A Busy Breakfast

A busy breakfast fellowship followed Morning Prayer this morning after we had celebrated the life of Timothy and Titus, faithful followers of Saint Paul. Just as I was locking up the church, M came over and explained he needed to get back to Raleigh after receiving some medical treatment. He was obviously anxious and declined breakfast, but was grateful for the help we gave him to get home.

Courtney, Dave and Gail had breakfast well under way by the time I got back into the parish house. B, a regular, who now has his own accommodation, brought M for breakfast. M who has been staying with B, was obviously so grateful and was busy organizing his and B’s grocery list - another case of “the poor helping the poor” - certainly a reminder to us all. Will, who had attended Morning Prayer, popped in to say hello and drink his daily OJ, whilst big S was cheerful as usual and managed to put a smile on everyone’s face – a wonderful gift of his.

The every faithful Dave and Tony were as usual, deep in conversation, while Jodi was organizing her two-year old’s breakfast of Cheerios.

Tuesday breakfast is always fun and could never be dull, especially with Courtney and Gail in form. At the 194^th Annual Convention of the NC Diocese last weekend, Bishop Michael Curry continued and expanded his “All Are Welcome” theme from last year. I thought of his words as I buttered my toast, drank my coffee and enjoyed the fellowship of our brothers and sisters. I felt welcomed by all those present. Praise God.

The scent of nostalgia

Some time ago a friend of mine told me he had been asked what attracted him to our church. He replied, "Among other things of course, it had the smell of a real church. Like a church should". To my mind, he's absolutely right - candle wax, a lingering scent of incense and furniture polish.

The scent of smell does play a large part in bringing back memories, for me anyway. My inspiration for this post comes from me sitting in front of my laptop and realizing that the steak and vegetable stew I put in the slow cooker is well on its way to becoming my supper later this evening. It's one of my favorite aroma's, together with freshly baked bread (thank heaven for the bread maker), freshly ground coffee, newly mown grass and that distinctive smell of a summer shower after a hot spell.

I can smell with my mind's nose (well, if you can see with your mind's eye!), my earliest days at school. Again, furniture polish and for some reason Lifebuoy soap are prominent here, plus the strong smell of Jeyes Fluid, used in the outside lavatories. Yes, you did read correctly - outside. We didn't linger there long during the cold Norfolk winters, believe me!

Although I only lived a few hundred yards from my school, I always stayed for school dinner. Boiled cabbage - I can remember that strong smell with somewhat disgust.

Other schoolboy smells (the mind boggles at that phrase) I can still envisage are: dubbin (when rubbing on my football boots); hot tar (as the road-men repaired the streets); burnt methanol at speedway meetings (I still love that smell); and one not so pleasant, but nonetheless one that brings back vivid and emotional memories - the smell of Dad's clothing after he had spent many hours working in the dairy and delivering milk.

Some smells puzzled me, such as why certain stores had the same aroma whatever the branch or town. Examples I remember most were "Woolie's" (F. W. Woolworth) and "Marks" (Marks & Spencer). It was probably the corporate design and the use of fittings that gave them that unique aroma. Without wishing to offend vegetarians, I loved the smell of a butcher's shop, "blood and sawdust", and how I loved the smell of a shoe shop - that's when shoes were made with leather, naturally.

Nowadays our noses are bombarded with artificial smells -perfume, air-fresheners, scented candles, but those natural favorites I mentioned to begin with are still tops for me.

What is my very favorite? After forty years in the book printing industry, it has got be the smell of a brand new book. They don't call me a crazy Englishman for nothing!

Decisions, decisions - part 4

Decisions are made virtually every second of our lives. Even when we sleep, decisions are made which effect our lives.

My first life-changing decisions were previously posted separately. This post combines three major ones within five years.

In the summer of 2000 we were to take our three (at that time) wonderful granddaughters on individual vacations of their choice. We always tried to have quality one-on-one time with them individually. So a great time was had with with 9 year-old Josie in historic Northumbria. A couple of weeks later, an equally great time with 7 year-old Asha in East Sussex exploring "Pooh Bear" country. On return, and before we had a chance to take dear Caitlin, then 5, anywhere, I suffered a mild, but nevertheless frightening, heart attack. Don't jump to any conclusions here - it was nothing to do with our girls - if anything, they helped me relax from the stresses of my work.

On recovering, thankfully fairly quickly, I was fortunate to be given the chance to take early retirement. An easy decision? I now think it was, but I'm not so sure I felt so then. After all, nine years early? With the support and encouragement, as always of Gail and our son and daughter, decision number 1 was made.

Before this, on various vacations, we had fallen in love with the southern Iberian Peninsular, and had talked about retiring there, either the Algarve or to neighboring Spain's Costa's. We now had an opportunity to do so, but would we take the plunge? It may have been brave, it may have been foolhardy, but finding on retirement that during my previously working hours the sun really didn't come out all that much, and that perhaps our finances could go stretch a little further in Andalusia, I started the research. There, decision number 2 made. Following our visit to North Carolina for our son's wedding, we did for a short time consider the possibility of moving to the US. However we stuck to our original plan, put our home on the market, sold most of our belongings and took a flight to Spain to check out the property in and around Málaga. UK property sold, Spanish property purchased, legal work completed and decision 2 carried through.

A good decision? Yes, although after four years and having visited North Carolina for an extended stay (Leslie, our daughter-in-law deserves sainthood for putting up with us), we realized we could never have made Spain our permanent home, even though we managed to have the quality time with each of our girls in turn, . . . so, let's start preparing for the big one - Decision Number Three!

This really was a big one. We really liked NC and after spending time here in the summer and winter months, checking out property (and the locals, and liking both), I still wasn't convinced. It took Gail quite a bit of persuasive argument to win me over. There was a great deal of agonizing, but eventually Gail's logic was spot on.

I have not regretted any of these decisions. Yes, we miss our family in England terribly, how could we not? But which one of our granddaughters spent nearly a month with us this past summer? If you are a regular reader you know the answer . . . . Caitlin had her quality time with Nan and Granddad after all.