Ratty

 

Hello everyone. I hope that you are ok. I have been a bit off this week- a combination of Ladies Department problems and old surgery wounds. Word to the wise. If anyone offers you a cut-price operation to take out ALL the lymph nodes under your arm, you politely get the heck out of there. If you don't, you'll regret it later, when your fingers are bigger than Prince Charles's. And quite painful sometimes. Trust me on this.

Can I, as the Americans say, give you a heads-up? I am quite ratty today. We spent a good deal of Friday night standing in the park opposite our flats because the building's fire alarm was going off and no one knew how to switch it off. We do have Fire Wardens while a new Alarm System is being fitted. Well, when I say Fire Wardens, I mean 4 lads in high-vis jackets who sleep in their car most of the day and keep getting lost in the building at night. When the alarm went off (currently it goes off about twice a week on average), a young couple went up to one warden and asked, "Can we go back in now - it's obviously another mistake?" He was not happy with this and said, "No - step outside", please and with a perfunctory blast on an air horn, left us to our own devices. HOH and another couple of chaps then went off to find the Alarm Panel (Air Horn man didn't know that we had one). That way they could find out which flat was turning into toast (none of them, apparently) and report their findings to the three fire engines - full up to the drawstrings with snippy Fire Officers- which were parked outside the building. Apparently, they have better things to do than this (me too, mate) and are reporting it  - again - to the building's owners. One of the owners of one of the posh flats upstairs started getting a bit shouty then. ("I hardly think that this is our fault!") I went upstairs to watch the football.

On top of that..I was checking Google reviews today for work. Someone had given us 1 star. I don't think that we have ever seen a single star review before, so I clicked on it to find that his big beef was that he had turned up on Saturday (without booking) to find that we were closed, and there was nothing to say when we were open again. Well, Monday at 9.15 is when we usually open, and we haven't opened on Saturdays since the pandemic. And the opening hours aren't anywhere much - apart from the website, all social media, Plymouth City Council's socials and the local shopping centre and the car parks. I understand that it may have been disappointing to turn up and find us closed, but a bad review like that can have a full-on impact on a small charity. It's annoying.

After warming up a little, it has rained quite a bit on and off, and I actually had a blanket on my knee one night last week. I would say it was cosy, but I am not too keen on that word - cosy Autumn, cosy crime; all that stuff. Anyway, I finished the book "Don't Forget We're Here Forever" this week. How to describe it? It's non-fiction, about a woman who decided to look into what people have called The Quiet Revival" after a couple of her friends converted to Christianity. It's not the sort of Christian book I am used to. Some of it is quite uncomfortable. She's not terribly impressed by some of the people involved in the Alpha course and speaks at length to people who have been hurt by some of the more full-on Evangelical approaches. This also includes some of the stuff that went on in Soul Survivor. Much of what she finds left me quite ashamed. And she was very unhappy with what she found. And yet, and yet, the author is struck by something she doesn't understand. She visits Iona and a Jesuit Community and feels her understanding begin to shift, and she moves towards faith. It's a difficult story to describe, but I surprised myself and cried a couple of times. I would recommend the book, but it might not be for everyone. She is very protective of the queer community and speaks to many gay people who have been hurt by Christians. Also, she is exploring her own sexuality. There's not too much detail at all, but if you have to look up the word "Thruple", you might be a bit surprised by what the young people are doing on a Saturday night.

Right then. I'm off to watch Simon Reeve diving with sharks. 300 kilos, apparently. I'm still in old money myself, so I'm not sure how big that is, but they look pretty massive to me. Have a good week.