Lois wants to attend a communion service today, but in view of the flooding around the mighty River Severn, she suggests I drive her to the local meeting at Malvern - 8 minutes away by car - rather than to the Tewkesbury meeting, where she has been a member for several years, but which is about 35 minutes away by car, on a route that may be affected by all the recent flooding.
A no-brainer surely!!! Makes sense to me too !!!!
The local meeting takes place at the Village Hall, Hanley Swan, only about 4 miles away, and the communion service starts at 11:30 am, so not too early, which is another plus!
we take the blue route, totally convinced by Google Maps' argument
that it's slightly quicker
Hanley Swan Village Hall, where Lois's church holds its local services
What madness!!! And particularly when, almost as an afterthought, a load of individual portions - separate bread and wine portions - are handed round afterwards for those who prefer that. But Lois, being a first-timer at this local meeting, didn't know that in advance. At the Tewkesbury meeting, where Lois normally attends, it's all "individual", which seems wiser and safer to us, no question!
Too late now!!!! Let's hope Lois hasn't caught COVID off somebody. Yikes (again).
Lois did take what precautions she could. She picked a part of the hunk of bread that hadn't been touched so far, and she sipped the wine cup near the handle, the part people normally avoid.
But what madness !!!!!!
All in all, however, it seems like quite a flourishing meeting - there are 50 to 60 members present in the hall, and a further 20 or so are following on zoom.
And unexpectedly there seem to be a few people there this morning who seem to know us. This morning's preacher, Paul, and his wife Jane, remind us that we spent a day with them about 15 years ago: I can't remember the circumstances.
Also this morning we talk to a charming young woman called Esther who used to be great friends with our elder daughter Alison. The two used to go on a church summer camp together in Anglesey when they were young adolescents, and she was at Alison and Ed's wedding in Cheltenham in 1999.
13:00 We come home and have lunch before going upstairs for a nap - we're getting old, that's for sure. I glance at my smartphone and see an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, commenting on our ongoing argument with the Evri company.
Last week we had a couple of deliveries from Evri, Britain's lowest-rated delivery company. Our local Evri courier Sue, seems to make minimal effort to attract our attention when she calls with a package, and, if you blink, she is back in her van and driving away before you know it.
The last delivery from Sue was okay, however, because I was at the door waiting for her.
Steve suggests that when rating Sue this time, we should give her 8 stars ("excellent") in the category of "obstructive and inconvenient positioning of parcels outside customer's door" or something of the kind. We think this is a good idea, and it'll be nice for us to be able to give her a positive rating for once! And he supplies a suggested text for a note to her.
16:00 Later in the afternoon I put our milk-crate out in the side-passage, with 4 empty pint bottles inside, because our friendly local milkman is going to be leaving a milk delivery with us early tomorrow morning, at some time before 7 am.
He'll be very pleased with me again, I think. Not only are we giving him 4 empty bottles back, which will be useful to the dairy in making future deliveries, but also I've lodged the milk-crate in a safe place in our side passage where the wind can't get hold of them and blow them hundreds of yards down the street.
Should I ask him to "rate" me, I wonder?
No, on balance, I think, don't put yourself through it, Colin! - Ed]
16:30 Change of plan for tonight's meal. The shoulder of pork that I got out of the freezer at 8 am this morning still hasn't been defrosted, after being left out by a sunny window for over 8 hours. What madness is this!!!! Is it the stuffing that makes it take longer? We don't know, but I think we should be told, and quickly!!!!
So it's fish tonight instead, which turns out to be very nice, so all is not lost.
our shoulder of pork, still not defrosted after 8 hours
in front of a sunny window - what madness is this !!!!
It's starts off with a bang, as we see a fully dressed and hatted Crown Prince and Princess having sex in a luxurious sleeping compartment on their whistle-stop tour of the US in 1939, while their servants and railway staff stand and listen outside the door, and we find ourselves wondering what kind of series this is going to be - my goodness!
Well, that's what we think, anyway - no disrespect to FDR and Eleanor, naturally!
When World War II starts in September of that year, the Norwegians are understandably keen to safeguard their neutrality, which probably explains why they seem to be as wary of possible British infringements of their neutrality as they are of possible German infringements, maybe even more wary of the British, which seems crazy in retrospect.
They are soon disabused of this kind of thinking in April 1940, of course, when the Germans invade, and from then on this episode concentrates mainly on the flight of the Norwegian royals from Oslo up to the north, ending up with the Crown Princess Martha finally seeking refuge in her native Sweden.
Every step of the way there seem to be huge squadrons of German military aircraft filling the skies, bombing and strafing military and civilians alike.
Here, in these next pictures, we see the train carrying the Royal Family out of Oslo being attacked by dozens of German planes. and the royals having to get off the train and seek shelter, presumably in the station, but we're not completely sure.
Atlantic Crossing Episode 1 is all right as a programme, I would say, but it's lacks any real depth. So far it's been little more than an adventure story where you know the ending already - we know the royals didn't get killed after all, don't we!
[Surely you should have put a "spoiler alert" on that paragraph? - Ed]
Oops sorry! Spoiler alert haha !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment