CHAPLAIN'S LETTER
The recent celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing prompted me to get out and watch my DVD of Apollo 13 again. It’s an exciting film starring Tom Hanks, which tells the true story of the space expedition which failed to land on the moon and which nearly ended in disaster. As the stricken spacecraft returns to earth there are some memorable photographs of the earth from space. They include a shot which shows the earth’s atmosphere as a wafer thin pale blue layer just above the surface of our planet – little thicker than a piece of wrapping paper round an orange. This thin layer of gases, most of which is less than 15 km deep, is what keeps us alive.
What strikes me about all this is how very vulnerable our life on earth really is. We think of the earth as huge, and therefore tend to think that the earth’s resources are infinite. But the air which makes life possible is only a tiny layer not much higher than the distance between Utrecht and Amersfoort. And although many people still think we can go on pumping as much CO2 into the atmosphere as we like for years on end, other views and voices are slowly being heard. Life on this planet is amazing, and God has given us a wonderful home here, but the resources of the planet are finite, and we shall all have to learn to live more humbly and modestly in the future.
These are some of the things we need to think and pray about as a Church during September, when we are encouraged to think about our responsibility for God’s creation. Our green awareness group has brought together some useful information about current environmental issues. May I encourage you, as the Prayer Book collect puts it, to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” these things. The future of the planet depends on people doing this.
Fr John
A PRAYER FOR ‘CREATION TIME’
(In recent years the Christian churches in Europe have begun to use the weeks of September and early October as a time to remember and pray for the protection of God’s Creation.)
As the air sings with songs of glory,
as the water flashes with the silver of creation,
as the forest blooms with leaves for the healing of nations,
so may God's light and love,
fill our hearts and souls and minds.
Amen
Prayer quoted from www.ecocongregation.org
As many of you will know, Christopher Rigg, our Licensed Reader, reached his 70th birthday two years ago. He now feels that the time has come to hang up his blue preaching scarf for good, and to retire completely from active service – a service that has been long and distinguished. We shall be celebrating his ministry during Choral Evensong on the second Sunday of this month (September 13th). Christopher has put together a 'mini-memoir' for us, which gives us some idea of the faith journey that has occupied his life.
A READER REMINISCES
I think it all began during my science degree at King’s College London 1955–1958. At King’s, there were no subject lectures before 10:00 on a Monday morning so that students could attend a weekly lecture by theologians, some well known, with sometimes obscure subjects. I passed the exam at the end of each year and was granted the title Associate of King's College (AKC), which Geoffrey Allen (a few years my junior) shares. It later served as my theory qualification for readership.
After national service in Lancaster, Beaconsfield and Germany (1958–1960), I went to work in Aberdeen (1960–1966). There I could not ring the bells, as I had done during school days in Leicestershire and student days in London, including St Martin’s in the Fields. The nearest peal of bells to Aberdeen was then in Perth.
In 1963, my Dad was 78. Though in rather poor health, he was still parson of two parishes in western Leicestershire. Towards the end, he had been getting a lot of assistance, in particular from a reader, Ben Dawes, who had been my physics teacher in the 1950s. One of Dad’s neighbouring clergy, Cecil Horstead offered to marry Margery and me. During our Christmas visit to England, we called on him to talk about the marriage service. Over tea, he urged me to take a more active role in the church in Aberdeen. So I began the path to being a reader.
I learned the trade under Canon Milne, a saintly figure, who confessed that it was his wife from Lincolnshire who stopped him getting too high church. Canon Milne believed that everything in St Mary’s Church should be done with due decorum. He held together a diverse congregation, some of whom kneeled, bowed and crossed themselves while others stood as straight as a ramrod. With difficulty, he kept the reins on an excellent choir, insisting that he and not the choirmaster was responsible for the services. At 08:00 Communion, the Diocesan Bishop, Edward Easson, would often be in a pew, dressed in his old raincoat. Canon Milne had ultimate patience in teaching me to place meaningful pauses, for instance in the evening collects:
that both (pause) our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments (breath) and that (pause) we being defended from the fear of our enemies (pause) may pass our time in rest and quietness.
I was lucky in Scotland, in that liturgical renewal began there long before it did in England. The differences in the Scottish Prayer Book from the Book of Common Prayer stimulated my curiosity for the history of liturgy. However I now rue that ‘Parish Communion’ has brought Morning Prayer almost to extinction.
The Diocesan Warden for Lay Readers was Scott-Charles, the most Anglo-Catholic priest in Aberdeen. I got to know him when he walked to his prefab Church of All Saints on a Saturday, if I was outside cleaning my motorcycle. He had been brought up in Provence and swore in Provençal, he felt like swearing, so he confessed. For reader training, he gave me one-to-one tutorials and we enjoyed some hot discussions. When I was due to receive my reader’s licence, he offered up a mass for me. During our last year in Aberdeen, 1966, the Diocesan secretary often wrote asking me to take a service: St Ternan’s in Banchory on Deeside where the priest was ailing and St James’s, Aberdeen, which had a vacancy. I never reached Kirkwall in Orkney, the far limit of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, though I still think back happily to the second-hand Morris Minor I bought from the captain of the boat that plied between Aberdeen and Kirkwall.
In November 1966, we moved to the Netherlands, for three years or so we thought. The local churches in the Betuwe proved a mystery to us and, apart from the Roman Catholics, were most unwelcoming. We found the address of the Rural Dean of the Netherlands, Popham Hosford, ‘Pop’, in the AA Book He wrote back, giving us some information on the Dutch churches and told us where the Anglican congregations met. Pop was Port Chaplain of Rotterdam. He and one of his assistants had been taking occasional services in Eindhoven, at first, house services and later in one of the churches once a month. In February 1968, he sent Dr Sjoerd Bonting and me to work in Eindhoven, Bonting on the first Sunday and me on the third Sunday and there I continued until 1992. In the 1970s, he asked me to take a funeral at Rheden long before England permitted readers to do so, simply because no clergy were available in the middle of August. From 1968 till 1993, the Sunday congregations in Eindhoven grew from less than 30 to well over 100.
I saw surprisingly little of my partner at Eindhoven, Sjoerd Bonting, since he was there on the first Sunday and I was there on the third. As a Dutchman, he served as a bridge between Anglicanism and the Dutch Churches. As a Professor of Biochemistry in the Catholic University of Nijmegen, he often wrote about science and religion. Bonting had been an atheist until the founding meeting of the World Council of Churches Assembly in Amsterdam in 1948, when the atheist students had debates with the Christian students. Bonting was convinced. Soon after that, he went to the United States for postgraduate work and there found the Episcopal Church. Alongside his biochemistry, he did seminary studies and was ordained by the Bishop of Boston. On his return to the Netherlands, the Old Catholic Church and the Diocese of London recognized his ordination. He retired from Nijmegen in 1987 and went to California as an advisor to the American space agency.
Bishop Rogers, who died a few years ago, was the last suffragan Bishop of Fulham with responsibility for the remnants of the overseas territories of the Diocese of London, which once included the United States but in our day covered only North-West Europe. He and his wife gave excellent support. The licence I received from him granted me permission to minister anywhere in the Diocese of London.
About 1971, John Satterthwaite became the first Bishop of the new Diocese in (Continental) Europe. He retired to Carlisle but sadly, the last I heard, had Alzheimer’s disease. His assistant Bishop Edward Holland stayed with us the night of the ferry disaster at Zeebrugge, after a visit to Eindhoven for a confirmation and for an Ash Wednesday service in Nijmegen.
About 1970, Pop was succeeded as rural dean by the Chaplain of The Hague, John Lewis. When the new diocese was being organized in 1972, he became our Archdeacon in Brussels. After he retired, Geoffrey Allen succeeded as archdeacon. He had moved around the Low Countries since his first appointment to Missions to Seamen in Pernis. Geoffrey was (and still is) always a support when needed.
After Bonting left, I became heavily responsible for the two Anglican morning services in Eindhoven. There were also baptisms, preparation for confirmation, preparation for marriage and several funerals. Visiting clergy from Brussels (John Lewis), Tervuren, Rotterdam, Voorschoten (Geoffrey Allen) and Utrecht (Peter Staples) came to lead communion most months. Besides the two Anglican services, members of the congregation organized Methodist services for the other Sundays. Until 1987, Bonting took a weekday service in his home. For the small group, we organized church services in the Nijmegen student chapel. That was nearly wiped out when the secretary of the Intercontinental Church Society, Don Irving, decided about 1990 that services there should stop. Luckily he did not get his way. During that period, Peter Staples became a close associate. Peter was also one of my tutors in church history during my studies in Utrecht University 1988–1997.
When Eindhoven appointed a full-time chaplain, I frequently visited Utrecht for my studies and renewed acquaintance with the chaplain, Stephen Twycross. My parents were friends of Stephen’s parents in the neighbouring parish of Swepstone in the 1950s. They often had Stephen's wife Jess in the house, while Stephen was away studying theology.
When Stephen retired from Utrecht, I started regular visits to Zwolle during the interregnum. From there, you know the story. I owe a debt of gratitude to Stephen and Trevor Whitfield. Until I turned 70 in 2007, I managed two visits to Eindhoven each month, with some attempt at pastoral visiting in between. With the enfeeblement of the years and a slightly addled mind, June 2009 seems a good time to lay down the responsibility. Some of those from the congregations I have served are now in the full-time ministry of the Church. They and others can, I trust, continue the work. With John de Wit, you have a good leader with a listening ear.
Christopher Rigg, Langhoven 57, 6721 SL Bennekom, The Netherlands
FORTIS MARATHON - SEPTEMBER 27
According to the Utrechtse Stadsblad, Fortis will be organizing the annual marathon – the Singelloop - on Sunday 27 September. Some churchgoers have run into problems (no pun intended) with the diversions that this causes. Perhaps you might like to plan an alternative 'escape route' before you come to church that Sunday, or even do a 'Three Wise Men' and 'go home by another way'?
GOOD BOOKS
Here at Holy Trinity it’s easy to find an English book for light reading. The book cupboard in the church hall is open every Sunday morning, and for just 50 cents you can take home a good novel, a thriller, a travel book, a biography… there are always plenty to choose from.
In Advent last year we tried an experiment – to have books about Christian faith available as well. Lots of people lent their favourite religious books, and forty people borrowed something a little different to read in the weeks before Christmas - books about prayer or the Bible or theology or church history or biography, or problems of faith and how to find your way through them. Many people enjoyed this new dimension, and asked if we could do it again.
Starting this autumn we hope to make it a regular feature, and to have a lending library of good books about Christianity available every Sunday. First, however, we need to stock the library, and we are asking this time for donations of good books. Is there something on your shelf (in English or in Dutch) which has encouraged and helped you on your journey of faith and which you would now be willing to give away so that other people can enjoy it? We hope to put together a good collection of up-to-date books and timeless classics that are relevant to our lives as Christians in the 21st century. There will be a collecting box on the table in the entrance hall where you can leave your donation. If you wish, please put a short note inside the book to tell others what it’s about and why you recommend it.
Betty Heynis has kindly offered to look after this library, and with help from Betty van der Hoofd she plans to make this library of good books available every week. Borrowers will be asked to register their email address and phone number, and books will be lent out for 4 weeks.
Look out for the library this autumn at coffee time on Sundays.
PRAYER CHAIN
If you have any requests for the prayer chain, or if you feel called to take part in this ministry, please contact Anne Miechielsen
A STITCH IN TIME ...
The choir at Holy Trinity needs new ladies' robes. We are looking for people who like to sew and who might have time and be interested in helping to make new robes. We will give all the help and advice needed and we hope to start in January 2010. The plan is to come together on Saturdays, between 10:00 and
16:00 hrs; the work should take about 4 months. Some experience in sewing would be a great advantage. If you can only manage a couple of Saturdays, or if you think that all you would be able to do is assist in pinning things together, your help would still be very welcome. The more, the merrier!
For more information, or if you would like to put your name down as a helper, please contact Thea or Jolande, email addresses: tlaarman@telfort.nl and edwin-jolandemulder@ziggo.nl.
Thanks – and we look forward to seeing you!
Jolande/Thea
SHRINKING THE FOOTPRINT IN EVERY PARISH
The Church of England’s environmental campaign is now three years old. To mark the recent event, the Shrinking the Footprint campaign has unveiled energy saving toolkits for every parish.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres is urging the dioceses to go one step further in cutting the carbon, reminding them that caring for the planet is a Christian imperative for the sake of future generations.
He urged the church to campaign for change, both at local level, and in the international arena. Important climate change talks take place at Copenhagen in December.
New toolkits and resources with energy saving tips and guidance for the CofE’s churches, cathedrals, schools and clergy homes are now available at www.shrinkingthefootprint.org. These include downloadable action plans and checklists along with advice on considering the appropriate use of renewable energy in church buildings.
Nearly all dioceses now have an environment officer with many promoting their own green policies to cut the carbon in every parish.
Holy Trinity has a very active 'Green Awareness Group', as you undoubtedly will have noticed. The group meets approximately monthly in the church hall after morning service. Why not consider joining them? For more information contact Sheila, Pam or one of the other members of the group. Ed
A COUPLE OF THOUGHTS ...
We don't change God's message -- his message changes us.
Be kind... everyone you meet is fighting a tough battle.
Suggestions for a weekend on Christ’s healing ministry.
At Holy Trinity, Utrecht, with a study day on Saturday 17th October 2009; coupled with St Luke’s day celebration on 18th.
MEDICINE AND MINISTRY
The Healing Gospel
Suggested timetable:
10:00 Check-in
10:20 Opening
Prayers
Introduction:
10:40 1st Topic
11:30 Coffee pause
11:50 2nd Topic
Group work
13:00 Lunch break (Please bring sandwiches)
13:45 3rd Topic
Group work or interviews
15:00 Quiet pause
15:20 Worship and prayer
16:15 Closure and Teatime
1st topic Where do we find healing?
a) The natural healing processes built into creation, found in the body (e.g. of wounds) and the soul (e.g. of griefs). Are these real? accident? design? Evolution?
b) Medical interventions; i.e. discovered understanding and resources and methods in the created order. Where does care, inspiration, perspiration and sacrifice come in?
c) Where is God in all this? Is God an interventionist? If so, in what ways
2nd topic Encountering the dynamic of divine grace
Examining the dynamic of Christ’s ministry, with a study of Luke 7.18-23 which is Christ’s own account of his ministry; healing will be seen in Physical, Spiritual and social terms, all expressed in relationships; An understanding of Wholeness, illustrated in the Holy Trinity. Good News: But what should we expect?
3rd topic What expectations do we bring to Jesus?
Examining different approaches in prayer, looking at scriptural examples: Centurion, man thru the roof, Martha and Mary, Jairus (and the bleeding woman!) Testing our expectations before we ‘test’ the Lord; how do we put ourselves into his hands? Comparison with approach to doctors
The St Willibrord Society in the Netherlands invites you on Saturday 19 September 2009 for the
Anglican-Old Catholic Fellowship Walk
Along the Monnikenpad (Egmond), in the footsteps of St Adelbert, the 8th C English Christian missionary. From Abdij van Egmond (Egmond Abbey) Abdijlaan 26 1935 BH Egmond-Binnen, to the Adelbertusakker (Site of St Adelbert’s Chapel and Holy Well)
Programme:
11.00 Eucharist in the Chapter House of Egmond Abbey. Celebrant: Bishop of Haarlem, Mgr Dr Dirk Jan Schoon; Preacher: Archdeacon of NW Europe, the Ven John de Wit. Collection for the Willibrord Society
12.00 Lunch (please bring own lunch)
13.30 Start of the walk
15.45 Gathering in St Adelbert’s Field
16.00 Evensong (Egmondse Vespergroep and Sea Singers)
Please register by 16 September 2009 with: Pastoor Nico Schoorl Email nicoschoorl@marnico.info, tel: 035 6838882
St Willibrord Society Nederland: Celebrating and developing the ties between the Anglican and Old Catholic Churches.
SEEDS FOR FOOD
THE BELGIAN PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, WILLEM VAN COTTHEM, COLLECTS SEEDS OF VEGETABLES AND TROPICAL FRUITS TO HELP AFRICANS AND INDIANS.
The seeds are destined for the lay out of kitchen gardens for refugees in Algeria: "Saharawis, mostly nomads and fishermen, live already thirty years in camps round the town of Tindouf in the southwest of Algeria. They don't have money to buy seeds. Hence my call ". Whoever has seeds from his own vegetable nursery or from bought parcels can send them. Between September and January it is possible to grow vegetables like lettuce, red beets, carrots and onions. In summer, from February till August, it is too hot for vegetables, but not for tropical fruits. That is why van Cotthem also likes to have seeds from melons, pumpkins, paprikas, avocado pears, papayas and eggplants. "Please, rinse them for a moment in water, let them dry on a dish and send them to me. The more seeds I receive, the happier I will be".
According to the professor, the project Seeds for food can develop into a worldwide initiative that will benefit the very poorest people.
In the meantime the seeds also go to a school for deaf children in Ouahiouya in Burkina Faso and the rural population of Malawi and Southern India. www.zadenvoorleen.wordpress.com
Prof. Dr Willem van Cotthem
Beeweg 36
BE-9080 ZAFFELARE
E-MAIL: WILLEM.VANCOTTHEM@GMAIL.COM
WELCOME to all English-speaking International Students
In partnership with the Inter Church Student Pastorate in Utrecht
Holy Trinity
Anglican Church
invites new international English-speaking Students to an informal
SUPPER PARTY
on Saturday 3rd October
at 18:00
at van Hogendorpstraat 26 (3581 KE Utrecht)
first turning right off Burg. Reigerstraat after the Wilhelmina Park
Let us know if you are coming : chaplain@holytrinityutrecht.nl
before October 1st please
COULD YOU JUST LISTEN?
As a grateful participant of the Christian Listening Course held earlier in the year, though belatedly, I wanted to pass on a few impressions of that memorable few days.
This was a first in the Netherlands and we 12 took our seats in eager anticipation of what was to come, some of us having ‘sampled’ what learning to listen is about during the Away Day session held in October of the previous year, and knew that Gillie (de Haas) was planning to complete a training course in England to equip her to give this valuable course, supported by another experienced teacher from the Acorn Christian Healing Foundation.
The first two-hour session took place on a Friday afternoon, and the course continued for the whole day Saturday and Sunday afternoon 13:00-15:15. At each session we had handout sheets giving information and guidance on the skills (building blocks) and process of good listening which we learnt – is many layered. Under the section: Good listening is HEALING is a quotation: “The gift of being a good listener, a gift which requires constant practice, is perhaps the most healing gift anyone can possess, for it allows the other to be, enfolds them in a safe place, does not judge or advise them, accepts them as they are without desiring to change them, and communicates support at a level deeper than words.” (Gerard Hughes, SJ Walk to Jerusalem).
With overhead slides, role-play, and listening sessions (taking turn about talking/listening) and meditation, we were guided so caringly and experienced how it can feel to listen and be listened to. Most of our group knew each other - some well and others not so well, though actually to sit and talk or really listen to one another was quite challenging.
There was much food for thought and also a delicious lunch provided as we chattered away over the impressions of the intensive morning training.
We learnt some of the many facets of learning to listen – to God, to ourselves and to one another. Another important quotation in our training material was: "We need to learn to listen with the ears of God before we speak the words of God" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Life Together). One exercise was to do with finding our listening pattern and asked us to give spontaneous reactions to a number of situations, and another was concerned with listening to the Whole Person: body language, tone, silences and emotions. Listening without interrupting or ‘helping’ the one being listened to, with your own interpretation of their feelings by way of empathy, is a tall order! It’s a discipline that has to be learnt – and, speaking for myself, will take quite a bit of working on. But I could see the value of listening in this way and it is something that you can’t then overlook when listening to someone, allowing them that space to explore their own feelings whilst they have undivided affirmation of being listened to. And the realization that you are then not responsible for trying to solve a situation for someone is quite a relief: that’s not what listening is about.
The whole course was in every detail so well organized and conducted, it was a privilege to be able to take part and I know that many people will have benefit from this training.
Nicky
CTC CHILDRENS TRINITY CLUB CORNER
CTC will have started already by the time you read this and Danielle and her team will have gathered to plan the coming season’s sessions with the children.
September is a time of new beginnings – and especially for many children moving to a new class or just beginning a new term, beginning at a new school – a challenging time for them. Let us also pray for CTC’s new beginning – for the leaders and for the children they will be guiding – that it will be a growing, happy time together.
Nicky for CTC
AS ANOTHER AUTUMN GETS UNDERWAY ...
It’s September already, and the nights are fast drawing in. 2009 is speeding by – and soon retailers will begin their annoying Christmas countdown (“September 16 – only 100 shopping days left!”). September heralds the return to the ‘rat-race’. Many of us expect work to be very busy over the coming months. Some of us dread even returning to work. Others of us struggle to cope with on-going family problems, or with mounting debt.
Whatever lies ahead of you this autumn, here is what the Bible says about trusting in God: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and you shall be fed. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37: 3 – 5. "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe." Proverbs 29.25.
THE HOLIDAYS
It was holiday time again and so, according to Harry, my car had to have its annual clean. I would like to make clear that at this point in time my car was slightly scruffy, but perfectly functional. However to go on holiday it had to be sparkling clean, or so he said. I just left him to it and so he moved my car into the middle of the yard and got started. A couple of hours later he said that it was now ready to go through the car wash so we jumped in. But as I went to put my key in the ignition I discovered that his key was already in there and, even worse, although the engine wasn't running the ignition was switched on. As I leave the headlights on all the time and given the fact his cleaning efforts had hit the dipswitch, putting the headlights to full beam, the battery was as flat as a pancake. While we jump started it from his car there was a heated argument over the usefulness of a dirty car over one with a flat battery.
Nonetheless, the next day we were to be found heading south for the ferry. Just as we got on to the motorway it started to rain very heavily. In fact it was so bad that I had to drop my speed as visibility was markedly reduced. Harry, who was fiddling with Gloria our sat-nav, casually announced that, if we wanted to get to the restaurant where we had a lunch reservation on time, we would have to average one hundred kilometres an hour. So no stress then. As it happened, despite a huge tailback from a burnt out car, we made it in perfect time and I must admit that the lunch was delicious and, compared to Dutch prices, very cheap.
We were booked on the ferry as 'Priority Boarding' and as a result we were the first car on board. We were directed up a ramp, along the entire length of the ship and down another ramp. This left us outside on the bow of the ship. When we came back after the crossing my car had been subjected to two hours of sea spray splashing on it and all the salt had crystallised out. So much for all the cleaning efforts! But soon we were driving, on the left, on some of the back roads of the south of England. Now, we are used to back roads, since there is nothing else around our house, but at home the verges are flat. This allows you to see oncoming vehicles and to run onto the flat verge to pass them. In the south of England all the roads seem to have sunk into the landscape. So, where the tarmac stops, the verge is a steep embankment which blocks your view and would turn your car over if you tried to drive up it. All the roads are liberally furnished with a vast assortment of signs pleading with you to 'SLOW DOWN'. Unfortunately there seems to be an unending supply of 4x4s, which drive right behind you with their headlights on, and are frantically trying to get to their destination at roughly the speed of sound. Sadly the roads are too twisty and narrow to allow any passing to take place. Nor are they provided with lay-bys that you could pull into. Thus I fear I spent the entire time we were in the south driving a lot of boy racers to distraction as I wended my way through the countryside.
Our first stop was at Petworth Station. It used to be a small wayside railway station, but the line was closed years ago. Now it is a sort of 'themed' guesthouse. They have four Pullman coaches which have been converted into eight guestrooms. These stand on a short length of line by the platform just outside the station building. The station itself is a listed building and has been carefully restored. As well as containing the office, lounge and breakfast room, it also has two further guestrooms. Given the amount of medical equipment that I need these days we chose a room in the station as I doubt if we could have got it all in and set up in one of the coaches. Anyway we had a great time as the staff were wonderful, the breakfast massive, the area very quiet and there was a pub just at the end of the drive. While we were at the station I learned from the owner that the Pullman coaches had been delivered long after the railway line had gone. This means they had come along these treacherous twisty roads on low loader trucks. I'll bet there were a lot of frustrated boy racers when that happened! While we were in the area we went to Brighton, a strange town where the busses all have names. There Gloria muckied her ticket by telling us to 'go straight on at the junction'. This manoeuvre was not possible on two grounds, the first being a 'No Entry' sign and the second being a double-decker bus blocking the entire road.
But, after four days in the peace and quiet of the country we headed for London and stayed with some friends there for a couple of days. This allowed me to go round the electronic shops, while Harry spent a happy morning in the Church House Book Shop. We had lunch in Covent Garden market. Sadly the first lunch in France spoiled us and all other meals tended to be compared with it and found wanting. Still, London is not noted for its cuisine.
Next on our agenda was 'up north', to visit Harry's brother. Already staying there were the two (no longer little) boys from Paris, who usually only see us at Easter. This year they had discovered 'Chocomel' and we had ensured that there was a supply, six litres, ready waiting for them when they got to England. Sadly they had got through this but we arrived with another couple of litres which, with careful rationing, lasted them the last few days of their holiday. I noticed that if the little lads are allowed to sit and watch TV until about eleven you don't see them the next day until around lunchtime. So next Easter I may get my breakfast in peace. It appears that the local football team, Burnley, managed to get into the Premier League this season and to celebrate this momentous feat they gave all their players new football jerseys. I thought this was rather nice of them. Now of course all the football fans have to have matching new jerseys too. Naturally the pair from France desperately needed such jerseys which cost, are you ready for this, FIFTY POUNDS EACH, and that is for kid's sizes. Goodness knows what they charge for adults. As a Scotsman I'm very glad that I don't have any interest in football.
Last on our agenda was back down south to stay with Stuart for the last couple of days. This allowed us to visit several supermarkets and pick up all the British goodies that you can't buy over here. Then it was the long drive home where we found the cats were in their usual snit and wouldn't speak to us for hours. Actually, I was very glad to get back into my own bed. At least when I wake up in the night I know where the bathroom is, and at my age this is quite important.
Jamie
Services at Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht
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