More open air musical delight

It's been cooler than usual for mid June, this past few days, and this has made sleeping at night a lot pleasanter. There can be a cooling breeze on occasions during the day also, which makes walking around more congenial as well. After breakfast, we headed out to re-fuel the car and visit Lidl's to do our weekend shopping, before it got too busy or hotter. Then I walked into San Salvador Church for today's wedding blessing at noon. I met the new parish priest Fr Jose-Maria, and had a brief conversation with him over arrangements for the ceremony. He was very helpful. His accent wasn't as strong as his predecessor, so it was easier for me to understand him. A minor morale boosting achievement.

The couple had been together several years and had two small children. Fifteen of their closest family members were there to support them. They'd married civilly in the UK last month, and had been planning a wedding blessing here for a long time, being regular visitors, with an eye on moving here to live and work once the children are through primary school. It was good to see that they'd thought carefully through doing things this way, and didn't want to pretend that they were doing it exactly the way it would be done in the UK. Such a conscious decision on their part made this a refreshing change for me.

After the ceremony, I waited in the square for Clare to arrive for another tapas lunch at Biznaga. A man was busking, singing his own interesting variations of many Beatles and Elton John standards, while accompanying himself with exceptional skill on an electric guitar. No backing track, or drum machine, or reverb pedal, just sheer polished musical artistry, pleasure to listen to, as a sat sipping a beer and eating olives. Clare wanted to eat inside, so grudgingly I moved tables, to place where I couldn't hear nearly so well against the background of meals being served, but it was good while it lasted. Sadly, I never found out who he was. There's such a lot of amazing talent out there, and out here some marvellous open air performance spaces for enjoying music.

In the evening, the only thing worth watching was the last double episode of French crimmie 'La Disparucion' on BBC Four. I guessed the final plot twist beforehand. As so often happens in real life, perpetrator and victim knew each other and were member of the same family. A fight turns into a tragic fate, covered up by lies and deception, leading to more avoidable deaths. 'Oh what a crooked web we weave, if first we practice to deceive.' 

Remote troubleshooting

Temperatures are slowly rising and it's not as cool now as when we first arrived, so our day began without haste, with sermon preparation and Sunday bulletin printing occupying the morning for me, and a swim for Clare. Then we walked down to the barrio above El Caribeo Playa for lunch at the popular Joanny's bar, followed by a siesta back at the chaplaincy house. I fell asleep in an armchair and stayed there for two hours, utterly relaxed.

Kath has been sending me messages of concern about the little laptop I gave to Rhiannon, which is no longer working properly. It reboots on its own not long after reaching the desktop, apps behave erratically. This led to me writing her several diagnostic emails, to see if my ever capable daughter could sort it out. If it's a hardware malfunction, there's little chance, but working out what's really wrong is a task that takes time and effort. I realised, corresponding with her, how difficult it is to write a clear structured email methodically covering all the essential issues. Heaven help those who do helpline work professionally, I thought.

The highlight of the evening was once more 'La Disparucion' on BBC Four. While it is a murder mystery centred on the hidden life of a dead teenager it's also a keenly observed portrayal of family life in modern France - not to dissimilar from anywhere else in Europe or beyond. Even Molina, the investigating detective with a broken marriage behind him has a stroppy, sometimes forth right 13 year old daughter, who prefers his company to that of his ex-wife, so he clearly feels the impact of the death of a 17 year old personally, and drives the case forward at the point where others want to give up. It's impressive stuff, and I'm looking forward to next week's finale. I can't afford to miss it, as digital rights management issues around iPlayer prevent us from watching it here on catch-up.

    

Action shots

A visit to St Mary's Bute Street this morning to celebrate Mass for half a dozen people, my final interregnum duty there. Fr Dean Atkins is to be licensed as priest in charge there the day after we leave for Nerja. I met him on my way out afterwards, and was able to deliver my good wishes in person, having remembered him during the service. Fr Barry Thomas was in the congregation at Mass. He was the chaplain who preceded me in Monaco, and despite him settling in Llandaff diocese in the time since I retired, the only time we've met before was on one of my visits to North Wales with USPG thirty years ago, when he was an Archdeacon in the diocese of Bangor. He has done locum duty in the diocese in Europe since retirement, in Switzerland, where I worked. Funny how we tend to notice co-incidences in connections between people from disparate backgrounds, or similar backgrounds in utterly different situations. But, less evident are those coincident connections which don't materialise, even when mutual acquaintances feel certain they should.

In the afternoon, I took my DSLR for a walk down to Blackweir bridge, photographing groups of people playing baseball on the way, and then photographing youngsters jumping off the bridge into the Taff, to find out what my camera could do. Two middle aged men were sitting drinking beer from cans on a nearby bench and watching. They got up and began walking to the bridge arguing arguing animatedly. The next thing I knew, one of them stripped off his tee shirt, pushed through the group of kids thinking about their next exploit, and somersaulted down into the water. I was too far away to follow the exchange with the kids, but after a few minutes climbing out of the water, he was ready for another. This time he executed a half decent back somersault into the water, thereby claiming bragging rights over the bemused adolescents. The kids stayed in a gaggle on the bridge, few of them jumped again after this.

For the first time this year, I saw a cormorant on a rock in the river below the weir, spreading its wings in display and shaking itself, although I couldn't see another one anywhere around. I got some worthwhile pictures. The bird shots were best. Others at full length lens extension were not as good as I'd like. I played around with burst shots and obtained a few interesting sequences, but they weren't that sharp, and suffered slightly from motion blur. It was overcast, and bright sunlight on the scene might have improved matters a little. I'd like to try a repeat of this exercise with my new HX300, with triple the length of zoom and greater pixel density to work with. Its processing power is also greater, so a comparison of similar long range motion shots would be helpful, to know how best to optimse the camera set-up. For the most part I use cameras on auto, and maybe could do better if I worked out how best to adjust for specific and quite exacting conditions. As ever with me it's a matter of learning by doing.

Owain came over in the evening, and the three of us went out for a meal at Stefanos Restaurant in Wyndham Crescent. Clare heard that it's closing and up for sale, and wanted one last outing there. I had to rush home afterwards, not to miss the start of the second pair of episodes of the French crime drama on BBC Four 'La Disparucion'. This keenly observes an extended family thrown into crisis by a daughter going missing and each finding their own secrets exposed. So nice to have something in French and easy to follow.

     

Enjoying the results

A long and refreshing night's sleep, and at last I seem to be getting over the cumulative tiredness of a series of night's sleep on the cruise, broken by curiosity more than anything else. It was a lovely sunny day, the garden looks gorgeous, so Clare spent as much time as she could sitting outside enjoying her own special work of art.

Apart from writing a sermon and updating my diary with duties assigned to me over coming months, I edited and uploaded another two days worth of photos. 

Day three pictures can be found here. 

Day four pictures are here. 

I'm finding a lot of pleasure just reviewing our week's travels and looking more closely at so many things noticed and captured in the moment, on the move. I'm pleased with my newly acquired Sony HX300 camera too. The long reach of its zoom, and a proper viewfinder allow me to satisfy my visual curiosity and produce the kind of results I want. No wonderful wildlife shots so far however, many birds glimpsed along the Danube were too far away to capture satisfactorily from a moving ship. But there will opportunities soon, no doubt.

Tonight a new eight part crime movie series on BBC Four in French called 'La disparucion'. Its filmic style differs from the Nordic Noir genre. Different too from the powerful film series 'Engrenages', in being set in Lyon for a change, not Paris. I found the French clear and easy enough to follow, noting the discrepancies between what was said and how it was translated into subtitles. The Parisian argot of the other series is much harder to decode. This movie is also in full colour, not in that stylish mix of black and white, and occasional tinted scenes that gives Engrenages its gritty style and character. Very promising so far.