The Best of Times... the Worst of Times

After Sunday Evening's service, we drove across to Cornerstones - here is a picture of the parish church in the village there. Spent the Bank Holiday pottering about the bungalow. Bob worked incredibly hard, and I confess I spent a lot of time nattering and drinking tea with Marion and Sarah!

This morning we left straight after breakfast, to come back here. We detoured via the village shop to collect a newspaper - at which point I remembered half a loaf was lurking in the breadbin, so we had to go back to the bungalow and collect it!

On the journey back, Bob drove whilst I read out articles from today's Times. Amidst all the doom and gloom, were a few items which caused us to laugh...

Educational toy withdrawn after failing spelling test... Morrison's have had to recall a set of alphabet building bricks which contained a picture of an umbrella with the word 'umberlla' and a boat accompanied by the word "yatch"

Chris Ayres L A Notebook says

"If you're going to die for lack of a medicine it would at least be nice if it had a cool-sounding name...at the height of the anthrax scare, the drug that everyone wanted to get their hands on was Ciprofloxacin, which at least sounded medically impressive and worthy of an Andromeda Strain-style Hollywood screenplay. But Tamiflu? Seriously? With an “i” instead of a “y”? No scriptwriters in their right minds would choose such a name - the drug might as well be called “Flubbi-tubbi”. Imagine the scene: The Oval Office. President Obama looks grim.

“If we don't act fast, this virus could wipe us off the face of the Earth!” he growls. “Goddamit, Biden, we need more Flubbi-tubbi!”

The central pullout section features family businesses - including that wonderful shoe-repairing, key-cutting, nameplate etching bunch of cobblers who are Timpsons.

In the article, Chairman John Timpson explains why they are a great, caring company. Among other things, all staff get a day's holiday on their birthday. Furthermore "We do things other people wouldn't dream of...we have a training centre in Liverpool Jail"

...presumably where the incarcerated inmates are taught to use files, and to copy keys!!

According to an item on p18, Clergy in the Lichfield Diocese are to be taught to be more welcoming, after having been criticised for not being friendly enough. Rev George Fisher who carried out anonymous visits to the churches said "I have been seriously ignored in most..." Actually, that wasn't an item to smile about- it is really quite sad. Come over to our place vicar - we smile a lot here, and serve brilliant fresh Fairtrade coffee!

A raft of correspondence from readers who took exception to Erica Wagner's piece about the new Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy - EW said last week that nobody remembers the work of PLs from years gone by - like Nahum Tate. Huh! many millions of people sing "While Shepherds Watched Their Flock" every year. And will probably do so long after EW has been forgotten. Sadly there was little mention of the passing of UA Fanthorpe - a very gifted woman poet who died last week.

Finally, I confess we giggled most over an article about John Waned Bobbitt [yes, you do remember him] who had his first reunion with his ex-wife Lorena in 16 years this week on US television.

Describing the infamous events of June 23rd 1993, the article states Mr Bobbitt, 42, recalled that he awoke in a panic to find his manhood missing "I was bleeding to death" he said "It was one of the most terrifying things I ever went through"

What I want to know is - if that was 'one of the most terrifying things' - then what on earth were the others???