Were They Faking It?

Monday, 20 May 2024

A fallen world means that there is always evil around so I hope that the following true story doesn’t cause anyone to feel terribly disappointed with mankind.

Here in the vicarage, I come across many different characters. I would like to say that most of them are decent alas that is not true! Only a handful with whom I cross paths are genuinely sincere.

Some time ago, there was a couple who wanted to get married in our parish church. It is always lovely when couples want to get married in their local parish church. However, there was a but….. By the way, as the vicar’s wife I don’t have direct dealings with these folks. I say hello and go about my own business.

A few days later, just in passing, the vicar told me that this particular couple had claimed that they would not be able to afford the wedding fees. I hasten to add that the church always makes provision for folk with financial dificulties.

However, alarm bells started ringing for me….. The couple drove a prestigious car and I’ll let you my dear reader guess how lavish their wedding do was going to be!

Overcharged!

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Friday, 17 May 2024

As the vicarage’s financial controller, I tend to work on the finances at the beginning of the month. On top of paying the bills etc, I am also in charge of producing the spreadsheet for the accountant.

That was what I was doing at the start of the month when I came across our BT bill (British Telecom). Just one look at it told me that something wasn’t right. The bill was much higher than the previous months. Upon investigating, I realised that BT had increased their price which was fine but the bill still didn’t look right. I try not to use a calculator when I am doing my sums instead I use the humble paper and pen. I assumed that I was not doing it properly and so decided to use the calculator and the figures still didn’t add up. It appeared that we had been overcharged by £3.

I decided that the vicar needed to look at the bill before I go accusing BT of overcharging us. Unfortunately, the vicar was terribly busy for a few days and so I decided to show it to him on a day when he wasn’t rushed off his feet.

That day came and the vicar too concluded that we had been overcharged. Previously, I would have phoned BT right away and put things right but these days especially since the pandemic, it is a lot of hassle phoning these service providers. First of all they make one wait for ages and secondly because the bill is in the vicar’s name they will insist on speaking to him!

I’ve decided that I will let BT off this time round and wait for the next bill. If the same happens then I will have no choice but to phone BT and ask them to get their act together!

Don’t Drink That Water!

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Thursday, 16 May 2024

On Sundays, I give the vicar a flask filled with either herbal tea or icy cold weather depending on the weather to take with him to the services. He does a lot of talking on a Sunday during the services but no one bothers to leave a glass of water for him near the pulpit.

On Sunday past as the weather was quite warm, I made him a flask of cold water with a slice of lemon and two ice cubes. As mentioned in my earlier blog, I wasn’t really feeling terribly well so it was a rushed job before I jumped in the shower to get ready for church.

After I had come back from church, I went straight to the kitchen to get a glass of water and to unload the dishwasher before heading back to bed. As I opened the dishwasher, I realised that we hadn’t run the dishwasher like we usually would the night before because we decided that we would do it after lunch on Sunday as the dishwasher wasn’t full.

I had totally forgotten that conversation that occurred the night before and so took a knife out of the dishwasher that morning thinking that it was clean! I used the knife to cut a slice of lemon for the vicar’s flask!!! We always rinse our crockeries before we put them in the dishwasher but that knife was still bacteria ridden!

All I could do was hope and pray that the vicar hadn’t taken even a sip out of his flask that morning. The first thing I did when he got back from the rest of the services was to ask if he had drank from the flask, thankfully the answer was no. I quickly grabbed the flask from him and threw the contaminated water down the sink! What a relief!

Bed Hugging

High Post Bed (1936) Florence by National Gallery of Art is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Since Saturday, I have been forced to do a lot of bed hugging thus the lack of post yesterday. Apologies…. Nothing serious just the usual health woes.

I’m a little fedup of having to be in bed but I also know that it is the best place for me so I have been trying to read and catch up on all the other blogs. I have also noticed that reader on WordPress is functioning a little differently since the weekend. As I don’t login in on Sunday, I noticed that blogposts that were posted on Sundays were not showing up on the reader!

We had a mini heat wave at the weekend but it is cooler again with more rain. Unfortunately, I don’t like the heat so I am enjoying the cooler weather.

Much Ado About Nothing?

Gentlemen shaking hands Thrilling Life by The British Library is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Monday, 13 May 2024

Last week, It was reported here in the broadcast media that the Garrick Club, one of the oldest clubs in the world which also happened to be a gentlemen’s club had voted successfully to accept women.

Prior to that there had been a lot of debates on this subject matter. Women from all walks of life were campaigning to be accepted to this member’s club. There were some prominent men too who joined in the campaign.

I know nothing about the Garrick club. Only what I have read about it in the newspapers that is it is a club for actors.

I don’t understand what all the hype and drama was about because if it started as a gentlemen’s club why can’t it remain a gentlemen’s club just like the WI (Women’s Institute)!

In any case, there are far more important things in life than membership to the Garrick club! Instead of wasting precious time on unimportant matters like these, politicians and the so called important people of this world should channel their energy on the poor and the suffering of this world who are wondering where their next meal is going to come from and if they are going to survive the night!!!!

All Is Well Again!

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Friday, 10 May 2024

I am very pleased to boast announce that we are once again able to enjoy a good of cup of tea in bed thanks to our new Teasmade.

Much to my surprise, Swan who is the manufacturer of the Teasmade offered a new replacement very quickly as I was expecting much humming and hawing on their part!

The one that we had bought was a vintage design but as they had sold out on that particular design they offered us a modern version which I gladly accepted.

It is wonderful to wake up to the sound of water boiling every morning. I much prefer it compared to the sound of the vicar’s phone alarm!

Back on Monday.

Don’t Try to Be Too Clever!

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Thursday, 9 May 2024

I had two things on my to do list that morning and the first was to pay a bill online which I did on my laptop. Then I tried to copy down the reference number for the payment but it was all gobbledegook so I used my mobile phone to take a quick photo of the page for future reference. I swiftly moved on to my next item on the list which was to contact the window cleaner by text message.

As I was typing a quick message to him, I noticed that the phone was trying to attach the reference number page to the text message! Why would it want to do that? I panicked a little because the reference page contained some personal information and I certainly didn’t want the window cleaner to be privy to those information!

I tried different ways to delete the attachment but the mobile phone was having none of it. Finally I found a solution but that meant that I was forced to delete the message log. After deleting it, I panicked a little more because did deleting the message log mean that I had deleted the window cleaner’s number too?????!!!!

Thankfully his number was still in the contact list but then what a palaver to send one simple text message!

How Did I Forget It??!

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Wednesday, 8 May 2024

The vicar had just left my study after coming in to tell me of a recent development. I was in the middle of paying the bills and going through the vicarage finances. After he left, I was trying to process the information while paying the bill over the telephone when I was asked for my mobile number in order for them to send an acknowledgement. I felt that I was punching in the wrong numbers halfway through the process but wasn’t too sure. In any case, it was too late to alter as there was no option for correction. After completing the payment process, I decided to look up my mobile number and realised that I had provided an extra digit! I suppose these things are easily done. I am just glad that I didn’t punch in the wrong payment figure!

Bank Holiday

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Tuesday, 7 May 2024

It was a bank holiday yesterday. It was called the early May bank holiday. Bank holidays are public holidays.

Here in the vicarage, a bank holiday is just another working day because the vicar doesn’t take the day off instead he just uses it to catch up on his work! I don’t think it is fair but there we go…..

Since the vicar doesn’t take the day off I don’t bother remembering when bank holidays are! However, when I was flipping through my diary the other day, I noted the next bank holiday and persuaded demanded the vicar to down his tools and go out for a leisurely lunch with me. Surprisingly, he agreed to it quite readily so that’s what we did yesterday!

I’ve learnt that I should put my foot down more often!

Sock It In!

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Monday, 6 May 2024

For years, I have been going to bed with a pair of bed socks. I call them bed socks but the current ones are just what I received in the British Airway’s vanity pack! I don’t bother with them inflight instead I bring them home to use around the house!

Just a few days ago, I was reading that wearing socks to bed will aid with better sleep. I am not sure if it is really true but what has really worked for me is an eye mask. In case you are wondering I am NOT using the eye mask that came in the same vanity pack! I have packed it in my travel case!