What Happy Hour?

Tuesday, 31st October 2023

By the time Sunday came to a close, I felt exactly like this little bear. I would have done one better. I would have climbed back into the box and shut it firmly!

Regular readers will know that I was looking forward to the extra hour in bed but when that extra hour came and went, I felt a little worse for wear. My stomach which works like clockwork didn’t like the “later feeding”.

Then something that I witnessed in church that day riled me. By the time evening came, my grief got the better of me and I did something that I had NEVER done before. Sob my heart out to the vicar! I was so embarrassed after that! I still am! The vicar was very kind and reassuring. He said that I needed to cry more often and that it would aid the grieving process.

Pepper Spray

Monday, 30th October 2023

The vicar often has to meet people individually meaning it is just him and the person who wants to meet him. He takes all the necessary precaution but as far as I am concerned he can still be in danger.

Recently, he has had to meet with people who have had a history of violence. I am always concerned when he has to meet people on his own but I also know that it is his job. As I was thinking about these things, an idea sprung up – what about he carries a pepper spray?! I am not even sure where that idea came from but no it sounds too ridiculous so the vicar won’t be carrying a pepper spray anytime soon.

I just have to be on my knees every time he has to meet a dangerous person!

Happy Hour

Clock Face (ca. 1937) by Gene by National Gallery of Art is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Friday, 27th October 2023

Sunday marks the end of the British Summer Time (BST) so the clocks will move backwards. I am so looking forward to the extra hour in bed.

I always struggle to get up early for the services on Sundays. It is especially harder in the colder months. The Teasmade makes it a little easier but I still wish that the church services were at a more decent time. My ideal time is 11am!

Hope you have a good weekend!

Magnificent

Photo by Julia Sakelli on Pexels.com

Thursday, 26th October 2023

Recently, I started doing Wordle again after quite a while and for the first time I got a magnificent! It meant that I got the correct word on the second try. I was pretty chuffed because I think that it was the very first time that I ever got a magnificent. Today it was back to “Phew”!

Non Story

Wednesday, 25th October 2023

These days almost half of our daily newspaper is covered in “celebrity” news. I often wonder who bothers reading them. I certainly don’t. I conveniently flip through!

That is something I didn’t do last week. Instead I started reading it. The small article was about a BBC news presenter who is either retiring or leaving the BBC. Towards the end of the article, it said that “in her leaving speech”…. I almost lost the plot when I read it. Who cares about her leaving speech? She is a news presenter for goodness sake!

275? That Many Cookery Books?

Recipe Book – Handwritten, Karl Muffler, 1915-1930 by Author & Illustrator: Karl Muffler is licensed under CC-BY 4.0

Tuesday, 24th October 2023

According to a newspaper article that appeared last week, Britain’s former Prime Minister Theresa May owns 275 cookery books! I remember reading somewhere that she liked to cook but still 275 seem to be excessive.

How many cookery books do you own? I have less then 10! All except one were gifts from parishioners when we were in different parishes. These kind parishioners discovered very early on that I enjoyed cooking.

I learnt to cook from my mother and so have a notebook full of handwritten tried and tested recipes. Actually, it was just yesterday that I was asking her for some advise about a chicken dish. A slight disadvantage of handwritten recipes is that sometimes I can’t figure out my own handwriting!

The one cookery book that I bought was one by Claire Macdonald called Celebrations. I even remember where I bought it – on a sleepy Scottish island!

Did I Just Do That?

Monday, 23rd October 2023

I would like to say that I am getting forgetful but I know that it is simply not the case. These days my mind is elsewhere. Grief is causing me to operate like a zombie.

On Saturday, it was only after the clothes had been washed that I realised that I had forgotten to put detergent. I thought it was strange that the freshly washed clothes that were left to dry didn’t have the usual lovely smell from the conditioner!

A fortnight ago as I was descaling our Teasmade, water gushed out everywhere instead of going straight into the teapot. Upon investigation, I discovered to my horror that I had forgotten to put the teapot in its place to “catch” the boiling water. The end result was part of a soggy bedroom carpet. Thankfully, it has fully dried up!

Vulgar

Photo by Matteo Badini on Pexels.com

Friday, 20th October 2023

Despite the stormy weather, I woke up in a jolly mood until I started flipping through today’s newspaper.

The shock of what I saw soon turned to anger. There was a HUGE photo of the body of a little girl in a white body bag. The girl’s face was fully visible. Her father was kissing her forehead while somebody was waiting to zip up the body bag.

First, I would like to know which cold and heartless person took that photo. Second, since when did we start publishing photos of the dead? The human body is sacred.

We all know how bloody the events of the past ten days have been so we certainly do not need to exploit on other people’s grief to sell newspapers!

Storm Babet & The Lion King Van

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com

Thursday, 19th October 2023

Here in the vicarage, we are already witnessing the signs of Storm Babet’s imminent arrival. After typing this, I am going to fill the Thermos flask with hot water in case there is a power cut. I’m in two minds as to whether to fill a Thermos with soup or simply to prepare two hard boiled eggs.

In other news…. I received quite an amusing text message from Ocado this week! They would normally send me a text message on the morning of our delivery. The text will contain the name of our driver, his/her van registration number and a description of the van. Ocado’s vans have a fruit/vegetable theme so the message will say something like “in a fig van or a cherry van”. Surprisingly, this week’s text told me to look out for a Lion King van! I have never had that before. I was pretty excited to see this Lion King van only to be disappointed when a cherry van pulled up in our driveway!

Lord, Have Mercy!

Photo by M Sidharda on Pexels.com

Wednesday, 18th October 2023

The vicar and I try to be in bed in time for the World Tonight on Radio 4. It was no different last night. The vicar was off like a light bulb the moment the news started. However, it usually takes me a rather long time to doze off so I continued listening. I am sure you will know by now what the big news has been since about 10pm British time last night. Depending on which part of the world you live in, some of you might have woken up to that news.

As I was solemnly listening to the events that were unfolding, my ears pricked up when I heard the presenter mention “Anglican” a few times. It was then that I remembered about an article in the Church Times about how difficult life is for Christians living in that part of the world.

I then dozed off uttering the following words as it is found in the Book of Common Prayer:-

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.