Wednesday, 4 December 2024

Gala night delight

A dry overcast day. My sleep was disrupted by the recollection that I would run out of my blood pressure medication this weekend, and needed to renew my prescription pronto. I knew my phone would prompt me at the right time to post this week's Morning Prayer YouTube link to WhatsApp a day earlier than my routine Thursday over the past three years, but I ended up inserting a reminder into my phone calendar just in case I forget, and went back to sleep until my phone notification woke me up again, altogether an hour short of the regular amount of sleep I need.

I got up, had breakfast, then went to the pharmacy on my way to St Catherine's for the Eucharist. I was told I'd do better to take my prescription renewal form to the surgery (over the road), as the pharmacy's daily patch of prescription renewal requests had already been sent across. So I did, and was told I could collect the renewed one this afternoon. 

The church was locked when I arrived, but the gates were open. Then Jean arrived arrived with a key, so I was able to go in and prepare the altar and open up the church for Fr Sion, who had yet to arrive. We were six today, half the regular attendance and one of those was a stranger from the diocesan staff team, going around churches finding out what sort of welcome was extended to visitors in places where she was unknown. What's to be done with this information wasn't disclosed. 

I think we were friendly enough as she came clean with us. In the conversation that ensued we uncovered an overlooked flaw in the Ministry Area information output. The Ministry Area website still has St John's midweek Eucharist on a Thursday even though the noticeboard is up to date, showing Wednesday. Internal communications aren't as good as they used to be. A posting on the Daily Prayer WhatsApp group early today mentioned the Christmas Lights switch-on at St John's this evening. Nothing has appeared in the Parish weekly Sway news blog about this. There were posters at St John's, but where else I don't know. Last year when Fr Andrew's appointment had just been announced a lot of advance publicity took place and there was a good turnout. Sadly for us, this clashed with the Opera Gala Performance at RWCM, for which we had tickets, a pity that there was a conflict of interests.

I collected the weekly veggie bag on my way home, and cooked lunch. Afterwards I slept soundly in the chair for over and hour, then went and collected my prescription from the surgery. The pharmacy opposite closes on a Wednesday so I had to go to Boots on Cowbridge Road, a much busier place, so I had to wait over half an hour to collect my medication. It was dark by the time I got back for supper and starting to rain. We took the 24 bus to town and walked under our brollies to RWCMD. 

The Gala was an amazing showcase of a range of operatic music, not all of it that well known. Two dozen female choristers, eleven soloists, and an orchestra of over forty musicians, a mixture of students and WNO players and one of their younger conductors, whose performance was athletic, he moved around so much and bounced up and down. The acting was brilliant as the singing. One of the soprano soloists wore a surgical boot on her right leg - due to an accident apparently - it didn't stop her from moving around and being sex as well as very funny in the roles she sang. A flawless performance delivered with vigour and great enjoyment by all taking part.

It was still raining persistently when we left to get a bus from outside the Holiday Inn. We had a fifteen minute wait for the 61, and got home a half past ten, with wet trousers and wet shoes only, thanks to the brolly. Then to bed, eventually.

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