The sun peeped through the clouds while I was waking up this morning and posting my Morning Prayer YouTube link to WhatsApp, just before 'Thought for the Day', but intermittent showers of rain, some of them heavy continued through the day with more brief appearances from the sun. And it's milder too.
I phoned Sandra to confirm I'd be taking her Communion at the end of the morning, only to find that she had developed a cold and was going back to bed so we agreed to postpone until next Thursday. There were only four of us for the Eucharist at St John's. I didn't have time to shop for food-bank items beforehand, so I went to Tesco's after the service. As I did, it started to rain.
As I rounded the corner of the store I heard loud banging and saw a man jump on a bike and take off dangerously weaving around passing cars, shouting and cursing. Several external shop windows and a main sliding door were cracked, damaged by heavy blows. The doors were locked and I could see the staff lined up behind the cracked glass with anxious looks on their faces. One of them waved me away, unaware the assailant had left the scene.
I think it's the third time I have arrived at Tesco's on a Thursday when there's been disruption due to an incident with one of the local addicts stealing or menacing the staff getting in their way. The police aren't usually called unless it's a burglary or serious assault. If arrested villains are rarely prosecuted. Knowing they can get away with it encourages rather than deters further attempts. It's not fair to staff or other shoppers.
I abandoned grocery shopping and headed for home. As I walked the downpour increased but I found shelter under the lintel of a garage door in the lane on my usual route, and had to wait ten minutes before the rain stopped leaving the streets awash yet again.
Clare was cooking lunch when I arrived, so I set about issuing this week's Sway on Mailchimp. Pleased with myself for remembering how to add a new recipient. There are so many configurable menus in the app that learning to navigate it efficiently takes time I don't usually give it when I'm narrowly focussed on the current mailshot. It's a slow process without a user manual.
After lunch and a few more rain showers, I returned to Tesco's to get food bank groceries and drop them off at St John's. The checkout lady told me how shocked she and her colleagues had been at the violence of the morning's marauder. The police were called and arrived an hour later. The villain is well known. Some staff are nervous when leaving the store as an assortment of street people hang about on the public benches nearby. Most are harmless but there's fear of intimidation aimed at deterring staff from identifying habitual thieves.
By the time I arrived, a glazier was working to stabilise the cracked pane in the shop's sliding main door with a plastic film. The glass used is probably armoured and cracks rather than shatters. Even so dangerous splinters could dislodge themselves, the film serves as a suitable precaution until a new door can be ordered. Increasing losses due to shoplifting are causing serious concern among retailers, linked with the cost of living crisis, not only foodstuffs but high value items which can be sold on to generate income for the thieves. And we wonder why so many small neighbourhood corner shops are going out of business!
With the food bank shopping done and delivered to church I returned home, picked up my umbrella and went for a walk in the park. I wasn't out for long before the rain started again, but the umbrella was enough to stop me getting wet through as there was little wind, just a mild breeze, at 17C, surprisingly mild for this time of year, more like a spring day.
I spent the rest of the evening watching more episodes of 'The Fall'. Its slow pace makes attention to detail possible, in relation to the investigation and how everyone involved is affected by it, detailed protocols to be observed when dealing with a suspect to ensure their human rights are not denied, and a close view of how the Belfast city hospital surgical team deals with gunshot victims.
Due to the Troubles, the level of expertise developed to deal with life threatening emergencies is among the best in the world. I believe this is reflected in the portrayal of a situation in which the murderer is shot and his rescued kidnapped victim are both in imminent danger of death, but survive. This enhances the story line rather than distracting attention from it, as it's surrounded by observations of how this affects different people involved. It's not a story you can lose interest in, although it is on times painful to watch, and it's not always the scary or gory scenes, but emotionally revealing moments in conversations.
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