This blog was originally conceived as a letter from home to family (and friends), and the family has been in telephone contact, or even here, quite a bit over the past few weeks - Mothering Sunday, a birthday...
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which means that I haven't "written" to them for a while.
However, I enjoy reading posts on other blogs I follow, so it is only fair to reciprocate! But what to write?
The last three weeks have had the added excitement of three visits to the dentist for the repair of an old root canal filling and replacement crown. That didn't hurt too much, surprisingly, but when it came to the descale and clean... I'm hoping I didn't actually speak out loud when my mind was shouting "You can stop doing that anytime NOW". Judging by the way the dentists determinedly carried on, I think I kept silence.
It was also the month for the annual "Womens' World Day of Prayer" service, this year held at my home church (I'm never sure where to put the apostrophe - but luckily I won't be expected to pass year 6 SATS tests in English next term).
I was in charge of organizing it, which entailed gathering together
all my Indonesian sarongs (to act as tablecloths for "please stay for refreshments which will be served in the hall afterwards")
A load of "props" for the service:
a piece of sugar cane (I substituted a bag of Free Trade sugar)
maraccas
a white jasmine pot plant
a candle and candle holder and box of matches
supply of brightly coloured scarves in case anyone forgot the dress code (we went for bright clothes, rather than trying to assemble Spanish-style ruffled dresses for everyone. Plus it is jolly cod in England at this time of year. I wore a thermal vest. I'm still wearing thermal vests.)
a large kitchen bowl of "provisions" (I hoped that a melon, some sweet potatoes, some bananas and a couple of leeks would fit the bill)
It looks like a list of disparate items from a mystery story.
Also required for the service
spare copies of the music
booklets for the service
spare copies of the script for the meditation
a USB memory stick with the powerpoint slides
Baskets for the collection
and probably another dozen bits and pieces - it was two weeks ago which seems like twenty years.
Oh, and round up "the cast"; Reader 1, Reader 2, four Cuban ladies, three young Cuban girls, musicians, someone to make the refreshments, someone to sort out microphones, someone to set up and operate the powerpoint presentation. We nearly drew a blank on the young girls, but one came, and we got her to do all three parts.
CUBA?! Every year, the service is created by the women of a different country, and much to our amazement, this year was Cuba's turn. That wold also explain the sugar cane.
Aha! The apostrophe comes between "n" and "s".
Anyway, that took up two mornings and one evening, and was well worth the effort.
And also reminded me I feel that the time has come for me to hand over my position on the local WWDoP committee to someone else. It will be years before it is our church's turn again, which might be a persuader for my successor.
Well, buenos noches, as we all said in the service.
Glad to see you back. Don't worry about the lack of posts, some of us have a far worse track record! ;) Ouch re teeth cleaning. I know what you mean...
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