Chaos over, a dead camera and more waiting ahead

I slumbered fitfully, propped up on pillows for fear of waking up covered in blood out of a snatch of deep sleep, and stayed in bed dozing tiredly until late. At ten, Debbie phoned to say she'd had no success getting a response from the surgeon's secretary, yesterday or this morning, but she expressed determination to get answers using all skill and clout as practice manager.

In the afternoon, Clare and I walked into town and had tea in John Lewis' upper restaurant. On the way, down the Taff footpath, we caught sight of a heron on the east bank, and then a jay, taking off and flying across from west to east. It the first sighting of either this year. I got two heron photos at maximum zoom range, but the Sony HX50 is now malfunctioning so often due to a mechanical fault when opening up, that it's become too unreliable for used. That's after five years of use and ten thousand photos.

I called into Cardiff Camera Centre where all but one of my cameras have been purchased and confirmed my suspicion that it's beyond economical repair after a longer than usual lifespan for a consumer pocket camera, very well travelled. I'm now looking at getting a HX90 to replace it with, when I get back to my usual level of regular photo snapping. It's something to look forward to. The HX90 is a bit more sophisticated, even smaller and just as capable. Better still, factory refurbished cameras with full Sony guarantee are available at 27% discount, when I'm ready to buy.

As we travelled home on the 61 bus, a call came through on my mobile from an administrator at UHW, who to had been given the thankless task of calling my to explain and apologise for the past day's chaos. It seems I was misled about the requirement to have another ultrasound scan. The good news is that the anaesthetist who'd read the pre-op report is apparently satisfied that I'm fit to be sedated so all's well on that front.

The bad news, however, is that the day's surgical schedule for 17th Jan has been cancelled altogether, heaven knows why but that's how it is. I have to wait for another five weeks until St Valentine's Day to have this dealt with.

Well, it's a relief to know I'm not lost to the medical system, and tough to have to wait even longer, for Clare as much as me, but there's nothing that can be done. And for the moment, I am in a stable enough state with regular life simply on hold.

A small parcel arrived for me in the post from Kath. I'd asked her to find me a novel in Spanish that was short enough for me to try reading and not losing heart, with so many dictionary calls needed to clarify the narrative, when getting the general drift isn't enough. Good practice! She bought the book before leaving Tenerife on Tuesday, and says its un regalo, love her. It's Crónica de una muerte anunciada (Chronicle of a death foretold) by the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez. It's in Latin American Spanish rather than Castilian, but as DuoLingo is more Latin American oriented at intermediate level, it's not as foreign as a novel in Valenciano or in Catalan might be. It's something to keep my mind active while I'm on hold, it will do me good.

Last night we watched Steven Spielberg's move masterpiece 'Bridge of Spies' about the negotiated swap of U2 pilot Gary Powers for Soviet agent Rudolf Abel in 1960, something I remember well from my teen years when I was fascinated by state of the art aviation technology and knew a little more about the hush-hush U2 spy plane's existence. Abel is portrayed as a placid stoical guy, who when asked if he was worried about the prospect of capital punishment or a life sentence would simply reply: "Do you think worrying would make any difference?" It's a great line, an attitude to aspire towards.

The thought of being forgotten, lost to the system was a terrible blow yesterday, but worrying achieved nothing. I have to get used to waiting without worrying, and trust in the amazing care I am getting already. After all, it could be so much worse.

 

Purchase pondered

I hadn't arranged any weekend appointments, but had an unexpected visit from another member of the District Nurse team this morning. I learned that the team are treating a notable number of people with fistula wounds at the moment. I wonder why? I had a restful night, woke up refreshed, and have had little pain or discomfort again today, and that's great, even if it's not going to improve until I've had the operation. It's nice to know they are on my case.

We walked into town late in the afternoon, and looked at dishwashers in John Lewis' store, as we're thinking about buying a new one. Ours is sixteen years old, and its internal fitments are wearing out with age. We may still be able to get replacements for a long discontinued model, but we've no idea how long the heater or pump will last, even if we're successful. The maintenance people advise us to get a new one. It's something to think about while there are special offers in the New Year sales.

While we were there, I had a quick look at the tech' sale offers on pocketable superzoom cameras, as over the last month my Sony HX50 has begun to malfunction at startup time, requiring several tries switching on and off to work properly. I think there may be particles preventing the lens mechanism from opening cleanly and then generating an electronic malfunction. On odd occasional last year the images produced contained minor blemishes intermittently over a periods of time, symptomatic of dust penetrating internally. Nothing I suspect a good clean wouldn't cure, if I could do it. The cost of an expert repair could well be half the cost of a new camera.

I bought this February 2014, to take with me on duty to Fuengirola. I think I've taken around ten thousand photos with it since then. (Must check my archives!) I could buy a replacement at perhaps half the price I paid then, but the temptation is to buy the upgraded improved version - the HX95 - for much the same original price. Well, maybe. Let's see if what I can do about a cleanup first.

This evening, there was nothing much on telly that interested me or Clare, so I watched two episodes of Dr Who on BBC iPlayer catch-up instead. Interesting to note the high moral tone taken by the Doctor, interacting with all kinds of fearsomely dangerous alien life forms, even if the plots are mostly bizarre gobbledegook.
  

Tatyana's gift

Thursday and Friday passed by uneventfully, with two surprises. When I went to lock the church on Thursday evening, I discovered on the piano near the side door into the church room a gilded 'Hodigitria' icon of Our Lady, holding up and pointing to Jesus, with a note hastily scribbled on a piece of card saying 'Thank you for a lovely wedding. From Bulgarian Tatyana'.

The couple must have been passing by car on their way back to Britain and dropped by in haste to deliver it. I didn't hear the doorbell, that's for sure.

Friday's surprise was the announcement of a new Priest in Charge for St John the Baptist City Parish Church back home. It's another Canon Sarah Jones, currently Rector of the Ross Team Ministry in Hereford diocese. Having someone with big team experience suggests to me that Bishop June may want to work on making a Central Cardiff Ministry Area grouping of Parishes even larger than the Rectorial Benefice that I inherited and Archbishop Barry saw fit to dissolve. That was another time, when central redevelopment and closing St James' were a major energy draining occupation. A part of consolidation ahead of re-grouping. If this is the plan, let's hope the new priest stays long enough to see it through.

Apart from brief bus trips into town to the shops, all I had to do was look after my wound, so slowly drying out. The swelling is almost all gone now, and one anti- inflammatory pill a day is enough to keep me almost pain free.

Today, I walked into town and back, and walked to Territet port and the tennis club, where the Montreux Ladies Open is taking place, I was delighted with a couple of action shots I was able to take. This is the best! 

I wish I had the photo skills to highlight the ball, as it's just left the racquet, in that microsecond when the player serving is still in the air. It was sheer luck in conditions highly favourable to my Sony HX50, and it made my day.

It's Freddy Mercury's 72nd birthday, had he lived. There are two days of festive events either side of the date and the market hall has been turned into a venue for loud rock concerts. His statue on the Montreux Marché quay is bedecked with a sunflower wreath and an assortment of cards and votive offerings. It's even more of a shrine than usual, and a stream of people want to pose with it. To me it's nothing more than idol worship. Today, however is also the festival Our Lady's birthday. It's an ironic coincidence. No Eucharist for me today, but I was able to light a candle in front of Mary's icon while I said the Office of the day, thanks to Tatyana.

This evening I watched Harry There was a sequence of First World War songs in honour of the 1918 Armistice commemoration. Hearing 'Roses of Picardie' sung reminded me of being at home with the family as a child, listening to my mother playing piano and sisters singing this song. I emailed my sister June. She said she'd been singing along out loud - annoying the neighbours, she hoped for a change, instead of them annoying her. That made me smile.

It's my final Sunday tomorrow, and the announcement of the appointment of a new chaplain. That's three locum assignments in a row where this has happened to me, as I was about to leave. Amazing!
  

Gig night

A visit to the GP surgery yesterday morning for a routine set of blood tests and an ECG. Apart from that, and sermon preparation, the day was taken over by Rachel getting ready for her gig practicing and organising her set playlist. Because of the unique way in which she uses different tuning settings for her various songs she needs to have at least two guitars set up ready to use. The one she brought with her we felt didn't really fit the bill, so we tried without success to hire one, but to no avail. Clare and I separately had the same idea, and an instrument fit for purpose was borrowed from Diana's husband Pete and fitted with a brand new set of strings. Rachel has bought lots of packets as she found a special offer in town. In any case, it seems they are less expensive here than in the USA.

Kath and Anto arrived with a car load of equipment for the gig, including a PA system leads, to add to the guitar brought last weekend, and a few essentials Rachel brought with her from AZ. At six we accompanied Rachel to the Apothecary Tea Room on Llandaff Road, and got the place ready for the gig. My role was to make a sound and a video recording. The sound job was entrusted to Clare's iPad voice recorder plus a substantial mono microphone of Rachel's, positioned on a boom stand at the back of a room about 6 metres square, with my Sony HX300 next to it mounted on a tripod on a table. This gave me opportunity to alter position and focus if required.

Disappointingly, given the effort we made in advance publicity, only a dozen friends turned up, but they were a warm and supportive audience, nevertheless, and Rachel shone, performing tirelessly, answering questions from the audience, at one point coping with the invasion of a small escaped puppy dog and a noisy avalanche of empty bottles being added to the recycling bin by the bar next door. Kath added backing vocals on a few Rachel songs she remembered from ten years ago. It was good to see them reunited in music again. The last time was when they sang the specially composed duet celebrating our Golden Wedding anniversary celebration two years ago. We are so blessed!

The recordings turned out quite well, despite the need to swap out memory cards, and the camera running out of battery near the end of the second half. Thankfully I'd been taking still photos with my Song HX50, which has an identical battery, so I was able to swap them around, without losing too much of one song. The challenge now will be to edit sound and video into a useable form which Rachel can publish on several different web platforms. But first, there's the small matter of having to re-learn how to use Windows Movie Maker. So forgettable, unfortunately. 

  

Digital Camera Odessy

Much rain, and overcast most of today and yesterday, so I occupied myself with domestic tasks and sermon writing, with a walk into town and back for shopping when conditions eased. Somehow the days slipped by, and in the evening Dan Cruickshank's series of programmes on the Land of the Pharoahs made interesting watching. He's an engaging storyteller, and the landscape photography was breathtaking.

With time to spare for reviewing my recent photographs, I have discovered that images from my Sony HX50 have all acquired a blemish, which is visible in lake photographs. Lens cleaning hasn't removed it. At first it was in the bottom right hand corner of the preview screen, and I found that if I switched from 4:3 to 16:9 proportioned images, the blemish was covered by the sensor mask. Then the blemish appeared in a new more central position. Changing back from 16:9 to 4:3 revealed that the blemish had moved to a new position, rather than a second blemish appearing. I assume that a spec of dust has penetrated the lens barrel and has settled on the sensor or on an internal lens. I have no idea if it's possible to get it cleaned, it could cost as much as a replacement model.

A quick check through this blog revealed that I bought this camera in February 2014. It has been a constant travelling companion ever since. Assuming I didn't accidentally reset the image counter in that time, I've taken eight and a half thousand photos with it. I started with digital photography in 2001. Before that, I used a lightweight Olympus trip and a Practica SLR 35mm film camera for 20 years. The Practica used DDR made Zeiss lenses, and was the start of a brand loyalty that led me to Sony digital cameras in the first place.

The HX50 was my sixth compact digital camera, the longest I've had in continuous use. I had a succession of four in nine years until I retired, a period during which digital image technologies advanced rapidly and consumer camera prices dropped, offering more for less. Its predecessor, a Sony HX5, I lost on a bike ride through orchards near Alcanar on the Valencia-Catalunya border in September 2012. I bought a replacement for it next day in Carrefour, with an equivalent ten times zoom. I still possess it, but rarely use it since I acquired the HX50.

The story of my relationship with my bulkier Superzoom and DSLR cameras has unfolded over the past five years, and evolves much more slowly. For me convenience and portability have a much higher priority, and yet, using a camera phone, no matter how good its quality may be, I regard as a no alternative, last resort. I never feel I have the same control over a touch screen device, and that's the deciding factor.
 
   

Chateau de Chillon - an unsatisfactory photo-opportunity

A glorious sunny day, and a morning walk to the Chateau de Chillon for a look around the interior, just CHF10.50 for oldies and a ticket that allows you to come can go as often as you like during the day. It's a marvellous building, set on a rock outcrop protruding into Lac Leman. Traces of Bronze age settlements have been found among the foundations of the 12th century castle keep. It was an outpost of the Dukedom of Savoy at the outset, taken over by the warlords of the Canton de Berne at time of the reformation,  and taken over by the Canton de Vaud in 1798. In each period it was added to or adapted, and its component buildings have had many uses apart from military, as residences or government offices, storehouses, even the Vaudois Cantonal prison. 

Since the 13th century its vaulted vaulted cellar has been used to store barrels of wine harvested from the nearby Clos de Chillon vineyards which belong to the Chateau. You can buy bottles of both red and white at high prices. It's a rarity, and all profits made on the wine go to the restoration and maintenance of the Chateau undertaken by the Fondacion du Chateau de Chillon.  

It's twenty five years since we last visited. At that time, not all the rooms were open due to ongoing restoration work. Now, nearly all the rooms are open to the public, many are arrayed with period style furniture, walls and ceilings authentically decorated. Each room has interpretation panels and educative models to give an impression of people's way of life many centuries ago. It's one of the most visited castles in Switzerland, and I guess we were fortunate not to be herded around the place along with busloads of global tourists on a sunny winter low season day. A delightful experience.

The one setback was turning up with a camera lacking its SD memory card. Only yesterday had I finally filled a 16GB card, in use since 9th September 2016, over 2350 photos, and not all of them worth keeping, but such a hassle to separate the dross from the keepers. I had planned to go into town and buy a new card before going to the Chateau de Chillon, but as the weather was so good we seized the opportunity. 

Having removed the full card from the camera, I then forgot about buying a replacement. Just last week, the spare SD card I carry in my wallet for emergencies since running out on the Rhine Cruise last May, was pressed into use with my new Alpha 68 DSLR camera, and I'd not yet got around to replacing it. I had to use the BlackBerry's phone camera instead, once the HX50's internal flash memory had run out - just six photos. The results were adequate, just. It's not as good as the Samsung Galaxy S3 phone camera, I left re-charging in Church House along with the Alpha 68. You don't always live and learn in my experience. Serves me right. The Chateau is well worth a visit, and I may find time to return, better provisioned.

We returned for lunch and then walked into town to buy train tickets for tomorrow's airport journey, for Clare, who has to return to teach on Thursday , all too soon for the both of us. I needed to buy another SD card as well. I should have bought two, but didn't as I thought they were rather expensive. They are much cheaper on-line, naturally, and when I checked, Curry's are retailing them at roughly the same price in Sterling, so later, I regretted not buying a second. Ah well another day, maybe.

  

Bank Holiday Weekend - again

I spent much of yesterday, as the previous day, uploading and writing some key captions for the 900+ photos taken on our Rhine cruise, I only discarded a couple of dozen bad pictures. It's a tribute to the reliability, ease of use and responsiveness of the Sony HX50 and HX300 cameras I took with me.

Many photos required no editing at all. A few were taken in situations where conditions confused the camera sensor leading to underexposure, but this could be rectified using the old desktop Picasa, still a versatile easy to use app. For the most part, however, Google Photos on-line editor provided all the tools I needed. With poor connectivity on the cruise, uploading, let alone editing was impossible, so my spare time since arriving home has been taken with making an album for each day's photos.

Encouraged by Clare, I also made a couple of web albums using just a third of the available photos covering the trip in two halves, so as not to exhaust the patience of viewers. You can find the first of these here and the second here.

Owain came over to visit in time for supper after work and stayed the night, returning to Bristol in the afternoon, as he has a gig to prepare for tomorrow.. It was good to see him, and enjoy our evening meal outdoors in the warmth of the evening sun, drinking a bottle of Alsacian Gewurztraminer for a change. Before lunch, he took us to Luffkin's Coffee Roasters a tiny cafe in a King's Road back alley next to the evangelical mission hall calling itself the 'Church of God in Cardiff'. The cafe offers a few select single estate grown filter served coffees from Africa or Latin America, and offers a breakfast featuring several different special kinds of bread. A foodie's paradise. 

Further down the alley is the popular local Pipes micro-brewery, whose beers can be found in several places across the city centre. The alley also boasts a small select farmers' market stalls on weekends - organic veg, bread, cheese and a dried meat and sausage stall. It's the first time we've had occasion to explore this alleyway properly when fully in use. I turns out to be a hidden treasure of our Parish.

In the evening after supper, I walked around Pontcanna fields. The entire north football field area is currently enclosed in Heras fencing, and half of it covered with tents - a hundred four person and a hundred two person tents, plus wigwam shaped marquees and toilets. This is the 'Tent City' which is being prepared to accommodate surplus visitors arriving for the UEFA Cup Winners' cup final in the city centre's Principality Stadium next weekend. Apparently all hotel are already booked, and a large crowd of Spanish fans are expected, as the finalists are the two top Spanish teams. There's an unprecedented high level of extra security measures being taken in town as well, planned for a long time, and not just in response to last Monday's terrorist incident in Manchester.

The British Airways total IT systems failure has been headline news all day, bringing to a halt all their operations at Heathrow and Gatwick. Every one of the airline's activities is so heavily dependent on use of networked computers and phones, that nobody could communicate with anyone else, and passengers were left stranded in departure lounges and on aircraft, unable to move safely without the appropriate forms of clearance. It's been attributed to power failures at the server farm level, and thankfully, not to cyber attacks. This high level of electronic dependency and reliance on the core of the system never failing is a disaster waiting to happen.

IT workers unions criticised the redundancy imposed on 1,200 BT computer system staff last year, and outsourcing of their jobs to Indian company Tata Consultancy Services. Cardiff Council made the same move several years ago, as a money saver, and on a couple of occasions I know of, the entire system went down for much of a day. The technology is new, state of the art, but this doesn't mean it's been tried and tested to the extreme limit of reliability. This couldn't have happened at a more critical time, Bank Holiday weekend. One can only hope questions are asked and lessons learned about long term sustainability from such disastrous experience.

   

Journey to the Rhineland

Finally, a day free of duties, except packing for tomorrow's flight to Cologne to join the Rhine cruise. Both Clare and I visited our hairdressers, checked our belongings several times, and used up all the fresh food in meals for the day and breakfast sandwich packs. I'm taking the HX30 and HX300 cameras again, plus the Chromebook, and two phones. I have my Blackberry work phone operational again, as I've been asked to continue in an advisory role to the CBS Ltd directors for a while longer. I am happy to do this and take my time doing so. I'm not attuned to the pressures of office life these days. Besides, dealing with people pastorally as much as I do these days is what I do best, and seems most needed. 

With a taxi booked to take us for the six o'clock Heathrow coach, early bed seemed obligatory. We were both up and about before five, and at the coach station by twenty to six. The coach delivered us to Heathrow terminal five twenty minutes early for check-in and security clearance. The Dusseldorf flight was full, with a mix of business and domestic travellers, and couple of dozen people like ourselves from all over the country, headed for the Rhine cruise ship in Cologne. Our coach from airport to ship had to weave its way through 50km of rush hour traffic, nearly doubling our transit time.

On a quay one kilometer south and over the Rhine from Cologne's majestic mediaeval cathedral, the MV Emily Bronte our ship for the week, was moored. It's the newest of the Riviera line. Soon we met several of the team who looked after us on the Danube cruise last May, experienced staff transferred, presumably to help train a new team for a new ship.

Interesting to me, the ship has new generation hotel security technology to keep track of passengers comings and goings. The RFID room key card is registered with a photo of the key-holder, taken in situ, matching everyone on the passengers and crew database. A contactless scanner, like those used for card payments, is located on the reception desk, and everyone is required to scan themselves off and on the ship. Reception staff can check against misuse as the network displays a photo of the keyholder scanned. Passwordless WiFi logs one in to a web page which displays a custom QR code giving the device MAC address, presumably. Scanning the code clears it for internet attachment. Clever!

Our upper deck cabin is one of a handful of one room bed-sits with a small external balcony, so it's possible to sit outside during the day. We must have been among the last to book. There's a full complement of passengers, and this was the only one left. So luxurious, and more than I'd usually want to pay, but we both felt we didn't want to wait another year, after quite a busy and demanding six months of autumn and winter.

The standard of cuisine on these ships is very high and we enjoyed an excellent supper, chatting with a couple from Southampton, a retired mathematician who spent two years at CERN and his wife, a retired teacher. Clare was ready for bed after this, so I attended the safety briefing on my own. Being less tired, after dozing fitfully throughout much of the day's travel, I have time to collect my thoughts and ponder a little before turning in, delighted for a respite from British electioneering for a week.
    

Thoughts on MInistry Sunday

Another early start this morning, as I was asked to cover the 8.00am Eucharist at St Catherine's, another traditional Book of Common Prayer start to the day, only this time the 1984 Church in Wales revision, another liturgy I know off by heart. Clare came too, so we there walked together in the pre-dawn twilight. By the time I reached the altar for the Offertory, the sun had risen enough to shine in through the churchyard trees, and light up the brickwork in the north west corner of the church. Lovely. There were seven of us for the service. I read Archbishop Barry's Ministry Sunday letter, his last before he retires in February, commending the new Ministry Area strategy for the Church in Wales and all this will mean for the vocations of both lay and ordained people as it develops. 

With fewer than ever clergy doing more of the same, in a world where more and more technical management skills and experience are required on top of pastoral and spiritual gifts, it's difficult to see at this stage exactly how responsibility for the whole life and mission of the church is going to be shared between laity and clergy in ways that are not already happening. Maybe at this stage it's a matter of muddling through, adjusting, making better efforts to communicate better and build effective personal relationships, not just trusting that every stakeholder lay person or cleric is happy to be organised and work in a way that's different from that is habitual to them. 

In my experience a community will rally around and grow through tackling a cause or project which everyone recognises as a key issue around which to rally and muster resources. Adapting buildings to cater for changing need is one thing, restoring beloved places of worship in crisis is another, reaching out to identifiable needy groups of people is another, social and natural environmental concern is yet another. What's more difficult, when it comes to working together in genuine missionary enterprise, isn't practical responses to material need, but the spiritual dimensions of life.

Without a vision the people perish (Prov 29:18), immediately comes to mind. Every changing scene of life, every new experience, Christians are challenged yet again to return to Scripture and Tradition, and seek new understanding about how the life of faith engages afresh with reality, not just as individuals but as a community sharing thoughts and insights about the meaning of life and our relationship with God as a fresh stimulus to creative imagination.

The appeal of Christian faith to heart, mind and will has been profoundly weakened by ideologies emerging from secular materialistic thought, so that now Christian faith is dismissed as unworthy of consideration by perhaps a majority of people, who, if they have any religious or spiritual inclinations at all, prefer the DIY approach and make it up as they go along, their individualism unchallenged. Populism, be it religious, social or political may be a kind of reaction against that, but a disciplined challenge to the truth and validity of either from Christian thinking has very limited impact. Believers have a great deal to learn from the failure of the church to commend its faith to a greater audience, and a need to re-engage differently in persuasive argument for the adoption of Christian life and faith.  

Those who take the lead in matters of ministry teach and remind the church of its calling and purpose, but they are also learners, who need enable others to think for themselves, imagine and share their ideas and insights. That means taking time to listen, for them, for the whole community. Whatever practical preparation we make for anything we do is only as good as the quality of preparation we put into it, together. And that's so hard when we're so busy with so much to be done. In retirement I now look back and think about things I could have spent more time on and done better. Now I have spare time, wondering what to do with it is what exercises me most, for now.

Thankfully, after several hours of battery charging, the car started without difficulty. Why it discharged when it's not that old, is another issue to keep an eye on. Anyway, I got to St German's nice and early and enjoyed chatting with people arriving for the service. Churchwarden Peter read out Archbishop Barry's Ministry letter, and I preached about it. To my mind, St German's is a church community that is ready to face a changing future in a ministry area, as they have learned to work hard together to sustain its community facing activities, as well as buildings and worship for several years, this has continued throughout its extended period of life without a regular parish priest. I hope a new priest will be able to recognise this and build upon it, whenever one is appointed, and hopefully sooner, if a new ministry area in the 'southern arc' of Cardiff's parishes is to be realised.

After lunch, Clare went off to her final concert rehearsal, and I followed her to the Fountain Steiner School in Llandaff North a couple of hours later for the later afternoon performance. The school hall was full of families, and the choir was drawn from teachers, parents nd friends of the school. They'd spent the term rehearsing a selection of pieces from Benjamin Britten's 'Ceremony of Carols', quite a tough challenging work to develop from scratch in over three months, but I know how much Clare has enjoyed it, and is now enjoying singing lessons, taken to improve her vocal technique. I wouldn't mind joining the choir, except that it means on Tuesdays, clashing with Chi Gung, and I'm looking forward to re-starting that in the New Year.

I took my Sony HX50 with me, perched on a high window sill, pressed the video record button and left it to its own devices during the Britten, reckoning this might produce a helpful piece of feedback for the conductor to consider later. I was delighted with the result, as the sound is really quite good as well as the video footage. There was a man sitting in front of me who also had a camera and took a few stills. It turned out that inside his smart leather camera case was an identical HX50!

After supper we relaxed together, watching the movie 'Paddington', for the first time, laughing aloud at its mild satirization of British bourgeois life, while at the same time it packs a hard hitting message about the inclusiveness, diversity and welcoming foreign migrants deemed by the author and producer of the film to be characteristic of the British way of life. Nothing could be more timely. It could do with being shown on one channel or another every night at the moment, just to spite the tabloid media. 

This was followed by the penultimate episode of 'Gwyll', which rather shifted gear half way through, going from being slowly paced with a hint of menace, to chain of incidents in which our heroes start to join the dots and make an intelligible picture of the toxic affair of the children's home which has been the cause of so many tragic lives lost, throughout all three sets of episodes of this memorable Celtic noir movie series. I'm left wondering if the producers planned them all in advance, given the difficulties in funding attached to projects of this nature, or whether it evolved following the big international success of the first series. It's been a great credit to the Welsh language creative industry, and S4C. One can only hope we'll see new ventures in future.

    

Finally, a Hoopoe day

Another overcast day, and a morning spent reading news reports on reactions to yesterday's Law Lords' judgement on the need for the British Parliament to be consulted before the Brexit process is started. The tabloid newspapers hysterical and misleading denunciation of long established legal authority and process is deeply disturbing. If these newspaper owners and their editors claim to be the 'voice of the people' what they are doing is preaching anarchy and calling for mob rule. It's worrying to witness truth being cast aside in favour of unsubstantiated, inaccurate oft repeated opinionation, and its happening all over the western world these days. It's every bit as evil as religious fundamentalism in its many guises, and is re-enforcing social divisions by the day. So disheartening.

Finally, after lunch, I summoned the effort to shrug off worldly despair and get out for a walk. I crossed the rio Aguas bridge and then turned into the complex of hotels and apartments and golf course that are part of the prestigious Marina Club Golf resort. I've walked through parts of the resort a few times before, but this time I climbed up as high as I could, to a ridge about 70m above sea level, where there are several very classy architect designed luxury dwellings with fantastic views inland and out to sea. 

The course extends down on to the plain the other side of the ridge, cutting a huge green grassy enclave out of an inland plain of pale sandy soil. In season I guess this would be normally used to grow cereal crops. It was hard to avoid overhearing a snatch of conversation between two golfing gents talking loudly in their electric buggy on their return trip. "I spent two hundred and fifty thousand." Then "Did you say two hundred and sixty thousand ....?" Yes, it's that sort of place. But already, something else had caught my eye.

Looking out over part of the golf course on the sea side towards Puerto Garrucha, its loading dock empty since the departure of the bulk carrier 'Sun Vita' after sunset last night, a distinctive bird flew out of the shadows, then settled again on a green further away. I first saw a Hoopoe take to the air when I surprised one on a track in the pinewoods near El Chaparal golf course, La Cala de Mijas in the winter of 2013. Several times later, I glimpsed one in the foothills of the Alpujarras behind Nerja, where I got one lucky, but slightly blurred photo of the bird on the wing. It was only recognisable Hoopoe photo until now. This was among the first I took today.

A perimeter fence post at shoulder height enabled me to stabilise my trusty Sony HX50, so that I could shoot near the limit of its 30x zoom if needed. The bird obligingly allowed itself to be photographed in the company of a pied wagtail, and what I think was a Rock Pipit. Then, even better. I spotted a second and third Hoopoe foraging on the same green. I got a good clear picture of two together out of three, the other was just out of sight. 

So unexpectedly in a few minutes, a dull day turned to delight and exultation. I've hunted for Hoopoes to photograph, each duty tour in Spain for the past three and a half years, so taken was I by my first El Chaparal encounter.

Another little surprise of the past few days has been the appearance of a pair of pied wagtails around the rio Aguas watercourse. They were there again as a made my way back to the apartment, as the sun was going down. Separately, they fly out of the reed beds, alight on an isolated clump of reed in the water, then fly around in tight circles, returning to the same spot, presumably insect gathering. 

Being a bit bigger and brighter coloured than other reed bed denizens, wagtails are quite distinctive. Most of the time they are sociable. I once counted two dozen together in the Asda Leckwith car park. Not when they're mating to reproduce however. They seem to count on the absence of predators to hang out in a twosome around the watercourse at this time of year.

Tonight, I look at the photos with pleasure, but also a little disappointment. Might I have got better pics with my Sony HX300, with greater magnification, but essentially the same camera innards? Shooting at extreme zoom lengths and getting decent images is a chancy business. Now I know where to find  those Hoopoes, should I return there tomorrow with the other camera? Really, I could do with a camera with a bigger sensor as well as a decent zoom, but at this point the cost of my little diversion start escalating unreasonably. Fair quality on a modest budget is a factor in my measure of hobby satisfaction, but real pleasure is to be found in the surprise gift of a moment unexpected.

       

Supermoon eclipse vigil

After some camera preparation earlier on, I woke up just after one, and dozed until the eclipse of the moon began, then went downstairs and took pictures from the front lawn in a dressing gown and pyjamas, it was just warm enough, at ten minute intervals until complete obscurity. 

Surprisingly my little Sony HX50 did me proud until this point. The 'blood moon' effect was hardly visible through the viewfinder at any zoom magnification, so I switched to the Alpha 55, with its TTL electronic viewfinder and captured a few images, though none turned out to be all that satisfactory. If I'd persevered with changing settings maybe I'd have got better results, but by this time I was getting tired, and returned to bed. 

I woke up again with the dawn twilight and glimpsed the moon from the bedroom window as it was just touching the horizon, brighter than I'd seen it when it was full and high in the sky earlier, or so it seemed. Too tired to make the effort to reach for a camera, but the memory remains vivid and rather wonderful. In fact the whole experience was rather wonderful. The naked eye sees so much more than the above average consumer camera. 

You can see the pictures I took here

After breakfast we returned to Cardiff, Clare driving most of the way as I was somewhat worse for wear. We stopped to buy a picnic lunch at a service station outside Ross on Wye. The checkout guy noticed my cross and said "Tell me, does that cross mean you are a Christian?" "Yes, all my life and proud of it." I said. "Do you know about what's happening to Christians across the Middle East?" he asked. I assured him that I did, and we talked for a while until his next customer came to the till. He said he was from Lebanon, but not what kind of Lebanese he was. An exile, for certain, worried for kinsfolk and neighbours back home, no doubt, since his homeland of 4.8 million people has taken in a million Syrians.

A documentary photographer friend of Owain's has recently been working over in Lebanon, profoundly moved by what he witnessed. He returned feeling deeply ashamed of British Government attitude and policy towards suffering on this scale. Sending aid to refugees in places nearer to the land they left may seem like a well intended gesture aiming to make it easier to return when order is restored, but the pressures on a small country the size of Wales with over 50% more population than Wales to start with, are simply inhumane.

We got home early afternoon, and I set about painting the front garden railings and gate, boosted by warm bright sunshine. I was out of the house again to make a bereavement visit in Pentyrch at six, however. It related to one of two funerals I have Thursday this week. I learned about a man who'd died six months before he was expecting to receive a telegram from the Queen. He'd lived in the same house in Ely since it was built 93 years ago, in a street that has changed its name twice since he first moved in as a kid.

St John the Baptist's day

After my late night walk, I slept remarkably well, and arrived for the midweek Eucharist punctually. To my delight and surprise, John and Carol Le Page from St Andrew's Chaplaincy, Costa del Sol East were there, having driven up from Benalmadena for a day trip, with the aim of joining us and a brief reunion. They were always present for the midweek Eucharist in Fuengirola, and John is a part of the ministry team working so hard to keep everything running normally during the interregnum. It made  the service extra special for me, in fact it made my day.

Most of the shops in Nerja were closed as today is a public holiday, especially desirable if you've spent the night on the beach waiting for the dawn. Panaderias and small grocery stores were open for business as usual as they often are on a Sunday when all else is closed. For this I was grateful, having almost run out of fruit.

 

After lunch I went through the photos I took last night. Half of them were useless and the rest were a mixed bag, giving a fair impression of the atmosphere, but lacking in sharpness of focus and detail. It's not surprising, giving the low light levels, far better than what was possible with an entry level camera in today's market, as I was reminded when I was asked by a fellow reveller to take a photo of them in front of the bonfire. 

The little purse camera struggled to adjust itself to the environment even though it was set to snap a night time scene. It refused to work first time and only on second try did I get a result. Getting good low light photos without flash requires far more expensive and up to date hardware than I can afford. It's still worth the effort of trying to squeeze the best from a mid range two year old camera like the Sony HX50. There can still be occasional surprises among the results.For what they're worth, my last night photos are here

Benifassa revisited

I visited El Portico this morning for the last time, and chatted with a few people before doing some shopping and making lunch. On a whim, on my way to the supermarket, I drove alone the south shore road, and spotted some birds roosting on a rock, a hundred metres off-shore. I parked and took photos with my Sony HX50, to find out what its telephoto setting would deliver. When I examined the results later, I was surprised to discover that the rock in question hosted not just the usual family of cormorants but also a pair of big grey herons, and neither seemed bothered about the presence of the other.

I had just enough time later in the afternoon to make the drive to La Senia, and from there drove up into the Sierra dels Ports before sunset to revisit the Benifassa reservoir. The display of light on high peaks and south facing cliffs was utterly lovely to behold.

Two and a half years ago, when I was last up there, the water level behind the dam was so low that an original river bridge and some houses at the bottom of the river valley were not only visible, but could be visited by the adventurous, some 250 feet below the road running across the top of the dam.

At a guess, I'd say the reservoir is now half full, and by the end of winter, there may be even more rain to bring the water level up to a healthy maximum.

The entire agricultural economy of the maritime plain from the Sierra dels Ports in the north to the Sierra d'Irta beyond Peniscola to the south depends on water captured from the mountains as well as the depths of ground water available. I was glad to have the opportunity to return there and see for myself the remarkable variations in climate that cultivators in Spain have to live with, or else go out of business. We who are consumers have no real idea of how much we owe them for our food supplies. All too easily we take abundance for granred.

   

Dusk images

Friday, just by coincidence, when I was out taking pictures in Xert, the 8gb memory card in my Sony DSLR registered it was full just as the camera was threatening to shut down due to drained battery and I had to carry on shooting with my HX50. I'd bought a new card on special offer a couple of months ago in El Corte Ingles back in Fuengirola, so after re-charge and card formatting, I took the camera with me when I walked to the nearest Mercadona in town for some weekend food shopping, late afternoon. 

By the time I'd finished and was walking back, the sun had just set, floodlights on the two bridges across the rio Servol barranco had just come on. It offered me the chance to play around with camera settings to see what I could achieve with a machine that has a good reputation in low light conditions.

I was slightly impressed with this first one I took on enhanced auto setting, but I wanted to try longer exposures with a manual shutter and slower iso setting, as faster iso gives much grainier photos. I prefer to learn by doing, playing around and reading the manual only when mystified by the machine. It proved easier to achieve than I thought, although only one of the batch I took at 1/4 or 1/3 second, handheld was satisfactory.

A fairly steady hand helps. I have a mini tripod but rarely bother to carry it. For the most part I leave a camera set to auto in daylight and make simple adjustments in Picasa's photo editing suite. Still, with time on my hands, and plenty of low light at this time of year, why not experiment a little? Next time I try this, I'll go for photos in darkness with a tripod.

 

Catching up on ourselves

Saturday was every kind of catch up day - blog writing, photo uploading, sermon preparation for the morrow, ringing my eldest sister to talk about next Friday's funeral, and an hour in the office into the bargain. The one bargain I was tempted by in last week's John Lewis sale had been snapped up by someone else, but I'm not bothered. I did by a new 8GB memory card for my Sony HX50, as the one I had from new back in mid February is now full with 1440 photos. No all the originals are worthy of long term storage, but sorting and weeding them in detail is such a painstaking hassle, as looking through them makes me stop and remember things. A new card as such low prices these days is a quick 'n dirty time saver.

I was up early this morning, celebrating the eight o'clock at St Catherine's. I was entrusted with keys to open up, as nobody is willing to take responsibility for getting up early to do the care-taking when they themselves want to go to a later service and have jobs to do beforehand. I got in and opened up OK but couldn't get the lights to work, as there was a master switch I didn't know about, but one of the three members of the congregation discovered the switch and we were spared morning Mass by candlelight. St Catherine's has quite a dark interior. There were thirty again at the 10.30 service and afterwards I bought some courgettes and blackberries from the church garden to add to the good fare which Clare brought home from Riverside Farmers Market after church.

Travel tiredness hit us both after lunch, so we dispensed ourselves from doing anything apart from recovering for the rest of the day, relaxing in summer heat that makes Cardiff feel more like Malaga than Cardiff generally does.

  

Remote control camera

I went to my dentist in Llandaff North yesterday morning, to have a crown fitted to a large back tooth. The filling it replaced was still intact after twenty-five years, but the edges of the tooth itself were getting ragged. The crown covers and protects perfectly although it feels somewhat strange, it's so smooth it feels like having an extra false tooth attached to my jaw.

I decided to wait for a bus to return home as one was conveniently scheduled to arrive within minutes of reaching the bus stop. Needless to stay, it didn't come. The timetable lied, so I had a twenty minute wait. I could have been half way home in that time. Former city centre colleague Alun Tudur, minister of Ebenezer Eglwys Annibynol in Charles Street accosted me at the bus stop, about to visit one of his deacons who lived in a house adjacent to the stop. I haven't seen him for at least a couple of years, since we bumped into each other ourtide the CBS office, which in those days was also in Charles Street. My how time flies.

It was raining today when I drove the car down to N G Motors in Splott for its annual service. I have previously walked or cycled back home or to the office from there, but it was too wet to enjoy the added exercise, so I caught a conveniently arriving eleven bus from Splott Road. This took me to Greyfriars, where I only had to cross the road to pick up one of the Stagecoach out of town buses, the 122, which goes to Tonypandy via Ponyclun via Cathedral Road, close to home. Most convenient.

I had no reason to go out again after my return. I had a briefing to write for office purposes which could be done from home. With time on my hands I decided to install and try out the Sony Playmemories app on my Samsung Galaxy Ace Duo, and on my Asus Transformer, to serve as remote control devices with my Sony HX50. I was impressed with how easy it was to set up and use on both. The large clear preview displayed on the Transformer screen is most helpful in acquiring a desirable photograph.  Now I have to think of situations in which it might be worth the effort to use it. 

I imagine it would be beneficial with the camera on a tripod. To avoid shake when pressing the shutter button on a tripod mounted camera, I have to set the shutter timer to allow the camera to settle from the touch impact of my finger. This remote control app allows for focussing and other adjustments, as well as shutter operation. You can see exactly what you're shooting and don't have to be in line of sight. This is good for shooting shy wildlife. All that remains now is to remember to pack a small tripod and the phone when I take a camera for a walk.
  

Bank Holiday weekend

We drove to Bristol Friday to visit Amanda, who's in hospital again, and to give James some support. Caring for his mother this past month or so has led to him missing school and examinable assignments, so now he's not going to be able to complete his A level year. We took him out to his school at Thornbury, to find out what options might be available to him. His head of year and head of sixth form were delighted to see him as he has recently been the subject of their pastoral concern. They took an hour with him, mapping out the options for next year, encouraging him to come into school while he's free from having to care for his mother daily, and use staff expertise to write applications, once he's clear what he wants to do next. It's very pleasing to see that he has so much understanding and support there.

Saturday, we took the bus to Penarth and had lunch in the 'Cafe des Amis'. Then we went down to the sea front to inspect the recently renovated and now open buildings on the Pier. It's an impressive restoration and adaptation of a landmark building. 

Part of the upper level of the old ballroom is now a cinema. Underneath it there are function rooms and exhibition space. On the sea side is a stylish restaurant with deck and balcony level dining areas. The pier was busy with bank holiday weekenders enjoying the warmth and Spring sunshine. 

I had a fit of geekiness and took all three cameras, (Sony Alpha 55, HX50 and Lumix DMC LX5) along with me, aiming to take the same photo with each of them, in select locations for comparative purposes. It was an interesting if fiddly time consuming exercise. The wide angle capability of the Lumix lens in comparison with the others is impressive. The telephoto capability of the HX50 and the quality of output is quite remarkable. I used my 28-200mm lens with the Alpha, and found its performance disappointing. Maybe that's my inexperience at using it, even on auto settings, but it could also be a matter of quality as an entry-level priced lens. Some of the photos I took are here. 

We walked back to Cardiff Bay along the beach, as it was low tide, and then along the Barrage to the Millennium Centre for tea. We bumped into Canon Aled Edwards, the CYTUN executive officer in the foyer and chatted for ages. He was on his way out after an Open University Graduation ceremony - one of the many events hosted by our wonderful operatic auditorium.

Birds on Saturday

This morning I started re-organising the apartment, ready to welcome Eddie and Ann arriving Malaga on Monday from East Anglia, via London City  airport. Linda came in and made up a couple of beds in the second bedroom and I transferred all my goods and chattels to that room to free up the one with the double bed in it where I've been sleeping for the past month. Then I went up to the office to collect my alb, print off my sermon for tomorrow, and do the first half of the food shopping for the week ahead. After lunch, I did the second half of the shopping in the local Mercadona, and then went out for a walk, two kilometres along the coast towards El Faro, to see what birds I could photograph.

There was a strong breeze, but fortunately it was warm enough to walk along the exposed path alongside the N340. On the rock where I snapped a single Cormorant a couple of weeks ago, there were two at first.

Then, a third joined them. All three were breeding females, judging by the unusual display of white feathers on the neck, head and flank.

On the way back, I heard what I thought was an Oystercatcher's call, then saw a group of four wading birds feeding on the edge of the shore, which I didn't recognise at all.

I went through a list of the various suspects on an Andalusian visitor website, and Google Images gave me a selection of photos to compare with my own. My best guess is that they were Sanderling, a new bird to me.

These birds are so well adapted to sea shore survival that they aren't at all easy to spot among the stones and vegetation, except when they move about. Altogether I was pleased with the pictures I got today. My new camera is giving good results on Auto, but I must make an effort to learn how to manage its control settings as well.

Via Crucis in Los Boliches

This morning, I drove into Los Boliches for the first of my Lent Course sessions to the sound of the Fauré Requiem on RNE Classico. The keen east wind was whipping the bright blue sea into a host of foam topped waves breaking on the shore, a beautiful sight. It seemed just right as a backdrop to the music. There were only half a dozen of us present, perhaps more next week, as in the afternoon people would be turning out for the annual Womens' World Day of Prayer, and few were willing to come twice in a day.

The afternoon service, devised by Christians in Egypt was attended by over forty people, and beautifully presented. Lay Reader Caroline preached an excellent and insightful sermon for the occasion, and yet again, there was tea and cake to follow.

I stayed on after the service to take part in the parish Stations of the Cross, walking through the streets of the barrio, to and from the church, with team of local cofridia members carrying the statue of Jesús cautivo -  Jesus bound - to which their confraternity is dedicated.

I believe this image depicts Jesus standing before Pilate for judgement - the subject of the first Station of the Via Crucis. It truly was an all-age-service, both from the perspective of the crowd of a couple of hundred followers, and those leading the procession.

There were junior and middle school children as servers and thurifers - girls and boys, teenagers carring the fourteen placards bearing images of the Stations, the singing of popular hymns while we walked, led by the older women with confident voices. (Did they sing flamenco as well, I wondered.).

Eighteen men, mostly young, in black suits carryied the trona on which Jesús cautivo stood, laity men and women taking turns to introduce a Station and lead prayers. Only very occasionally did the priest do anything more than preside. In fact the whole thing was organised in a manner that meant it could be carried out if there was no priest. That's a real tribute to the nature of community in Catholic Spain today. It's all possible because, however secular some aspects of Spanish life are today, this kind of social solidarity, deeply rooted in Christian faith, is still valued. It was a very moving expression of parochial solidarity and co-operation. I took lots of photos and could still join in prayers familiar to me in English. 

Although I was tired, cold and hungry at the end of a long day, I stayed right to the end, absorbed by an experience that is so much part of the normality of life here, not at all a cultural feature for tourists, many of whom were watching from bar or restaurant as we passed them by. My new Sony HX50 on Auto settings did well to capture a few pictures I'm quite pleased with. With more experience of working with the camera's various layers of settings, I should be able to improve the quality of images, and maybe reduce motion blur. Hopefully there will be more opportunities of this kind in weeks to come. You can see the rest of my efforts here

    

Regional crime reduction pow-wow

After an early trip to the GP surgery for a prescription renewal, I pottered about for a couple of hours, then went into town, changed some Euros, horrified by the exchange rate, then went and bought a superzoom Sony HX50 camera that I could have bought in Malaga at the same price, had I not miscalculated the exchange rate and duped myself into thinking it would be cheaper to buy in the UK. I started out some months ago looking for a decent telephoto lens for my DSLR, but quickly gave up on the idea. A 30x zoom in a pocketable camera is a fifth of the price of a lens that would add weight and complexity I don't need for my kind of photography. Like everyone else I'd like to take good quality pictures, but don't need professional high quality output to satisfy my personal needs.

Ashley and I then met up at our new office in the Old Library and we travelled by train to Swansea for the Wales Against Business Crime quarterly meeting with other people working in Business Crime Partnerships across South East Wales. It's the first time I can recall travelling to Swansea by train and it was interesting to see the familiar landmarks along the M4 corridor from a different perspective.

I was the first meeting of this group I've been to, and I was impressed by the amount of ground we covered, ranging from confidential information sharing on identifiable shoplifters travelling between shopping centres along the M4, to discussion about the astonishing inconsistencies between local divisions of South Wales Police in implementing information sharing agreements with their Business Crime Reduction Partnership. Problems in Cardiff are reflected in nearly every area.

Because flooding, high winds and rain were imposing speed restrictions in some areas along the Swansea to Paddington line, there were delays in the schedule of trains that would get us back to Cardiff. It was seven o'clock by the time we got back and I was very lucky to get a bus home within minutes. Clare had arranged an outing to Chapter Arts Centre to hear a story teller accompanied by a fiddler and a guitarist tell tales from the Mabinogion. I scoffed half my supper in great haste before we set out and thankfully we were on time, and to our surprise ended up with a front row seat in an extra row placed on stage. A refreshing end to an interesting day. Now I must get that camera battery charged and ready for action.