Heart attack

Thursday, November 03, 2022

A Fun-Packed Week!?

Monday. 1.30 p.m. I'm now working on the next stage of my writing. I have a vague outline of how things will move on, but then I drive off-road and across the country to take a diversion (sorry for the mixed metaphor. I'm not entirely sure whether that is.) Story lining is something like a journey. It's a road full of pitfalls, bends, diversions and hills and valleys. A bit like life.

10.00 p.m. It's pouring with rain as I write this. Alfie had an emergency call to go out, and I had to dress to take him out, without any sort of raincoat for either of us. 

Prayer is powerful! On Sunday, Ross, our pastor, prayed that it would rain this evening because it's Halloween. If it rained, it would deter children from going out trick-or-treating. Sure enough, it rained! Halloween is not something Christians should get involved in.

Tuesday. 5.55 a.m. It's been raining all night and there seems to have been quite a strong wind. It was that which woke me up, hence putting my fingers on the keyboard and writing this.

4.40 p.m. I have just returned from Camphill. I arrived around 8.45 a.m. Because the traffic can be quite heavy, and I don't like being late, I always leave Dexter House a good deal earlier than I would at any other time of day. I walked the short distance to the Chrysalis Theatre and when I walked through the front door I found some of the gang, some of which were dressed smartly in suits and ties. I wasn't sure what this was about but soon learnt that it was connected to the Tree Of Trees project which was part of H.M. Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The whole thing was about the planting of a tree, which was part of the amazing celebrations for The Queen's 70 years on the throne. It was a tree-like structure, designed by the Heatherwick Studios, and made up of 350 tree saplings, which were in metal containers and the 'tree' constructed from recycled metal. These small trees have been distributed to charities all around Britain and one of them had been assigned to Camphill in Milton Keynes. The day was to consist of a presentation by the CEO of Camphill for a number of dignitaries, including the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Lady Howe, Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (who is the Monarch's representative in Buckinghamshire.) as well as Martha Kearney, presenter of the BBC Radio Four programme 'Today' and is a patron of Camphill Milton Keynes, along with the trustees of the charity which runs Camphill. 

The guys were instructed to be greeters to the guests and I was to be a greeter at the entrance with one of the guys, Matthew. Then, as the guests arrived, they were offered tea or coffee and, to be ushered into the main auditorium where the presentation was to be delivered. Unfortunately, Martha Kearney sent a message to say that she would be late as she was caught in a traffic hold-up on the M1, so, by the time she arrived, the entire schedule for the event was put out by around 45 minutes. 

Eventually, the presentation began and once it had been completed, the guests went out into the garden area near the Chrysalis Theatre for the tree planting and once that was over, photographs were taken. Quite a momentous occasion and no doubt be will long be remembered by the residents of Camphill and they were talking about it when everyone had left.

Before lunch, we did some drama exercises, and we had lunch and when we got back there was the usual session of each person telling what they had been doing eventually we did some work on the next production which is a version of Twelfth Night but adapted into a pantomime. I can't wait to see how this develops.

6.20 p.m. I had my evening meal a good deal later than usual. I had chicken tikka and I'm waiting for my apple and blackberry pie to cook. It takes 30 minutes to cook and I will make custard. 

It has been very windy today. Fortunately no rain. But the wind was strong enough to knock you off your feet. 

8.00 p.m. I said there hadn't been any rain today. Well, as I write this, it's really raining quite heavily. Just as well Alfie doesn't need to go out, as he would not like it. He is currently tucked up in his bed and, as far as I can tell, he's fast asleep. The wind is howling around the building, so it must be really unpleasant outside at the moment.


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