When Neighbours become good friends…

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It was reported this week that Neighbours, the long running Australian drama will no longer be aired on British television. The reason given is that the television company wants to promote more British dramas.

I don’t watch Neighbours but I used to watch it when it was still aired on BBC one but that was so long ago when the character Susan Kennedy had long thick flowing hair!

I was slightly miffed to read that they were axing Neighbours because I know of many older friends and parishioners who enjoy watching it. Some watch the same episode twice each day; once in the afternoon and once in the evening! I have no idea why though😁.

I really feel very sorry for the older people because bit by bit things that are familiar to them are being taken away from them. Especially in rural places in the UK, the bus services together with banks and post offices are among other things that are slowly disappearing. The little comfort and enjoyment that these pensioners get from soap operas like Neighbours are also disappearing right before their eyes.

Sadly, the Church too has no time for older people. They appear to cater to young people and young families at the expense of the older people who are the stalwarts of the Church.

Mouth like a Highland bog, mind like a mitten!

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Sadly, this is what I think of the ABY after his latest gaffe! For the uninitiated, this is what he had said.

It is unfortunate when a senior cleric feels the need to utter such things.

By the way, The NHS was founded by Aneurin Bevan, a Welshman while the BBC World Service was founded by John Reith, a Scotsman!

ABY, please get your facts right the next time!

BBC Radio 4 Vs BBC World Service

As a news junkie and someone who has lived in different continents, I begin to have “withdrawal symptoms” if I don’t get my fair share of both national and international news. For some time now, I have been pretty fedup with BBC Radio 4. In order to appeal to the so called younger audience, some of the programmes have reached gutter level. For instance, I have been appalled by the use of vulgar language on daytime programmes like the afternoon drama. Book at bedtime is anything but… the amount of vulgar language and violence is a recipe for a nightmare! I have also stopped listening to Woman’s Hour, the Today programme and such likes. The news tend to be pretty much the same every hour when plenty is happening around the world!

The Mhinisteir gifted me a Roberts DAB radio late last year and since then I have been listening to the BBC World Service which is wonderful and I once again feel like a global citizen. I still dip in and out of Radio 4 but these days the BBC World Service is my go to radio station.

It is a shame that the World Service is only available on DAB.

Media Circus

Before I go any further, I hasten to add that in the Vicarage we don’t own a television. Actually, we do have an old television (a hand me down) but it is locked in a cupboard somewhere so obviously not plugged in. In case, you are wondering no, we don’t pay TV Licence fee.

Whatever I am going to write is based on a newspaper article so may not be fact.

I read in the Sunday Times that the female BBC newsreader when announcing the death of the Duke of Edinburgh was wearing a brown top and a necklace but within minutes of her announcing the sad news, she had added a jacket to her wardrobe and had REMOVED her necklace! I had to reread the article a few times to understand what was being written. Why did she feel the need to do both? In my humble opinion, she should have been wearing her jacket in the first place sad news or not. Maybe the viewers of the BBC news channel are not worthy of “that level” of respect. I really can’t get my head round as to why on earth she would have felt the need to remove her necklace???!!!

I did wear black to Church on Sunday. I am not a Royalist but it was out of a mark of respect just like the way the Union Jack is flying half mast. By the way, I was the only one in black!

Unusual Choice for an Organist!

There is wedding fever in the Vicarage as the Mhinisteir is very busy with weddings and wedding couples.

I happened to be at a wedding myself and was utterly gobsmacked when the organist turned up. It was non other than our present Chancellor of the Exchequer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was my dream/nightmare(delete where appropriate) last night!!!! I honestly don’t know how dreams/nightmares are created but this was a super weird combination. A bit like Mrs Leticia Cropley’s (Vicar of Dibley fame) Orange cake with Branston Pickle icing!!!!!

Heresy of Universalism

I listen to the Daily Service on Radio 4 long wave but am not always very pleased with the choice of presenters. I am surprised by the high number of non clergy who present it.

I am High Church but not Anglo Catholic: I like the service to be traditional and preferably by a member of the clergy. I am happy with a fair balance of traditional and non traditional services but often times, they are more non traditional than traditional.

The theme yesterday was the Criminal Justice System. During prayer, the clergy person addressed prisoners as God’s children! I am no theologian but I was taken aback by that particular description. I know that God is our Creator and We on earth are his Creation. As far as I know, we call God our Father when we enter into a relationship with Him.

Anyway, this subject was a thorn in my flesh as I had just finished reading about the widow of the policeman who was so brutally killed last year. I was very sad to know that they had only been married for a month and that the widow was not even allowed to see his body for one last time as his body was so mangled. How cruel!

Heresy of Universalism means there is no hell. I think one is clever enough to know what I am trying to say. There is forgiveness but only if we repent.

By the way, I got this big term from the Mhinisteir so please don’t be too impressed with my blog title!!!! As I say, I am no theologian!!!

Desert Island Discs

I particularly enjoyed this week’s desert island disc on Radio 4 with Call the Midwife’s Heidi Thomas. Believe it or not, I have actually met her before thanks to the company that the Mhinisteir keeps! Of course I didn’t know who she was at that time but just that she was behind some soap called Call the Midwife which I didn’t know anything about. I now know a little about the drama, thanks to yesterday’s Programme.

It was really interesting listening to her and to know more about her. She came across as a warm person despite the personal tragedies that she had to go through. It was very embarrassing when she recalled an incident at her family home in Liverpool when the local Church of England Vicar came to tell her Mother that the other mothers in the playgroup didn’t want her to bring her son who was disabled. How dare they but more importantly what on earth was the Vicar thinking?????

Anyway, I was pretty chuffed when she said that her desert island has to be the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. A woman after my own heart!!!!!

Book at bedtime

I am a huge fan of Radio 4.  Sadly in recent months I have been getting pretty annoyed with some of the Radio 4 programmes.

Book at bedtime is the latest one to earn my wrath.  Why do we need very strong language and sexual content at bedtime or for the matter any time of the day???  This week, I have been turning off the radio whenever book at bedtime comes on and turn the radio back on for the 11pm news!!!!

Edinburgh

Monday. 5.30am. I was wide awake wondering why my body was behaving a certain way.  Should I be worried?

Radio 4 was playing in the background.  It was the shipping forecast. My favourite! Only because some of the places that I have lived in get a mention!!!

The Mhinisteir and I have a peculiar habit.  The radio in our bedroom gets turned on at 10pm in time for the news every night and does not get turned off until about 8.30am the next morning!

The shipping forecast was followed by prayer for the day led by a Bishop from the Episcopal Church in Scotland and he mentioned the Edinburgh fringe festival.  The moment Edinburgh got a mention my mind wondered away to the time when the Mhinisteir and I lived in Edinburgh.   

I didn’t enjoy my time in that city.  Nothing wrong with the city. It is a beautiful city. It was just me.  I used to hate the month of August because of the Festival!  It was busy everywhere and driving around was a nightmare.  The Royal mile which was near where I worked was filled with tourists and was very noisy.  The streets were filthy and dusty.  On top of that my colleagues and I had to put up with a lone bagpiper on the opposite site of the road for one whole month every year!!!! For that reason I used to hate the bagpipes! Now when I hear the bagpipes, it makes me homesick!

I used to rush back home to the tenement flat that we were renting and shut myself in until the next morning.

My office was also near Edinburgh Castle and I used to look forward to the one o’clock gun. Strangely they have something similar in Nice! It reminded me to break off for lunch.  I also liked Princess Gardens.  The Mhinisteir and I sometimes met up for lunch there. At the weekends, we used to walk up and down Princess Street before stopping somewhere for a quick bite before heading to Church.

I was very happy when we left Edinburgh.  I have since returned to Edinburgh as a visitor a handful of times and have always wondered how it will be to live there again.

 

Man on Moon

Saturday marked the 50th Anniversary of the first moon landing.  Most people of my generation will know the name of Neil Armstrong.  I imagine it to be a favourite question in pub quizzes.  Last week on Radio 4, there were countless programmes  to mark the 50th Anniversary.  Why?

Mankind or should I say humankind in this politically correct world have no regard for the God who created the Sun, Moon and Stars.  Why acknowledge the moon landing when we so blatantly ignore the creator of the moon?

I find it strange that we have trouble believing that Christ rose again from the dead but have no problem in believing that Man did go to the moon.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” – Romans 7:24