Cardinal Keith O'Brien

There’s a headline for you. Some priests have accused him of “inappropriate behaviour” towards them in the ‘80’s. They have written to the Papal Nuncio to complain, and also, presumably, had a chat with a Sunday newspaper. The Cardinal has consulted his lawyers. Why didn’t they come out with this during the considerable period of time when we all knew that either he or Archbishop Conti of Glasgow would be Scotland’s next Cardinal? Failing that, when he was setting off to Rome for the last Conclave?

I’m on the Cardinal’s side, so far.

England won yesterday, as expected. It was a good match, pretty close until the last quarter when England took over. We learned to sing the Marseillaise at Hampton Elementary School in Detroit, as a gesture of support during the war. (But we never sang God Save the King.) I can still do it, although I tend to stumble over Entendez-vous dans les campagnes. I enjoyed singing along with the French team at the beginning, since no one else was in the room. I’ll do it again, when they play us.

Scotland v. Ireland, today. One of us, Euan Murray, a tighthead prop whatever that may be, won’t be playing because it’s Sunday and it’s against his religion. He must be awfully good or the selectors wouldn’t put up with his scruples. God and his mother must be proud.

Thomas the Elder is coming to Edinburgh for the next home match, Scotland-Wales sometime in March. He’ll have supper with us the night before, and stay the night. The Loch Fyne Mileses will also be over; they’ll drop in to see us and Thomas before the game. It will be good to have people here with whom I can discuss computer problems, although I doubt if there is any help they can supply which you haven’t already given me.

I am very grateful for all your technical help. A new difficulty (how all occasions do inform against me) – the Microsoft UK Store strongly suggests, by not mentioning it, that the Surface Pro isn’t available here yet. I’ll try to phone them tomorrow. And also BT, about the router. It’s time to get back to work.

I didn’t mean to be universally rude about subcontinental call centres. I was in contact with one when I bought my present desktop computer from Dell, and they were very good. I was thinking more of the last time I tried to phone my bank – I had had an odd phone call, about how some missing interest was about to be paid into our account. The man seemed to be asking rather searching questions about our security. (“What is your husband’s date of birth?”) I hung up on him, and tried to phone the bank. I couldn’t get through to a human being at all.

I’ll let you know how I fare with BT and Microsoft. I expect better of  the latter.

Knitting

I’ve put in the 6^th row of eyelets on the Relax. Each adds about an inch and 3/8’s. The bottom edge is not just flipping up now, but actually curling – flipping a second time. Maybe today I’ll steam-iron the whole bottom edge. I also got the next skein wound – I’ll need it today or tomorrow. 100 grams of sock yarn takes a bit of winding.