Life in a building site - day three

Up for breakfast just after eight. The workmen didn't start until nine. Basma emailed me a lovely story of  when she was eleven years old at school in Iraq. It was, it seems, a Catholic school, and when there were religion classes, the children were in separate groups. She was curious about a faith different from her own and one day, when the topic for Christians was the meaning of Easter, she pretended to be poorly. It was too cold for her to be sent outside the classroom, so she sat alone in a far corner, head on desk, listening intently to what the teacher said about Passover and the death of Jesus. Some of the detail she still recalls over thirty years later. She also had an Irish Catholic aunt by marriage, and has recently been reunited with her. Her aunt's joy at Basma's journey to spiritual freedom must be very fulfilling.

I went the Eucharist in Saint Catherine's at ten. Father Rowan celebrated. There were nine of us altogether. I collected this week's veg bag on my way home, and continued working on Sway publicity - a Lent Course poster - until lunch was ready, a Clare special: cod with fresh ginger and garlic! After lunch we took it in turns to do our share of the weekly grocery shopping, using the shopping trolly in turns, and after this more work on preparing a Confirmation Class poster, before going for a walk. Sunset wasn't until five today, but the cloud was so low and thick that half past three felt like sunset. Nothing much of interest on telly after supper, so I wrote another talk for Basma, and then recorded next week's Morning Prayer and Reflection before going to bed early.

It's a relief to know that the dispute over post-brexit trading and Northern Ireland borders has finally come to a compromise agreement between the main parties in Stormont, ending two years of paralysis, in which the Ulster government has just ticked over with no guidance or policy making by politicians elected for the purpose. This standoff happens to have coincided with the election of just enough of a Republican majority to ensure that the next First Minister will be a member of Sinn Fein for the first time since the Irish Free State was founded. It will be interesting to see how Unionist parties fare in the next general election, after authoring through their objections to the post brexit trade terms a situation from which nobody has benefited, and many are worse off.