I have noticed on the rare occasions when we dine out that some modern people no longer feel obliged to follow good table manners or dining etiquette. One of my pet peeves is salad hanging out of one’s mouth!!! I know it sounds hilarious but it is not a pretty sight on an adult human being!!!
I have also noticed that using the necessary cutlery has become optional for these people; they prefer to eat with their fingers. I know that it certain cultures, people eat with their fingers and they do it so elegantly but to try and stuff salad in one’s mouth with the use of their fingers is not a pretty sight!
With that I come to today’s post…..I read in the Sunday papers that a lady woman from somewhere in England has become quite famous through her Tiktok video containing a hack to minimise washing up. According to the papers, before every meal time, she covers her dining table with kitchen foil and plates up her food on the table itself so that her children can eat off the table without the need for plates and cutlery!!!! Please don’t try it at homeš¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£.
Hello and welcome! I am still struggling to come up with daily content for this blog. There is plenty happening in life as a vicar’s wife front but my mind seems to be tired. I know I can take a break from blogging but I also know through some of the lovely messages that I have received in the past that I have a small group of ardent fans whom I would hate to disappoint. Furthermore it is also good discipline for me to sit down and write something every day even if it is boring…..
Something exciting happened last week. I almost became a victim of fraud (yet again). This time someone tried to enter my details in some payment app. It was a very scary experience as this person had been trying to get in touch by telephone. The question is how much do they know about me? Anyway, the card got cancelled yet again! It is such an inconvenience but I cannot complain because no money was taken out.
Now to the boring news. Yesterday I read in Times2 – the Times of London’s supplement that the domestic goddess and I have something in common. We both use the online supermarket Ocado and Method’s Wild Rhubarb all purpose cleaner. Big dealš!!!! I am not a fan of Nigella Lawson. I don’t hate her but I struggle with her oohs and aahsš¤£.
The Mhinisteir and I live in rural England where 99.9% of our parishioners are “Brexiteers”. The wonderful thing about democracy is that we have freedom to choose so we have no problem with “Brexiteers”. Actually, we co-exist very well.
When we first moved here, we started buying a right wing broadsheet newspaper to better understand our parishioners and stuck with it until a month ago. We of course read the Private Eye, FT Weekend and the Sunday Times so that we will have different view points.
However, I gave myself a rude shock when I started dismissing “partygate”. I couldn’t believe that the newspaper was beginning to shape my thinking. I was disappointed with myself. I had a wee chat with the Mhinisteir about it and to my great relief he told me that he had been feeling the same way for a wee while so that is when we decided to cancel our subscription and change our newspaper subscription.
Here in the vicarage, we are very privileged to have our newspapers delivered every single day rain or shine. I love reading the newspapers but love the smell of ink too!
Imagine our shock and disappointment when we saw a note attached to our newspaper saying that newspaper delivery will cease at the end of the month as it is no longer viable for the newsagent, old Mrs Patel.
We have since discovered that the only other newsagent in the area who used to deliver has shut for good.
It is such a shame that here in rural England, we are slowly losing more and more of the essential services.
Over the last 10 days or so, I have not enjoyed our daily newspapers at all. It has been filled with nothing but British politics. The country has been engulfed in the revelation that the British prime minister did not follow his own rules and instead held parties in 10 Downing Street when the whole country was in lockdown at different times in 2020 and 2021. It has also been revealed that there was one such party on the eve of HRH Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral!
I for one do not understand what the fuss is all about? I am not a fan of the prime minister but he is our prime minister because the majority voted for him! It is the same people who are now grumbling. It is not Boris who has changed. He is still the same old Boris who has an aversion to the truth and fumbles along.
The public are also angry that the PM was having a party when Her Majesty the Queen was mourning the death of her husband and that because of his decision making she had to sit all by herself at the funeral. At this point, I would like to remind the public that at least she had the opportunity to be with her husband in his dying moments and that she was able to be present at his funeral, something which many many people were denied!!!!!
This of course has given a field day to the opposition. Sadly, I don’t like them very much eitherš!
When we got back home from our holiday, the first thing to greet us was a huge stack of newspapers! In case you are wondering if we had forgotten to stop the papers during our holidays? No. We knew full well that this will be the sight that would greet us on our return!
The Mhinisteir still lives in the dark ages where he doesn’t like reading newspapers online even though our newspaper subscription allows us online access. Unfortunately I too have joined him in the dark ages. I just love holding the physical paper.
We now have a selection of the Telegraph, FT Weekend and The Sunday Times to peruse. There is also our weekly local paper, the Church Times and the Private Eye plus the daily papers that continue to get delivered!
One of the advantages of not having a television is that one gets more time to do other things, in my case it is to read.
Here in the Vicarage, we get the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Church Times, Sunday Times, Private Eye and Le Monde Diplomatique. The one most common theme in these newspapers/magazines is burnout particularly here in the United Kingdom.
The lockdown especially the first one brought some relief to some but the problem that is burnout is raising its head again. Working from home during the pandemic has exacerbated things for most people. There are no boundaries. Bosses expect their employees to be at their beck and call at ALL times since they are working from home. Recently when the Mhinisteir was visiting a bank, the teller told him that because they have done away with call centres in India, she has to do the job of a call centre worker on top of her usual duties!
We no longer have rest days like the olden days when Sunday was a day of rest. They still do in certain parts of Scotland especially the Highlands and in some countries that I have visited like Germany and France where shops are shut. Did you know that even shops like Tesco, Boots etc close on Sundays in certain parts of Scotland?? I for one firmly believe that we need to reclaim our day of rest. Sunday trading laws have been most unhelpful.
I am not at all suggesting that we all start going to church. As a Christian, It will be great if we did but I also believe that God gives us the freedom to choose our way of life.
By the way, if you plan to go to church on a Sunday, I would personally recommend a BCP service! It will be a great start to your Sunday!
I am not even suggesting that we shouldn’t watch television, wash our dishes etc like some strict Sabbatarians do. All I am suggesting is that we try and do things that we don’t do the other six days of the week. Make Sundays special like meeting up with family, cooking a nice Sunday lunch, going for walks or just catching up on sleep/reading. Initially it will be a bit strange but maybe not too strange because that is what we were doing during our first lockdown! Once you have reclaimed your day of rest, you would not want to look back again.
Could this be the answer to the problem that is burnout?
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!
Here in the Vicarage, after all these years, we have once again started buying the Sunday Papers. For a news junkie like me, it is total bliss!
We used to buy the Sunday paper when we lived in Scotland but we had to order in advance and could only pick it up on MONDAYS. Due to strict sabbatarian laws, most shops including the newsagents weren’t open on the Sabbath.
Since moving to England, we rarely bought the Sunday papers. However since the new year, we have arranged to have the Sunday papers delivered so we get a total of three different papers on different days!
Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife 