Blaenavon duties

I was relieved not to be as tired as I expected to be after my drive to Papworth and back in a day, and glad yesterday not to have a great deal to do, apart from move plants and garden furniture into Liz's garden next door, in preparation for a long awaited makeover, finally to happen in the coming week. So far the weather outlook suggests it's not going to hinder completion in just a few days. 

I watched two episodes of 'Beck' this evening, the first one, on iPlayer, which I missed when we were in North Wales, and the second, live on BBC Four. The second was about the tragic outcome of hidden infidelity between colleagues on a doctor's family. This occurs at a time when a married colleague of Beck's seems keen to develop and affair with him. His alcoholic neighbour tries to encourage him to engage in a little sexual adventurism, as he himself leaves for a Baltic cruise in search of a fling. It's quite heartening to observe Beck thinking about his own behaviour in the light of the tragedy he has uncovered, and disengaging before anything untoward develops between him and his colleague. Well acted, in an understated way.

This morning's assignments were in Blaenavon, two Eucharists standing in for Rufus, on holiday in Italy. The last time I made this trip was for Rufus' first Mass. The hour's drive there and back was made most enjoyable by the array of autumnal colours in thickly wooded green valleys, bathed in bright sunlight. The first service was in 200 year old St Peter's, associated with the town's history as one of the birth places of the iron and steel industry. There was a congregation of three dozen, who sang with great enthusiasm. Craig the organist is also a local funeral director with his own company. I first met him ten years ago when he was working for one of the Cardiff FDs, when he drove me to a burial in Cathays Cemetery, if my memory serves me well.

Then, on up the hill to St Paul's, for an old fashioned High Church solemn Mass for eighteen people, eastward facing, with Angelus at the end of the service. Nothing that I'm unused to, except for having to change from wearing a cope for the Ministry of the Word, to an ancient fiddleback chasuble for the Eucharist. Funny, I thought, the last time I wore one of these was at the Benalmadena Eucharist in the Costa del Sol East chaplaincy last year. There were a handful of them in the sacristy cupboard of the basement chapel we used for worship. I said to the St Paul's sacristan that the lat time I'd worn one for Mass was in Spain. He looked at me, rather bemused.

Clare returned early evening by train from Birmingham, having been collected by Kath from Papworth, and driven there. The good news is that Eddie shows signs of improvement, very slowly stirring from a state of deep anaethesia. If all goes well it'll be a long journey back to recovery.

Critical Care visit

Before we set out for Papworth hospital, a two hundred mile drive, yesterday morning, I found enough time to prepare a Sunday sermon for my visit to Blaenafon, to cover two services for Rufus while he's on holiday. With stops to eat and traffic jams on the approaches to north south motorways it took us four an a half hours. The hospital is on the edge of the Cambridgeshire country village of Papworth Everard, half way between St Neots and Cambridge, where it has grown up over the past forty years as a global centre of excellence for heart surgery and transplants. In three years time, a new Papworth hospital will come into service on the same site as Addenbrokes hospital in Cambridge, teaching centre for the University medical department.

We met Ann, had a catch up chat, then went into see Eddie, still unconscious and on a ventilator, but showing signs of physical movement and an eventual slow painful awakening, although this could take several days, after the kind of surgery he's endured. His colour and vital signs are good, and like others among the two dozen patient in Critical Care he has a nurse at the end of his bed watching a monitor screen, that reports not only on his condition, but is a control panel for his medications, being delivered to him by a bank of pumps feeding into the same intravenous line. It's state of the art tech, while the discipline and dedication of the staff team is classic excellence. The ward is busy, if quiet apart from the variety of electronic beeps and blips issuing from various devices. "Like a spaceship" somebody said.

No more than two visitors per bed at a time are allowed. Facilities for those accompanying patients are modest. The atmosphere in the visitors day room could be described as subdued and tense. There's nobody waiting who isn't having a hard time, except for little ones who have no idea of what is going on. I wondered if there was anyone on duty supporting patient visitors, or what chaplaincy arrangements there were, but I noticed nothing on the walls to tell me. 

There is accommodation for those needing to make an overnight stay while visiting. Having had a night without sleep, Ann checked into a hotel a few miles away, to get a good long rest and decent breakfast. Clare and Ann agreed to spend another night at the same hotel, and I drove them both there before setting out for home. I was unable to cancel my Sunday arrangements at such short notice, as Rufus was out of the country on holiday, not contactable. So I had to return the same day. On Monday work begins on re-fashioning the back garden, including new tiling for haphazardly covered hard surfaces. My task, to move all the flower pots and troughs into our neighbour's garden for the time it takes to get the job done, and get the shed ready to be moved onto the grass for a while.

The roads were reasonably quiet all the way home, but driving in the dark on intermittently unlit country roads was not enjoyable. There was a road closure on the Gloucester outer ring road which prevented me from accessing the A48 Chepstow road. Diversion signs were unclear and erroneously, I ventured a few miles out in deep darkness on the A48 towards Tewkesbury without finding a sign of a diversion. I had to go right back into town and pick up the inner ring road to find my way to the A48 to continue the last sixty miles of my journey. Still, made it home without incident, and after a bite to eat and time to relax, went to bed late and thankfully slept well. It's quite a while since I last drove four hundred miles in one day.

 

School Harvest Mass

An early start this morning to the the car to N.G. Motors to check out a noisy water pump and timing belt. Then a ten minute walk from Splott to Adamsdown to celebrate Tredegarville School's Harvest festival Mass, with over 200 children, staff, and a handful of parents. The children sang beautifully, but the public address system let us down so sadly the children who read were inaudible. The system has not been right since the BBC Songs of Praise recording weekend unfortunately, and the guy who takes care of it wasn't present. I was amazed at how well behaved a church full of children could be under the circumstances..They seem to appreciate the difference of being in a quiet solemn place, with little external noise, and sunshine streaming in to tight up the building. There's still room for a little awe in everyone's life.

I went then into the CBS office, to do some PC maintenance tasks, and whiled away the time until I got a message to say the car was ready. Not only a new pump and timing belt, but two new front tyres as well. The exhaust is still knocking against the car chassis, the mechanics said it was not properly aligned, so it'll have to go back to Kwikfit tomorrow for this adjustment to be made. This apart the 25 year old car now runs quiet and smooth, and handles far better. I think we'll be keeping it a bit longer.

Ann told us that Eddie had been transferred at high speed from Ipswich to Papworth hospital during the night, and was undergoing lengthy open heart surgery in an effort to repair the artery about to burst. Altogether, he was in the operating theatre for twelve hours, before coming to rest in the Critical Care Unit. Three massive hurdles overcome so far, and he's 'critical but stable' as they'd say. Time for us to watch and pray, nothing more.