APRIL 2021

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FORDINGBRIDGE AND RINGWOOD PARISH MAGAZINE

In This Edition: The Great Bridge at Fordingbridge • Fr Paul Says: • Book Reviews (Penny Sharp and

Gabriel Gamble)

• Poetry Please G W Carryl, Robert Browning, Geoffrey Chaucer) • Gardening (Sheila Wade) • The Invisible Times (Margaret Fraser) • The Great Bridge at Fordingbridge (Text Ed, picture George Shepperdley) • Salisbury Cathedral Tower Tour (continued, Chris Basham) • The Anni Rosler Letters (Provided by David Saunders) • Growing Up in Fordingbridge (George Shepperdley • Rohingya in Bangladesh (Helen Eales) • Cookery Corner (Janet Arden) • End Bits (Ed) Fr. Paul Says…

This is a photograph of rather lovely oil painting by Henry Woodward which my old Canadian friend George Shepperdley (see below) has on his bedroom wall. George thinks it was painted in the 1970s, but I think it was earlier than that as there is no footbridge. I remember the footbridge being added because I rowed beneath that bridge practically every day until 1962! Of course, the artist may have just left it out! April begins this year with our celebration of the ‘Easter Triduum’, on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd April. The The view is looking downstream from the meadow just upstream of what is now Caxtons, but was then The Riverside Triduum consists of three days making up the Bakery. On the left is Dr. Vickery’s garden, then the bridge itself with The George, as ever, on the bank to the South single liturgy of the Paschal Mystery or the life, with the Albany Hotel and its river frontage adjoining the Greyhound Hotel garden and boathouse. death and resurrection of . It begins on Maundy Thursday evening with the Mass of the The original bridge was built by 1252 because it is recorded that the town received a grant for its maintenance then. Lord’s Supper. This liturgy relives that Last I believe parts of it remain, although much rebuilding has taken place. A date of 1622 appears above one of the Supper which Jesus and his disciples celebrated arches on the downstream side and there was substantial rebuilding in the nineteenth century. The earlier ford was the night before he died. At the Last Supper the just downstream and on the Ringwood end of the bridge was a hospital for travellers on the site of St. John’s Farm. Eucharist was instituted and Jesus washed his disciples’ feet offering us a model for the service Thanks George! (Ed) of Christian life and discipleship. That liturgy ends in silence as we look towards Good Friday and the celebration of the Lord’s passion and death. The Good Friday liturgy is not actually Mass. Instead it offers an opportunity to enter liturgically into the mystery of the Lord’s Cross. Good Friday is a day of

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of fasting and abstinence which reminds us that on this day we are still celebrating the three-day liturgy even though we may not attend church all the time. The Triduum comes to it completion and high point with the celebration of the Easter Vigil when the is solemnly proclaimed and Jesus is presented to the world as its light and life. Throughout the world, Salisbury Cathedral Tower catechumens are baptized at the Vigil, then they are confirmed and receive the Eucharist. This happens at Easter because Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist connect us with the death and Tour resurrection of Jesus, making us members of his risen Body.

Each time I celebrate Easter my imagination carries me to Jerusalem and to the many times I have prayed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The original church was built by the Emperor Constantine over the place where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. Its authenticity is continually supported by historians, biblical scholars and archaeologists. It is a most sacred place where Christians of all traditions come on pilgrimage. Like me, so many visitors and pilgrims are drawn to the Holy Sepulchre because of its power and sanctity which seeps out of the walls. Happy Easter to everyone.

Book Reviews

“Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death” by M C Beaton

(Continued from March edition)

The door which you see in the corner leads to a very narrow spiral within the thickness of the turret and which some people find claustrophobic. The steps are narrow, and you have to use your toes! This is Something a bit frothier this month as we meet probably the hardest climb for that reason, and I tend to arrive at the next chamber where the bells are hung Agatha Raisin , former proprietor of a flourishing just a bit short of breath. Fortunately, most people climb slower than I, and I have a second or two to breathe PR company in London and recently retired to a hard and snatch a mouthful of water from the bottle I always carry. cottage in the heavenly Cotswold village of Carsley. Although not quite so heavenly, Agatha Salisbury Cathedral does not have a peal of bells as you would find, for instance, at Winchester. The reason finds! Agatha has the social skills of a cabbage, is that the medieval bells were hung in a separate bell tower, which stood, with its own spire reaching two and the villagers view her with hostility and hundred feet, very close to where the Bell Tower Restaurant now stands. The Bell Tower was neglected distaste. Her unpopularity is enhanced when she for many years, ruined in the Civil War and demolished by Wyatt in the 1789-90 restoration. In enters a local produce show with a shop-bought consequence the bells in the tower only sound the Westminster chimes and the hour bell, the single object spinach quiche (cheating), which is subsequently rescued from the demolished Bell Tower rings the hours. The bells are not hung, as you would expect in a poisoned and consumed by an eminent villager belfry, upside down because they are not swung, which might stress the tower, rather they are struck by who is tragically found dead behind his sofa. hammers operated through levers and pullies by the clock lower down.

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Suspicion falls on our heroine, who sets our to prove her innocence.....

Not a book of great literary merit but who cares? It is well written and entertaining, as it wanders along leafy Cotswolds lanes and through picturesque villages and a handsome gentleman moves in next door......

And………………

Victorian set of bells which ring the Westminster chimes

Reviewed by Gabriel Gamble aged 6.

The best thing about this book is that you can change the animal and make your own random animals, because the pages are divided into three parts; the head, the middle and the tail.

Some of the animals are a platypus, a Ruby- Topaz bird and an alligator. So you could have the head of a platypus, the tummy of a Ruby-Topaz bird and the tail of an alligator. And you can read all about the animals.

Poetry Please

Three poems this month. The first is from Sheila Wade and connects with her article on gardening Ancient bell from the old tower re-cast in Restoration. below.

The Easter Lily by Guy Wetmore Carryl There was an 18C fire in this part of the tower, extinguished by the A beautiful but sad poem, and I always think of citizens of the town who probably Christina Rossetti’s work when I read it.If you haven’t come across the American poet (and formed a bucket chain to get water humourist) Carryl, he’s worth a try. I particularly from the Avon up to the Tower in enjoy his series “Fables for the Frivolous” order to put out the blaze. According published in 1898. to the then Clerk of the Works, they were not a moment too soon or the These Aesop-style fables are written in verse and fire would certainly have brought the are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two whole edifice down. A charred centuries before, each one ending with a moral and timber preserves the memory of the a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables event. are The Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, and The Another open wooden spiral takes Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven. you to the final level, called ‘Eight Easter Lily Doors’ because it has, well, eight doors, in the shape of a double set A little child, as winter turned to spring, facing each of the main points of the Tended a lily- with patient care, compass; but reaching this level, the first thing you will be struck by, possibly literally if you don’t mind Thinking, when she should see it blossoming, your head, is the amazing and enigmatic medieval scaffolding rising from the floor to the very tip of the To set it on the chancel-step; that there, spire. When Easter dawned on Lent, the spotless thing Might on the feast-day be her offering, Lifting its own white face to One more fair.

But, as the plant grew upward day by day, Raising itself from earth towards the sky,

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So seemed the child from earth to draw away, The while she feared to see the lily die; Unthinking that, ere broke the Easter ray, She might her own white soul before Him lay For Whom she sought the flower to sanctify.

Time passed. The lily bloomed not; and the night Before the feast had come. And so the child Sent to the church the cherished plant, despite 'T was but an unblown bud; and--reconciled That on the altar-step, midst flowers white, Her poor green stalk watched out the silent flight Of hours until the morn--contented smiled.

Fair broke the dawn upon the altar's hem Of lilies, breathing Easter greeting sweet; But, with the night that so perfected them, The child's own spirit fled, the Light to meet Beyond the heaven's roseate diadem; And, with the morning, bloomed upon the stem The fair, white soul her own had longed to greet!

Well, you can’t let a Spring go by without resorting to this one! Full of exuberance! In every anthology, but never seems to pall or revert to cliche

Home Thoughts from Abroad The exact purpose of the scaffolding is something of a mystery. When I first saw it, it seemed obvious that Oh, to be in England it was the scaffolding used to build from, but, apparently, analysis of the wood suggests a later date than Now that April's there, the stonework, so it might have been put in as a stabilising measure a few years later following a series of And whoever wakes in England notable storms. Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Of course, all this stuff – wood, metal and stone – had to be got up there in the first place and, luckily, the Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, builders left us their means of doing that in the shape of a massive windlass, big enough for a man to walk While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough in and capable of bringing up several tons of material from the nave floor. In England - now! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge Leans to the field and scatters on the clover Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge - That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, All will be gay when noontide wakes anew The buttercups, the little children's dower - Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning

And I have this fragment of Chaucer still by heart from “The Poets’ Company” our ‘O’ Level anthology. It is a brilliant evocation of Spring and new beginnings – the best I know! Eight Doors is as far as we can take you. If you wanted to go higher and were a steeplejack, then you have to take to a series of ladders, with safety equipment, and pass through various levels before you reach the The Prologue (Opening lines) point where things get even more interesting. As the spire narrows, you become unable to climb higher because your shoulders are too wide. The medieval builders thought of this and left a convenient hatch, Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote called The Weather Door (probably because it faces North), so you can clamber outside and continue your The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, climb there on a set of metal rungs cemented into the stonework. After hauling yourself up something over And bathed evry veyne in swich liquor thirty feet you finally reach the top where you can stand on a tiny platform to change the light or service Of which vertu engendred is the flour; the anemometer. Not for the faint hearted, and definitely not me! Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth For ordinary mortals, the final treat is to open the doors to the three sides we can access (that to the South Inspired hath in every holt and heeth Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne is sacrosanct, occupied by the Peregrines) and enjoy the splendid views over the town and countryside.

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Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Geoffrey Chaucer

(I have a ‘modernised’ version, but they never match the original! This gem of English poetry is pretty much contemporary with SalisburyCathedral tower, which made it seem to me appropriate. Ed.)

Easter Gardening

Soon after we are reading this publication, we View to the East. Bishop's School and St Osmund's Church centre will be celebrating Easter. So, I thought it the right time to write about one of my favourite flowers and one closely associated with and the Resurrection, and that is the lily.

The pure-white lily has come to represent Easter. There is of course a vast and beautiful Looking West over flooding in December 2019 variety of colours and types of lilies, but the

Easter lily is unique in its meaning in relation to the resurrection of Jesus. Easter lilies have a distinct trumpet shape, which signifies the proclamation of Jesus’s triumph over death at the resurrection. The white of the Easter lily symbolizes rebirth and purity. And a popular legend says that in the Garden of Gethsemane, lilies sprung up from the drops of blood that Jesus sweated during His agony.

However, the lily that we generally use in churches as the traditional symbol of Easter is not very traditional at all.

Lilium longiflorum, known as the Easter lily, is actually a native of Japan from the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, and the islands of Okinawa, Amani and Erabu. The flowers were introduced to England in 1819 and into the United States in the 1880’s. There it was first grown on the west coast of the United States and in , where it is known as Back to the beginning! Where it all began – Old Sarum, the site of the original city. (200mm lens) to the North. the Bermudan lily. These lilies became very popular because, in addition to the pure white Imagine the white castle on top, the old Cathedral behind and all the grass cleaned off the ramparts to of their blooms, they could be forced into expose the white glaring chalk which the clergy objected to on the grounds that it ‘hurt’ their eyes. bloom at Eastertime. Remember Bishop Osmund was an academic and had established a library and scriptorium where ancient works by the Church Fathers were copied and preserved. Some, we think, in Osmund’s own hand still The Madonna lily (scientific name exist! candidum) has a much longer cultivation

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pedigree in the western world. The Madonna (Post script: I have just heard today that our tower-resident peregrines have started to lay – two eggs so far. Lily may come from the Balkans and the You will find them on webcam if you go to the Cathedral website. The South balcony is reserved for them, Middle East, but it has become a plant of and that is why you only get the three directional views above.) legend and mystery around the world and has been in cultivation for centuries. In 1,550 BC, (Chris Basham) references are made to a plant identified as Lilium candidum. It appears in the famous 'Prince of the Lilies' fresco which adorned the Minoan palace of Knossos. Many other names are used for this lovely plant The Anni Rosler Letters including White Lily, French Lily, Annunciation Lily, St Joseph’s Lily, Bourbon A letter from Germany to Scotland dated July 12th 1950 Lily and numerous other names in many Addressed to:- Miss Isa Macnab, Stenhousemuir, Sandbank, Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland languages: a very popular plant indeed, and From:- Anni Rosler, Schulstrasse 6 D, Wilthen, Oberlausitz, Saxony, Germany. with great symbolism for humankind. Dear Isa

Your parcel came as a great surprise to me. Thank you ever so much for sending me all those useful and in this zone of G. unobtainable things. My mother was very pleased to get the dark blue knickers and the woollen vest. I kept the fine pink knickers, and the problem who gets the (morning) dressing gown (we call it Morgenrock) is still to be decided as both of us want to have it !! The nice summer skirt is a little too short for me, and so I shall give it to my cousin’s girl who is fourteen. My cousin was very rich, he owned a large cotton and silk ribbon factory, but he was disowned and driven from his house in Sudetenland. Now they are as poor as church mice (as we say). My cousin died with grief and hunger two years ago, his wife and children went to West Germany. But they are very bad off, as their maintainer is dead and they are deprived of all their once so rich belongings. My cousin Anne is a very brave woman. I already gave several of your gifts to my cousin’s girl. I cannot give anything to my cousin herself, because they are very tall. The youngest son is 1.97 m tall (30.480cm = 1 foot), that is about 6 ½ feet. My cousin was also very tall. I am so glad to have got the dark blue silk dress. We never get any summer nor real woollen materials to buy. I have an old dress which was so short that I did not like to wear it any longer. Fortunately it is the same colour as the dress you gave me, and so I had the two dresses combined. However, the Madonna lily is a Everybody admires me in the ‘new’ dress! temperamental grower and does not like to be Thank God my mother is keeping a little better now, but she cannot work, as she is so weak. She forced into bloom, which is why it is not as wants nourishing food, which we cannot afford to buy. commonly used these days in church I am glad to hear that my sister sent you a letter thanking you for the parcel. But I wonder if she decoration at Easter time. wrote it herself as she does not know English. Besides, she has been ill for months. She was taken from hospital to hospital without being cured, as the doctors cannot find the cause of her ill health. My sister The Madonna lily is closely associated with nearly despairs, she has lost all hope of recovery. the Virgin Mary. The archangel Gabriel is ………………………………… often portrayed as presenting Mary with a lily Anni at the Annunciation, and her acceptance of the flower is a visual representation of her acceptance of her role. Prior to the introduction of the Easter lily (Lily Growing up in Fordingbridge longiflorum), the Madonna lily was the one known to most Western artists from mediaeval times, and therefore this is the flower seen in portraits and statues in our art My family moved from Parkstone in 1948 to live with my Grandmother at 8 Albion Road (later changed to 15) My galleries and museums. two brothers Bob and Philip and I went to the Fordingbridge Primary School. I became Red House Captain and Head Prefect for my last two years. I left school in December and they opened the new Burgate Secondary school They are both beautiful flowers with great in the January. symbolism, but do be careful with all lily I have fond memories of going up into the woods in the flowers as the pollen is toxic, particularly to morning and not coming back till dinner time. We also . jumped off the “Big bridge” into the river. My brother Bob and I invested in a two-seater canvas canoe and got chased by (Sheila Wade) the gamekeepers a couple of times while fishing. I also made friends with Leonard and had a lot of fun playing in the Bicton Mill. David (Archie) Strowger and I would take our The Invisible Times cars down to Bicton in later years and wash them with water from the river. Invisibility. Many people for diverse reasons have from time to time desired this. Indeed, Scientists At 14 I had saved enough money from being a paper boy to buy a drop handlebar bicycle which gave me freedom to have over many years dabbled with the idea of travel to lots of different locations. I had a three speed Sturmey Archer rear hub gear and envied the riders riding producing it. Amazing, then to discover that I Time Trials with their derailleur gears down the A338 on a Sunday morning. Little did I know that later in life I have attained this desirable state with very little would be doing the same thing in Canada. effort on my part. I consulted no illustrious wizard, used no mystical ingredient, not even a On one occasion I came flying round Bank corner and a furniture van had the tailgate down and I ended up in the magic spell. There was no golden chariot to back of the van. It cost me a pound for new front forks. convey me in this odd state to an exotic destination. Just a National Express coach When I was 12 I fell out of a tree getting conkers and had to have a cast put on in Salisbury. When Mum took me travelling to Cornwall! back to get the cast off, she took me to the pictures to see “Macbeth”. I had nightmares for a few nights after that experience. I first became aware of my altered condition when assisting a disabled blind person to board this Father took me in the Greyhound for my first pint. Mr Basham asked Dad if I was 16 and he said yes (I was six vehicle. The well unholstered able-bodied lady months younger), then he beat me at darts and made me pay for the second round. surely would not have pushed by to hog the front seat as we struggled further back if she had been Leaving school at 15, I applied for an Apprenticeship in the RAF. After a weekend of tests and physicals in

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able to see us. However, I was not aware then that Hertfordshire they offered me a Boy Entrant position. I talked it over with my Father and he said why not look for a we not visible to the eye, which was probably the job at a civilian Aircraft company. I was accepted at Vickers Armstrong at Hurn as a Craft Apprentice (at two guineas cause of her confusion when my elbow a week!). In the meantime, I went to work on a Farm in Martin. I cycled there six days a week and started at 7am. I inadvertently tipped her hat over her face. For really enjoyed it and became very fit. Father subsidized my payment of ten shillings a week for me to go with guys some obscure, scientific reason the driver was able in a car-pool to Hurn. Finally, at 18, Vickers had a huge redundancy and let 2,000 people go one Friday. Now they to discern our presence and we were glad of his were left with all these apprentices, they asked if any were willing to leave home. Five of us went for an interview help when alighting, jostled by people who at English Electric in Stevenage; we were hired and two weeks later set off on three motor bikes. evidently did not share his gift. Coming up to 80 years old, living in Canada, I have fond memories of Fordingbridge (my wife calls me a child of The next evidence of our invisible status was the New Forest). The Internet has allowed me to contact many of my old school friends and when I visit confirmed as the two Hotel receptionists finished Fordingbridge we all meet at the “George” I buy the drinks and still do but they’ve all switched from alcohol to tea. their long conversation of irrelevancies before, However, it’s great to catch up with all the gossip and reminisce about our school days. somehow, becoming aware of a ghostly presence patiently waiting. The could, however, see our (George Shepperdley – George now lives at Brampton, West of Toronto in Canada. We meet up here and there and fourpieces of luggage and enquired if I could I am still drinking beer! Ed.) manage them (as well as guiding my friend). On being appraised of the negative the cases were then reluctantly conveyed to our room. Perhaps the puzzled expression on the woman’s face could be explained by the fact that the tip was also invisible. Rohingya in Bangladesh Cookery Corner There were more surprises to come in this otherwise charming West Country resort. In 2017 there began a massive migration of Unfortunately, we had occasion to buy some 723,000 Rohingya people into Bangladesh from shoes. We tried four shops, some bearing neighbouring Myanmar, where they were Warsaw Beetroot Cake experiencing persecution. They are living in a respected names and selling superior footwear. number of refugee camps all close together. The Not none of these establishments could be 150g cooked beetroot – roughly chopped largest of these camps has over 600,000 people persuaded to measure the feet of my blind and 100ml oil making it the largest in the world. All together handicapped companion, even when I explained 200g soft brown sugar there are now about a million refugees living in that he was unable to tell me if his feet were 200g self raising flour that area. comfortable. ½ teaspoon each of baking powder and bicarbonate of soda

25g cocoa Caritas Bangladesh is being supported in part by ‘We don’t do that’ ‘We have nothing to measure 1 teaspoon vanilla essence CAFOD to provide relief to these refugees. with’ ‘We can’t help’ 200ml soured cream or yoghurt 'Caritas' means 'love' so their efforts have been to 125g dark chocolate – chopped help by respecting their dignity, safety and I couldn’t help noticing that no-one seemed to care ………………………………………………………………… protection. The Rohingyas are a dynamic and much either, or even make any attempt to solve Blend beetroot, oil and sugar until pureed proactive group of people with interesting our problem. Neither were they interested to learn Sieve dry ingredients and fold into puree backgrounds. There are teachers, carpenters, that this service was obtainable in our home town Add vanilla essence, cream/yoghurt and chocolate – mix well electricians, shop owners and it was important that as a matter of course. Eventually, we bought Place in tin/cup cases – smooth top – bake 45 minutes (25 they were not to become passive aid recipients sandals and prayed that Cornwall would spare us minutes for cup cases) on gas no.4 (350f) sitting in camps but, instead, to be given support from a deluge. Frosting (3 suggestions for spreading on top of cooled cake):- to take an active part in their lives. 1. 150g cream cheese + 50g softened butter + 75g icing

Perhaps by now I should have learned a lesson. sugar So, for example, working with local Caritas The persons afflicted with invisibility should not 2. Mascarpone mixed with a little icing sugar workers the refugees have learned the skills to expect to receive the same service as those who 3. Cream ganache (for a touch of chocolate indulgence!) - build their own shelters, build bridges, pathways, could be easily seen. Maybe I was lulled in Boil 120ml double cream in a jug – add 110g chocolate – stir retaining walls and dig drainage trenches so the complacency by the kind cheerful helpfulness of after 1 minute until smooth rainwater can run off the slopes. They have had Chris, the taxi driver, who had no problems at all Sprinkle cocoa on top of any of the above help to install solar streetlights, toilets and bathing in locating us, who indeed, went out of his way to places in the camps. make our much-needed holiday a happy one. Safe places for children to play and learn are After one enjoyable afternoon when we had provided, as is support for women. somehow managed to maintain visibility, I was tricked into a false sense of security and tried to When Coronavirus struck the camps were closed obtain some drinks at the Hotel bar. That was a very promptly so no one could go in or out apart mistake! The magic curtain had obviously from essential things like food and medical help. become quite dense again. What other explanation could there be for the barmaid to jump in fright when I rapped hard on the counter with a convenient ashtray and thus interrupted her absorbing conversation about a pop star!

Being invisible in the dining room had its advantages. While waiting for meals, it was quite illuminating to watch the staff and amusing to discover that a few of the other guests had become infected by our mystical state. These tended to be those travelling alone or who had the misfortune (Janet Arden) to be seated near, but not with, the various groups This proactive approach worked and the spread of who frequently used the Hotel for their meals. the virus was delayed for long enough for Studying character is always a joy for one who CAFOD and partner Caritas Bangladesh to writes and the dining room proved a rich seam of prepare a comprehensive plan to put in place. For End Bits interest. One such I delighted to observe from afar example they repaired about three hundred wells was the maître d’. Nothing had prepared me for in advance to ensure water for hygiene and hand the pleasure of studying this gentleman. As he washing. They were able to provide awareness Thanks, as always, to all contributors. They come from far and oiled his way across the floor I became convinced sessions on the importance of hand hygiene and wide – Lincoln to the East this time and Canada to the West. that I had met him before. As he couldn’t see us, hand washing to thousands of refugees and are still Then we have the locals: our hardy annual Sheila Wade, Penny I obviously had no opportunity to enquire which doing that now. Sharp and Helen Eales. Some of you, I know, dig stuff up that was just as well because in a blinding flash I others have written as well as writing yourselves. I am eternally realized the truth of his identity. We had met Richard Sloman, grateful to David Saunders for the ‘Anni’ letters which have previously……………in the pages of a book. CAFOD’s Programme Officer for Bangladesh, given us such an insight into life in Germany before and after There he was, in the flesh, bowing obsequiously says Bangladesh is a very resilient nation. They the War and have, I think, genuine historical value, although

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to the Captain of the Champion Bowling Team. have faced floods and cyclones over the years but the end of the series is now in sight and I am looking for Uriah Heep himself! I was stunned. Not only had their economy is gradually improving and they are something to replace them. Our thanks too, for the excellent I achieved invisibility but here was one of my able to put into place schemes to protect their writing from Margaret Fraser. favourite characters. I wondered if I would be people from these disasters. able to contain my amusement should this My appetite, of course, is insatiable! Please, if you have not unctuous person approach our table. No such CAFOD has helped to build some Cyclone contributed (or if you have) think of something you could introspection was necessary! In fact, on this our Shelters where people are taken when a cyclone share. Send in a letter! Find a poem that means something to last night not one waitress was possessed of threatens and there are plaques on the walls you. Patricularly, I would love stuff from younger people, psychic ability and therefore we waited……and acknowledging the source of the funding. Richard whom I cannot believe have nothing to share or say. Stir us up waited. says he visits these areas that have benefitted from a bit – and there is no younger age limit! our help and they always say: "Please, please say A fellow traveller at an adjacent table, who was thank you to the people that have given money on Easter is upon us again, and I hope it is going to be less locked obviously a regular guest, remarked to me as he behalf of CAFOD. It really does make a huge down than last time. Remember? It didn’t happen! made his way to the bar, that we appeared to have difference." been waiting for a very long time. I thanked him Happy Easter from the entire team! for his concern and explained that for a travel (Helen Eales) writer, even Chris. one taking a much- And these people are back in the news today, their needed rest, camp in Bangladesh having been totally destroyed all these by fire. Their suffering doesn’t just go on, it gets situations worse! (Ed) were of interest. He wished me goodnight and departed. I looked at my watch. In exactly sixty- nine seconds, Uriah Heep manifested himself at our table. I fought to sustain a solemn face as he bowed several times and wrung his hands frantically as he greeted us as though we Daffodils at Lincoln. (Photo J Arden) had just arrived. He was closely followed by two waitresses who produced menus and well pasted on smiles. It was quite difficult to enjoy a meal attended by frequent visits from the genuflecting Uriah, who, having been appraised of our existence found it impossible to leave us alone for more than a few minutes. Even when assured that ‘Madam found everything to her satisfaction’ he still hovered like an attendant moth to a flame.

My advice to anyone travelling, should you find yourself afflicted by the same scourge of invisibility. A gentle leg pull often obtains surprising results!

(Margaret Fraser)

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