Danskcolin: Sunday April 30th 2023

Joyously, Lois and I hear again from our daughter Sarah, who, with husband Francis, and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, touched down at Heathrow yesterday afternoon after their flight from Perth, Australia, where they've been living since the end of November 2015.

flashback to 2018: me with Sarah at Scarborough WA

during mine and Lois's last visit to Australia

After clearing customs at Heathrow, the family went last night by taxi to Hythe, Kent, where Francis's sister Shirley, lives, but we're expecting Sarah to come and stay with us here in Malvern in a few days' time - she'll be starting work at her old job in Evesham during the week after the Coronation. Exciting, or what!!! After that, the family will be looking for a house to rent temporarily, while they're waiting for a house purchase to be completed.

10:00 I drive Lois to Tewkesbury so that she can take part in her church's 2 Sunday meetings. The visiting preacher today, David, was invited personally by Lois, and she has prepared 2 packed lunches for David and his wife Rosemary. She wants to get to the meeting in good time this morning to stash the lunches away in the fridge at the Village Hall where meetings are held.

Both Lois and I know David, the visiting preacher, from 50 years ago, although we've never met him since. Unfortunately, however, this means that Lois and I have to sit at the "top table" right at the front near the platform, the table which is always reserved for the preacher and his wife, and whoever is providing their lunches.

Yikes!!! We're right at the front!!! I usually like to sit with Lois at the back, where nobody can see us, and then have easy access if necessary to the emergency toilet through the door behind. It saves having to make your way to the proper toilets because if you're going there you have to go very ostentatiously past the congregation and the preacher and president on the platform, and everybody knows where you're going and what you're going to be doing, which is a pity - my goodness!!! Call me a privacy-mad maniac if you like haha!

flashback to last Sunday: the meeting room in happier times

Lois and I were able to sit right at the back, where nobody could see us,

which was nice. Lois, as indicated by the big arrow, is getting us a cup of tea each

David knows that numbers at the church here have been swollen by a large number of Iranian Christian refugees, so he has prepared bilingual English-Farsi slides for his address, which is to focus on the history of the Jewish people.

today's visiting preacher David (left) with this week's president, Alan -

on the screen behind them you can see one of David's

beautifully prepared bilingual English-Farsi slides:

the door to the proper toilets is to the right of the big screen (not shown).

It's a pity, but David doesn't realize that the Iranians hold their own meeting entirely in the Farsi language, in Gloucester, on the last Sunday of every month, so there's nobody here to take advantage of his beautifully prepared bilingual slides - oh dear! However, all is not lost - Lois asks David later to email her with a digital copy of his talk and slides, and she will pass these on to the Iranians.

David's address this morning focuses on the history of the Jewish people starting with Abraham and Moses, the remarkable survival of the Jews as a people, and the reestablishment of the Israeli state in Palestine after World War II.

And the church certainly gets good value out of David today, because he also doubles as their keyboard player - and a self-taught one at that - for the hymns. What a guy!

As well as being this week's visiting preacher, David

doubles as keyboard player for the hymns - what a guy!!!!!

Lois and I first met David in 1971-2, when he arrived in Oxford from his native Cornwall, to begin a degree course at one of the colleges. My mother use to keep "open house" for students who were church-members, and, as Lois was already my girlfriend by this time, and wife-to-be, we both saw him regularly at my parents' house, where David also became good friends with my sister Jill.

Lois and me in Norway 1972 at Åndalsnes Railway Station

Happy days !!!!!!!

An oddly topical note this morning is struck by this week's president, Alan, who reminds church-members that they shouldn't swear allegiance to King Charles, as the public has been invited to do, "however royalist their views" - swearing oaths is something not done by members of this denomination, They don't swear an oath in the witness box even, they just "affirm", and this is permitted in UK courtrooms.

It's an odd idea anyway, I think, much as I approve of the monarchy and admire Charles. We're not living in the days of Ivanhoe exactly, are we haha!!!

15:00 On the drive home, we find ourselves following a camper-van with a touching expression on the back - "Two old codgers on tour". Awwwwww!!!! Just like us, except that we're not on tour of course!

this camper-van comes into view just as we pass

the entrance to Clive's Fruit Farm

the sign on the back of the camper-van reads:

"Two old codgers on tour" - awwwwwww !!!!!!

21:00 We go to bed on another Ripping Yarn adventure story from the 1970's - you know, the one about Jack the illness-prone adventurer who, when travelling in the Naga Hills in Burma, brings back home to Maidenhead, Berkshire, a claw, sacred to one of the mountain tribes, who have promptly put a curse on it, as Jack and his nephew Kevin soon discover.

In this episode, Jack's nephew Kevin has 24 hours to return the claw to the Burmese tribe that it belongs to, in order to remove the curse.

You must remember this one! And it's so exciting, even at second viewing, to see young nephew Kevin retrieving the claw from his dying Uncle Jack in Maidenhead, and then making the hazardous trip by sea from Buckinghamshire to Burma, to return the claw to the tribe that it's sacred to.

And we think that Kevin does very well even to get within striking distance of Burma, given the 24 hour time limit, and with only a small steamboat for transport - my goodness, that's some going !!!

At least Kevin has some entertainment during the voyage. He finds himself strangely attracted to Mr. Russell, his Chief Petty Officer. He tries to fight against his feelings, before finding out that Mr. Russell himself feels "trapped in a man's body". This sort of thing has strangely become very relevant today, hasn't it, with all the debate going on now about "trans" people - fascinating stuff!

The conversation then turns to the large protuberances on Mr. Russell's chest, which Russell explains as a known medical condition, which doctors have said he'll grow out of in time.

Kevin offers to "rub something on them, if it'll help", and Mr. Russell seems happy with that suggestion - and it could be, that this will alleviate the problem: who knows? It was probably worth a try. Medical science was not as advanced in those days as it is now, after all - let's face it!!

There's a happy ending on the horizon, however, because that night in their bunk, Kevin and Mr. Russell discover that Russell is in fact a woman anyway, so that's all right. And later they discover that most of the rest of the crew are women too, which is a bit of a relief, to put it mildly!

Suddenly the mission to return the claw to Burma starts to feel oddly unnecessary, after Kevin and Mr Russell at last find true happiness together.