A long day

And goodness, was it a cold day! We slept fitfully, my friend Di and I, after all our late giggling and talking - just like teenagers, really - and I couldn't believe it when my wrist buzzed with the alarm I'd set. However, the Premier Inn breakfast had the necessary reviving effect and we managed to get our gear together and into the car and check out of the hotel for the perishing walk round the bay to the Corran Halls. On the way I couldn't resist the amazing chimney heads on one of the big buildings on the bay, towering over a horrible sixties-style cube in grey concrete - how anyone could think that sixties brutalism went well with that view eludes me.

Synod took place today (yesterday's conference being an Argyll refinement) with discussion of things like money, climate change and the process of electing a bishop. I have to confess that by the afternoon all I could think of was the pain in my back - the seats were disastrous. You can perhaps see why in the third photo of the area of the hall where we had our coffee and lunch breaks - the meeting itself was at the other end of the hall where the stage, complete with draughts, was. I made a couple of contributions; I think I've possibly been around too long, but so many of the people there were the same people I've been seeing at diocesan events for the past 15 or so years - we just all look alarmingly older.

My first photo was taken from the car window on the way home, and shows a snowy Beinn an Lochan rearing its head above the brown lower slopes. I've climbed this peak several times - it's about halfway between Dunoon and Oban - and have to say on days like this I wonder how I managed. (There's one mauvais pas ...)

And I'm home, and knackered. The temperature in the bedroom is 52ºf but a hot shower should help. Tomorrow ...shopping ...