Christmas 2022

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Friday the 23rd of December 2022

It feels like Christmas this year has just crept up upon us. Christmas in the vicarage is always low key but this year I didn’t even feel the excitement when I bought and wrapped the presents for the Mhinisteir’s colleagues. Gift wrapping is my forte and so I usually enjoy it but this year I was just going through the motion.

How can I in good faith wish everyone a Merry Christmas when the world is in turmoil? Everyday we are bombarded with bad news. Here in the United Kingdom, many are on strike, which have resulted in services being halted while people are struggling with the rising cost of living.

Just like most people I too have worries and have moments of fear when thinking of the future. However, thanks to the baby born in a manger all those many years ago that I have hope. Every Sunday in Church the vicar says Great is the mystery of faith to which we the congregation will respond Christ has died, Christ is risen. Christ will come again and because of this very reason I can wish everyone in all sincerity a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I will be back in the new year!

❤

Media Tosh

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Thursday the 22nd of December 2022

For the last few weeks the media have had a field day concerning Christianity. “Christianity has become the minority religion in the UK” screamed newspaper headlines. Really? I could feel a sense of glee in the voices of the radio presenters when they went on and on about this specific subject matter!

My understand of Christianity is that the Church will never be in decline because there is the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant. The Church Militant refers to the Christians on earth while the Church Triumphant refers to the Christians who have been translated like the late Queen.

The Day Our Old Television Went Back Into The Cupboard!

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Wednesday the 21st of December 2022

Our old television came out of the cupboard for the duration of the FIFA world cup and is now back in the cupboard. The Mhinisteir hadn’t been keen for it to go back into the cupboard just yet but the decision was made for us during the semi final match between Morocco and France when during the last ten minutes of the game the television went blank and quiet!

On Monday morning mustering all my strength, I single handledly carried the television down the stairs and dumped it in the cupboard! The Mhinisteir was away conducting a funeral which gave me the perfect opportunity to get into action. I felt exhilarated as I didn’t want the television to become a permanent fixture in the bedroom!

Sleepathon

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Tuesday the 20th of December 2022

Sunday was unusual. The Mhinisteir having had spent all week in cold churches in freezing temperatures has finally succumbed to the cold. He is not well. However, the church services (Sunday services, end of school services, funerals etc) have to go on – that is the state of the Church of England as there are no other clergy available to deputise! He came back home from the second service refrozen. I didn’t like the colour on his face. After a very tiny lunch, he went straight to bed with the heating in full blast together with an electric blanket and a hot water bottle. He just couldn’t warm up. He only woke up at 8.30am the next morning and even then he only woke up because I woke him up as he had a funeral to conduct that morning!

On Sunday afternoon, I watched the FIFA world cup final all by myself while propped up in bed next to the Mhinisteir. I was a little sad to be watching it all by myself as I was so looking forward to watching it with the Mhinisteir. I watched a muted version of the football as I didn’t want to disturb the Mhinisteir but I also didn’t want to be away from him in case he needed me.

I had to give up the football halfway through the penalty shootout as it was time for Evensong. After that I made myself some supper and locked up before coming up to bed. It was only 8pm. As it was way too early for bed, I decided to watch the penalty shootout and the medal presentation on BBC Iplayer. Guess what? BBC Iplayer wouldn’t allow me to fast forward to those precise moments. There was no way I was going to watch the BBC bigmouth gassing away! I switched to ITV. I had to endure the commercials but at least I had the choice.

Soon it was time for bed. I did one final check on the Mhinisteir before lying in bed wondering where we would be and what we would be doing at the next FIFA World Cup.

We’re On Strike!

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Monday the 19th of December 2022

Every Christmas, we give our postie a small token of appreciation. I am not sure if it is common practice but we do it anyway. Last year we ended up giving three tokens of appreciation to three different posties because a different one kept turning up and taking away the envelope that we had left for the usual postie!

Anyway, this year we have decided to take a leaf out of Royal Mail’s book and have decided to go on strike so no little envelope for the postie!

Amateur Dramatics

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Friday the 16th of December 2022

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the FIFA World Cup so far. I am a little sad that it will come to an end this Sunday as I will no longer have anything to look forward to.

I was very impressed with the Japanese and the South Koreans. Ideally I wanted Morocco and Croatia to play each other on Sunday’s final but it wasn’t meant to be but at least they will meet in third place playoff. I am super impressed with the Moroccans for coming this far. A very big well done to them!

I wasn’t keen for Argentina to go through to the final purely based on the amateur dramatics from some of the players. They will do so well in Hollywood!

Anyway, I am just thankful that I got to enjoy good football and also got to see more of the Mhinisteir in the last three weeks. However all good things must come to an end.

I Don’t Believe It!

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Thursday the 15th of December 2022

I find it so hard to believe what happened yesterday but it really did happen. The Mhinisteir had ordered something online to be delivered by DHL yesterday. He had to be at the Cathedral so I was in charge of accepting the parcel.

I had a shower and got dressed much earlier than usual as I don’t believe in opening the door in my pyjamas with my bed hair! By this time, the Mhinisteir had already left. I phone my parents around late morning every day and just as I was talking to them, I heard a car. I quickly went to the window and saw the DHL delivery man driving off. Assuming that he had left the parcel at the door, I went to retrieve it – it wasn’t there. I went to the postbox and there was a slip to say “we missed you”! He didn’t ring the door bell!!!!! How dare he???

I cut short the telephone conversation with my parents and rang DHL. They couldn’t find any record concerning our parcel. It later transpired that the delivery driver had written the item number incorrectly! The person on the other hand kept saying that I probably hadn’t heard the driver knocking on the door to which I replied I am not deaf! She said that the earliest that the parcel could be delivered was the next day. I was so mad because the delivery driver was probably still in our area. I also didn’t want the Mhinisteir to think that I can’t even do a simple task of accepting a parcel delivery. She wanted to know if I had any special instructions for the delivery to which I replied “to ring the doorbell please”!!!!

I still can’t believe what happened but we live in strange world!

Unmockable!

Wednesday the 14th of December 2022

As global citizens, most of us would have by now seen or read about the mischief caused by certain members of the royal family. Here in the vicarage we don’t subscribe to Netflix. In fact we have even cancelled our Britbox subscription which is a topic for another day.

If you live in the UK, there is no escaping from reading or hearing about the mischief caused by these two individuals even if you don’t subscribe to Netflix. I won’t lie and say that I was totally uninterested.

Most of it was old news but there was one that I thought was totally out of order; the female in question mocking the late Queen! It was very distasteful and disrespectful. I am neither a royalist nor one who thinks that the royal family cannot be criticised. However, one does not mock the late Monarch! The Queen was very faithful to her calling until her translation to glory.

Oh by the way, I don’t like the press addressing the Queen Consort as the Queen. I prefer the title that the late Queen bestowed upon her daughter in law!

Brrrr…..

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Tuesday the 13th of December 2022

Here in the United Kingdom, we are going through a very cold snap with heavy snow in many parts of the country. Unfortunately cold snaps bring with them inconveniences like power cuts. Thankfully, we haven’t had any snow or power cuts(yet!). It is very frosty and icy everywhere. Our driveway resembles a mini skating ring!

The temperature as I write this is -2c. I am so cold. One reason for the delayed posting. Here in the vicarage we have brought out our spare heaters because we are struggling to keep warm. We will worry about the energy bill later. On Sunday, it was -5c in church! This was with the heating on!

You may have noticed that I have dated my blogpost today. This has come about because the Mhinisteir was reading me a review of Matt Hancock’s pandemic diaries. By the way, he (Matt Hancock not the Mhinisteir!) is known as Tarzan in my blog! The reviewer had commented that there were no dates in his diary even though diaries are supposed to have dates on them. Having heard that, I have decided to put right the wrong starting from today. However, I won’t go all Adrian Moleish and start every day with Dear Diary!

De Ja Vu?

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As mentioned last week, the Mhinisteir and I were able to sneak away for a mini break. It was meant to be a belated wedding anniversary treat. However if you have been following this blog for a while you will know that things rarely go according to plan. Thankfully the start to the break was a good one. We were able to get away immediately after the Mhinisteir’s meeting and were super organised unlike the last time where I was fretting if I had remembered to turn off the iron!

We arrived at our usual destination and cottage without any trouble. We got to enjoy some World Cup football before heading for an early dinner. When we came back, we got to enjoy another round of football until the smoke alarm started beeping just like the last time. Oh my goodness! I freaked out. Could it be the same problem as the last time – carbon monoxide leak??? The Mhinisteir rang the out of hours duty manager but there was no answer. He rang security and they reassured him that if it was anything serious they would be notified too.

Personally I was very discouraged. I know it sounds silly but trips away like this are special as we don’t get to do it often. Anyway, the good news was it wasnt the carbon monoxide alarm that was beeping instead it was the smoke alarm – it couldn’t cope with the steam from the hot shower!