Usefully busy

I emerged from a good night's sleep to the return of sunny weather this morning. After breakfast I phoned the neighbour who is acting as executor for a man with no next of kin, whose funeral I am doing next Monday, and arranged to visit him tomorrow afternoon, following my post op optometrist visit.

Then set about making this week's prayer video, only to discover that the Photos app I'd been using had been removed by Windows 11 and replaced by Clipchamp, much more complex, and maybe find if you are stitching videos together, but not if you're just doing a slide show  with audio. A Clipchamp pop-up note said I could download the old Photos app, now rebranded as Photos Legacy. A ridiculous and annoying waste of time aiming to impose on you something you don't need and wate time seeking out the thing you do need. Ah well, I finished the job, and then moved on to digital task number two.

The Church of England Pensions Board, as mentioned previously, is going paperless next year, unless you make a special appeal against this. Well, I decided to try out their sign up system first, and followed the instructions in the letter, which included a registration code. The one given me looked odd and initially I couldn't figure out why. I entered all my details plus the code, and I got an error message in response. The code was in square brackets, I tried with and without the brackets. Nothing. 

It occurred to me this was not my personal code, but a tiny piece of mail merge programming language. I called the helpline and found I was one of many whose batch mailing had failed to deliver a personal number. A week of apologies to every caller for the help desk clerk. What a nightmare! Another properly error checked letter would soon arrive, but the registration code was also printed on a document notifying me of a pension increase which was mailed out last February. I retrieved it from my almost orderly pension file folder, and successfully used it to register my new on-line CofE pension account. I must get around to doing the CinW equivalent. I think we have one, but I haven't bothered yet, as we still get paper documents - running behind the CofE.

Quite a good experience in the end really. There was almost no helpline queue, and I spoke to a kind lady, rather than a robot pretending to be human and failing the voice test.

After a busy morning, I lost track of time and had not long started to cook lunch when Clare returned from her study group. Fortunately the meal didn't take long to make so we were eating by half past one. Then Ruth's weekly email with the Morning Prayer texts arrived. When I checked the scripture passage for my Thursday offering, from Revelation 21, I noticed something I'd not registered before, and it gave me an idea for writing a reflection on it. In just under an hour it was written and recorded, which was satisfying. Then I went out and did the weekly grocery shopping at the Co-op, and walked until it was dark.

We had a Fountain Choir rehearsal in St Catherine's at six thirty, so we set out early to arrange chairs of the seven of us who were able to attend. It got very cold in church as we had no heating so it was rather a struggle to get through, especially as the ancient Latin music we're singing is both unusual and hard to remember. I'm out of my depth really. It was great to return home to a warm house, even though the heating at home had been switched off three hours earlier.

A little more preparatory work on a Lent Course for St Andrew's Fuengirola before turning in early. My ankle has been giving me extra trouble today, perhaps because the ambient temperature has dropped to the level that's normal for this time of year, even if it's happening much later than usual.

Where your treasure is ..

This morning I visited Ian and Mary who live up in Frigiliana. Ian broke his upper left arm while visiting the Frauenkirche in Dresden a few weeks ago while on holiday, and is for the time being at least somewhat limited in what he can do. Like me, Ian has been writing a retirement blog for the past eight years. His blog is called 'Living the dream - Retirement in Frigiliana', an excellent read about anything and everything that comes his way, social, political, cultural, religious. 

His Spanish is pretty fluent and some of his blog postings are written in Spanish for the sake of local readers, as many people in the village are aware of the interest he takes in life there. He's a Catholic convert from Anglicanism, and remains very open and ecumenically spirited. When we met last year in the church shop one day, we had a good conversation, so I was looking forward to a lively pastoral visit, and certainly had one. 

Their hillside terraced house is a three storey dwelling with spectacular views of this marvellous pueblo blanco. We sat on a shady balcony drinking coffee and we chatted for two hours. A couple from Cardiff arrived at the house the same time I did, inspecting with a view to purchase. Having seen in the lives of others what old age and infirmity can be like for expatriates with family members far away, they are planning for their future long term back in Britain, the sensible option, and as Ian said: "Our hearts will still remain here." While they remain active, longish holiday spells in Spain will still be possible. The dream is still there to be lived, but in a more measured way.

I don't know why, but this prompted me to recall a conversation from our time in Geneva between expatriate International Civil Servants discussing pensions. Apparently at some stage when their appointment ceased to be temporary, they are given the choice of currency in which their pension will eventually be paid. At retirement, many return home, though some with residence rights, stay in Switzerland or France voisine, or choose a different country altogether. So, what are the criteria for choosing your currency of pension remuneration, given it may be linked to the kind of pension fund that holds your money? Swiss Franc? Dollar? Sterling? Yen? Which suits you best? 

It may boil down to which currency you have long term confidence in, or how well your currency does in foreign exchange, if you decide to move around. Or perhaps where your loyalties lie, where you call 'home', even if you don't spend all your time there. What you can afford on a reduced fixed income, or what you wish to afford is also a consideration, as well as the cost of living, which can differ so greatly. Strong currencies go far in third world homelands, but less so in Europe and parts of Asia where the cost of living is high. 

It's a complex decision most of us never need to think about. When we left Switzerland, my small mandatory 'pension pot' in Swiss Francs was turned into Sterling and added to savings, for the sake of simple management, rather than have small sums in foreign currency arriving and regularly losing a portion of its value, adding complexity to the filling in of tax forms. Only rich people can afford account fees and taxes to keep funds in Switzerland and live elsewhere. There's no going back for us except for holidays, and these get less and less frequent, as years pass. Great times, like those I now enjoy in retirement serving expatriate communities in Spain or anywhere else I'm asked to go. 

But nothing lasts forever. To everything its due season. For everything, thanksgiving.