Water begone!

It turns out that all my fears about a water damaged augmented iPhone was based on a faulty plug.  Never let it be said that I did not assume the worst.  I think it comes from a Protestant expectation of justified retribution (as opposed to the wildly generalised concept of guilt that keeps Roman Catholicism going) for obvious mistakes – like leaving an iPhone out in the rain.

Yet again, it would appear that my source of luck has come into play and squirted another dose in my direction!

I must admit that I have been using my phone in a somewhat compulsive manner since it was magically restored to me: reading, playing, consulting, but not of course using it as a telephone.  Perish the thought!

I’m well into The Reformation at the moment and relishing the details of iconoclasm and the disturbing characters involved in it.  This is one of the chapters on which we have to concentrate as it will be the basis for at least one of the questions in the examination.  I have read through but will have to revert to old techniques and start making the revision notes that are necessary to get the detail firmly in my mind.

I am remembering to revert to tried and tested advice (by me!) to stick to what the OU tells you about something and use their vocabulary in your descriptions.  It is my ignoring of these simple rules in my last essay that is giving me pause for thought as I wait for it to be returned.

My jaunt to the swimming pool was most satisfactory, though this time I came out for my cup of tea and found myself confronted with a whole group of teachers from the school next door.

Our leisure centre is becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the school next door.  It is the educational and leisure equivalent of Lesotho – almost completely surrounded by another institution!

I think the most disconcerting element was a parting comment from one of my ex-colleagues who said (in response to my assertion that I was not working and was fairly averse to returning to the classroom) “You will help us out when we need it though?”  Hmmmm.

The weather is definitely getting cooler and although it has been bright today so far, it also looks as though it could rain before the day is out.  There is a distinct end of year feel to the climate, though I am delighted to report that each time I close the window because I feel it being a touch cold, I have to open it again because it is too hot. 

This is a situation that I would be perfectly happy to see extend itself well into the cruel months of the start of next year. 

I can always take the cold; it’s the wet and grey I can’t stand.

On the news Barcenas, the ex-treasurer of the ruling PP and who is now in prison is again splashed across the media because pictures of him inside prison have been smuggled out and sold.  Obviously the pictures have been taken on a mobile phone and one section of film shows Barcenas in some sort of religious service in which there are very few participants and so it is going to be very easy to work out who the photographer was.

On the positive side this does show a shocking lack of security for a very high profile prisoner and, as the odious Barcenas’s lawyer has suggested, the responsibility for this grave lapse of security is eventually the Minister of the Interior.  Who should resign.  Together with the rest of this thoroughly discredited government.

I think we are getting near to corruption overkill.  No one to whom I’ve talked expects anything like justice from this sorry catalogue of money-grubbing arrogance on the part of the government.  No one expects the King, his daughter and his son-in-law to get anything approaching justice as their various forms of financial “mismanagement” are considered, debated and then, presumably, conveniently delayed, sidelined and forgotten. 

What is going on at the moment in this country is truly sickening and it is to the continuing shame of the Spanish people that their so-called government continues as if nothing has happened or can happen to topple them from their completely illegitimate control of positions of power.

I am now reading Christopher Hitchens’ autobiography after glutting myself with two volumes of his essays and reviews.  His breadth of knowledge is astonishing and he wears it medium-easy.  I like his confrontational style and the confidence with which he writes.  His autobiographical writing is much like his other writing – and indeed many of the anecdotes are garnered from his other pieces.  It is not particularly revelatory, but I do find that it reads itself.  Compulsive!

It is now half past eleven at night and it is pouring with rain.  Raining at night is civilized and more than acceptable – it is when the dampness extends into daylight that I get upset and fidgety.

Tomorrow revising Luther and his mates and their less than positive reaction to artistic things in churches. 

What are you going to read about tomorrow?