{"id":7432,"date":"2025-06-05T18:54:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T18:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/?p=7432"},"modified":"2025-06-05T18:54:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T18:54:36","slug":"thursday-5th-june-2025-day-1907","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/2025\/06\/05\/thursday-5th-june-2025-day-1907\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, 5th June, 2025 [Day 1907]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy day. It was the day when our domestic help calls around and both she, my son and I always have quite a lot to chat about. After I had breakfasted, I sat down with my son and we made some changes to the first draft of the ‘Order of Service’ which had appeared in my email inbox. We swapped some of the photos around and substituted a new one for one of our original selection. This having been done, we emailed a new photo to the undertakers and set off to deliver a printout which incorporated some of my selections. Beforehand, though, we called in at the ‘Holiday Inn<\/em>‘ where we are to hold the post funeral tea to deliver a duly signed and dated acceptance form that their system required. Then after the two major errands of the morning, my son and I picked up some provisions and I took the opportunity to exchange some reminiscences of Meg with our domestic help. She is very kindly washing and ironing my white shirt so that I will look my best on the day in a week’s time. Then I cooked myself some chicken breasts which I served on some rice but throwing some of the rice away to keep my carbs down. But I received some unpleasant news via my email as our Eucharistic minister who had compiled the first draft of our Order of Service was dismayed, to put it mildly,that the undertakers had taken liberties with some of the document already supplied them and had not included many of the words to the two hymns which meant, as she pointed out, that the congregation would not know what to sing. So I had to compose a fairly long email to the undertakers requesting that the omitted words be inserted and making one or two other textual alterations. This may involve quite a major amendment so trust the undertakers will get on wit it expeditiously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I had lunched, I had a ‘coffee’ date with my University of Birmingham friend and we spent well over an hour in a local coffee bar, indulging in some apple pie [i.e. the least fattening of the alternatives) to accompany our coffee. We always have a lot to chat about and today was no exception and as my friend had experienced bereavement with the death of his wife some eight years ago, he could be, and was, a source of some advice for me. When I returned home, I pulled our grey wheelie bin out to the roadway, ready for collection first thing in the morning. I took the opportunity to knock on the door of a near neighbour who we knew had been training in the past for a role in the Church of England as a licensed lay readers, also known as Licensed Lay Ministers (LLMs). These lay people are trained and licensed by their bishop to serve alongside clergy, supporting people in faith and enabling mission. My neighbour invited me in and we spent an hour and half talking over some of the circumstances of Meg’s passing but also including matters theological as well (and there was quite a degree of unanimity between us). Actually, we have not had the chance of an extended chat for a year or so now but she had seen me pushing Meg up and down the hill in the wheelchair and admired the dedication which had been shown. But she was also of the view that this could not be sustained indefinitely and she gave me some very reassuring words (which I have heard echoed elsewhere) that I had done as much as I possibly could to maintain and even improve Meg’s quality of life in her final months. Like me, she expressed some relief that Meg’s final days had been spent in the comfort and reassurance of her own home and, employed in the Health Service itself, she was convinced that Meg’s final days at home could not have been bettered. Our neighbour reminded me of a fact that I had forgotten that she, Meg and our daughter-in-law used to go for little day trips out, probably for lunch, and Meg had shown her great acts of kindness by bringing back some mementos from Santiago de Compostela which she really appreciated at the time. As a consequence, she had only the happiest memories of Meg as she used to be and this was, of course, so nice to hear. Meanwhile, the political world rumbles on. There is now very considerable disquiet on the Labour benches (and other parts of the House of Commons) that the UK may be complicit in assisting Israeli in what many are saying is at the least an ethnic cleansing of the Gaza strip. Since 2015, the UK has licensed at least \u00a3500 million worth of military exports to Israel From October 2023 to May 2024 and the government issued over 100 new licences allowing UK companies to sell arms to Israel. During this same time, Israel killed thousands of civilians in Gaza indiscriminately. Even though the government has suspended a small number of arms licences, there are still hundreds remaining. In addition, the UK provides approximately 15% of the components in the F-35 fighter jets which are used in airstrikes across the occupied Palestinian territory. There is a certain degree of ‘cloak and dagger’ in all of these reports and obtaining a clear picture is not easy. Nonetheless, it does appear to be the case that whilst direct sales of military equipment to Israel are not allowed, there are a number of indirect ways in which weapons and military supplies, including bullets do find their way to Israel. The UK defence and intelligence industry has many links with their Israeli counterparts and the UK government seems loathe to put these links at risk. Nonetheless, what is unfolding before our eyes in Gaza is so horrific that the government may be forced into a position whereby even the indirect supply of military equipment is terminated. Jeremy Corbin, now an independent MP, has introduced a bill into Parliament to ban all sales of military equipment to Israel while the present conflict continues and whilst this bill has no chance of success, one suspects that the amount of support it receives may be a good indication of the current mood of the House of Commons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy day. It was the day when our domestic help calls around and both she, my son and I always have quite a lot to chat about. After I had breakfasted, I sat down with my son and we made some changes to the first draft of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7433,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions\/7433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}