Carol's Poems

I haven't written anything for a while but today, I feel I must. My relation (great niece?) enabled me to get to her website and read some of her poems. I am not really in to poetry but some of them brought me near to tears and some bits made me laugh. Very clever stuff.
http://www.bebo.com/Chapters.jsp?MemberId=7367628645
I think that link will get you to them.
Carol Ward is the daughter of Liz (who is my half sister Gerry's daughter) and Terry (who tragically died recently. Gerry and Terry would have been very proud of Carol who is embarking on a Masters in creative writing later this year. I keep in tough with my family through facebook. Carol's sister Alison introduced me to facebook which I thoroughly enjoy and am trying not to have it as an obsession.
I had to read a poem by Wendy Cope at Samantha's (my God daughter) wedding. I was a nervous wreck. For Christmas later that year I gave Samantha and Jon a signed copy of the book of poems by Wendy Cope that had the operative poem in it. I had written to Ms Cope and told her the tale and she put a special message on the page of the poem which was called Hungerford Bridge.

Katia

2 days ago we arrived with our friends at our house in Italy. This posting is an illustration of rich pigs luxury. The night before we left, Kath emailed Katia (who looks after our house) to ask her to take the bolognaise sauce out of the freezer. She bough us some beautiful pasta, parmizan cheese and a bottle of red wine as a present.
!!!!

Il Papa

Last Sunday was a day to remember second to none. Kath had seen on the internet that the Pope was doing a mass in St Peter's Basilica on the Sunday we were there. It was a mass to ordinate 29 priests and he was doing this as the Bishop of Rome. We went to the Vatican post office and a very nice woman made a phone call and confirmed that we had to go to the bishops church (name to follow) to get a ticket. we went on the tube and asked the information and audioguide man what to do. He told us where to go and when we got there (behind this wonderful church) we encountered two policemen at the entrance of the offices that had the tickets. Fortunately one of them spoke English but we could have managed in Italian. When we explained what we wanted, one of the policemen went off and came back with this huge bloke. I thought we were about to be arrested. He asked how many tickets we wanted. As I was not a Catholic and Kath was, I said "one". He looked at me as though I was crazy. He insisted we had two and I was happy with that although I was worried that if i went, i would not know when to sit, stand, kneel and say stuff. Kath was thrilled. We had ticket numbered about 850. The policeman and the big bloke could see we were pleased. The policeman said that we must look round this beautiful church and we did. the cloisters were magnificent.

The Sunday morning arrived. On the ticket it stated that we could get in at 8 am for the 9.30 service. It was a beautiful day and we arrived at the front of the basilica at 7.45 am. The queue was enormous. All had tickets. It was a slow business as the security is thorough.

We got our seats at the back and about 500 priests and bishops came in down the central isle. The Pope led the main procession and we all moved to be closer to the central aisle and stood on chairs to get a good view. There were lots of photos taken. He turned his head first to the right then to the left and smiled at the congregation as he walked to the front.

The service was lengthy and I could pick up a few words of the Italian. Most people in the congregation took communion and it must have been a marvellous experience for true Catholics (like my wife) to take communion that has been blessed by the Pope.

The highlight for me was at the end. The Pope slowly walked up the central aisle and shook hands with people alternately on the right and left. He came to be about 3 feet from us.

We then went out of the Basilica but the crowds outside were enormous and we could hardly move. They were waiting for the Pope to do his weekly thing from his private apartment window. There must have been 200000 people in front of St Peter's.

Fabulous.

Macchie

Well, here we are again in our lovely house in Italy. We realised last night that this house is bigger than the one we own in Yorkshire. It is great to have so much space. Thunder yesterday but clear skys today. We are going out this morning to buy a lamp and order a sofa bed for one of the upstairs rooms. I brought a Tom Tom over for use in the hire car and that has been a success. Travel to Rome for 3 nights on Friday and Kath will go to mass at St Peter's. The Poe is there on Sunday and we hope to see him on his balcony at noon. Home on Monday. It is great to have the internet and broadband here in Italy. Can listen to BBC radio.

La Boheme

What an amazing experience. We were with our good friend Zoe Mair for the weekend and she had booked tickets to go to the cinema in Aldborough to see a live HD performance from the metropolitan opera house in New York. It was packed. We had the luxury of closeups of the artists and interviews and scenes behind stage. Kath and i have been several times to the Met. This was a unique experience. Great performance and a Zephorelli stage. We have seen this for Cav and Pag there a couple of years ago. Our nearest cinema that does this is Sheffield which is 45 mins drive away. So the Met transmits the Saturday matinee to loads of cities in Europe on about 10 occasions. It cost about £17 a ticket. The next one in Sheffield is £25 a ticket. Compare this with £200+ a ticket at Covent Garden.
Have a look at this: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broadcast/hd_events.aspx

I am an addict.
By the way, I needed a drip up after the performance. Tears were dripping on to my jumper.
Posh lot, though, in Suffolk.

Receiving Room

Last night on BBC one, there was room new program called Casualty 1907. It is the first of three. It is about what went on in the accident and emergency department, known as the receiving room, at what is now known as the Royal London Hospital. I did one of my house jobs in 1969/70 in that department. It was a fascinating experience. At night there was just me and one nurse working there and on one occasion, 19 firemen were brought in suffering from inhaling too much smoke. The rule was that if more than 20 people were brought in, we were allowed to call for help. The first time I had stitched a wound as a doctor involved 27 stitches put in a man's leg. He came back the next day because they had all fallen out. I did not do a surgical house job as is counted as that. In fact, I can't stand the sight of blood!

Rich Pig's Worries

I invented this several years ago and I have got one today which I will describe later. When I was the GP tutor at Pontefract Postgraduate Centre, I worked closely with a very nice chest physician, Mick Peake.
I think his title was the Clinical Tutor. One Friday he came rushing in saying everything was a nightmare that weekend. He had to go to London to pick up a new swimming pool cover for his pool in Kirk Smeeton. That is a "rich pig's worry". His partner, Diana, was and still is a consultant paediatrician. They could have afforded to pay someone to pick it up for them. My "rich pig's worry" for today is: We bought a printer for the computer we have bought for our second home in Italy and there is a connection missing. I will have to along the eastern side of Lake Trasimeno all the way back to the shop and change the thing. Oh dear, oh dear!!!

Trasimeno in March (2)

Yesterday - rain here and snow on the distant hills. 3 deg C. Grey lake. Warm house. Investigated getting to Firenze by rail from Castiglione del Lago. Easy.

Trasimeno in March

Yesterday we both thought was idilic. Clear blue skies and a lovely light. Possitively warm. 21 deg C!. The lake looked fabulous and we saw it from various vantage points. First we drove to the west of the lake and up to Cortona. We ambled around this lovely hill top town and had a cofffee with the locals standing up in a bar. The policeman came in for a coffee and greeted a woman with a kiss on both cheeks. We went up to the church of St Francis. The view of the lago from Cortona was great. We drove back and had lunch in Macchie. We had arranged to meet Katia in the afternoon in Panicale. Panicale is another hill top town 4 km from our house. It has a terrace with fantastic views of the lake. We had arranged to meet Katia in Panicale in the afternoon. Panicale is another hill top town 5 minutes drive from our house. It has a terrace with a fantastic view of the lake. She had a key to the 18th centuary theatre and gave us a personal tour. She also had a key to the church that houses a 16th centuary Perugino fresco. The background of the fresco is the view of the lake as one comes out of that church. The best view of all. We then drove to the bird walk. This is a wooden walkway at the north east corner of the lake such that one can walk abou 300 mters out over the lake. It is a proper nature reserve and for 4 eoros one is supplied with binoculars. We saw a heron, gulls, a great crested grebe, lots of coots and a pair of otters very close up. Other birds as well. We were the only visitors at that time and had the place to ourselves. The bells ring at a nearby church ever 15 minutes. Lovely.

Round about 1980, 19 adults and children went to Barbados to celebrate the new year. We were with the Bullinghams, Powells and Stones. I saw the green flash as the sun set. The others could not see it and acused me of being crackers. When I got home I wrote to Patrick Moore who confirmed its existance by sending me his reply on a postcard.I photocopied this and sent it to our friends.
I celebrated my last birthday at The Green Flash restaurant in Sanibel, FGlorida. I started with half a dozen oysters.

Here is a good web site for finding loads about the green flash
http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/

Ruby Wedding Celebration.

Robin and Christine Harrod celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary by inviting old friends and family out for a chineese lunch in Cheltenham last Sunday. It was a great occasion and we met Colin and Anne which was great. We have had some really happy times with the Harrods and i am proud to be Godfather to their daughter Samantha. I saw her two children for the first time. We stayed at Anna's lovely house and drank rather too much!!

Geoff Mair

In October this year we are having a reunion at University College of all those who started in 1963. Roger Chapman has been arranging it all. He asked me the other day about one of that year and one of my best friends who died. I wrote Geoff Mair's obituary in the BMJ and forwarded this link to Roger.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7380/107/i?etoc

He is stll very much missed.

Daily telegraph

I only buy the Daily Telegraph the day after Labour victories in general elections. I have kept a copy of the three papers and the headlines are below:

Friday May 2nd 1997 Headline: Blair wins by a landslide
Friday June 8th 2001 Headline: Blair's back with a landslide
Friday May 6th 2005 Headline: Blair majority 'slashed'

I hope I will be buying a fourth copy of the Daily Torygraph.

Policeman

Last Sunday we returned from a few days with an old friend in Norfolk. The father of one of our friends is the retired deputy commissioner of the metropolitan police. We occasionally meet him and his daughter for Sunday lunch in London. Kath was telling him about Citta della Pieve and pronounced the name of that Italian town immaculately. The ex deputy commissioner said "Go on, say that again". Kath said to him that she would on one condition - that he said "'ello, 'ello' 'ello." He did.

Terry Ward

Yesterday was Terry's funeral. Terry died at the age of 55 after a serious illness of sudden onset. Terry leaves liz and three lovely children. Liz is the daughter of my late half sister Geraldine and is a couple of years younger than I. I feel close to Liz despite our not seeing one another enough. Terry was a great person and his funeral reflected that. The reading of the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians 2:3-11 really impressed me.

Philippians 2: 3-11
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross.

Carol read a poem she had composed and Alison made a tribute. Wow. What a family. I enjoyed meeting Michael, Andrew and David. We only meet at funerals now.

The only problem with Terry was that he was a senior member of the Conservative party!!!!

MP's Pay

I wrote a letter to the Independent Newspaper a few years ago. Have a look. MPs should really behave themselves.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960712/ai_n14057160

sI am retired now but still feel the same aboutMPs voting on this.