Rocking Your World 2019; Week 23

Here we are at Friday again, and looking at what has rocked our world this week. I must say my world has rocked a bit more than I would have liked, but I had a lovely day on Saturday.

Although we do have a full time, 'employed' vicar for our three-church Chaplaincy, he is ably assisted by a lovely man who is around 76 years old I think, so is, of course, retired.  But he is in no way ready to hang up his gowns. He still feels called to work for us, and takes the service at which ever church does not have the vicar that week. His name is Canon Alan Bennett, (Father Alan to us) and he is greatly loved by us all.

On Saturday we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. Held at our church as we have the better facilities for large groups, (there were over 80 people there),  we started with a Eucharist led by Father Alan, and he told us a little of his early beginnings in the church, and his life in the ministry. We raised the roof singing some golden oldie hymns, and then a small group of 'barber-shop singers sang a song written by one member for the occasion. We followed this with a community, bring-and-share lunch, and as usual the tables were weighed down under plates of tempting food. It was very hot so many folk chose to eat inside the church, which had been quickly cleared and set out with trestle tables and chairs. We couldn't all fit in there so the rest of us braved the sunny patio, but we did have plenty of parasols up to shade us a bit.

We were given a fun quiz to occupy us while we waited for the food table to be ready. All the questions related to 1969, the year of Father Alan's ordination, but we were all too busy chatting with friends to make a real effort to fill it in.

One lady had made a beautiful cake which Father Alan cut, and we all had a piece with a glass of cava to raise a toast.

He may be older than many serving priests, but Father Alan is the most modern and forward looking one I have met. He has a huge heart and loves all mankind equally, and I guess that why we all love him so much. It was a privilege to share his special day, and as you can probably see, he loved every minute of it.

Here are just some of the photos taken on the day, which really need no captions.

I was recently appointed as Environmental Officer for the Chaplaincy, and as it seemed the most pressing, and also the most straightforward issue, I made my first objective to improve our recycling of waste. Most folk are quite happy to do this, though not everywhere is as well serviced with recycling bins as we are in our village, but many do not actually know what goes in each bin. So a couple of weeks ago I made a two page pamphlet explaining it all and it has been very well received, with many people telling me they had learned new things from it.

So on Saturday I set up a recycling table and everyone was happy to sort their own rubbish into glass, paper, plastic etc, with a crate for the items that had to be washed up. This saved a bottle neck at our cramped kitchen door, as everyone used to take their own dishes to the sink. It all worked very well, and made the clearing up much easier. The sharper eyed among you may have noted the large plastic bottles of water on our tables. Unfortunately only the minority of homes have drinking water on tap, but drinking plenty of it is essential as temperatures rise, so bottled water is inevitable. But at least I ensured the bottles were recycled!

In a mad moment I offered to take home all the extra 'loaned' tea-towels to wash and bring back the next day, and within a couple of hours of returning home they were washed, dried and folded. Unfortunately, just after that I started to feel unwell, and before long I was burning up one minute and shivering in a blanket the next. I first I thought I'd had too much sun, but I soon realised it was something more, and by the next morning I had a raging sore throat, and painful ears and head, plus a racking cough. And that was the end of my week. I have not left the house so far, except for a brief visit to the doctor. I am now on antibiotics and a strong cocktail of analgesics so every time I sit down, I fall asleep! They are beginning to take effect, and I am now sitting up in the sitting room for most of the day, though still dozing off at the drop of a hat. I have lived off yoghurt and porridge, but I did manage some soup today, and hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be over the worst of it. Chris is insisting I am sensible and rest until the course of tablets is finished on Tuesday, and anyway I don't think I am safe behind a wheel until the 'sleepy pills' are reduced. So the clean tea-towels sit in my hall for a friend to collect and take to church on Sunday. I shall be sorry to miss the service as there will be a special memorial for a dear friend who passed away on Monday. He and his wife returned to live in UK for health reasons at the start of the year, but he was a lovely man with a great, dry sense of humour, and we are all sad to hear he has gone. Not a good week for such sad news, but he wouldn't want us to mope. I know they are going to sing his favourite hymn - How Great Thou Art - on Sunday, and he would have liked that.

I have managed to read a few books on my Kindle as I sit in my chair this week. At least with Kindle it remembers what page I have read, so when I doze off it doesn't lose my place! I was rarely left alone, as there was always one or two of my furry friends to keep me company. Tango has decided he likes the end of the settee, and Kim is reluctant to get up while he is there. Paco is being a bit naughty because they are not allowed on the table, but I hadn't got the energy to make him get down!

Charlie looks more alert, but he is also about to sleep again. It's not bad this cat's life!

So please forgive me if I didn't visit you this week. Fortunately I did get to most folk on Friday evening, but since then I haven't sat at my computer until today. Thank you to those who left comments for me. I read them on my phone but I am no good at doing anything else on it, so I have only just published them, but I appreciate them all the same.

I will now link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and leave you with one more picture of this lovely smiling face.

Rocking Your World 2019: Week 22

So, looking back across the past week, it has been a very pleasant one for me, and I'll start with a couple of photos that have made me smile.

First up, this one popped up on my Facebook page as a memory of last year. Our second son Mike was visiting, but whenever he sat on the lounger to relax, an animal climbed up to join him. I guess he is quite well padded! Our little campo cat Paco got there first, and made himself comfy, but Kim decided to join him. He still thinks he is a lap-dog. He is more like a fur blanket in the middle of summer, but he was not very pleased to be told to get down.

This one also turned up on facebook, and it gave me quite a start to see Chris and I on a photo on the Town Hall page.  This was taken on the day of the Ruta de Tiendas (the route of shops), which was an initiative to encourage folk to explore the little shops in our own village. We had just been talking to the couple who are the main focus of the photo, outside their Kitchen and Bathroom shop. They are the company who installed my new kitchen a year ago, and we are thinking about having our bathroom done by them soon.

And then there are these two taken this week, as our youngest son Ben marched with the Railway group of his co-workers, in Birmingham Pride parade.

Ben is the one in the grey shorts. He has worked for West Midlands Trains for 16 years now, and is very happy there. He has worked his way through the ranks, and I am so pleased that he has been able to lead his chosen lifestyle with no fear of discrimination or bias against him. They are a colourful bunch anyway.

And now for my week. Summer has arrived and it is getting quite warm. I try to get my work done in the morning so I can relax in the afternoon, but it is not often with my crochet now as it is too warm on my lap. I can still do a row or two in the evenings, but I think the fan will have to come out soon.

We went over to the school to cast our votes in the local election on Sunday morning. There was an air of excitement and quite a crowd of folk just standing around chatting. It is the first time in many years that there has been any real opposition against our Mayor Maria. Well the 'unthinkable' happened and she was deposed, and Fran is now our new Mayor with a considerable majority. We don't think it will make a huge difference to the way the village is run, but we will have to wait and see whether he does a good job.

I had a busy day on Tuesday as it was my turn to host our house group. My friend Margie led a very interesting discussion on the book of Revalations which has always been a bit of a mystery to me. After that my friend Chris stayed to have a bit of lunch here, and then we went over to Albox for an extra choir practice just with the altos. We have a concert coming up in a couple of weeks.

By the time I got back, my Chris knew I wouldn't want to cook a dinner and neither of us were very hungry, so he suggested we went somewhere for a few tapas. We decided on Garrucha. There is a good wide, marble promenade there which is popular for evening strollers.

Garrucha has a good beach, and at the end it curves round to the new marina and docks. We were in the shadow of the tall buildings across the road from us, but the sun was still shining round on the port.

We found a bar that was new to us, and had some generous tapas and drinks for 'silly money', - two big tapas each, two beers for Chris and two martinis plus mixers for me and the bill was 8€. You can't go wrong for that really. Then we walked round to the marina and I bought us both a frozen yoghurt icecream. I chose strawberry and white chocolate and we watched as the young man put a few fresh strawberries on a freezer plate and poured over some thin yoghurt. (the photos aren't very good because there reflections in the glass).

He squashed the fruit and added melted white chocolate, and with a pair of spatulas he soon had it all mixed together and spread over the plate.

Then he scraped it off into curls and piled them in a cup. Chris had banana added to his and darker chocolate.

We found a bench to sit and eat them and they were delicious.

We watched the big barge loading up and leaving the port. There is a constant stream of them coming and going to the port, and a constant convoy of lorries take the gravel there to load onto them.

The marina was full that night and I like to read all the names on the boats. It passed a very pleasant evening, and made a change for us.

On Wednesday I  went to my sewing group as usual and then I drove back down to Mojacar as I wanted to post a birthday card at the post office there. It is getting busy with holiday folk now, and I had to drive along the front a bit to find a parking space. I guess it did me good to have to walk back to the post office anyway. It was lovely down there. There was just enough breeze to make rows of white breakers splashing on the rocks, but not windy enough to make it too rough. The sky was blue so the sea was too. I always marvel at the plants that survive there. I know cacti are used to growing in the sand, but they only have very salty water, which they have obviously adapted to.

I took a second picture because Garrucha is the next beach along, and I spotted another of the barges leaving the port. I believe there is another one coming in behind it too.

And now, much closer to home, here is a beautiful jacaranda tree in full bloom at the end of our road. They are such a beautiful colour, and always have their flowers before the leaves appear.

When I zoom out, you can see there is a whole row of these trees along the slip road that runs along the front of the village. It is like a haze of blue when they first come out. They have been flowering for a couple of weeks now and soon the floor under them will be carpeted with blue petals, and then pretty fern-like leaves will open up in their place.

Finally, a new photo posted by our son Michael today. He had met up with two of his brothers, Jim on the right from Wolverhampton, and Jonathan in the centre from Manchester, and Mike's young son Fin, all to watch their team Arsenal in  the Europa League final on Wednesday night. My whole family have faithfully followed the same team all their lives, and although they lost on the night, they were still happy to have a brotherly meet up.

Mike's caption on the photo was "I've had 15 addresses, 5 serious girlfriends plus 2 wives, 2 schools, run 2 pubs, had 12 jobs and god knows how many paper rounds; But I've only ever had ONE club and ONE family"

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World.