Yesterday I awoke contemplating a fairly busy Sunday ahead of me for a change. Firstly I am due to visit our former Eucharistic minister who called round to give Meg spiritual comfort in the last few months of her life ad was excellent in her role. But she herself is now experiencing some illness so I am going to pop around with some bits and pieces which I hope will give her some cheer. Immediately afterwards, I have been invited for Sunday lunch with some Catholic friends from down the road and also invited is our new parish priest so this should make for an entertaining lunch and I wonder how the conversations will flow around the dinner table. Some terrible domestic news has emerged late in the evening before when an horrific stabbing incident has occurred on a train neat to the town of Huntingdon. The minute the communications cord was pulled, the train driver acting with great presence of mind drove the train onwards into the station where evidently the emergency services could board the train and deal with the nine seriously injured people who were immediately transported to hospital. Two men were arrested and our various emergency services acted with the speed and professionalism one would expect of them. Although people often denigrate the state of he country and complain that ‘nothing works’ in general terms we as a society are exceptionally good, if not world-beating, at the way in which we respond to emergencies. This does not happen by chance by there is always a plan and rehearsals do take place but in this particular case, the emergency services have been excellent in every way. Fortunately, the principal suspect was disarmed by a taser rather than being shot dead by the police and this means that the motives of the attacker may well be revealed which would not be the case were he to be shot dead. So far, the incident is being treated as a terrorist incident but if I had to speculate at this juncture I would say that a more realistic explanation is a severe bout of paranoia as part of an ongoing mental health crisis but no doubt news will emerge in a day or so. I have all of the technology lined up to continue with my ‘Reflections’ journal but am finding it a little difficult to think of some pithy reflections that I would wish to record. When on BBC Radio4 used to broadcast ‘Thought for the Day’ I was always extremely impressed by the contributors often drawn from the complete range of religious persuasions used to cram some really interesting observations into the space of only three minutes. I used to wonder whether I could lecture in such a way that the lecture contained the equivalent of 20 ‘Thoughts for the Day’- the ‘slot’ is still present at 7.45 each day but I generally have the radio tuned to ‘ClassicFM’ whilst I am doing my daily exercise routine at that time.
In the morning, I collected the copy of my Sunday newspaper and then proceeded to try to find my friend’s house in order to call around and have a coffee. Because of the extensive roadworks around the town, the entrance to the estate was completely blocked off and the SatNav and I were forced to take the most circuitous route imaginable to reach my friend’s house – fortunately, I was only delayed by a few minutes. She was holding up pretty well to her chemotherapy and was having another round of it in the next few days. After about an hour and half I had to take my leaver to arrive at the house of my Catholic friends down the road where, together with our new priest, I had been invited out for a Sunday lunch. We had a marvellous chat not to mention a very good lunch and the conversation ranged freely over a whole range of topics. I knew that I had to leave some time before 3.00pm because my Droitwich friend was scheduled to pay me a flying visit in the afternoon. She arrived quite promptly just about 3.00pm and I had thought of preparing an instant meal for her which was a prawn omelette. I had hunted out a pretty good video on the best way to prepare such an omelette and it started off in a way that I would not have predicted which was to fry off on very finely chopped onion together with some ears of garlic. Then when all of these softened, the prawns were added and then all cooked, all of these ingredients are taken out of the pan. Then the omelette is cooked in the oil mixture which is left around the pan and then the prawns are added slowly and carefully in strategic places within the omelette. All of this only takes a minute or so to cook and I then served it up complete with some oven chips and salad leaves, Naturally, this was washed down with some Prosecco as well. my friend and I had quite a lot to discuss, not least was a minor operation which she was due to have on Friday afternoon. Afterwards her physicians have suggested she needs to keep herself stable and monitored for 24 hours after the procedure. Having looked after Meg for years and years, I made the offer to look after my friend in the immediate post-op period to which she readily agreed. So we have made arrangements for transporting her to and from the hospital as well as making some practical caring arrangements. This afternoon, after a fairly hectic day, I am going to have a pleasant time relaxing to music on ClassicFM as well as having a leisurely read of the Sunday newspapers. It seems a pretty dire night on the TV this evening so I may hunt around the BBC iPlayer and see if there are documentaries in which I might be interested. As I enjoyed the Alice Roberts biological anthropology series so much I might just watch the whole series of three for a second time. There are no particular commitments in the week ahead but I may attend the special ‘All Souls’ service in church on Monday morning and, if the weather holds up, seize the opportunity for the very last grass-cutting of the season.