Friday

I think summer is over here, the weather has been damp and cloudy and chilly, a far cry from 73 degrees and sunny, like it is in Oklahoma.   This morning I was up and out early to Summertown, I needed to go and didn't want to be caught in a downpour.  Avoiding downpours is a way of life here.

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to a course being held at St Andrew's under the auspices of Churches Together in North Oxford, over six weeks called "Preparing Well For The End of our Lives".   I don't know how, but I missed the first two on 'Wills and Advance Directives' and 'The Story of my Life' (sounds like a song by Michael Holliday I used to play endlessly as a teenager, but I digress).   Yesterday, the third session was 'Planning my Funeral' and  was conducted by two priests, both hospital chaplains, one of whom is also a funeral director (he must be busy).  

Afterwards over the tea and buns I was telling a church member that I had been a hospital chaplain in Oklahoma and how ENORMOUSLY different, hospitals and chaplaincies and dying were in our respective countries.   But then Southern Baptists and Anglicans are enormously different.   Next week is going to be "What Constitutes a Good Death".

Yesterday evening there was a Welcome Party for new members like myself, held in a member's home, and I set off.  It was just 10/15 minutes along the road but in the directions I was given I was told to take a left turn, which in fact should have been a right one, so  I didn't find the house and had to turn back, how sad is that. 

I have noticed some societal changes since I have been back and one was in the library this morning.  Libraries always used to be hushed, very quiet places but this morning, in one corner of the library, there was an organised sing song with pre school children and mothers.   What was really bizarre however was the fact that they were singing in Spanish, I could have been back in Oklahoma.  When I checked out my books I told the librarian I wasn't complaining (well, not really) but wondered why there were children singing; she said part of the library was hired out twice a week.  So it must be a regular thing, these under 5s singing in Spanish.

When I checked out my books an elderly man was asking the librarian for information about the U3A, and she stared at him blankly - had no idea what he was talking about.   Know-it-all-me told her it was the University of the Third Age.   He was ever so grateful to me for stepping in and sorting out that little situation.   You never know when little bits of knowledge come in useful.

Another societal change mentioned in the news tonight, is the decline in laundromats.  I remember when they were everywhere and busy, but they are all closing down as people are acquiring their own washing machines and tumble dryers.   There is one in Summertown - but I don't know how much longer it is going to struggle on, it is almost always empty.  I don't have a tumble dryer, and when I first came here I was taking my washing there to be dried, but then decided it was too much of a bind, so now I do very small loads and dry them on an airer.