We went on the outing today with the Scottish Branch of the TCD [Trinity College, Dublin] Association – leaving South Queensferry just under the Forth Railway Bridge

and going to Inchcolm  It was a beautiful day and the Abbey looked lovely – not sure that I would choose to get married there myself. But there you are.

Great nebbing on the boat on the way home: ‘Do you know that the Japanese all train their cats to use the ordinary toilet?’

I began the day by recording two pieces and an interview for Heartland Radio – which covers Highland Perthshire. Local radio is great – very simple, very directly in touch with its audience and the table was very wobbly.  Some of our clergy in the area do quite a bit of broadcasting for them – it all helps to put a human face – or voice – on the church. But maybe that is an inappropriate metaphor.

Meanwhile – in the ‘I wasn’t ordained to do this and it wasn’t part of my training’ department, my life and death struggle with Plone continues. ‘Plone is a Content Management System’ says the voice .. But I think my defeat is rather less total than it was. And maybe we shall before too long be able to bring the new Diocesan Website out from behind its seven veils.

Anniversary time today – yes indeed .. married young … well preserved … thank-you very much. So it was the French restaurant in Perth – the remarkable Cafe Tabou. It is quite remarkably French – could be a summer evening in Burgundy. But it actually sits hard by St John’s Kirk. I lifted my eyes tonight as one does during a lengthy Presbyterian sermon and found the text above my head: ‘Le gastronomie est l’art de utiliser la nourriture pour creer le bonheur.’ One can imagine John Knox, who preached in St John’s in May 1559, taking a quick break for a Plat du Jour across the square.

Having lived so long in Northern Ireland, I’m quite used to time travel. After all they are talking about beginning again to make the De Lorean car which gobbled up untold millions of government money in a vain attempt to provide employment in West Belfast. It then starred in’Back to the Future’. And, of course, the passions of the 16th and 17th centuries were strong as ever until very recently. It’s amazing that in the tranquillity of St John’s Square this evening, it is as if they had never been.

The Diocesan Review took another lurch forward this evening. We’ve done eight meetings across the Diocese talking and listening [a bit]. About 250 people took part so expectations are high. This evening set the Working Group stage in motion – the ‘nice idea but what are we actually going to do’ department. I think that Gordon our Consultant and I had that good feeling of being in the room with a group of people who understand exactly what this task is about. We’ll sit back [a bit] and wait to see what comes back.

But what is it?

Orange sent me a Data Card for my laptop – to help me to pretend to be at home when I am not. The courier delivered it to the third drawer of the disused filing cabinet outside the back door of the Office. So I rang Orange to say that it had got lost. So they sent another. But they also cancelled the whole account. Now I can’t get the account re-instated and the new data card doesn’t recognise the Sim card. Orange – who are infamous for their customer relations – are helpful but ineffective. So if I had put the disused filing cabinet – which has been outside the door since before I came over two years ago – in the back of the faithful Passat and taken it to the dump last week, none of this would have happened.

My apologies if you have been finding me hard to find of late.  The Blogstead Boffins are on the case.  There was a brief conversation about the updating of WordPress – brief because it was clear that there was little point continuing when I asked where WordPress was – on my computer or in cyberspace?  I really find it hard to grasp.  The doctrine of the Incarnation is a doodle in comparison.

On this 100th Anniversary of the Scout Movement, I think I probably find myself more in tune with concepts like ‘How to make a fire without matches’ and other pearls from Scouting for Boys.

I wonder if clergy everywhere are the same – my Palm is set so that Sunday is the end of the week. Interesting week too – interviews in London on Wednesday for Mission to Seafarers and Daily Service for the BBC in Edinburgh on Friday morning and all the usual stuff as well. This morning was Forfar where I attempted to say what I believe about prayer. They are between Rectors and cheerfully flourishing in the vacancy as congregations often do. This evening I took part in the opening eucharist of the first of the two Glenalmond Summer Camps. About 60 young people and a dedicated group of leaders – many of them giving up their holidays to be there. An unusual and welcome experience for me to be three times the age of most of the congregation – in Forfar, I was certainly on the younger edge of those present. And the best moment of the day was the evening sun through the magnificent west window of Glenalmond College Chapel.

So complicated life today.  Friends and admirers say that it is time I sorted out my profiles on Bebo and Facebook.  So I’ve started tinkering with it – which has had the unexpected parental benefit of enabling me to browse the party photos of all the junior members of the family.  But I’m a words person – like many of my generation.  So choosing a photo for my profile was too much – we settled in the end for this one of the day we sailed round the Fastnet Rock.  And the lighthouse is a faith symbol as well – or does it tell us other darker things about isolation or being all at sea or …

David – we’re going to miss you when you move to be Chaplain at Fettes. Meanwhile, when we came out of the Diocesan Review Meeting in Dunfermline, we were greeted by the sight of the faithful Passat and the Oriental Princess together. Combined age about 23 – combined mileage must be about 250000 – MOT’s passed must be around 17. It’s bangernomics and it’s greenish. Bangernomics, BTW, is the discipline of owning and running a car to the point where it has no monetary value. One therefore avoids the input of many barrels of oil in making a new one. Also and probably more importantly one negates the single greatest motoring cost – depreciation.

Todays flight on Easyjet lacked, shall we say, the urgency of my last experience where the girl jumped up and down in the aisle saying, ‘If I don’t get off this plane soon, I’m going to wet myself’

Today set the more mundane question, ‘Two passengers fail to turn up at the Boarding Gate.  We all sit and wait.  Do we gain more satisfaction from seeing them left behind – although we have to wait while their bags or taken off?  Or is it better to welcome them aboard with a round of applause?’  WWJD?

The lady sitting beside me gave her little girl a kiss after we landed.  I thought that was nice.  Reminded me of that dreadful Ryanair night in February …