Well – picture the scene – I have a very profitable morning – a brisk walk around the campus followed by morning prayers in the chapel. I still don’t know any of the hymns! Some good coffee and then I ring home to find out about my mothers 70th birthday celebrations. My card arrived and it is a good job that I didn’t send flowers because the house is full of them. I am sorry not to be there – I admire her – not least for putting up with me for all these years. She is (as they say here) quite a piece of work!!

Then to the library. I want to understand what memory is and so into the books. Dipping and scribbling – nothing to distract – wonderful. Lunch follows – salad only – part of the regime and then back to the library. I decide to Google some key concepts and then at the top of the Google menu I see a mention of Google earth. I click it and thats it -distraction with a capital D! I download the kit and I drift off into the world of Google earth. It takes at last an hour to master the mechanisms and then another two searching for places and buildings and well everything I could think of. Addiction at its best – distraction at its worst! I finally decide to lay my curiosity aside and take some air.

I walk to the nearest supermarket – Safeways – about a mile and a half away- nobody walks anywhere here and so I have the side walk all to myself. Necessary provisions are secured but I need to remember that I have to carry them back! I’m not telling you what I managed to get into my two bags! The air is refreshing and the walk helps me think about what some of the questions are about memory.

So – try Google earth – and look up Virginia Theological Seminary – you might see me working or being distracted – in the Bishop Payne Library. And all power to those two Google boys – they deserve their wealth for such clever and harmless inventions.