Late for the Meeting

Lobb's Wood

I managed to be late for the Sunday morning meeting - even though it was being held in my own home and on my own computer!   Not as late as poor Jean though who forgot about the time change and who arrived an hour late.

What can I say?  I didn't forget the missing hour.  Our clocks and watches were re-set.  The corridor between lounge and kitchen was not jammed with traffic. And while  I have many faults and failings, being late for meetings is not usually among them.   I slept very badly, was up for a couple of hours in the night, having cups of tea, telly watching, then went back to bed, and fell deeply asleep. I didn't wake up till 5 to 10.  I couldn't believe it when I saw the clock!  I hurtled about getting myself dressed and arrived 10 minutes late, with a cup of coffee in my hand (at which I took surreptitious sips during the meeting). So glad that I made it though - and even got called for an answer twice, after I put my virtual hand up.

We had our walk to the River on Sunday, and got caught in a shower of hail.  It had been an odd day of rain, sun and then hail - and apparently snow in Surrey, which I could believe as it was so cold.   And on Monday our walk consisted of a trip to the pharmacy to get my meds - a long long wait, spaced by chairs outside -  and the meds were dispensed through the window.

We are very grateful to the staff for keeping it open and soldiering on.

On the way there, we wandered through the dark fastness of Lobb's Wood, without getting ourselves lost - see photo.  And we came back through the little War Memorial green and park.  So that constituted both our daily bit of exercise and a trip out for necessities - all in under an hour.

And I spent Monday afternoon cooking - making two veggie soups, for fridge and freezer, and also a veggie curry stir fry that we had for supper.  The usual cabbage, carrot and coriander one from a Madhur Jaffrey recipe.  Col had a baked potato with his, which is an item verboten to us diabetics.

And we are so much enjoying seeing Chris Packham and Meghan every morning as they broadcast from their CoronaIsolation near the New Forest.

The Food Bank Box

Here is another good Coronacrisis joke (bearing in mind that here in the UK, the Toilet Roll shelves in Supermarkets are being emptied by hoarders):  BREAKING NEWS: Customs officials at Dover have discovered two tons of toilet roll hidden inside cocaine. 

And here is another one, courtesy of my bro in Oz - who points out it is an oldie but with a new lease of life: I recently bought a toilet brush, but don't really like it. I'm definitely going back to paper.


But the situation certainly is no joke. There is no saying how long the virus will rampage;  how many will die; when this lockdown will end;  and what will be left of the world when it does end.  What about those who live day to day, hand to mouth, feeding themselves on what they can earn, or beg, in a day?!   And many many hard working small businesses will go to the wall if it doesn't end quickly.

On what may have been my last supermarket trip for the duration, I noticed that the Food Bank Box at Waitrose had been moved behind the Information counter.  Hopefully it was a precaution, not a reaction to something that had happened.  And I noted that it was filling up nicely.  We need to remember the Box as it may now be out of sight.

I still don't know (at the time of actually typing this) whether I am unlocked for the Thursday night meeting or not.  Due to my own incompetence and idiocy (and my Resident Computer Expert not being at home), I managed to get myself locked out on Sunday...   I hope they can re-instate me. 

Yes, they can!  We linked to each other via Zoom... so hopefully I will be able to cope with it all next time. The Expert should be at home, which will help.

And it turns out that the Captain and myself both have Zoom meetings Thursday evening - his being for SUSSAR: https://www.sussar.org.uk/website/

We also had a Zoom meeting with the York and Bavarian branches of the family on Tuesday, which went quite well. We plan to do it again on Friday.

Which is tonight, as I am about to post this blog today.   Out meeting went well last night - we flew through cyberspace at the speed of light, being able to enter the Virtual Kingdom Hall through its virtual airlock and speak when we were called on, and we were then returned to our Pods to listen.  Brilliant. Lovely to see everyone and give them a cyber wave.

But - the public preaching work has stopped - and we can no longer invite you to our Kingdom Halls to learn more. 

Here, again, is our excellent website:  https://www.jw.org/en/

If you want to find out what God's inspired word has to say about the times we are living in, and about what is going to happen next, please stop by and browse the site.  Please!

48 SHEETS OF TOILET PAPER FREE WITH THIS ISSUE!

My headline is the cover of the current Private Eye - Eye No.1518, 20 March-2 April 2020.

There are many good jokes about the current crisis, including a cartoon going the rounds of Facebook in which a bearded chap in ragged clothes on one of those cartoon castaway islands is hiding himself behind his single palm tree as a large cruise liner sails past.

And here is a thought. How many more issues of Private Eyes will there be?   We seem to be heading towards a financial crisis of unimaginable magnitude, and judging by what I saw of the News this morning we may be soon in for some Draconian Police-state type laws...  and once those laws, always "temporary", are up and running, will they be repealed this side of Armageddon?

The supermarket shelves are being emptied faster than they can fill them.  I am contemplating a visit to the shops later to see if anything is left... I will be very careful, gloves, scrub hands before and after, and maintain social distance. If there is a scrum inside, fighting over the last toilet roll, obviously I won't go in.  (I have my issue of Private Eye on standby!)

Maybe the only way to stop this hoarding is policing. But its sad that we can't police ourselves by thinking of the needs of others. 

The meeting will be virtual Sunday morning.  And as it turned out, through sheer idiocy, I not only failed to get in, but managed to lock myself out...  I only hope the young elder in charge can get me re-admitted.

So I watched the March broadcast instead.  Its here if you would like to watch it:
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/WebHomeSlider/pub-jwb_202003_1_VIDEO

I baked a batch of marmalade muffins in the afternoon.

The crisis continues and the supermarket shelves are being emptied. I keep wondering if this shut down isn't in the end going to lead to more deaths than the virus itself?   But who knows?

How much we need the perfect government, the Kingdom of God.  Remember what Jesus did when he was on earth?  Didn't he heal people, with no hospitals, no drugs, no fanfare, but with the power of Jehovah's holy spirit?

Wasn't he showing us what he can and will do earthwide when God's Kingdom is ruling over us?

New Ears - and a new Meeting arrangement, in Cyberspace

We went for the preliminaries for my new ears on Monday...  quite a long morning but hopefully well worth it. Won't know until new ears actually in situ.  And we popped in to the M&S Foodhall after as it is right opposite Boots.  I have to say there were no hoarders and no empty shelves then - all seemed calm in Worthing. Sadly it may be different now.  It was a beautiful day too - blue skies and daffodils

The economic effects of this current Coronavirus shutdown are incalculable -and will, as these things do, weigh hardest on the poorest.  In the long run, would it have been better just to have carried on as normal and accept that a lot of the old and vulnerable (such as myself, on both counts) will go down?  Or not?  I just don't know - and I guess neither does anyone.

I rang Lilian to see how she and her sister are coping with the current crisis - they are retirees too.   We plan to keep in touch.  And I hope to ring the valiant Jean today - another confinee on age grounds.  Only I usually work with her on Tuesday.  And I spoke to Jen from Sheffield yesterday - coping fine and keeping cheerful, as is Jean.

I have a slight sore throat. Should I worry about it?  No point I guess, I will know soon enough. Hope I haven't given anything to Captain Butterfly though.  If, that is, there is anything to give.

On Wednesday afternoon Captain Butterfly reported that the veg section of Waitrose was pretty much empty!  What are people doing with all these things? Do they have massive freezers? Are they cooking and blanching and freezing?  Are all us Waitrosians veggie?

Have been in touch with Janet, and am just about to write to Kathryn who has sent me a card.  We all seem to be coping, but beset with the issues of age.  The Butterfly new members arrived as usual, and are all packaged up and will I hope be posted today - though not by me.

And we have had our first congregation meeting in cyberspace.   We were reminded of Jehovah's words at Isaiah 30:15:  "For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, says: “By returning to me and resting, you will be saved; Your strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.” "

Your strength will be in keeping calm and showing trust.

Visitation

A poem - not by me - that I found in The Spectator many years ago.  (None of my poems have ever made The Speccie. I only wish they had.)

Visitation
by Robert Roberts

We walked out in high wind today
Through Harpford Woods, March daffodils
All knocked about and trees asway
Like masts at sea and stormswept hills

Like ocean rollers all around
And underfoot the March-dry mud
All iron ruts and underground
Or overhead a jealous god

Out of an old old covenant
The awe and anger now no more
Troublesome than a gale's half-spent
An out of date bad-tempered roar

Outside our house we found a man -
Black briefcase, grey suit, well brushed hair
He smiled. He was none other than
Jehovah's Witness waiting there.


Just at the moment, because of the Coronavirus crisis, we can no longer visit you.  Please please visit us.  Here is a link to our excellent website:  https://www.jw.org/en/

The Bible's message is as true today as it always was, and is as urgent as it has ever been.

And is Jehovah a "jealous God"?  Well, the Inspired Scriptures tell us that he is a God who insists on exclusive devotion.  You cannot worship Jehovah if you worship other gods.   But isn't that insistence for our safety?   He alone is the Creator,, and he alone can restore us to the life and perfection our first parents so tragically threw away.

And Jehovah is love. There is no-one who loves us as he, our Creator does; there is no-one else who knows each one of us as he does. Jehovah knows us better than we know ourselves.  And again, there is no-one else who is able to save us from the imperfection and death our first parents' disobedience brought upon us.

And Jehovah alone can "bring to ruin those ruining the earth", as he promises in his word.  Only he has the power and the wisdom that is needed.

And how timely is that promise!?

Staying at Furnace Farm

I am sure I have blogged this wonderful poem before, and said this before, but it gets truer and truer.  My sisters came down for the week - and there we were, three elderly ladies - well, they are not quite as elderly as me, but we are all retirement age.  Not that we are all retired - but we are that age.  Yet, only yesterday...

As in the poem, the young girl, Time, runs faster and faster.


Staying at Furnace Farm 
by Alison Brackenbury

All houses have noises. In Maggie's old house
I hear a rush. It is taps, I think, water.
Unsteady with dreams , I go to the window.
No rain beats the curtains. The night is half over.

I have heard time.
She ran down the stairs
like a girl to her lover.


I can remember many years ago, as I was heading towards 40 years old, and was wondering about it all - what it all meant - why?, all those whys - and thinking how short our lives are - and wondering if these few years are all the time we will ever have to spend with those we love.

Then two Jehovah's Witnesses called at my door and showed me what the Bible on my shelf had been telling me all along.

No wonder we feel the rush of time.  Our first parents were made to live forever.  And yet our lives now are here and gone in what seems like a few minutes.  barely the flight of the sparrow.   But our Creator, Jehovah, is holding out his arms to every one of us offering us back what our first parents so tragically threw away.

Please listen to his witnesses when we call.

Anyway, we - us elderly sisters - had a very nice week together. We had a day out in Chi - at the Pallant Gallery on Tuesday, (half price for pensioners), and lunch at an Italian Restaurant - excellent pizza sizzling with fresh herbs.   We had dinner at the Arun View on Wednesday.  And on Friday we met up with the long lost Elizabeth for a coffee morning, at the Pier Road Coffee and Art Cafe (much recommended), and I bought some pressies for the littlest granddaughters - the older ones and the grandson get the usual envelope with money.

And on Saturday morning we shopped, and did some shopping for a young friend who is not well, and got ourselves into a such a muddle we nearly bought the Supermarket to a standstill...

We got a lot of writing done during the week - and my book is finally finished!  Shakespeare wrote his whole oeuvre quicker.  (And better, I hardly need to add.)

The question now is, will my young publisher publish it?  The news will appear in my blog, if the Coronavirus spares me. It is about the two houses of my childhood and has my parents in it, in (very affectionate) caricature. I have borrowed the plot of Rebecca, second wife wondering about mysterious death of first wife, but it goes off in a different direction. And I hope it will be both scary and funny - and above all, readable.

The Rider on the Pale Horse

The Rider on the Pale Horse (of Revelation) rides on as the Coronavirus crisis continues.  As yet we are not in lockdown in the UK, but even our local Waitrose is showing signs of panic buying - the loo roll and paracetamol shelves were empty when we visited this afternoon!

Will our meetings and our door to door work soon be stopped for the duration?  We wait and see.  It will be a test on us to keep going even so, doing the best we can to study God's word, live it, and preach it without any dangerous direct contact.

And our online thought for the day - our Daily Scripture - will be of immeasurable value.

Here is today's based on Romans 12:2, which says:  "And stop being moulded by this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, so that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

"Some people resist the idea of having anyone mold or influence their thoughts. “I think for myself,” they say. They probably mean that they make their own decisions and that it is proper to do so. They do not wish to be controlled, nor do they want to surrender their individuality. We can be assured, however, that bringing our thinking into harmony with Jehovah’s does not mean giving up all individual thought or expression. As stated at 2 Corinthians 3:17, “where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.” We are free to develop our own distinct personalities. We can have our personal preferences and choose our fields of interest. Indeed, Jehovah designed us to do so. However, we cannot use our freedom without restraint. (1 Pet. 2:16) When it comes to issues of right and wrong, Jehovah wants us to be guided by his thinking as revealed in his Word."

We need to draw close to our Creator as never before in these dangerous times.  If the worst comes to the worse, "underneath are the everlasting arms".  Everlasting arms do not go away, they do not fail to catch and hold.  And if we remain in Jehovah's memory, he will wake us up to see this beautiful world again. And then it will be with the prospect of living forever on this lovely planet, with all causes for suffering gone.

In which I Fail to Deliver the Milk

We had a congregation "Do" on Saturday night, and I had been deputised to bring the milk for the tea and coffee. I warned that we would be a bit late - the important matter of the Rughy - but was assured it was no problem. 

However though we did arrive only a little late, we were very late indeed by the time the milk and ourselves arrived inside the Hall where we were having the Do, because we found we had been locked out. We rang bells and hammered and banged at the door, to no avail. We walked round to see if there was another door we could hammer at, or a window we might be seen at.   Then another late arrival turned up. He too rang bells and banged - and phoned his family who were already inside.

Nothing.  Nobody could see or hear us, or ever hear their phones over the hubbub. Then Captain B had an inspiration and got a torch out and began waving it around hopefully.

Finally someone saw us, and we were let in.  But rather too late for the milk to be of any use. 

Its a sign of the times I guess - everything has to be locked at all times. And especially on a Saturday night.

Captain B was disappointed we had no Zumba dancing this time. The two lovely sisters who Zumba are no longer in our congregation. We had a Bible drama/musical instead about Joseph and Mary, which I am forced to admit did not interest him as much as the Zumba did.  Though he thought the sister who played Mary had a lovely voice. And she did. If I had a voice like that I would sing all day.  As it is...  well, to quote Captain B  "Please don't!"

And we also have some excellent bakers in our congregation - so he had two plateloads of homemade cakes and bread and butter pudding, all of which looked wonderful, none of which I could have as cake is most definitely not on the diabetic menu!

Jean and I made it to the Field Service Group in the morning, and completed our little Close, placing a few magazines. But I cut my finger badly on a hidden spike of metal on the last gate and bled all over everything, so we had to finish at that point. 

More Deeds of Derring-Do

Once again, after a rather long time I drove to Angmering this Tuesday.   I DROVE TO ANGMERING!!!  (You can keep your Everests, your K2s and your Treks Across Antartica. I drove to Angmering!!!!!)  Ooops. Now I have run out of exclamation marks.   Jean was chatting away beside me - not being a driver she doesn't notice all the fierce big boy roundabouts and traffic dilemmas, being negotiated by - well, I feel I should not take any credit here, given I prayed fervently to Jehovah about it .  The Angmering roundabouts often seem to be at Gridlock these days, especially on the return.  The last time I did the drive, I was with a sister who is a driver herself, a very confident driver, so she guided me through it.

On Tuesday I prayed to Jehovah to clear those roundabouts for me, please please please. And there was no gridlock.  For which I am very grateful.   We had some good calls - people seemed genuinely pleased to see us again - and we got invited in at one door.

I can't think what I did on Wednesday, but Thursday, in pouring rain, I set off for the Field Service Group at the Hall as I had arranged to meet a sibling there to work with.  She didn't make it, as she overslept, but Jean turned up. So we worked together.  None of us could do first call work - it was a monsoon out there with flooded roads.   So we went to call on a very nice lady who always asks us in and gives us coffee.  And en route, I called on the Lawyer - who proved to be at home - and surprised I had turned up - as I did last time - in the pouring rain.   He seemed genuinely pleased to see me, and open to the idea of a doorstep Bible study - when its not raining.

And Thursday night was the meeting, once again in pouring rain.  Where is all this water coming from?

The Coronavirus crisis continues... but so far its hard to understand how bad it is going to be. Maybe another week and we will know?  But there have now been 2 deaths in the UK, both of elderly people who were not in good health...   a description which fits many of us.

An Afternoon of Adventure

Jean and I had a Sunday of heady excitements.  I drove her home after the Sunday meeting - her usual chauffeurs were heading off somewhere else, and so we did a few return visits - only found one householder in, but it was a very productive call. And she was delighted to see us.  We then took ourselves to Waitrose and did some shopping, and Jean treated us to a coffee. 

And yesterday, driven by our Super-chauffeur, Captain Butterfly himself, we spent the morning at the hospital for Jean's eye appointment. Its an interminable process - and painful - but at last there seems to be some improvement, which make it all worthwhile.

And today we hope to be out on the field service again.  And, talking of adventures, I may (gulp) have to drive to Angmering... 

I wondered about calling this blog "Ripping Yarns" - it would have been kind of apt on two counts. Firstly, it would describe all our recent adventures, but also if you look at "yarn" another way, there would be old-lady knitting quality to it.   We didn't exactly climb K2 after all, though it sometimes felt like we had.

I am starting to worry a bit more about about the Coronavirus now, as I understand it will attack my already damaged lungs.  However... there is not much I can do about it. And I guess the next week will give an indication of how worried we all ought to be.