Change of rings

After days of rain, we woke up to a cold and dry, if overcast day. After breakfast we headed into town to buy a few Christmas presents. The most important aspect of our expedition however took us to one of Cardiff's long standing jewellers, Jonathan David, on St Mary Street. Last Friday I took my wedding ring there to see if it would be possible to repair it, after my misfortune during my Malaga chaplaincy locum, when it had to be cut off my finger, painfully swollen by a wasp sting. I received a message to say that repair on a fifty year old ring worn thin wouldn't be strong enough to last. So Clare decided to buy me a new one, and at the same time to have hers stretched a size and repolished, as her knuckle is not as small as it was when I first slipped it on her finger.

Instead of the original 22 carat gold, which was fairly standard when we were young, we opted for 9 carat, which has the merit of being less expensive, just four times what we'd have paid for ours in the first place, instead of ten times. Once the transactions were completed, we went to the Zest Cafe in the House of Frazer for lunch, while both rings were re-sized to fit our fingers satisfactorily. My broken ring could be sold for scrap now, and I'd probably get the amount it originally cost, given current gold prices, but, I can't bear to part with it. It's such an important witness to the story of my entire adult life, though what I'll actually do with it now, I don't yet know. We both now wear shiny rings, one old and one new. A source of great delight. We must get mine blessed, soon.

After the jewellers, we went our separate ways on different errands, I called at Stavros Constantinou's, my favourite joke telling barber, for a haircut and a chat before returning home, always an enjoyable experience.

With several gifts, plus packs of cards bought at St John's charity card shop, still going strong, after at least fifteen years, it's now time to write an accompanying annual round robin Christmas letter. Already it's that time of year; 2016 seems to have fled by, with a record five spells abroad in different places this year. That must be a personal best.