Value for money?

A drive to St German's for the midweek Mass after breakfast. There were ten of us celebrating St Matthew a day late. Afterwards some of  the congregation chatted with Robert about his appearance on the Antiques Road Show programme last Sunday. He told us that he didn't think his interview would be included in the show which went out, but then he received a text message a few days earlier to say that it would appear. It seems the show was filmed back in July, soon after re-opening to visitors. 

I'm not surprised Robert's entry was included. It was a stitched sampler made by his great aunt, found discarded in coal cellar of her home when the house was being cleared after her death. It was a classic period piece of domestic craft work. but most importantly included an inscription in Welsh, which he read to camera. An interesting addition to an otherwise all English programme filmed in Dyffryn Gardens.

I collected this week's veggie bag and then cooked lunch when I returned home. My sister June emailed me a copy of a message from friend of hers complaining about the fact that the local clergy no longer visit or even phone up, and how hard it is for elderly people who are not computer literate if the can't make use of the church's offerings of on-line worship. Are clergy worth the amount of money the parish has to find to pay towards their costs? He asked. 

I sent her a lengthy detailed response, giving her a brief approximate account of the cost components in employing a cleric, and an account of what clergy have been up to during the months of the pandemic. I don't think that churchgoers who are now less actively involved in congregational affairs realise how rapidly the church at grass roots level is dying out, even though they will have lived long enough to see the same happening to chapel going communities forty years ago.

Then I went for my walk around the park, and listened to Evensong on my phone. I must remember to take headphones out with me when I go out. The sound is never quite loud enough to hear from my jacket pocket, and often phone conversations suffer from background noise interference. 

I had a message from Martin who is stopping over in Cairo for a few days on his way to St Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai for his second visit there. He said that he's booked a ticket for tonight's opera performance of Verdi's 'Aida' in an open air space at Cairo's opera house. According to the reviews I looked at, the entrance hall leading to the stage is decked out like the entrance to an Egyptian Temple. What an experience this must be!

After my walk, I whiled away the rest of the day watching episodes of 'Floodlands'. The story became even more complex as it developed with Chinese Triads attempting to take control over a cross border criminal fraternity claiming to have originated with seventeenth pirates based on the Meuse estuary, but it was primarily about law enforcement corruption and people trafficking. Complex enough for the first quarter of the seventh episode to consist of flashbacks from some story protagonists reprising elements of the narrative which the viewer would have guessed by watching in any case. 

In the end, almost all the baddies were arrested or shot, except the two arch-criminals and the good cops. That may mean there'll be another series eventually, though no sign of it on IMDB at the moment. The whole thing could have been compressed into six episodes if long night driving sequences and dramatic hallucination scenes  had been cut right back. Why do they bother?