THE “GOODBYES ARE ALMOST OVER.
Emma made a special effort to drive over for a couple of hours on Monday with 2 year old Charlotte - Thomas was on his first day back at school for the “new year”. It was lovely to see them both and we had a toasted sandwich together in the township. She needed to go back to pick Thomas up - he has a 6th birthday coming up, so we picked up a couple of helium balloons to “get the party started”.
Julia and I enjoyed a bit of a competitive afternoon - Rummikub and Phase 10 - after they had gone so it was a nice relaxed time together … we were evenly matched although I MAY have lost that challenge. But not the next one … hopefully.
The UK, generally, has a bit of an invasion of spiders, coming in from the cold, at present. I’m not overly fond of them at the best of times but it turned out I was slightly more able to deal with them than Julia was. In fairness, they are also pretty quick on their feet so eventually Julia purchased some flyspray and hopefully their offspring won’t return.
I’ve sprayed inside my suitcase however … in case any of that offspring decides to get their own back.
So it was quite a “relief” on Wednesday to risk another train trip to visit Philip and Rosemary in Cirencester. Train from Sevenoaks to Charring Cross - underground to Paddington - then overland to be met by Philip at a small station near to Cirencester. All went well on my way there and Philip was waiting at the local train station to pick me up. However, it wasn’t quite as easy on my return journey because the train I’d booked was delayed by nearly an hour and then didn’t go any further than Reading. Despite the upheaval, the whole trip was pretty easy with announcements in Reading directing everyone to the correct train, eventually getting back to Julia in Sevenoaks about 2 hours later than anticipated.
I had a lovely catch up with Philip after lunch - we walked the few paces into Cirencester and had a coffee together at a very interesting community hub. Evidently they insist that all workers are paid but it is a huge complex - purchased by a pop star (I think) who left it vacant for a couple of years and somewhere along the line, this “outreach” was formed. There was an area for bicycle repairs, furniture too, clothing, restaurant , play area for children (the holiday programme having just finished the week before). Meals can be purchased for “however much you can afford” and, evidently, though not an overt church programme, the staff pray together weekly.
We had a cuppa there, and chatted for quite some time and I feel very pleased that we managed to have another 2 days together before I leave the UK today.
We also went into the church where the gold chalice presented by Anne Boleyn is held - on display in a VERY secure “vault”, within the church. Philip told me that once a year, it is taken out to be cleaned and checked under VERY heavily armed (I think) guard - everything locked and secured, security people everywhere.
After which, we went outside to check the site where the Abbey used to stand and where recently a pop concert was held with 2 stages, umpteen dozen food tents around the perimeter and crowds galore.
