Tatyana's gift

Thursday and Friday passed by uneventfully, with two surprises. When I went to lock the church on Thursday evening, I discovered on the piano near the side door into the church room a gilded 'Hodigitria' icon of Our Lady, holding up and pointing to Jesus, with a note hastily scribbled on a piece of card saying 'Thank you for a lovely wedding. From Bulgarian Tatyana'.

The couple must have been passing by car on their way back to Britain and dropped by in haste to deliver it. I didn't hear the doorbell, that's for sure.

Friday's surprise was the announcement of a new Priest in Charge for St John the Baptist City Parish Church back home. It's another Canon Sarah Jones, currently Rector of the Ross Team Ministry in Hereford diocese. Having someone with big team experience suggests to me that Bishop June may want to work on making a Central Cardiff Ministry Area grouping of Parishes even larger than the Rectorial Benefice that I inherited and Archbishop Barry saw fit to dissolve. That was another time, when central redevelopment and closing St James' were a major energy draining occupation. A part of consolidation ahead of re-grouping. If this is the plan, let's hope the new priest stays long enough to see it through.

Apart from brief bus trips into town to the shops, all I had to do was look after my wound, so slowly drying out. The swelling is almost all gone now, and one anti- inflammatory pill a day is enough to keep me almost pain free.

Today, I walked into town and back, and walked to Territet port and the tennis club, where the Montreux Ladies Open is taking place, I was delighted with a couple of action shots I was able to take. This is the best! 

I wish I had the photo skills to highlight the ball, as it's just left the racquet, in that microsecond when the player serving is still in the air. It was sheer luck in conditions highly favourable to my Sony HX50, and it made my day.

It's Freddy Mercury's 72nd birthday, had he lived. There are two days of festive events either side of the date and the market hall has been turned into a venue for loud rock concerts. His statue on the Montreux Marché quay is bedecked with a sunflower wreath and an assortment of cards and votive offerings. It's even more of a shrine than usual, and a stream of people want to pose with it. To me it's nothing more than idol worship. Today, however is also the festival Our Lady's birthday. It's an ironic coincidence. No Eucharist for me today, but I was able to light a candle in front of Mary's icon while I said the Office of the day, thanks to Tatyana.

This evening I watched Harry There was a sequence of First World War songs in honour of the 1918 Armistice commemoration. Hearing 'Roses of Picardie' sung reminded me of being at home with the family as a child, listening to my mother playing piano and sisters singing this song. I emailed my sister June. She said she'd been singing along out loud - annoying the neighbours, she hoped for a change, instead of them annoying her. That made me smile.

It's my final Sunday tomorrow, and the announcement of the appointment of a new chaplain. That's three locum assignments in a row where this has happened to me, as I was about to leave. Amazing!
  

Another lakeside lunch

Andrea and Yvette come by train from Geneva to visit me today, and take me out to lunch. When they got off the train in Territet, they went into the open church to look for me, not realising for a while that Church House is next door, so it was nearly half past twelve then the doorbell rang. Like Dianne and Ian yesterday, they were amazed and delighted by the place.

We went down to the Port to eat, but being a Monday, 'Le Contretemps', like many other restaurants and bars was closed. Territet Tennis Club's bar and restaurant a hundred and fifty metres away was however open, and we were able to eat out on the terrace in the sun with a view of the lake behind tennis courts, to a soundtrack of practice games being played. The proprietor seemed to be single handed, waiting on tables and preparing meals, so service was slow,  but it hardly mattered as had so much to talk about. How marvellous to have been able to catch up with so many old friends during our time here. 

After eating and spending even more time catching up on news about mutual acquaintances, we walked along the lakeside to Montreux gare, where we parted company. Passing the covered market hall, much of the area was cordoned off for the removal of all the equipment installed for the weekend's festival of acrobatics - quite a logistic exercise, creating an outdoor gymnasium.

Being at the station, meant I could visit the ticket office and buy a one way full price fare this time, CHF36 for my horribly early return journey to Geneva Airport on Thursday. No more hassles with uncooperative ticket automats! After walking back home, I started thinking for the first time about gathering my belongings to start packing my case. Over the course of six weeks, stuff gets spread all over the house. As I get older, I am becoming more like Clare, who habitually starts packing several days before departure. We're not so good at last minute rush there days.