The week the blog almost died
It's been a very busy week here in Bordeaux, just one thing after another, to such an extent that I thought the best thing to do was to announce the death of the blog. However last night Mrs Davey told me that this would be a pity, and so the blog will live on.
What's been happening? All sorts of things.
Monday is now sabbatical day, and I ventured out into Bordeaux without my phone and quite, quite alone. It was very liberating to know that nobody knew where I was and nobody could contact me. I ate lunch in one of the cheap cafés and watched the empty square - Mondays are quiet in Bordeaux and many of the shops are closed.
We had some computer problems sorted out. Catrin's laptop hit problems due to lack of storage but in the centre of Bordeaux there's an independent computer shop that was able to sell us a bigger disk and fit it. I'd have been able to fit it myself, but it was cheaper to get them to do it than to buy the tools I would need.
Then Pat's phone had a cracked screen. Catrin's had previously suffered the same thing, so we got Catrin's repaired at the same place for a very reasonable sum and Pat took over Catrin's phone.
Again on the computer front a young chap asked me to help him upgrade his cloud storage but unfortunately he could not remember his password - or rather he correctly remembered the wrong password - so there was nothing constructive that we could do!
I met up with a young student who is working on the role of women in protestant churches in Bordeaux and after our interview we discussed how he feels about President Macron. We are both glad to have a president who knows how to behave without embarrassing the whole country, not something we felt so able to say with the two previous incumbents.
It's been the CNEF week of prayer, but I only got to one of the evenings, in the Eglise Libre in Pessac. It was good to meet up with folk and to pray together.
The church council had a very constructive meeting, and we're progressing towards declaring our 1905 Association, we hope at the beginning of February.
And I've started working on a big music project, that of singing a complete Bach cantata, number 82 for baritone. It represents about 25 minutes of singing! Some movements are very achievable, others are far more difficult. I've started by tackling one of the easier movements. Someone drew my attention to this Radio 4 programme that discusses the piece : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09l07ly
What's been happening? All sorts of things.
Monday is now sabbatical day, and I ventured out into Bordeaux without my phone and quite, quite alone. It was very liberating to know that nobody knew where I was and nobody could contact me. I ate lunch in one of the cheap cafés and watched the empty square - Mondays are quiet in Bordeaux and many of the shops are closed.
We had some computer problems sorted out. Catrin's laptop hit problems due to lack of storage but in the centre of Bordeaux there's an independent computer shop that was able to sell us a bigger disk and fit it. I'd have been able to fit it myself, but it was cheaper to get them to do it than to buy the tools I would need.
Then Pat's phone had a cracked screen. Catrin's had previously suffered the same thing, so we got Catrin's repaired at the same place for a very reasonable sum and Pat took over Catrin's phone.
Again on the computer front a young chap asked me to help him upgrade his cloud storage but unfortunately he could not remember his password - or rather he correctly remembered the wrong password - so there was nothing constructive that we could do!
I met up with a young student who is working on the role of women in protestant churches in Bordeaux and after our interview we discussed how he feels about President Macron. We are both glad to have a president who knows how to behave without embarrassing the whole country, not something we felt so able to say with the two previous incumbents.
It's been the CNEF week of prayer, but I only got to one of the evenings, in the Eglise Libre in Pessac. It was good to meet up with folk and to pray together.
The church council had a very constructive meeting, and we're progressing towards declaring our 1905 Association, we hope at the beginning of February.
And I've started working on a big music project, that of singing a complete Bach cantata, number 82 for baritone. It represents about 25 minutes of singing! Some movements are very achievable, others are far more difficult. I've started by tackling one of the easier movements. Someone drew my attention to this Radio 4 programme that discusses the piece : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09l07ly
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