My dear friends at St Faith’s,
I promised Colin that I would write a letter for “Faith
Matters” and the web site after six months in my
new parish and, incredibly, it is very nearly that
time. To be honest I have been thinking of you with
great regularity since our move to the United States
last summer. I miss you all very much and you are
very much in my thoughts and prayers. I delight in
hearing news of St Faith’s and am so pleased that you
continue to thrive in God’s good grace.
I hope that you have had a chance to see our Christmas
letter (see “Faith Matters” February 2009) in
which Susan writes of our progress in adapting to
these new lives in Illinois. But for those who
haven’t I will recap: Elise and Sophia have fitted
very well into their new schools. Sophia (9) is at
Countryside Elementary and will be there for one more
year before moving to Station Middle School, where
Elise (13) is now. After one more year there she too
will move on, in her case to the High School. Elise
has made a number of new friends and continues to
enjoy dancing, while Sophia has a more discreet circle
of friends and has joined the Barrington swim team.
Susan’s main preoccupations are with the house and
enabling the three of us to function! Elise is up at
6am to catch her school bus at 7. Sophia then gets up
for her bus at 8:30am. Elise comes home at 3pm and
Sophia at 4 so the day is short, and then after dinner
the evening meetings and flute, dance and swim
activities kick in. Susan wonders how she ever had
time to work three days a week let alone full time and
is frustrated how long it is taking to settle into our
Rectory. Having said that she loves life here in the
US and is enjoying visits to the gym, leading a Sunday
school class for 14/15 year olds and building good
domestic systems! We have just got back from a visit
to her family on the East Coast (the drive was 760
miles each way – some 13 hour journey), which was a
wonderful and exhilarating journey for us all
(including Buddy, who took over 2 hours to figure out
we were not taking the long route to the dog park).
As for me, I am busy with St Mark’s. Many of you may
have seen our web site, which displays the attractive
‘New England’ style church which is just 45
years old (she and I were made in the same year!).
Having come from a 13th century church, I
am astounded when Americans talk about the building as
being old! What they refer to is the need for general
maintenance and improvements that goes with 60’s
buildings: Perhaps medieval stone churches are not so
difficult to maintain after all (just kidding, Jan and
Graham)! So you can imagine my delight when I arrived
and found that we had a property dilemma to resolve.
The church needs some (modest) attention as do the Day
School buildings, offices and church hall – all of
which are on one plot. Next door is the old rectory,
currently being used as additional space for the youth
groups, and adjacent to the south is the new Rectory.
The challenge facing the church is to decide the long
term future for the new Rectory, which was purchased
just four years ago. Do we develop it as a mission
house or school extension or should we sell it to
retire the debt? So, we are busy defining our Vision
and plan for attaining that vision. It’s all good
stuff and I am pleased to say that the congregation is
very fired by the possibility of growth and
development. I am sure they will define their vision
clearly and develop a suitable plan.
The obvious differences for me surround being a Rector
for an Episcopal Church rather than the Church of
England. In Havant, I was able to build up a rapport
and relationship with people from a range of
backgrounds, businesses, interests and associations
with the community. I was able to do this because the
church is physically so well located and because the
Church of England still has a place in the psyche of
English culture. Even though the established church’s
central place is diminishing, it still enjoys a
historical and emotional significance which St Faith’s
has both enjoyed and utilized for the good of church
and community. That place of prominence simply does
not exist for the Episcopal Church – one of the
smallest (although richest) denominations in the USA –
and neither does St Mark’s have proximity to a local
community. The church is situated in an entirely
residential area in which the minimum lot size per
home is 5 acres, which means I pretty much have to
drive to my neighbour’s house because there are no
footpaths.
Obviously I miss this very much, although the obverse
is also true that I can focus much more intently on
the congregation’s needs without the distraction of
such a wide interest. Having said that, it is also
the case that there is a sense of community to
Barrington Hills, and that gradually I am discovering
how that works and operates, am being invited into it
and am learning how I can offer the love of God in
Christ to our neighbours and wider community. At the
end of the day, it’s a variation on a theme: the theme
is mission and the conductor is Christ, so I just have
to discern the score and play along.
The other thing I miss is the sheer ambience of St
Faith’s – that it is a place that has been prayed in
for seven centuries (and on that site for much more).
The scale, feel and presence of that church are very
special and I miss the wonderful sense of mystery,
worship and beauty that exists there in not only
services of worship, but even when we gathered for
social occasions. It was always my conviction that
God delights equally in our worship as well as our
socialization in His house. While I delight in the
greater intimacy that St Mark’s offers being smaller
and bringing me closer to the people to preach, it
cannot offer St Faith’s sense of divine otherness or
“numinous” as Carmen would say.
That brings me to my final point. I want to reflect
back to you one observation of my time with you in
Havant. I consider myself extremely fortunate –
blessed is probably the appropriate word – to have
been your Rector for seven years at St Faith’s. You
are a delightful group of people who work together in
such an impressive way and you honoured me by
accepting my leadership. I felt that I learned a
great deal from you and grew enormously at the same
time. We set ourselves big plans – through our vision
and mission goals, some of which are still not in
place, and will take a long time to deliver. But the
beauty of being with you was that, as I looked back, I
see the Kingdom of God in the working, praying,
worshipping, planning and having fun together that we
were part of. What I am saying is that the goal is
not the only time when God is relishing our existence,
but in fact all along the way. So, the Kingdom of God
was in all we did together. Because we did it
honestly, for the glory of God and in the name of
Christ so much more was accomplished that I ever gave
credit for. It’s not that the end goal is not a
wonderful target (nor indeed of course the end of our
work), but that the process of getting there is every
bit as important as the goal itself. And of course,
we also learnt that the goal we set out to achieve
seven years ago evolves as time goes by and events
change our thinking, priorities and method. What
never changed, however, was our vision because we held
that up high as the God given articulation of what we
were about.
In conclusion then, please know my prayers for you
will always continue and that you shall always be in
my heart and mind. I am confident that the sense of
vision that encourages you will continue to see you
grow in Christ because it comes from the Holy Spirit.
But also know that I feel a strong sense of calling to
St Mark’s and that God is guiding my steps as I seek
to further encourage this congregation to grow in
God’s grace. We are where we are meant to be, just as
we were meant to be with you.
With all my love and best wishes and the love and well
wishes of Susan, Elise and Sophia to you all,
David
No! This is not about cricket or football. Peter
Appleby is a very keen bowls player but he knows from
our school days that the Great Game was not bowls. We
learnt of it at school from a History Master (we were
not allowed to call him a teacher) named Ashton-Caine,
known to us little boys as caner because of his
application of corporal punishment! The Great Game
was a wondrous world of spying and adventure on the
North West Frontier of the then India (now Pakistan)
which fascinated me as a boy. The two mighty powers
locked in the game were Britain, more properly British
India, and Russia. The Great Game will always be
associated with Rudyard Kipling and his immortal book
Kim, published in 1901. Indeed for many years I
thought that Kipling had first used the title but this
is not true. The term was discovered in 1840 by the
historian, Sir John Kaye, in a letter from a British
army officer and secret agent named Arthur Connolly.
In 1837, Connolly wrote to a close friend, Henry
Rawlinson, who was a British political agent in
Kandahar, with the words, “You’ve a great game, a
noble one, before you………If only the British Government
would play the grand game!”
So what was the Great Game? Today we would probably
call it a cold war. There was no direct clash of arms
between Britain and Russia but, rather as Soviet
Russia used North Korea to attack the Western powers
by invading South Korea in 1950, so Imperial Russia
used other states to wage conflicts on the borders of
India. The major players in the Great Game were spies
and agents, intelligence gathering in some of the most
inhospitable and dangerous territories in central
Asia. Apart from spying, one of their main tasks was
to map the virtually unknown valleys and mountains of
lands closed to western travellers. Most historians
date the start of the Great Game as 1830 and it lasted
until 1907 when the two powers secretly signed in St
Petersburg the Anglo-Russian Convention by which the
two imperial powers each agreed to respect the
strategic interests of the other. During these years,
there were many courageous men spying for the Raj,
both British and Pundits (natives from the Border
States). We cannot do justice to them all in
“Faith Matters” but we can use Arthur Connolly as
an example of the rest.
We take up his story in 1829, when at the age of 22 he
and an Indian guide , both disguised as travelling
merchants, were riding in the region of Khiva to spy
on Russian troop movements. They never made it to the
city because they were captured by a gang of
highwaymen. They were robbed but were fortunate to be
released without injury. Connolly and his guide
continued on their journey and managed to reach and
enter the teeming and dangerous streets of the Afghan
city of Herat which was ruled over by Kamran Shah.
Even by Afghan standards, he was a brutal and cruel
ruler, with his secret police everywhere in the
crowded streets and bazaars. Connolly’s good fortune
continued and he and his guide left undetected to make
for Kandahar. The journey took them through bandit
country where slave-raiders operated. The latter cut
off the ears of captives to make them ashamed to
return to their families! Good fortune attended them
and they travelled on, unmolested, across Iran (then
Persia) and Afghanistan. Apart from his guide,
Connolly also had with him one of the Great Game’s
best players, a Pundit named Syed Keramal Ali, who had
joined him in the Iranian city of Tabriz. To learn of
the fate of these intrepid men, you will need to avoid
Kamran Shah’s secret police in the bazaars of Havant
and get safely to church for your copy of next month’s
“Faith Matters”!
Roger Bryant
From the Registers
25 January 2009 Baptism of William Joseph Henry Bruce
14 February 2009 Marriage of Andrew North and Claire
Collier
Exhibition
in Church
There will be a small exhibition, mainly of
sculptures, in church during the weekend of 16th/17th
May. The artist is Tracey Ward, who renovated our
font lid and the nativity figures. She is aware of
the service times on Saturday & Sunday. The
exhibition is part of the Havant Arts Trail. Tracey
will be present while the church is open.
Aldsworth House
Tom and Sarah Williams are looking forward to
welcoming you to the opening of our 6 acre garden at
Aldsworth House, Aldsworth, Emsworth Common Road PO10
8QT on Sunday 8th and Wednesday 11th
March 11am -4pm. There will be home made teas, a
plant stall and a short film about the garden in the
1930s. Entry in aid of the National Garden Society is
£3.50 - children free. No dogs please.
In March there should be carpets of spring bulbs under
a 180 year old plane tree, hellebores and many other
spring treasures. There is also a walled garden with
very old fruit trees, a number of mixed borders with
many unusual shrubs and trees, a gravel garden around
a listed Georgian house with extensive views of the
countryside. The garden will also be open on 19th
and 21st April 11am -4pm and 31st
May and 3rd June.
Palm Sunday – 5 April 2009
Instead of Evensong we are joining with the choir of
St John the Baptist, Westbourne and hosting an
Ecumenical 'Come and Sing' John Stainer's
"Crucifixion". This will be a wonderful start to
Holy Week as this work is a meditative service on the
story of the events leading up to the Crucifixion.
Thank You
Ken and Mary Bracher would like to thank all the many
friends who have visited, written or telephoned to
enquire after Mary’s health. It is greatly
appreciated. Mary looks forward to once more
attending the Sunday services in the near future.
Until then she sends much love to you all. God bless.
Cystic Fibrosis
On Sunday 1 February, a cheque was presented to Sam
Roonan for the Cystic Fibrosis charity by Katherine
Faulkner, Beth Udy, Anna Hudson & Josie Roonan from
the money raised from their Charity Craft Stall.
Sam, aged 10 years, suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, and
is waiting for a lung transplant which would allow him
to go to school and play with his friends and give him
a better quality of life. He takes up to 50 tablets a
day and endures daily physiotherapy to draw out the
mucus clogging his lungs.
Correspondence Column
Dear Colin Carter
I thought you would be interested to know that I
responded to the query about the “Fitzwygram
Memorial Church” in Bermondsey (“Faith Matters”
January 2009).
About 10 years ago I researched the life of Sir
Frederick Fitzwygram who lived at Leigh Park House
from 1875 until his death in 1904. I recorded my
research in a booklet published by the Friends of
Havant Museum and is still obtainable at the Museum.
His son Frederick did indeed die in 1920 from
septicaemia following a cut on his finger sustained
whilst hedging on the estate. He had no children and
following his death Lady Fitzwygram and her daughter
Angela lived very reclusive lives at Leigh Park House
until Lady Fitzwygram died in 1934 and Angela went to
live with relatives in the West Country.
Yours sincerely,
Betty Marshall
The Bible Reading Fellowship
Were Silas and Sylvanus the same person? Who were
they?
What were Paul’s concerns about the Colossians?
Would you like to know more about the Psalms?
Do you know the answers? These are some subjects
which the Bible Reading Fellowship has covered
recently.
Every four months The Fellowship produces
booklets of readings for each day of the year. Topics
are wide ranging and are written by a whole variety of
religious leaders and workers. You can read them as
and when you want but it is useful to put aside a time
each day to do this.
At present there are fifteen subscribers from St
Faith’s. New subscribers are always welcome to join
the scheme so if you would like to know more please
contact me.
Hilary Deadman
Women’s World Day of Prayer – 6 March 2009
This year, the Women’s World Day of Prayer will be
held in St. Faith’s Church on Friday 6 March at
2.30pm. All are welcome, including men - refreshments
will be provided. Sandra Haggan will be giving a talk
on the Women’s World Day of Prayer - the theme being
“we are part of one body but each part has
different jobs”.
The Women’s World Day of Prayer is a worldwide
Movement of Christian women of many traditions who
come together to observe a common day of prayer on the
first Friday in March each year.
The origins of Women’s World Day of Prayer date back
to the 19th century when Christian women in
the USA and Canada, in spite of strong opposition from
all-male mission boards, founded numerous and
effective women’s boards for foreign and home
missions, whereby they could work directly with and
for women and children. For some time women had been
encouraging one another not only to engage in personal
prayer, but to lead communal prayer within their
mission auxiliaries and associations. This led to
annual days and even weeks of prayers within
individual denominations.
By 1887 women from different denominations were
joining together in organising days of prayer for
missionary work, both home and overseas, and in 1910
women celebrated 50 years of women’s missionary
activity by organising a series of events across the
USA that provided a powerful experience of ecumenical
cooperation. In 1922 two separate united days of
prayer, one in Canada and one in the USA, came
together with a common date – the first Friday of
Lent. In 1926 the women of North America distributed
the worship service to many countries and partners in
mission – the response worldwide was enthusiastic and
the World Day of Prayer came into being.
Women, whose lives took them to other countries,
spread news of this special day around the world. Mrs
Grace Forgan heard about it at an international
missionary gathering in Jerusalem in 1928.
Immediately she felt that women in her native Scotland
would want to get involved. The first service was
held in Scotland in 1930, then in England in 1932, in
Wales in 1933 and Ireland two years later.
Women’s World Day of Prayer came such a long way in
the last century. What started as separate days of
prayer organised by individual denominations in
America has become a truly international and inter
denominational World Day of Prayer.
The original date of the first Friday in Lent was
changed to the first Friday in March, a date more
suited to the Orthodox churches. Today more than 170
countries and islands take part.
Through Women’s World Day of Prayer, women are
encouraged:
-
to become aware of the whole world and no longer live
in isolation
-
to be enriched by the faith experience of Christians
of other countries
-
to take up the burdens of other people and pray with
and for them
-
to become aware of their talents and use them in the
service of society.
Shirley Caunter
Church Shop
The Church Shop made £1,965.24 during our first
session this year. Many thanks to everyone who helped
to make this possible, it was a great result
considering the awful weather we had.
Our opening dates for 2009 are:
9 March – 10 April
25 May – 3 July
24 August – 25 September
26 October – 20 November.
Sheila Warlow
From Our PCSO
Dear St Faith’s Resident,
The St Faith’s Safer Neighbourhood Team would like to
say a big HELLO to our St Faith’s residents and hope
that you are all fit and well.
Unfortunately the St Faith’s ward has had some issues
with criminal damage over the past several weeks. The
individual(s) responsible are targeting vehicles.
They gain entry by smashing a window and then conduct
a search of the vehicle for any valuables. Please
ensure that all valuables whether they be sat nav’s to
cd’s are removed from show or the vehicle itself.
Another issue which has just started to crop up again
is shed break-ins. Over the past week we have been
made aware of several within the Langstone and Hayling
Billy Line area. It seems that shed’s along the Billy
Line are easier because they can use the Billy Line
for quick access/exit. All the sheds involved have
been padlocked and suspect(s) have come prepared with
cutters. Again please ensure all valuables are
removed, if you have a garage it maybe a suggestion to
place any valuables in there.
St Faith’s Safer Neighbourhood team are still giving
out lanyards if anyone’s interested for their
purses/wallets. We have been conducting several local
operations in Havant Town during the Christmas period
and most recently in January to try and tackle purse
thefts. We have seen a reduction though it doesn’t
mean it’s still not happening. If you would like a
lanyard please contact the St Faith’s SNT on 0845 045
45 45 or pop into Havant Police Station. Some
prevention’s could be to ensure that your bag is never
left unoccupied even in a shopping trolley and that it
is always zipped up with the zipper closest to you.
Contact Details:
1) By email addressed to: stfaiths.snt@hampshire.pnn.police.uk
2) By telephone to 0845 045 45 45, asking for St
Faith’s Safer Neighbourhood Team.
3) Dialling 999 in an emergency. Examples being when
crime or disorder is in progress, when offenders are
nearby, life is at risk, injury/damage is being caused
or threatened.
4) Dialling 101 to report community safety issues
including crimes of a non-emergency nature such as
vandalism, fly-tipping, drunkenness, drug abuse and
anti-social behaviour.
5) By calling into Havant police station.
6) By reporting crime and concerns about potential
criminal activity, anonymously, to Crime stoppers on
0800 555 111.
PCSO Sarah Woodley 13389
Intolerance Towards Christians in the
Public Sector
In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede, the
father of English history, wrote not only of how the
English were converted to Christianity, but how the
Gospel played a major social and civilising role in
this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and
conferring English nationhood upon them.
The opening clause of Magna Carta in 1251 acknowledged
the importance of the Church and its right to
propagate its views.
Christianity has been at the heart of the history of
this nation. British history, customs and ethos have
been gradually shaped by Christianity.
A recent correspondent suggested that, like it or not,
Britishness is rooted in the Christian religion.
Consider our national anthem beginning with the word
‘God’; consider the English flag: designed
using the Christian cross. Its red colour symbolising
the blood of Christ shows it is not simply a cruciform
by chance.
Go back a century or more and the church will be found
at the centre of English village life. The definition
of a city was that it had a cathedral. People were
born, married and buried in a Christian setting.
Then there are the British architects, artists,
explorers and scientists whose faith gave them a
basis.
Christianity is the tapestry upon which our country’s
heritage was woven. All of this is lost to those who
would deny Christianity any place in our nation today.
Those employed as public servants and charged with
running our local services, be they schools, hospitals
or councils, receive their public authority only under
a system of governance which is constitutionally
established from the ‘Queen in Parliament under
God’
For public servants to use their authority to deny the
legitimacy of the Christian faith, when they receive
such authority only through the operation of that same
faith, is not only unacceptable but an affront.
For millions of people in this country who profess a
trust in God, these recent stories represent not only
an insult to their common sensibility but also a sign
of a growing gap between the mindset of the governing
and the governed.
My challenge, then to the 72 per cent of this nation
who marked themselves as ‘Christian’ in
response to the census of 2001 is that if they wish to
safeguard that same Christian tradition, they must
renew their faith and become actively involved in
their local church.
For those who despair at the treatment meted out to
those Christian women, the message is clear: wake up,
Christian England!
John Sentamu
(Archbishop of York)
(extract
from Daily Mail on 13 February 2009)
Last November my friend, Susan, from Darlington came down to stay for 10
days with her guide dog, Mandy. It was a very packed
10 days. With a visit to Chichester Festival Theatre
on the 8th of November; a visit to the St
Faith's Church on the Sunday and a visit to the Access
group in Havant on the Monday – the Access group is
for all disabled people and where Susan described what
an awful thing the “shared surfaces” scheme has
been in Darlington. This scheme is like a pedestrian
precinct but allows some vehicular traffic which is
supposed to behave considerately but is positively
dangerous and made it a no go area for blind people
and mothers with push chairs, etc. On Tuesday, we
went to the Out of Focus group but I can't remember
what the talk was. But on Wednesday, which was the
big day of the week, Susan obtained a ticket for the
memorial for the Reverend Chad Varah who founded the
Samaritans. Susan is a Samaritan and she said to me
“I shall be staying with you and it is much easier
to go up to London from Havant than it is from
Darlington so perhaps we will find somewhere for you
to sit while I go to the service because it is ticket
only”. So she phoned the organisers to find if
there was anywhere or perhaps a cafe or something in
the basement of St Pauls. She was told there were a
few tickets available for members of the public and I
could have one. So I was privileged to join Susan in
this and we got the 10.04 train from Havant. When we
got to Waterloo, we decided we would have a bit of
lunch on Waterloo station and we asked for assistance.
A very nice lady came along and directed us to the
little cafe shop. We sat outside and it was draughty.
Susan has a tiny bit of sight and that tiny bit of
sight she makes very good use of. And she said
“There's a table just become vacant in the sun and it
will be out of this draught”, so we moved and had
a mocha coffee and a Panini. I had my first mince
pie, so I made a wish.
After lunch we went out and someone directed us to the taxi queue. We
got a taxi to St Pauls. We arrived very early, about
12.45pm and it was a nice fine day: one of those days
when there is some cloud but sunshine too and Susan
was able to describe it to me. When we got to St
Pauls and I went to pay the driver, he said “Oh no,
you can have that on me!” Which I thought was
very, very generous. People are so kind. So we
walked all the way round the outside of St Paul's. I
found Blacks of Stafford where I got my back pack
from. We found a little garden with interesting
sculptures in it and we let the dogs run with our
little plastic bags at the ready, but we didn't have
to use them. Then we went back and sat outside the
Cathedral.
It was a lovely day but the only thing that rather spoilt it was a
helicopter hovering rather low. We realised a queue
was beginning to form outside St Paul's so we went and
joined it with our tickets at the ready. They had the
most enormous revolving doors to go into the
Cathedral, because myself and another lady and my dog,
Innes, were able to get into that section. I didn't
realise it was a revolving door and said “Where are
we now?” and she said “We are just coming out
now” so they must be absolutely huge. It was
lovely and warm in St Pauls and we had tickets near
the North door. We had Braille copies of the service
already provided for us. It was a wonderful service
opening with the hymn “O praise ye the Lord” as
the choir and clergy led by the Bishop of London
processed in. One of the readings was by Joanna
Lumley and we were able to speak to her afterwards.
The address was given by Lord Palumbo of Wallbrook.
I didn't know Chad Varah who seems to have been quite
a lad because he wrote for quite a lot of newspapers
and did an amusing strip cartoon in one of them. He
died at the age of 97. The service was arranged for
his birthday on 12th November, which is
also Susan's birthday, so after the service Susan said
“I've always wanted to go to Harrods for tea.
Shall we go?”
So we got a taxi right across London. This taxi driver gave us a
commentary on all the things that were in the shops.
All the shops were beginning to show Christmas
displays and I can't remember the shop but he said:
“They've got a display. It's very impressive and it
is entirely made out of coat hangers” and then he
dropped us outside Harrods. We walked in this very
wide door – the two of us and two dogs. A lady
pounced on us and said “Would you like to buy some
perfume?” She sprayed it all over us and neither
of us liked it very much. We were quite honest about
it. We told her we would like to know the layout of
the store and where we could get things from. She
said that the accessible toilet was on the first
floor. She advised the tearoom on the 2nd
floor as the one on the top floor was very expensive
and very luxurious. I said I wanted to buy a notebook
for someone to take abroad and I wanted it to show
that it came from Harrods as a Christmas present. We
went to the 1st floor and used the
accessible loo to feed our dogs because there was
plenty of room and water there provided you knew where
to get it. It was one of those modern things where
you have to press a button. So we fed the dogs
because we weren't going to get home until after 9
o'clock.
Someone came and took us to the teashop. They found us a table and this
man came and said “Shall I read you the menu?”
We decided to have the Harrods cream tea with scones
and Harrods jam and cream. We each got a tray with
five sandwiches arranged in a star shape. We got a
pot of tea each and we got three cups of tea out of
them. We got two scones, a little pot of butter and a
little pot of cream and jam. And I thought this is
going to cost the earth. We were told the price and
we had chosen the middle one. If we'd chosen the most
expensive one we could have had a glass of champagne
each! We thoroughly enjoyed our tea and a lady from
the next table said to Susan “I know you” and
she came from the next town to Darlington!
When we came to pay I said to the man “Do you take a Visa debit
card?” He said “Yes, but whose birthday is
it?” So Susan said “It’s mine”
He said “Well in that case, it’s on the house!” which I thought
was absolutely wonderful. Then we went down in the
basement and I told the lady exactly what I wanted and
she brought me a notebook and I said “How much is
that?” and I think she said “£46. It is real
leather”. I said to the lady “I'm giving it to
a friend but not like a member of the family.” So
I told her my price range between £10 and £15. She
brought two. One was smooth black leather and one was
brown and they both had the Harrods logo on the back.
So I bought the two and said “What about getting
them gift wrapped?” She said that would cost
£5.90 each. She suggested that for £4 we could have a
large sheet of Harrods Christmas paper. While Susan
was talking to someone I sneaked off and bought a
Harrods Birthday card. It had a raised picture of a
lady in a crinoline dress with butterflies all round
her. While Susan was getting her dog some water I sat
down and wrote on the card.
That was our day and we did it with the very generous help of people on
the way. When we went back from Harrods to Waterloo
station the taxi driver said “You can have it free”.
The taxi driver from St Pauls to Harrods gave us a
wonderful commentary but it cost us £17 so we split it
between us. So that was our week together and we did
something every day and three trips to the Chichester
Theatre.
Judy Glenister
(Transcribed by Rosemary Thomas)
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