So this is my latest blog and I had quite a lot of trouble accessing Outlook this morning. I am not sure whether Microsoft have just updated their software but it took no end of trouble accessing my account and then things were not quite the way I wanted them to be. Nonetheless, I eventually succeeded and I started off the day having survived another really hot night. I tried a combination of starting off the night on the downstairs sofa and then a favourite armchair and crept into my bed in the upstairs bedroom once things had cooled down. I always feel a little sad once the longest day of the year (21st June) is over because it means that we are on the start of a long march towards winter as the days get progressively shorter until December 21st (and then you do not really notice the change until after Christmas) As is the new ‘normal’ for me on a Saturday, I have resumed going to the evening service on Saturdays which lasts from 6.00pm-7.00pm. Things are a little difficult as I am temporarily without a car but I prevailed upon my son for a lift to the church. Then, fortunately for me, I was sitting behind some of the stalwarts of the church community who I know well so I requested a lift back home which they readily offered. But at the end of the Mass, there was a shock announcement from the priest who announced that he would be leaving the parish in some 60-70 days time, being called back to do some missionary work in some part of the globe. The reaction of the congregation was mixed because in the years that we have this priest , who came to us from Kerala in India he has never really gelled with the parish and there have ben a few incidents and some of them quire recently where there had been a cause of concern being expressed about him. So now we have a new pastor to which to look forward and, of course, these relationships take some time to bed down so a period of uncertainty lies ahead of us. It may well be that with the chronic shortage of priests, we will have another whose cultural roots are from overseas which is not always a good fit with the composition of the parish in Bromsgrove. Sometime, parishioners drift away to worship at other churches which does not bode well for a healthy and thriving parish community as the ‘old faithfuls’ are called upon to do more and more but they themselves are ageing. For the forthcoming Sunday, there is going to be an ‘international’ day at church when people will be encouraged to come along in their national dress and to bring along some of their own ethnic food. This has been tried before and, if the weather holds out, can be an extraordinarily interesting experience but it rather clashes with the commitments on a Sunday that I have with my University of Birmingham friend so I will have to make a judgement call on whether or not I attend a little later. Last night, I enjoyed England having a better day in the Headingly test against India where the match is delicately poised between the two teams and also watched the England Under 21’s football team beat Spain (the fancied team) to reach the quarter finals.
After breakfast I made up a flask of coffee and was prepared to go down to collect a newspaper and then make my way back via the park when my University of Birmingham phoned. We agreed to meet in the park but the weather was almost certainly on the change and we both wondered whether we had correctly chosen what to wear. We chatted with a mutual acquaintance that we often meet in the park on a Sunday morning complete with a huge, almost honey coloured, labradoodle dog. We then noticed a mobile phone and a ball thrower that had been left on an adjacent bench. We were contemplating handing it in to the coffee bar in the park when the phone rang with the caller being the owner’s friend. We assured her that the phone was safe with us and then she came to collect in in ten minutes time. She was grateful but I do not think she fully appreciated how lucky she was the phone had not ended up in the wrong hands. By now, the weather was getting decidedly chilly so my friend ran me down to Waitrose from where I collected my newspaper and then ran me in his car up the hill to home. After I got home and switched on ‘Sky News‘ the media channel was full of the aftermath of the way in which the US military in a huge and apparently well-planned attack had attacked the nuclear installations in Iran with ‘bunker buster bombs’ These are designed to penetrate and destroy hardened targets, such as deeply buried bunkers, by using a combination of a strong casing and a power explosive charge. These bombs can penetrate several meters of reinforced concrete or even more of earth and rock before detonating. But they have never been used in a conflict before and the Iranians had tried to hide their nuclear installations inside a mountain. These bunker busting bombs may only work if one had makes an initial ‘hole’ through which another can follow before detonating. And the Iranians were seen carrying away by lorry key nuclear components when they thought an attack might be imminent. So although the American military are claiming that they were astoundingly successful, we might only know in a few days time the degree of success that the Americans had. There are reports that the Americans are telling the Israeli military a slightly different story to the one that broadcast in the Pentagon news conference. I have the feeling that the Americans might not realise what they have actually started. Although they might appear to have had an astounding military success, there are hundreds if not thousands of American troops spread through the Middle East which might now be vulnerable to a counter attack. In addition, America rather than being seen as peace maker, will be seen as a war-monger-in-chief and will have created swathes of hostile groups right across the Middle East. After all, we have Iraq as an example of what can happen after a military ‘success’ and the adverse consequences might stay with us for decades.