The evening before last, nothing very much seemed to grab my attention on the conventional TV channels so I turned my attention to PBS, which is the Public Broadcasting Service hosted in the USA. This is a membership organisation of over 330 independently owned and operated local public television stations across the United States, rather than a traditional centralised commercial network and it often broadcasts programmes of a documentary nature, leaving entertainment to other networks. The programme that I started watching was ‘Edwardian Society in Colour’ where film shot in the Edwardian period, about 1901-1914 had been colourised. What was shown was, in effect, a social history of some of the ‘ordinary’ people of this country and included were events like the coming of the trams to towns in Lancashire, the rise of the suffragette movement, some early football matches and the preparations made for war in which young men enlisted in a burst of patriotic fervour thinking that the war with Germany would be over ‘in weeks’ and they would be at home in time for Christmas. Whatever impressions we have of these times are generally presented to us through popular series such as ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ or more recently ‘Downton Abbey’ so the PBS system is undoubtedly a source of much authentic information. Actually, during the week I had turned to PBS for a programme on the association of Edwards VIII with the Nazis under the title ‘Britain’s Traitor King’ and I doubt whether the BBC could have shown this programme particularly with that kind of title. This is the time of year when organisations of various types are thinking of pre-Christmas type meals for their membership and yesterday, I signed myself up for one such meal organised through the CAMEO group of the Methodist centre whilst my own church is organising something similar in November. During the forthcoming week, I shall be making some preparations for the family meal I am about to prepare for next week on the occasion of the visit of Meg’s cousins for a family ‘get together’ next weekend will also see the end of British Summer Time and then the dark mornings will really kick in with a vengeance. It may have to be the time when I revert to a breakfast of warming porridge to keep me going throughout the morning. There are two months in the year which I always think have to be endured rather than enjoyed and they are November and February respectively, both with prospects of better things to come in the months that follow them. Although the weather is chilly in the mornings, I am hoping for a day of sunny weather at the start of the week so that I can get the penultimate burst of my lawn mowings to be undertaken but it looks as though e might expect a spell of rainy weather as the week proceeds. But in November, we should have the sequelae of the American mid-term elections to savour as well as the transmission of some of the world series of rugby matches when the Northern and Southern hemisphere face off against each other.
One of the longest serving members of my church who has given decades of service to his local parish has been awarded a special medal by the Pope called the Benemerenti (= in Latin ‘well deserving person’) medal. It apparently takes an age for such a medal to be awarded as it has to go through layers of Vatican bureaucracy but one such medal has been awarded to a long serving parishioner. He was going to be presented with this special medal during the 10.30 service and so many members of the parish turned up to witness the well deserving parishioner be awarded his medal. I had actually attended the earlier service but had then gone on the road to pick up a copy of my usual Sunday newspaper, liberate some money from the ATM and get the car washed before coming home and coking myself a cheese omelette. I then made my way back to the church to witness the medal presentation and then joined a huge crowd of parishioners in the parish hall for coffee, biscuits and the bestowal of congratulations. I was delighted to make contact with the Spanish parishioner with whom I wanted to meet so that we could arrange a mutual coffee date. As we were exchanging a few words in Spanish, our conversation was overheard by a third parishioner and we chatted away to each other, mainly in English, until we were joined by a fourth person who knew some Spanish as her second language having spent a year in Spain on her youth. So the four of us have set up a ‘date’ at the end of next week when we can chat away in Spanish to each other to help to improve our skills. All of this happened relatively spontaneously but it was a happy coincidence of the four of us. Another extraordinary coincidence is that that my initial contact was herself a native of La Coruña which is the town in which one of most intimate Spanish friends happens to live. After I returned home, I made myself a light repast by way of lunch and then my son called around and we exchanged news of the past week to each other over a cup of coffee. My son also helped me to ensure that I had my Nectar card well and truly installed on my iPhone so in view of the offers that I may well receive in this direction. From what I read, it looks as though there are some general Nectar discounts which are available sore wide to all card holders but also some that are somewhat more personalised to the individual shopper based upon their shopping habits. I appreciate that all of these offers are aimed in the direction of ensuring customer loyalty but if, after all, if a customer sends £50 a week for 50 weeks of the year then we are taking about a spend of £2,500 in any one year which is why the supermarkets are persisting in their offers. I may well be tempted to transfer my allegiance to the newly opened Sainsbury store in town even though it is slight awkward to reach. There is plenty of car parking provided which is a good recommendation in any case. There seems to be some absorbing TV to absorb my attention this evening and also yet another production of ‘Emma’ which I will start to view but reject if it is the American version (with American actors and accents) which does not do justice to Jane Austen’s work.