The evening before yesterday was the day upon which the induction of our new parish priest was due to take place. I set off for the church in plenty of time but the church car park was actually being reserved for the numerous fellow clergy who were due to attend so I was directed to park in the adjacent school playground which had been pressed into service as an overflow car park. The service was beautifully constructed and I could not help thinking was put together so much better than the previous one about three yeas ago. It was quite a poignant night for me in the church and I could not help thinking that Meg would have loved every minute of it. Then we came to the function held afterwards in a local pub. Having equipped myself with a pint of John Smiths bitter and then a plateful of food, I originally sat down with a Geordie parishioner who I know quite well and chatted with the people on the same table before I took the opportunity to ‘circulate’ around the room and have chats with some people that I knew. All in all, I had a wonderful evening and I took the opportunity to give one or two selected people who had known Meg a copy of the funeral eulogy which was actually a very good summary of her life and achievements. Towards the end of the evening, I made contact with a priest who was the brother of one of the leading lights of our parish but whose parish is normally in Lancashire except when he has occasionally been called upon to be a ‘relief’ priest in the case of vacations. This priest has an enormously warm and engaging personality and every parishioner who has come into contact with him has felt enriched by the experience. I reminded him that years before we had asked him to perform a blessing over the ‘Virgin of Guadeloupe’ medallion given to Meg by our son’s Mexican family and worn every single day until (and including) the day of her death and now in the safe possession of a niece in Yorkshire. I think the priest was quite touched to be reminded of this and had some wonderful consoling words for me So the function broke up at 11.00pm and I was the last car in the car park and so was relieved not to get locked in but the night held some very special memories for me. A special booklet for the ‘Order of Service’ had been produced and this contained some fascinating facts about the history of the church. For example, I knew that Edward Elgar had visited the church but had not appreciated that he was a frequent visitor and played the organ in the church whenever he visited. I must say that it was quite a heartwarming experience to be felt to be part of a larger community but with the inevitable facts of biology playing out, there were several widows present in the congregation but I think I was the only evident widower. As the night had been so late (for me) and the weather sharply colder this morning, I allowed myself the luxury (necessity?) of staying for an extra hour in bed in the morning. After I had a leisurely breakfast and a good read of yesterday’s newspapers, I set off down the hill by car and then walked along the High Street to my favourite charity shop-cum-cafe to which it is my habit to repair in Friday morning. There I had some coffee and had some delicious moist apple-and-sultana cake. Being a charity, they have some supporters who cook a range of cakes which they then sell in the cafe to assist in their fundraising. After that, I took the opportunity to get some money out of a nearby ATM and returned home. After last night’s feasting, I did not feel particularly hungry but had a meal of mackerel fillets on salad leaves which was more than sufficient for me. It seemed quite a fine bright afternoon so I resolved to do the second last grass cut of the season. This went as planned but the grass seemed pretty thick to me on this occasion and I was fortunate in that I had just finished and was cleaning up the mower, when the skies darkened and it started to spot with rain so I had just completed my task in time.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw what Donald Trump has been doing to the White House. After denying that he was going to alter the existing structure, the whole of the historic East Wing has been demolished or will be in a day or so. Trump denied that he was going to do this but has now gone ahead and the destruction, along with some historic trees, is practically complete. As roaring machinery tore down one side of the White House, President Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he was having the entire East Wing demolished to make way for his 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a striking expansion of a project that is remaking the profile of one of the nation’s most iconic buildings. Mr. Trump was unsentimental as news of the demolition spread. ‘It was never thought of as being much,’ he said of the East Wing, which was home to the first lady’s office and spaces used for ceremonial purposes. ‘It was a very small building.’ The process of tearing down the East Wing was expected to be completed as soon as this weekend, two senior administration officials said, as Mr. Trump moved rapidly to carry out a passion project that he said was necessary to host state dinners and other events. But the previously unannounced decision to demolish the East Wing was at odds with Mr. Trump’s previous statements about the project, and underscored his intention to blast through the sensibilities of many in Washington to continue putting a lasting imprint on the White House. The president also said on Wednesday that the ballroom would cost $300 million, $100 million more than initially estimated. ‘In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure,’ Mr. Trump said. He also said — somewhat cryptically — that certain areas are being left. But the two senior administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans, confirmed that the entire East Wing was being demolished. The West Wing and the White House residence, where the president lives, are not affected by the project, which is the largest renovation to the White House in decades. According to computer-generated impression of what the new ballroom will look like, it will completely dwarf he West Wing in scale and make the whole architecture of the White House completely unbalanced. Now renovations and alterations have been done by past presidents but the size and scale of this latest venture is completely unprecedented. Certain sections of conservative (not MAGA-land ) members of the American public are privately appalled but Trump being a law unto himself has sought no approval or expert view. If I were the next president, I would