Getting ahead of myself

A good night's sleep and waking up to a cloudless sky, the best way to start the day. Clare went off to her study group after breakfast. I spent the morning working next week's Morning Prayer video and uploading it to YouTube, and prepared the Office and a reflection for the week after that and recorded it as well. As we're in Catalunya next week, all I need to do is post the relevant link WhatsApp, and there won't be much left to do when we return.

I had an interesting email from Paul, Lay Reader in the former Costa Azahar chaplaincy, telling about the way the Iberian electrical grid outage affected different communes in his area. Curiously, Benicarlo between Vinaros and Peniscola had a much longer blackout than its neighbours. 'Cascading failure' of the grid is the technical term that was used. Not all the power fails at the same time. Electrical current flows like water, along paths of least resistance in the distribution network, and stops flowing first where it is higher, as may be the case if substations are older. Mobile phone networks fail at different rates when their power from the grid fails and they switch to backup power supplies, which may not all be of exactly the same capacity and duration, likewise hospitals and air traffic controls. A catastrophic failure reveals where there are strengths and weaknesses in the system, and raises questions about resilience. 

As my grandfather used to say to me with enthusiasm seventy years ago "The future will be all electric!" And so it is coming to pass, but there are risks in relying uniquely for every need on the production and delivery of one kind of power - the equivalent of mono-culture in the agricultural world. If no mechanical alternative source of power is available, we become more vulnerable. I was amused to read that sales of wind up clockwork FM radios are increasing rapidly, invented decades ago for situations and countries with no grid electricity.

I cooked rice with prawns and veg in a creamy sauce for lunch, and we were both pleased with the result. Afterwards I went shopping with my rucksack for heavy groceries at Tesco's. It's extra demanding on the legs and ankles, but worth doing to maintain muscle tone - certainly better than tugging a trolley. Then I went for a walk in the Llandaff Fields. Progress on converting the old bowling green into Padel courts has taken a visible leap forward. Last week a huge steel framework about five metres high was erected on the site. Since yesterday one half of this has acquired convex roof trusses, making the whole structure visible at a distance. I wonder how many courts this structure will house when it's complete. Four maybe?

After supper, I watched another couple of episodes of 'The Good Doctor'. Each story presents instances of the kind of ethical questions which doctors and surgeons face, and sometimes associated legal issues. It's turning out to be better than I originally thought it would.