Rugby Fever

I think I can say I'm not a rugby fan. In fact I'm not interested in sport at all. When I heard about the Rugby World Cup being in NZ I thought it was a big yawn! Every night on tv it would be advertising excitedly "Only XX days to the world cup" and my response was (as my daughter says dismissively) "caring..."

So it started, and we discovered my little granddaughters were very keen on the World Cup even though their parents weren't. For some reason the youngest of the two was supporting Wales (I think she liked the flag) and her sister was keen on the All Blacks. So, we bought flags to put on our car, we helped them to make bright and colourful posters. I even watched 3 complete games!!! Tonight is the final and the ABs just HAVE to win it. I'm even quite tense about it. Has it's changed my attitude to sport forever? Probably not. Tomorrow will tell.

latent talents

It is amazing what talents Alex has discovered he has in his 70s! When I was sick he taught himself to cook and now absolutely LOVES cooking. He has recently redecorated his bedroom and put up new curtains. The room looks lovely but alas the curtains were too long, so, knowing his wife (me) didn't sew, he set to and turned them up himself! And did an excellent job. So he's adding sewing to his list of late accomplishments. What will be next I wonder?

Sweet

I'm not well again and have gone back to survival mode. It's really strange how when I'm not well I crave sweet food. I know I shouldn't, it's almost certainly bad for me but it's all I want to eat! I feel too ill to fight it so I surrender with the hope that giving my body what it craves is ok in the long run.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and back on controlling my natural urge to eat what's bad for me!

Life

Isn't the gift of life that God has given us amazing? When I was a teenager (and I was a very difficult teenager) I used to wish, in my worst moments, that I had never existed.

How different now. Despite the restrictions age is gradually imposing into my life, I still thank God for the glorious gift of life. Imagine to have never held my babies, never to have seen Spring, never to have met and loved my husband, never to have walked in a bluebell wood. The list could go on and on. never to have laughed and cried with close friends, never to have felt God's presence, never to have experienced joy.

We praise you for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Confession

Isn't Confession the greatest thing? I must admit I dread going: confessing one's sins to another person is not one of life's pleasures. Our priest (who is at least 40 years younger than me) always likes to work out WHY I commit certain sins and he's almost always wrong. I end up saying "No Father,that was not really my motivation" and I have to explain why it's not, sometimes I just say "I did it because I'm a sinful person." He doesn't like that much.

Sometimes I think longingly of the days when you confessed your sins from behind a screen and were given absolution with no questions asked.

A bit like a slot machine now I come to think of it!