I felt better for going to bed an hour earlier and getting up at the usual time. After breakfast I was picked up and taken to Thornhill for the funeral I thought was yesterday. The funeral director and her team knew about it and laughed about it. I don't think I'm the first to have done that. My driver this morning was a woman whose previous career had been in retail management. It's interesting how people arrive in the funeral business and stay, from all walks of life. What may start as an occasional or part time job can end as full time employment if a person finds it gives them satisfaction.
There were over a hundred and fifty mourners in the Wenallt Chapel. A big extended family, plus friends and neighbours from Ely, where the woman was born and bred and remained until her death. Two grandsons, young men in their twenties, delivered the eulogy between them prepared by the family, and did her proud. I was asked to read two poems on behalf of her daughters, and it all held together well.
On returning home, I cooked lunch, with a slowly stewed pork steak for me and a veggie burger for Clare. I still haven't perfected the cooking of a veggie burger from frozen or room temperature without it getting slightly singed. Not so the pork!
After lunch I had a siesta which was shortened by a phone call from Pidgeons about another funeral. Then I went into town on the bus to bank a couple of cheques, and get some cheap pairs of reading glasses. I found some fairly decent ones at Wilko's, two pairs for seven quid, I can leave them parked for use in different rooms, rather than having to hunt for a pair. I still need a new prescription pair however.
I went to see if there were any new bargains in John Lewis, and spotted a camera at an interesting 20% discount. Something to think about. Then I bumped into a man I knew from my time as Vicar of St John's City Parish church. He's now retired and lives up the Valleys, near where I was born and bred. Funnily enough, this was where we last met, a few years ago. He said that whenever he comes to town he still goes to the top floor cafeteria, as he used to when he worked in the city centre "My other office", he called it.
Back in the day he was involved in Llandaff Cathedral, but left the church altogether for a while, because he was scandalised by the way Bishop June treated Dean Gerwyn. I wonder how many others there are who reacted to the dispute in the same way? Thankfully, he now attends church in his local village, but resists getting involved outside of that.
I regretted not being able to record his comments to use in the podcast I to make about reasons people have stopped coming to church, and what it would take to get them started again. Come to think, his comments were so charged with anger and resentment, he couldn't help being rudely uncharitable about certain prominent church leaders. Not very edifying, but the voice of someone estranged from what could still be active participation in church life.
Shortly after I got home, a large filling dislodged itself from the upper right hand side of my teeth. Funnily enough since last week I've been thinking about ringing the dentists' surgery for a checkup appointment, as it's over two years since my last. Previously I've had a booking reminder, but this seems to have lapsed. I do hope they've not dropped me from their register. I'll be on the phone tomorrow. I need to get this fixed pronto as the gap the filling occupied is adjacent to a tooth my denture relies on. The gap is where half a broken tooth was removed and the root taken out, if I remember rightly. The remainder of the tooth needs to be kept healthy and protected with a filling, at least a temporary one.
After supper, I went for another walk as the sun was setting. The colour of the sky on the horizon, below a layer of grey cloud was unusual, worth a photo.
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