A warm, if slightly damp start to the day, great for the garden. Kath sent a message to say that Rachel had been delivered to Heathrow in good time for her early flight. Security clearance relieved her of a sealed jar of expensive Sicilian almond butter she was carrying, bought for Jasmine. It could have gone in the hold if she'd brought luggage with her, but she didn't. It seems that the sealed jar exceeded the 'no liquids more than 100ml in volume' rule and was detected by the baggage scanner. What a damned waste.
We went to the Eucharist at St Catherine's. There were twenty five adults and ten children present. For the first time for both of us Communion was offered in both kinds. It took us both by surprise. St German's has yet to decide to revert to normal. I admit I wasn't sure about this, wondering if this has been thought through sufficiently, and maybe reflecting the concern of clergy who think they caught covid since the common Cup was restored to the faithful. Is it too soon? Do we need a time distance to overcome apprehension as well as the exponentially diminishing risk of contagion from the chalice? Fear from realising one's own unworthiness to receive Communion is enough to cope with, let alone those lingering epidemiological doubts. But, I did have a second booster jab nine days ago. That should minimise the risk, even if it doesn't eliminate the shadow of doubt.
As predicted, Ukraine won the Eurovision song contest on the populat vote, and the UK came second for the first time in two decades, having hovered around the null point zone during that period. There a lot more politics attached to voting behind the scenes. The expulsion from the contest of Russia and its influencers will no doubt have freed some Eastern European nations to vote differently this time.
Russia's body count in Ukraine is claimed to be fifteen thousand, with many more combatants injured and a huge loss of military hardware. Russian troops have given up trying to take Kharkiv, the second city of Ukraine, nearer the border, a key target for the past three months. Russian efforts are all being diverted to taking the Donbass region, forcing a strategic corridor between Donetsk and the Black Sea. Will they succeed? given that they underestimated resources needed from the outset, on top of rallying support for Ukraine from Europe and North America contributing to successful defence so far.
As the cost is counted, will it lead to regime change in the Kremlin? That's what I hope and pray for. Such a waste of life due to Putin's evil vanity project. The damage done to both Ukraine and Russia will take years to remedy once the Kremlin is occupied by leaders not stuck in the country's past.
We went for a walk in the park after lunch. It's good to see Clare's back condition improving enough to let her walk without needing the back support belt she's worn for the past month, even if she still needs a pain killer occasionally. Then, I worked on the longer version of Rachel's 'Chocolate' video, adding a few more photos and adjusting the timings. I've uploaded this and the shorter one to Google Drive and sent her a link to both for evaluation. It'll be a few days before I get a response as she'll need to recover from jet-lag first.
I then worked on next Thursday's Morning Prayer upload, recording, editing, making the video slide show. The hardest part was finding a place in the house that was quiet enough to avoid background noise distractions, as Clare was on the phone upstairs, the fan over was whirring in the kitchen, and up in my back room study, when the gas boiler fell quiet, it was the sound of next door's dog barking. When at last it was quiet enough in the middle room downstairs, the distant sound of gulls in the garden registered on my recording device while I was speaking. A test of patience and persistence to get the job done. I continued after supper and completed and uploaded it by nine.
A welcome message came in from Rachel at half past eight to say she'd arrived safely at PHX. We all miss her terribly. With nothing much else of interest on telly when I stopped work at nine, I watched the second episode of 'Blacklist' on 5USA. Another complex chess game of a spy mystery drama, with the occasional burst of hyper violence thrown in for those unable to follow convoluted plots, and actors with wooden expressions to complete the picture of glitzy dullness. I went to bed straight after the news.
Sweden has now offically announced its request to join NATO in addition to Finland. Putin says there will be 'consequences', but what that actually means, nobody knows.
No comments:
Post a Comment