O Clavis David!

A cheering phone call this morning from Emma Biaggi the Euro-diocesan co-ordinator, asking me about my availability for the new year. Not forgotten! I explained the situation, and said that I could do emergency short spells if needs be in the next couple of months, before and in between medical appointments, but that I expect to be clear to undertake longer duty spells from the end of February.

Hearing from Emma prompted me to do something I've been meaning to for the past week at least, and that's writing to Bishop David Hamid about my locum availability in 2020. I was expecting to meet him at Fr Geoff's 50th anniversary celebration this coming weekend, but now won't be going, so I thought an email would be a good idea. I was delighted, by the end of the afternoon to receive a reply saying that there would be opportunities for long locums in Spain in coming months. It seems there's some movement of personnel in the wind. Nothing announced yet, so I wait with interest to see what happens.

I watched the final episode of the second series of 'The Team' tonight. It all finished predictably, but with one fatal flaw, as if a crucial linking scene had been edited out. A looted Syrian art treasure was the subject around which all eight episodes were driven, and the story was played out in a carefully integrated mix of Flemish, Danish, German, French, English and Arabic. The treasure was destined for a 'long loan', aka protective custody in a UK museum before it is smuggled out of the country by good guys with Syrian bad guys in murderous pursuit. 

In this episode the Syrian government weigh in with a request for the return of the treasure, but before this can officially happen, the treasure goes missing again in an ultimate showdown with the baddies, and then ends up in London, with all the heroes and heroines smiling and happy. Not even the slightest explanation of how this last piece of slight-of-hand happens, with political and diplomatic consequences, and the Interpol team right in the middle of it with questions to answer.

It wouldn't have taken a great deal to resolve this satisfactorily in dramatic terms. If it was ever in the story-line, it was edited out. Odd, and disappointing.

Project milestone reached

Apart from taking a funeral at St Catherine's at lunchtime yesterday, I spent most of the day writing, with an afternoon break for an interrupted five mile walk, to re-charge my brain. The exercise, both of transcribing and adding in explanatory detail is quite demanding, as in places my journal is  thin on detail, as it was written at the end of each day's activity while I was in Sarajevo.

When I'd had enough, I stopped watched the previous and current episodes of 'New Amsterdam' on More Four. It continues to sustain interest with its complex medical procedures, some difficult ethical decisions, and the evolving personal relationships between dramatis personae. 

Much the same was true of today, with another uninterrupted five mile walk and watching a couple of episodes of Series Two of 'The Team' On More Four to punctuate the day. By late afternoon I finished the transcription job, and felt a great deal of relief. It's not finished. There are vital corrections, and probably additions as well, as I'm finding memories of the time surfacing, which didn't get noticed and noted then even though they were and still are important aspects of the story to be told.

'The Team' is most enjoyable. It's a crimmie about an international group of detectives working on the same frontier crossing case. The cast is different from Series One. Team members are from Belgium, Denmark and Germany. It's about a mass murder in Jutland with Islamist terrorism, antiquities theft and people trafficking all in the mixture. What I appreciate is the way different languages are brought in - Danish, Flemish, German, English, Arabic and French.

It's well subtitled and not confusing, but it lends a special quality to the drama. The detectives often use suitably accented English between them and sometimes with subjects being interrogated. Arabic conversations between people caught up in the crisis also occur, but the speakers use either English or French to relate to the police, since they are Syrian refugees or settlers. Both ex-colonial languages are still used in Syria. It's very well done.

Thankfully, no sermon to write this evening, as I have no assignments for tomorrow. I'm quite glad of a respite, I've done a lot of extra jobs this past year with little time off. Our Oxwich Bay holiday told me that I'm in need of refreshment. If only I could take a few quiet weeks seaside retreat in Malaga. It's impossible to plan anything until I hear about my next surgical appointment. I don't know when that will be. It could be several months before I get treated. This is really beginning to bother me. I increasingly feel like a hostage awaiting release pending negotiations out of their control.

Knee news and TV crimewatching

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to go down to St John's Canton to celebrate their midweek Eucharist, Clare went off by train to spend a long weekend in Kirton with sister-in-law Ann. Walking there and back, I collected sixteen pieces of rubbish and binned them. An appointment with my GP later brought the good news that there's nothing more wrong with my dodgy knee than age related wear and tear. The doc also wants me to try out a 24 hour blood pressure monitoring device next week, to track variations over the day, as it's still higher any time it's taken in the surgery than it is at home.

With time to myself in the afternoon I sat and watched several episodes of a new euro-crime Channel 4 TV series called the 'Team'. I found it most enjoyable as uses Danish, German, Flemish, French and English, since it features the work of a multi-national investigation into corruption and people trafficking. It's not about Interpol, although the agency does occasionally feature, but rather about police forces working together. Interestingly, for group discussions English is the common language, although occasionally you also hear one person speak German and another reply in Danish or Flemish. In the evening, I went to St German's to take Stations of the Cross and Devotions.

This morning, I was back at St German's again to celebrate Mass and share in the 'hunger lunch' in the church hall. I checked the office PC's updating progress. It seemed to be stuck on 5% since Wednesday, even though the machine had not been switched off. Then I looked at the power settings and the penny dropped. Although it didn't go properly into sleep mode, the hard drive was set to stop spinning after two hours, so the update download could not be saved. So, I set the machine to stay fully alive and left it to continue, aware it could still take a long time. 

Then I Julie and Ashley in town for a cup of tea and a chat, and before taking Ashley to the RadioNet equipment supplier in Chepstow with a several radio handsets to be exchanged for re-configuration. It was a pleasant drive on a bright and sunny day, and the sun was in our faces as we returned in evening traffic as the sun was setting. Trees in blossom and daffodils in the roadside verges everywhere.

Later, I watched this week's episode of 'The Team'. It's not merely a 'straight cops and criminals' drama series. Relationships between team members, relationships with spouses are also an interesting and complicating feature of the narrative. Well worth watching. Interesting to observe that while people can and do bridge language barriers with their variety of language skills, there are often problems in communication arising from the intended meaning of the content. A detective finds an encryption key concealed in a couple of lines of romantic poetry. The discovery is then texted to a colleague working on the vital file, but intercepted by her husband, who reads the lines and concludes his spouse is having an affair, creating a crisis and disrupting progress on the case. It's well observed indeed.