First Sabbath of the year

The Kirk was almost empty this morning, whether this was due to people being away or the result of too much New Year celebrations was not made clear.  I was however, given a lift home, and home before noon is always a good thing.  It would have been better to have someone make lunch for me and then do the ironing but alas that did not happen.  So make do and mend and wonder "What was that I ate?" had to do.  

First sermon of the year is always tricky.  The church has to be reminded to set its heart on Jesus, not the world, to read the book, study the book, pray without ceasing and love one another.  This was not helped one year a long time ago when the pastor turned and looked in my direction as he urged us to "Move on with no more sin and (as he looked at me) no more spiritual jerks."  Quite how neither of us responded amazes me yet.   

Once home I discovered Championship football was on today.  This meant I could use PPV TV and watch Arbroath play Inverness.  This was welcomed I must say, and so £13 was soon paid and I waited by nodding off, until the game began.  This was great fun until 10 minutes in the server failed.  It took 15 mins at least before an alternative picture was found.  Apparently the server did not expect a thousand people to log in as usually only a couple of hundered do this at Arbroath.  However, government restrictions limiting the crowd to 500 meant many logged on and all collapsed.  'Vimeo,' for it was run via them, failed to impress many of the Angus hordes!  

In the end however I enjoyed the poor game played in high wind and was really too tired to care about much else.  I have struggled to wake in the mornings and look forward to a lie in tomorrow. 

 

Sullen Sabbath

I awoke, eyes straining to open, to note the clock claiming it was twenty past eight. This irritated me as my head was still at fifteen minutes past four.  Sitting on the edge of the bed I pulled back the aged curtains and stared into the world.  Rusty leaves carpeted the ground under the once blossoming trees, the sky above appeared blue in between passing clouds themselves lit by rare occasional glimpses of sunshine, occasional dog walkers followed their pets commands in the distance.
Tesco 'Cheerios' with currants and rolled oats for breakfast.  Adding strong honey for energy I soon found myself flopping into my seat while my mind slowly decayed.  The energy bit had failed and what slack mind I possessed on waking quickly dissipated.  Another day of joy had begun.
I soon fell into arguing with a TV pundit on Twitter and thus losing what feel good factor I had on awakening, if that could be called 'feel good.'  Typical of him, he thought that as he was a full time professional footballer for many years and an experienced coach that he knew more than I do!  Typical of such people!  This radge however interfered with my morning biblical study as I kept seeking answers to him here and not from him above here.  As I was remaining indoors to avoid church this morning as the heretic was speaking and I did not wish to disturb him.  Maybe it would have been better to argue with the heretic?  That would have been interesting.
Having checked all my empty email accounts, not counting the spam sent in French, a wonderful idea for those that do not understand it, and browsed the papers as I sought something to stimulate me by checking the TV schedules.  As always dead TV rules and while the brain dead enjoy such banality I wanted more.  The News channels, when I eventually got round to checking, offered Theresa May impersonating a prime minister and lying in her teeth about the Brexit agreement.  This was making eating my lentil based soup difficult at lunchtime and I could not put up with this for long.  Politics can be interesting and important, Brexit however has changed things for ever.  I am at a loss to understand if Theresa is attempting to stop Brexit as she knows it will fail or just floundering in an attempt to keep her job.  No normal answers appear relevant it is all a mess.  Naturally there is no decent football is available on BTS so I will have to wait for German or French games arriving later.  Good job I am not one to complain...

I managed to pick up some of May's comments tonight and have to say such bare faced lying has not been seen since Lloyd George denied knowing your mother, or grandmother as the case may be. Lies about how much money we save?  Lies about the economic growth, lies about everything, just lies and more lies.  Pandering to the far right, paid for by unknown multi millionaires as well as that nice Mr Putin we find ourselves almost out the door hoping the judges in the Brexit case in court will declare it illegal as foreign money has paid for it.  The chances of enough MPs voting against it are rare, sheep don't think.  I will start stocking up on corned beef in the morning...

Sabbath Tale.

The Last 100 Days Battle is continuing tonight.  In the distance explosions abound and more will follow later I suspect.  There were plenty of fireworks last night and I suspect a few tomorrow also the weather will be mild and fire crews overworked.  It does enhance the remembrance events however, one thing never absent during the war was noise.  Noise from big guns and the rushing of shells overhead, noise from explosions, machine guns rattle and rifle patter adding to the screams and yells form men all around.  The silence after eleven on the day war ended surprised many. 
Having a baptism at church this morning gave us an idea of warfare in a different manner, hundreds of children appeared, at least there may not have been hundreds but it sure felt like it.  Screams and shouts, yells and laughter, lots of laughter, and fun all around.  This would never have happened in the church I went to as a child!

Amazon

How churches once were is found deep into this H.V.Morton book.  Morton travelled around Scotland (possibly during 1927/8 as the book is published 1929) and at one point high in the highlands he comes across a Scottish Sabbath!  This he found was a strange place for a Londoner.  He foolishly walked across the street expecting the chemist to sell him goods even though the village was shut up.  Through a slightly opened door the chemist refused as it was not life or death.  Later he saw the man dressed in black frock coat, black hat, black gloves carrying a black bible heading solemnly towards the Kirk, as indeed did everyone else, all similarly dressed.  I suspect there was no music, just a prompt from the front as they sung through the psalms, solemnly.  This reminded me of a tale of a young man being taken dressed in a kilt, his father was an army officer, towards an Edinburgh church.  The town was quiet, little if any traffic in 1914, and as they passed they greeted those heading to similar churches as themselves which studiously ignoring those heading elsewhere. Ah the delight of the religion of 'agape!'  To be honest it is only in the last fifty years such walls have come down and churches, as here in this town, work together much more.  The baptism shows a clear divide between the regular attenders at this place and those who rarely touch churches, the visitors come dressed neatly for church, the regulars have a 'come as you are approach' and this is not always neatly dressed!  Still, the ten pence pieces dropped in the bag as it passes by always helps.  
Morton tends to be a bit dramatic in his writing.  The tales were put into the newspaper he worked for and worked up into a book and he had both audiences in mind as he wrote.  Hence we see him finding tales from long ago in the borders, ghosts and weird happenings that probably never happened mixed in with historical accuracy.  At each stop he finds a story from the past, often intriguing, all to often a bit romantic, but well worth a read.  In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Skye and Aberdeen he roves around revealing something of the country in the period after the war, a war in which he participated and as such recognises old soldiers and the power of the new war memorials that abound by his time.  Not long after this of course the great depression settled in bringing with it another war.  The book is an interesting insight into the period, the accents, very strong then, and attitudes of the time.  It would be hard to enjoy a quiet walk in Skye these days when thousands of tourists clad in brightly coloured expensive anoraks fill the hills and ruin the experience they seek.

The Battle of Arras is continuing to the north, the Somme to the East and I am told Passchendale erupt at eight round the rugby club.  I may take to bed soon...

Sunday Sabbath, Full of Joy

The Sabbath night draws to a close.  
I set my face this morning to avoid mirth, put on my darkest outfit, my black frock coat, clenched a black bible firmly in my hand and unsmilingly went forth to celebrate the joy of the Lord.  How terrible I thought to see people smiling and rejoicing in the sunshine, at least the sunshine between rain that is.  Women wore bright colours, though on occasion not as bright as some young men were wearing, dogs were being walked and children were heard laughing in the park opposite, cars were being driven and shops were open.  It appears some people were turning the Lords day into a day of joy, surely that should be stopped?

Actually it was not quite like that.  
The sun and rain was correct however, with added wind chill.  The church was full of happy people even though I was called upon to do the reading which featured men being circumcised with flint knives.  Instead of saying 'This is the word of the Lord,' all I could say after reading that bit was 'Amen!'  A glance around the congregation revealed men in uncomfortable positions.  No-one questioned the mistake I made, showing how knowledgeable this lot are, nor the use of flint knives. Knives made of flint are probable sharper than those in most kitchens and around 1200 BC they were used to making them so they would be precision tools.  It was all about getting ready to serve Gods purpose and preparing to be one nation together and all of one heart or something along that line.  We were all rather happy afterwards, relief I suppose!  

All week my knees have been irking me and today was no exception, for much of the week I have done little and been out only occasionally.  Having Saturday indoors was boring, no football, so I forced myself out twice the second time to see the fancy exciting market.  It was not that exciting. 
As Christmas shopping demands increase more market stalls will appear as entrepreneurs set up to make a killing with their home made delights.  My delight is finishing the shopping, writing the cards and having all lined up waiting to go.  Just one or two odds and ends to finish off nearer the time.  
I am preparing the smug grin for when people inform me how difficult shopping at Christmas can be. I am happy to be ignored and despised, I'm used to it.

What a difference winter makes when it arrives.  Curtains drawn, heater on, electric light instead of natural window light, the atmosphere changes completely.  Only a few decades ago candles and oil lamps were prevalent in so many dwellings, especially those far from big cities.  This town still had gas street lighting someone claimed until 1956 a claim I have yet to confirm.  It does seem unlikely but it is possible.  Some people find this atmosphere 'cosy' others find it like a prison.  Either way it is different and already I am looking forward to December 21st when the nights begin to get shorter.
The season also offers one advantage that of the clocks changing by going back one hour, a very good idea but spoiled by my body clock not being aware of this and waking me at the usual and now wrong time.  Few people appear to have been caught out and it is early in the year when the clocks change that mistakes are made, as I once found out.  Now we endure the ghastly needless Halloween followed by total Christmas shop desperation until financial suicide and Brexit sorry Christmas arrive.  Hopefully the second referendum on that arrives soon after Christmas, although I would be happy to have one now, well at least in the legal six weeks time.  That would be fun!