Patiently waiting

Tuesday, Joy took me to have the wound dressed at eleven. In the afternoon there was a bible study session in church. We used Ephesians 6:10-20 and discussed aspects of spiritual struggle, using the Charles Wesley hymn 'Soldiers of Christ arise' (sung twice at Villars on Sunday) as a parallel text, as it is based on this passage of scripture. Sitting down properly all the time wasn't possible, but I got through it without making things worse for myself. Olive baked some wonderful rum-laced chocolate muffins, doing an extra three for Clare Rhiannon and I since she remembered what I had said about Rhiannon coming. How thoughtful! What a welcoming treat for a teen chocolate lover!

This morning wasn't very comfortable, I had diarrhoea half an hour before I was due to celebrate the midweek BCP Communion. I had a congregation of four adults and a child, bigger than usual, so I had to battle on, occasionally making verbal mistakes, which is unusual for me, probably due to the shock of the unexpected.

Before I could go and have the wound dressing changed, I had a meeting with Bruce and Tatyana, to prepare them for Saturday's wedding blessing. She and I have corresponded over months past. As a Bulgarian Orthodox Christian, I was keen that we should find ways to include traditional music from the Eastern liturgical tradition as well as the Western. It's involved a certain amount of on-line research, to obtain suitable material, but that's been a pleasant occupation, and they were pleased with the ideas I presented them.

After the rehearsal I took the bus into town for the surgery appointment. Mr Cotton himself treated me rather than a nurse, Being a hand-on sort of medic he was keen to inspect how the drainage was going. He declared himself satisfied, and said that the earlier bout of diarrhoea could probably be due to the blocked gland functioning properly and signalling to the bowel a return to normality. An interesting thought. I did a small amount of shopping after the treatment, then took a bus back to the house. I was able to use the same ticket, as I was within its hour's usage limit. 

As I got off the bus, there were two burly black clad ticket inspectors on the pavement checking people's tickets. It's rare to see an inspector on much local public transport apart from trains, but even rarer to have one on only my second bus use in three duty tours here. Getting single use tickets from a machine here is far too complex, though Clare has now mastered it, which is why we have tickets. Previously I've just given up in frustration and walked instead. 

Clare and Rhiannon's flight was subjected to a half hour delay, but without cabin baggage they were able to walk through and dash for a train which arrived Territet at eleven thirty. The happy arrival was celebrated with chocolate muffins!