbrella of EE, which should include Orange, O2, T-mobile and Vodaphone. So, Clare's SIM card was inserted into the Galaxy III and worked first time, showing her caller i/d, once Ashley had, found the configuration menu to reveal rather than withhold details.

Earlier in the day I saw a notification on my Blackberry which told me that Ian has co-incidentally set up an Instagram account for the Business Crime Reduction Partnership. It'll be interesting to see how he will develop this in action. Slowly CBS and the BCRP moves towards having a decent web presence, it's long overdue as it's something I've not had opportunity to work on properly.

Then, I had a phone call from Phil at N G Motors to discuss work needing to be done on the car. The coolant leak is the least of the worries. There are brake discs, a shock absorber and a wheel bearing to be replaced, all cost more than the car is worth. But then the new tyres and exhaust last autumn also cost more than the car is worth. Despite wear and tear, it still runs well and has little structural rust, so will survive another MOT. It's reliable and it's still nice to drive. With these repairs I can put off the buying a new car for a lot longer, perhaps another year. Our car has long stopped depreciating in value. Why pour money into something newer that will start to depreciate as soon as it's been purchased?

     

Baptism on the feast of Christ's Baptism

On may way to St German's this morning, I had a phone call from Amjad, driving down from London to take part in Hamid's baptism. He'd missed the Almondsbury interchange turning and was approaching Ross-on-Wye on the M50, still an hour away. When I got to church, we made plans to defer the rite of Baptism until the end of the service, in case Amjad didn't make it in time. Thankfully, he arrived just as I was about to read the Gospel for the Feast of Christ's Baptism. Without rehearsal, Hamid's baptism proceeded as intended, with Hamid making his baptism promises in Urdu. Before the service, I finally got to read through with Hamid the transliteration of the baptismal formula into Urdu Amjad sent me, to check my pronunciation, and completed the rite without error, thanking God for having a good musical ear and memory.

Amjad brought his wife and three delightful young children with him. He is Pastor and Teamleader of the Kushkhabri Fellowship, whose 'Right Way' outreach projects helps people of Muslim origin enquiring about Christian faith, and supports converts. The fifty strong St German's congregation welcomed them warmly. Some expressed delight in being part of an event unique in their experience. Churchwarden Peter and doyenne of the congregation Gwyneth were Hamid's sponsors. She befriended him from the outset. "She is just like my grandmother" he said to  me on one occasion. Afterwards, Gwyneth said what a lovely experience it had been. She handed him his baptism candle during the ceremony. Hamid is a quiet man with a warm smile and smiling eyes. Today he was radiant.

During the Peace, I relieved him of his baptism candle and certificate, given during the ceremony, to allow him to circulate and greet one another. I handed it to someone else, and later I couldn't find it. Hopefully it will turn up sooner rather than later, as I need to countersign the certificate to establish its status for the benefit of his Tribunal hearing, this coming Thursday. Many a slip 'twixt cup and lip, as the saying goes.

The congregation sat down to an excellent three course lunch in the church hall after the service. There were more than expected, but plenty of food to go round, thanks to the generous imaginations of the cooking team. Hamid, Amjad and his family, also Jim Stewart his wife and toddler son sat down to lunch together and chatted. Jim is Wales Evangelical Alliance Welsh Assembly liaision officer. He started with EA when I was still at St John's, and has now been in post ten years. He and Amjad have recently got to know each other, as both work on advocacy relating to the freedom of people to convert to another faith. It's a subject fraught with social and political difficulties throughout the world.

After the meal, I drove over to Bristol to deliver Amanda's new computer kit, and set up for the first time a wireless printer. Not difficult once you know how, but something of a puzzle when you have to read small print on a sheet that's set out in six languages. The printer is an entry level Epson XP-235. Google Chrome's cloud print facility is something I'll have to get used to. I have tried setting up a wired network computer to work with a Chromebook via wi-fi, with unsatisfactory results, but that was a couple of years ago. Amanda's Chromebook and printer seemed to talk to each other as intended. If it goes on strike, I don't fancy troubleshooting.

As I was approaching Southmead, the car indicated that it was overheating again. I pulled into a garage and steam was issuing from the overflow tank. I put three litres in and drove carefully to Amanda's, then added another litre or so later when it had cooled. I returned home gingerly, to say the least, stopping four times because the overheat warning light kept flashing. The engine, wasn't overheating however, but I suspected the cooling system was far from full. I stopped at a garage and bought some radiator sealant, but the coolant level hadn't dropped enough to add any. The last leg, from Newport I did on the old A48, as a precaution, though heaven knows why, apart from it being safer to stop in an emergency as there are few late evening buses travelling this road late on a Sunday evening. I made it home OK. Tomorrow the car goes to N G Motors for repair.
        

A repair and replacement week

After celebrating the midweek Eucharist with ten people at St German's Wednesday morning, I took the car into Canton Quikfit depot to get something done about the exhaust, which sounds like a hole is developing. Later, I had a phone call to say it needed the catalyst replacing, and had to be ordered.  It was going to be expensive. Time to think. At 24 years old the car's scrap value is a hundred pounds, but it's mechanically in good nick and the bodywork surprisingly sound for a car of its age.

Clare's nephew and godson David had expressed an interest in the car's potential and having it when we've finished with it, during our East Anglian birthday party visit, as it would be a worthy candidate for restoration, or customizing for racing if one was so inclined, not that we'd want to take this course but we're minded to hand it on to him when we change cars. It has to be driveable when we do, as he lives in Scotland, so I decided there was no option but to go ahead, spend the money and keep the car for a while longer. 

Thursday afternoon there was another call to say that the catalyst's sensor was also irretrievable due to corrosion. More expense, and delay while the part is ordered. Today, a third call to say that a further pipe section has to be ordered. More cost, more delay until Monday, which means a car-less weekend. The only useable component of the exhaust remaining is the muffler section which Quikfit replaced several years ago. We don't use the car that much. It's only when it's not there at our beck and call that we notice.

Meanwhile, back at the office, the Acer desktop failed yet again to self-repair. It remains stuck in a loop after re-boot, with no error message to indicate the real problem. So, this afternoon I unplugged it, put it back in its packaging and returned to John Lewis'. Rather than a like for like replacement I've decided it's better to go for the HP equivalent, even if we have to wait a few days for one to arrive at the store. In the five weeks since it was purchased, I don't think we've had more than five days use out it. Most disappointing, and such a waste of time, all that machine minding while it pretended to repair itself.