My new phone arrived as scheduled on Monday.  Setting it up was a breeze - just followed the instructions to copnnect to Microsoft Outlook and suck in my contacts and calendar.  The SIM transfer was slightly more of a nuisance (had I realised I could just have pressed out the nano SIM from the micro SIM of my previous phone but never mind).

So here I am, shiny knew super smart phone up and running, Apps installed for 'Pray As You Go' and other more mundane things like taxi, trains and mobile hotspots.

Overall, not much 'feels' different, though my reflexes still sometimes make the 'swipes' and 'taps' I've been doing for the past three and a half years (I previously under estimated how long I had the Windows phone).

I think it makes a half decent parable for life - when changes have to be made, it's easy to be anxious, but when it comes to the bit, usually they are less dramatic, and less traumatic, than expected.  As my Mum used to say, 'it's a funny thing you can't get used to'

Next job will probably to get a half decent Bible App... That, and start taking photos of the kitties - I currently don't have any photos on my new phone.

I heard this poem read on Radio 4 Morning Worship today... it's worth a share.

It’s a long way off but inside it

There are quite different things going on:

Festivals at which the poor man

Is king and the consumptive is

Healed; mirrors in which the blind look

At themselves and love looks at them

Back; andindustry is for mending

The bent bones and the minds fractured

By life. It’s a long way off, but to get

There takes no time and admission

Is free, if you purge yourself

Of desire, and present yourself with

Your need only and the simple offering

Of your faith, green as a leaf.

Today I finally ordered a new mobile phone to replace my much loved, but now increasingly wobbly, Windows Lumia smartphone.  After three years (all but) of loyal service, my phone is ready to retire, and, as there is no direct replacement, I've taken quite a lot of time to think through what might be a suitable choice.  It's not easy - so many competing factors to consider - which manufacturer, which platform and so on. So in the end, as the cost of an all-in contract with a refurbished phone was only pennies cheaper than a new one, I opted for the new one.  A 'last year's model' (or maybe the year before) but should have a good three years in it.

It's the first time in two decades I've entered a credit agreement, which feels a bit odd... mostly in a good way that I feel confident enough to enter it, and, after all, it is interest free.

I have transferred all the photos from my phone to my laptop, backed up all my contacts and done everything I can to ensure hassle free transfer.  So... all being well... on Monday I will have a shiny new phone all ready to go onwards.  Golly!

(For anyone interested it's an i-phone 7 plus)

This appointment by the Church of Scotland is only one degree of separation away from me!  Dave was my 'Scotland Boss' when I worked in an 'out-source' office, undertaking safety and reliability assessments for what was then BEG(UK)Ltd.  Somewhere I still have the card he snet me when I left to train for ministry 20 years ago.  Dave read the scriptures at my ordination service in 2003, and now, almost 16 years, later he's taking up a role in the big-C Church himself.  That amuses and pleases me.  Hope it goes well for him and for the C of S.

Yesterday afternoon I joined several hundred other people in Glasgow, and several thousand UK-wide to take part in very rapidly organised peaceful protests objecting to the prorouging of parliament.

It was mostly very good-natured, and people of all opinions gathered together to wave banners and strain their ears to try to listen to speakers.

I chose to photograph the banner I've shown above because I think it captured the reason most people were there - not to say they were Leave or Remain (though both were there) and not to say they were Yes or No on Scottish independence (and both were there too) but because they were/are disturbed by events concerning process.

The one speaker I managed to hear said, "It doesn't matter if you are Yes or No, Leave or Remain, we are all on the same side today" and I think that was the feeling of the event.  For sure, like many others I waved an EU flag, and I *may* have sported a certain yellow sticker.  There were saltires and Welsh Dragons, party political statements, witty home made banners, and lots of people just determined 'to be there'. Whatever our views on the EU or the UK or a thousand and one other matters, what united us was deeper and more important - democracy is worth defending and peaceful protest is one way of doing it.