please don't let me go, i desperately need you

Firstly, a couple pictures I somehow missed uploading yesterday:

Now, on to the actual post.

Wednesday was a fairly uneventful day. Jan had an appointment at the hospital to talk to her doctor about the results of the chest x-ray, so Jack drove and I went along, too. Since the x-ray was clear, the appointment took almost no time. Also, the doctor said that the complete exhaustion is very likely a side-effect of the general anesthetic, and that some people do get it when their body breaks down the chemicals. And she’s been feeling better over the past couple days, so it seems things are on the right track now.

On the way back we stopped at Boots in Wisbech because they were having a mix-and-match buy-two-get-one-free sale on a ton of things that Jan wanted to take advantage of. I needed to buy contact solution and q-tips anyway, so that was handy. And also, I’m such a girl – I like wandering around beauty supplies and looking at everything even if I’m not actually going to buy it.

Back at home, we had toad in a hole (that’s sausages in Yorkshire pudding, in case you don’t remember) for tea, and watched Larkrise to Candleford (a TV show that Jan describes as the English version of the Waltons). And then after that had a nice long good conversation about life and self and God and such things.

Thursday was a good day. In the morning I went out for a bike ride, and although it was bright and sunny it was very windy.

I stopped along one road with no trees or buildings and lay down to look at the big sky.

I found the place where they grow a field of daffodils. They aren’t all out yet, so I’ll be going again.

I sat for a long time there. It isn’t something that I can write about, but it was good.

After that I continued on – I love just going down whatever road seems right at the time, and my sense of direction has gotten fairly good – and eventually ended up in Newton, at an old church.

And I wandered around there for a long time.

By that time I was getting a little tired and a little hungry, so I started back. I came to the A1101, and since that’s a road about like Alpine where it goes into Sparta, but with no shoulder, I decided that I’d rather take a different way back. I made good use of my map, and got back with no trouble.

It was about 1:30 when I returned, and as Jack was still out running errands, I had the bit of toad-in-the-hole I’d had left over from tea the night before as a pre-lunch snack. (Perhaps you might call it a very late elevensies.)

When Jack returned we had toast with whatever we wanted on it for lunch. I had marmite on one piece and peanut butter and honey on another.

During the afternoon, I helped Jan finish the work project we’d been doing, and read Great Expectations. (I have been doing a lot of reading Great Expectations. It’s a good book, and it makes me laugh all the time. And worry about the characters.)

Late in the afternoon, the middle section of my middle and ring fingers on my right hand started itching badly, which continued during the night, and this morning had a rash which seems to be poison ivy – well, not poison ivy, because they don’t have that in England, but poison something. Fortunately, it’s a very mild case and isolated to those fingers, and Jan has some mild steroid cream that cures the itching. It’s kind of interesting since I’ve never had poison anything before. Also, how I got it on those two fingers and nowhere else, I have no idea, though I’m certainly thankful.

On Thursday night, we had a very good tea of gammon and pineapple and mushrooms and chips. Jan describes gammon as very thick bacon. I think I would describe it as very nice ham.

After dinner we had biscuits that I convinced Jack to buy (they were only 44p) when we went out shopping last week. They’re so adorable.

Jack and I went to a Maundy Thursday service at Wisbech Baptist Church. It was a pleasant experience except for the old man next to me who was rather obnoxious before the service began. He began by running down Americans, then he kept touching me when he talked to me. When he grabbed my upper arm, I pulled away from him slightly and did my best to show that I didn’t appreciate it, but without being rude.

“Do you find me annoying?” he asked.

“Mildly,” I replied.

I’ve never been good at polite falsehoods.

But he didn’t seem to take offense, and I think we parted on good terms.

I also met a older man named Peter afterward, who is interested in steam trains. He was pleasant looking with white hair that came down over his forehead all in a straight piece, giving him a slightly boyish look. His daughter works for railway tours and he says that when she visits today he’ll ask her if there are any steam train tours between now and the second week in May and send me the details if there are.

I told Jack about me and my runaway honesty afterward, and he approved.

“Well, he asked,” he said. “And what would he have done if you’d said no?” It turned out that this man was someone who Jack knew because he used to go to King’s Church.

When we got home, Jack told Jan,

“L---- was there, from King’s Church.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” she said pleasantly. And then stared at us with a look of calm inquiry as we both went into peals of laughter.

Then I explained.

“Oh, hasn’t changed much, has he?” she said to Jack.

This morning was the Walk of Witness in downtown Wisbech. A bunch of Wisbech churches gather together for a sort of traveling service, that begins at St. Peter’s church (a big stone one) and then stops in several places throughout downtown for a reading and a song. People take turns carrying a cross at the front of the procession, which is then stood up at each of the places during the reading and singing.

We went through the marketplace, a narrow road where cars are not allowed. I cannot think of the right word to describe how it was to follow behind the cross there. But it made it a little better that I wasn’t there for the Easter drama.

At the last place we sang In Christ Alone. I could see a lady across from me, in her late fifties or early sixties I would guess, the slim long-haired gardener type, who loved it the same as I did. I talked to her afterward and she said that she wants it at her funeral.

Then we came home and Jan was making hot cross buns and Jack made hot chocolate for me and when the buns were done we had them for lunch and we ate them all up even though there were eight of them. They never even had time to cool.

And now Jack is gardening and Jan is napping and I am writing. And I will probably be napping and/or reading Great Expectations pretty soon. And maybe having a snack, since despite their incredible deliciousness, hot cross buns are not the most sustaining things to have for lunch.