Category: blog

the land of Lemsips

wonderfulexchange5 Comments

This is just a quick note to say I am still alive.

Coughing and hiding under blankets, but still here.  Those of you who read Ruth’s blog will know she turned her recent illness into a book festival.  Hoping to do the same for part of today and tomorrow, though there is also great need to wade through the props that remain from the Michaelmas event and the suitcases that haven’t been unpacked.

Still, it’s not all bad.  The vestry got an unexpected night off last night, which I hope they enjoyed; and Molly was so blissfully asleep on my lap that she nearly fell off.

Now, what shall I read?  I’ve read Dave Walker’s recent My Pew: things I have seen from it, and the related What I am doing here?, a beginners guide to church (well worth a look).   I think liturgy next, then a book on transitions.  If I make it all the way to systematics, you will know I am feeling better.

holidays

wonderfulexchange14 Comments

Four whole days without touching a computer.  That might be a first.

I’m back in New England, in the too-soon-to-be-stunning Fall.  The dogwood is trying hard to offer autumn reds, and as I drive round there is a constant flurry of tiny gold leaves.  Otherwise, it is the dull green of waiting.

So, what do you do on your holidays?  I find I do exactly what I do on a day off, but in different places.

Dad and I went to New York to see Equus.  Not the most likely father-daughter show, but I’ve always wanted to see it (after reading it in a ‘Madness in Literature’ course in high-school) and it opened last week.

The reviews are all true:  it was superb.   What I enjoyed most, unexpectedly, was the simplicity of the set.  In a world of The Lion King and Cirque de Solei, it was such a joy to have an almost bare stage with a few grey boxes which were turned and flipped to change the space.  Proper theatre this… though it took half the audience a very long time to realise this was neither a comedy nor a nice story about wizards and horses.

After the show, we sat in Bryant park drinking coffee.  It was an unexpectedly lovely moment that seemed to remind Dad of his student days.

Yesterday:  a mixed result at shopping (children’s books and dried chillies: yes.  much needed clothes: no), then an evening with Ugly Betty, Sarah Palin & Joe Biden.

Today: making chilli and baking bread.

Friends tomorrow, and the joy of church-without-strings on Sunday.

I’m going to stay away from the computer as much as possible.  Normal routine (and blogging) resumes in a week.

pain

wonderfulexchange5 Comments

Last week, the lay team had a conversation about humans-and-animals, and I confessed that (however severe a failing you may find it) I know that my emotional response-into-action is deeper and swifter with an animal in distress that with humans.  It’s all about their total inability to understand why it hurts.

Well, appartenly my instinct extends also to dionosaur robots.  Go watch.  The first half is lovely, and the second half sad.  Sadder still when the reality of so many children’s lives is placed before you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Molly needs attention.