Yesterday I had a phone message from the solicitor conveyancing the sale of our defunct chapel, sale due to complete on Monday.  She had just spotted that the forms that had been signed and sealed in February were now obsolete and so not legally binding and she needed us to get a new set signed PDQ.   According to her it was the other solicitor's fault but frankly I didn't much care who was technically at fault, bottom line was that she hadn't checked the paperwork until the last minute and now everything goes on hold until it's resolved.  Thankfully the buyer is being understanding (but then he has invested a fortune already in surveys and bat escape routes and bird prevention measures) and will evidently still pay on Monday.  And where will the money reside?  With the (expletive deleted) solicitors who between them have created the delay.  So, if their interest is accrued daily or even weekly they make out of their error.  Grrrrrr.

I also checked on line to see the planning application for the new housing to go on the site - nine very small houses to be built for/by a housing association to provide much needed lower cost housing for people in this area.  They look very tiny but pleasant as starter homes and incorporate solar panels on the south facing rear roofs (I'm sure it was 'rooves' when I was a child) which should be very beneficial for the residents.  So, a development of nine houses and one 'bat house' as we have christened it.  The bat roost (it's official name) has a floor plan almost as large as the smallest of the houses - and all this for three juvenile, male, long-eared bats spotting hanging around (groan) in the chapel building (according to the bat survey).  Now that is batty!

At 'thing in a pub' someone asked, half tongue in cheek, 'so where is God in all of this?'  Where do you think?  I replied.  Well, either saying 'you shouldn't be doing this' or laughing at the stupidity of humans.  We noted that some people would indeed interpret hitches and glitches as signs of divine disapproval and some would see it as signs of demonic attack (and hence vicariously divine approval).  We decided we preferred the idea of divine laughter at human behaviour and (all too briefly) pondered ideas of how/if God intervenes in human affairs (cf Rowan Williams in recent weeks).  One person arriving to sign the paperwork and finding us chatting more generally said 'oh, I thought I'd find you in deep and meaningful discussion.'  I think it was meaningful if not especially profound - and I think I heard a divine titter as the comment was made!