Matthewtide

Fifty two years today since I was made Deacon and started serving my title in Caerphilly. A sunny Monday morning, with cleaning chores to be done before I could get started on preparations for next week's Thursday Office. After lunch, a walk around the park, feeling lethargic as I didn't sleep for long enough last night. I relaxed in front of the telly when I got back with another episode of 'Floodlands' before supper. I went to bed early to work on writing my play and to watch the newest episode of NCIS, featuring guest star Cote de Pablo which sees the closure of the Ziva David storyline, making possible a return to her daughter and her lover/former partner Tony diNozzo.

After twenty one months of almost continuous wearing my Samsung fitbit watch strap started to break up last week. It's an early model with an uncommon strap, whose design was subsequently changed. They are available on-line, mostly through Amazon. I don't have an Amazon account and laugh whenever I get one of those robotic scam calls telling me unusual sums of money have been charged to my Amazon account and that I should enquire about this with their security hotline. I want to keep it that way. Some vendors use PayPal. I tried that service but wasn't comfortable with it. Finding a vendor for this item from whom I can buy just using a credit card is proving difficult. I can find a store anywhere which any longer sells such a small ticket item. It's rather frustrating, to say the least. For the moment the wrist band is held on by pieces of thick elastic thread. It looks awful but it works.

The Feast of St Matthew the Apostle today - the one who has watched over my ministry since I was made Deacon on the eve of his fiesta. Another warmish sunny day. I stayed in all morning to take delivery of some parcels while Clare went to her study group. I did some more preparatory work on next week's Morning Prayer audio and then cooked lunch. A call came in asking me to do a funeral at Pidgeon's Chapel of Rest two weeks today The audio I eventually recorded and edited before going out for my daily walk. My route took me to Peacock's store on Cowbridge Road, where I was able to purchase a much needed black shirt. It's tailored to a slim fit and looks good on me now. Nine months ago, I couldn't have fitted into it. I also went to the pharmacy in King's Road and booked myself in for a 'flu jab. This will be done a week Thursday.

After supper, I watched both this week's episodes of 'Silent Witness' while doing my daily Duo Lingo drill. Maybe I didn't give it my full attention, but I'm not sure how well the threads of the complex investigation all fitted together in the final resolution. Much the same as last week.

Foraging again

Overcast and rainy today. Routinely, at least a couple of times a week we get automated scam calls about an Amazon Prime account payment issue. Neither of us have such an account, and I have resisted using Amazon services altogether so far. This morning's call was at nine o'clock. Normally we let the scam call carry on until it times out after a minute of no response from us. Today the recording went through twice, then the voice of a live operator could be heard. Normally you have to press button one to summon a live operator, but not on this occasion. I disconnected rather than challenge the caller. It may have been a system fault on the part of the robotic scam routine, or is it a change of tactic? We'll see, next time we get another nuisance call like this. 

I joined ten others for the St Catherine's midweek Eucharist. No more services in church now until 11th November under the latest Welsh lock-down restrictions. None for me in any case, due to self-quarantine. Given the continued seriousness of the infection spread, I wonder how long it will be before my postponed op is cancelled again.

This afternoon Clare and I went out to harvest crab apples from the two trees ready for picking in Llandaff Fields. This year less fruit seems to have grown on lower branches, calling for extra effort to stretch up and pull down laden branches. It began to rain while we were picking, but we didn't get too wet under the trees, and came away with about two kilos of fruit. Clare stripped off stalks and I cut them up, prior to stewing them for a couple of hours before loading the straining bag to hand overnight. A happy occasion despite the rain, and undoubtedly stiff limbs and back tomorrow.