Following the HCPT pilgrimage to Lourdes during Easter Week
with a 10k race on Low Sunday almost immdiately after returning home,
is not perhaps the best race preparation.
This year I took the 57 bus to the start.
Many others in the race had had the same idea so the atmosphere
in the packed bus on the journey there was one of conviviality with much sharing
of previous race and marathon tales. Dan from nearby flats on Worple
Road had arranged for his fiance and friends to breakfast on their balcony
and cheer him on as the race progessed passed their flat on the route.
Brother John and nephew Leo were also among the competitors.
The race was spirited and well stewarded and towards the end
the sun shone - a great change from the week of rain in Lourdes.
Alas my time at c. 56 minutes was not as sunny as last year's 51+ minutes.
Congratulations to John and Leo on their c. 54 and 53 minutes.
Family pride has salved by my 2007
maytrees' record remaining unbroken.
Family breakfast at Wimbledon Common's Windmill tea rooms
was an ideal post race treat.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
HCPT Group 35 in 2008
Some instant but random jottings:
The death of an old friend and cofounder of HCPT Group 35
after the 2007 pilgrimage made this years especially one for
times of contemplation.
Rained every day - first time in over 40 years of pilgimaging
with the HCPT that I can remember so much rain during Easter week.
The 3 of us who are aged c.59 were far older than the other helpers in
the group - which made for much invigorating mental gymnastics at times.
Spontaneous singing of popular music (including James Sit Down, one of my favs.)
with guitar accompaniement at a faded French cafe
in Lourdes old town was as popular with some local Frenchmen proping up
the bar as it was with Group 35 children and helpers.
Collecting transfers for the circular disc necklaces to confirm
visits to the baptistry, the hospital the Cachot and the Grotto
was much fun in the rain, but whereas in England the roads
around one (Le Cachot) of the places likely to be visited by millions
during this 150th anniversary of the apparitions, might be dug up
and almost impassable by walkers let alone wheelchairs, its building site like
atmosphere was a surprise in France.
All the Groups children and helpers gelled brilliantly together as group
this year without mishap.
Much learning love prayers tears and singing were had by all.
A vintage year - for which many thanks to all.
The death of an old friend and cofounder of HCPT Group 35
after the 2007 pilgrimage made this years especially one for
times of contemplation.
Rained every day - first time in over 40 years of pilgimaging
with the HCPT that I can remember so much rain during Easter week.
The 3 of us who are aged c.59 were far older than the other helpers in
the group - which made for much invigorating mental gymnastics at times.
Spontaneous singing of popular music (including James Sit Down, one of my favs.)
with guitar accompaniement at a faded French cafe
in Lourdes old town was as popular with some local Frenchmen proping up
the bar as it was with Group 35 children and helpers.
Collecting transfers for the circular disc necklaces to confirm
visits to the baptistry, the hospital the Cachot and the Grotto
was much fun in the rain, but whereas in England the roads
around one (Le Cachot) of the places likely to be visited by millions
during this 150th anniversary of the apparitions, might be dug up
and almost impassable by walkers let alone wheelchairs, its building site like
atmosphere was a surprise in France.
All the Groups children and helpers gelled brilliantly together as group
this year without mishap.
Much learning love prayers tears and singing were had by all.
A vintage year - for which many thanks to all.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Bishops' Tales
Sometimes actions by Catholic Bishops or more likely their admin staff, are frustratingly opaque and not apparently geared to the needs of their faithful.
One such action that comes to mind at present is a decision by an English diocese
to oppose the use of the charitable "Justgiving" donations website,
on the grounds that it encourages charitable givers to use their
credit cards so risk increasing personal debt levels. This is
to some extent limiting my own small effort to raise cash for
the local parish by raising sponsorship for running in the Wimbledon
10k race on Sunday March 30th 2008. A silly restriction really
especially as local branches of Sainsbury's and Tescos will
no longer take cheques even for food purchases. A bit patronising too
in my humble opinion.
But it's easy to criticise yet there are also some huge
actions of, by or affecting, Bishops worth shouting their praises
about from the roof tops.
Take the following:
1. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador:
...Was murdered on
24th March 1980. He witnessed violations of human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. Chosen as archbishop for his conservatism, once in office he embraced a nonviolent form of liberation theology, a position which led to comparisons with Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 1980, he was assassinated by El Salvadoran government troops as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass. This provoked international outcry for reform in El Salvador. (Wikepedia)
2.Archbishop of Mosul Iraq:
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's body (Iraq's kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop) has been found near the northern city of Mosul, prompting warnings of a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted on February 29 2008 shortly after leaving Mass in Mosul, in what the Pope described as an "abominable" act. The three people who were with him were killed by the kidnappers. (Times)
3. Cardinal O'Brien of Glasgow:
"...The beliefs which we have previously held, and the standards by which we have lived throughout our lives and by which Christians have lived for the past 2,000 years, are being challenged at this present time in ways in which they have never been challenged before!
The norm has always been that children have been born as the result of the love of man and woman in the unity of a marriage.
That belief has, of course, long been challenged.
However I believe that a greater challenge than that even faces us - the possibility now facing our country is that animal-human embryos be produced with the excuse that perhaps certain diseases might find a cure from these resulting embryos.
'Hideous practices'
What I am speaking of is the process whereby scientists create an embryo containing a mixture of animal and human genetic material.
If I were preaching this homily in France, Germany, Italy, Canada or Australia I would be commending the government for rightly banning such grotesque procedures.
However here in Great Britain I am forced to condemn our government for not only permitting but encouraging such hideous practices.
Our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has given the government's support to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
It is difficult to imagine a single piece of legislation which, more comprehensively, attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life than this particular bill.
With full might of government endorsement, Gordon Brown is promoting a bill that will allow the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos... " (Extract from Cardinal O'Brien's Easter 2008 sermon)
Our Bishops may not be perfect but their willingness to die or speak out
for their - our - Faith is a mark of the presence of the Holy Spirit imho.
One such action that comes to mind at present is a decision by an English diocese
to oppose the use of the charitable "Justgiving" donations website,
on the grounds that it encourages charitable givers to use their
credit cards so risk increasing personal debt levels. This is
to some extent limiting my own small effort to raise cash for
the local parish by raising sponsorship for running in the Wimbledon
10k race on Sunday March 30th 2008. A silly restriction really
especially as local branches of Sainsbury's and Tescos will
no longer take cheques even for food purchases. A bit patronising too
in my humble opinion.
But it's easy to criticise yet there are also some huge
actions of, by or affecting, Bishops worth shouting their praises
about from the roof tops.
Take the following:
1. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador:
...Was murdered on
24th March 1980. He witnessed violations of human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. Chosen as archbishop for his conservatism, once in office he embraced a nonviolent form of liberation theology, a position which led to comparisons with Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. In 1980, he was assassinated by El Salvadoran government troops as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass. This provoked international outcry for reform in El Salvador. (Wikepedia)
2.Archbishop of Mosul Iraq:
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's body (Iraq's kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop) has been found near the northern city of Mosul, prompting warnings of a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was abducted on February 29 2008 shortly after leaving Mass in Mosul, in what the Pope described as an "abominable" act. The three people who were with him were killed by the kidnappers. (Times)
3. Cardinal O'Brien of Glasgow:
"...The beliefs which we have previously held, and the standards by which we have lived throughout our lives and by which Christians have lived for the past 2,000 years, are being challenged at this present time in ways in which they have never been challenged before!
The norm has always been that children have been born as the result of the love of man and woman in the unity of a marriage.
That belief has, of course, long been challenged.
However I believe that a greater challenge than that even faces us - the possibility now facing our country is that animal-human embryos be produced with the excuse that perhaps certain diseases might find a cure from these resulting embryos.
'Hideous practices'
What I am speaking of is the process whereby scientists create an embryo containing a mixture of animal and human genetic material.
If I were preaching this homily in France, Germany, Italy, Canada or Australia I would be commending the government for rightly banning such grotesque procedures.
However here in Great Britain I am forced to condemn our government for not only permitting but encouraging such hideous practices.
Our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has given the government's support to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
It is difficult to imagine a single piece of legislation which, more comprehensively, attacks the sanctity and dignity of human life than this particular bill.
With full might of government endorsement, Gordon Brown is promoting a bill that will allow the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos... " (Extract from Cardinal O'Brien's Easter 2008 sermon)
Our Bishops may not be perfect but their willingness to die or speak out
for their - our - Faith is a mark of the presence of the Holy Spirit imho.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Vauxhall Thames and House - Part II
(River Thames from Pimlico Gardens, London SW1
image courtesy of Creative Copyright)
Coincidentally a few days after my first post about the mysterious
fortified looking building on the extended Thameside path
at the northwest side of Vauxhall Bridge, I struck up a conversation
with a friendly gate keeper.
He told me that the building is a London home of the Sultan of Brunei.
That surprised me as HE is known to have a home elsewhere in London - Kensington
comes to mind.
Apparently the Sultan visits the Pimlico Gardens House
barely twice a year and so it is rumoured
has a retinue of
armed guards in residence for when he does. The place is spruced up for
HE's visits but otherwise maintains its impressive anonimity.
It had been on the market for £40m apparently. The wealth sounds
attractive as is the House, but the need for guards, whether
armed or not, would be a huge price to pay - too high for me anyway.
The Sultan's home looks attractive though I do not like
his acres of net curtains. The building's architecture
though modern, is in keeping in size and design, with both the
nearby traditional Pimlico Stucco buildings and the adjacent modern
riverside flats. That is far more than can
be said for the Red Ken approved flats opposite on the Thames South side
at Vauxhall though the new Youngs riverside pub there is worth a visit.
The gate keeper who was locking up when we chatted, told me that
on one occasion when some council tree fellers lopped off a
tree branch which fell into the Sultan's garden, the commotion
there, caused presumably by armed guards tooling up for action,
was quite a laugh.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Sub Prime Lenders and Insurers
"At last" I thought, after 25 years of repayments, the maytrees' mortgage was due to be paid off in February 2008.
Do the insurance companies and banks who were only too glad
to lend the money in the first place and take the repayments with profits
for the following 25 years, make it easy for us to sign off and become the full
owners of our small chunk of real estate in SW20? Alas, an emphatic "no", is the answer to that question.
The insurers waited until year 24, before issuing dire warnings about only paying far less than the v. attractive lump sums they forcast 25 years ago. They then created huge amounts of red tape and delays before actually paying anything over to the bank.
The bank's reaction was, instead
of simply giving our lawyers a simple note of the balance required to clear the
mortgage after receiving the smaller than predicted lump sum from the insurers,
to send a silly letter to mrs maytrees and I, talking about a c.£2k mortgage repayment shortfall, for which they were setting up a
monthly repayment amount of £11.
I wonder how many years trying to repay £2k at £11 a month would take to pay off and how much profit on that would accrue to the bank?
With all the talk of credit squeeze and people borrowing too much,
why is trying to repay made so difficult? Are there too many vested interests
keen to keep indebtedness as high as possible?
There must be.
Do the insurance companies and banks who were only too glad
to lend the money in the first place and take the repayments with profits
for the following 25 years, make it easy for us to sign off and become the full
owners of our small chunk of real estate in SW20? Alas, an emphatic "no", is the answer to that question.
The insurers waited until year 24, before issuing dire warnings about only paying far less than the v. attractive lump sums they forcast 25 years ago. They then created huge amounts of red tape and delays before actually paying anything over to the bank.
The bank's reaction was, instead
of simply giving our lawyers a simple note of the balance required to clear the
mortgage after receiving the smaller than predicted lump sum from the insurers,
to send a silly letter to mrs maytrees and I, talking about a c.£2k mortgage repayment shortfall, for which they were setting up a
monthly repayment amount of £11.
I wonder how many years trying to repay £2k at £11 a month would take to pay off and how much profit on that would accrue to the bank?
With all the talk of credit squeeze and people borrowing too much,
why is trying to repay made so difficult? Are there too many vested interests
keen to keep indebtedness as high as possible?
There must be.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Vauxhall Thames Path and House
The Victoria line tube at Vauxhall takes forever to access from
from London SWTrains overground station. Also during the interminable
climb down steps and escalators to the tube, the ears are assailed by incessant
tannoy announcements and canned classical music so I invariably walk
across Vauxhall Bridge and on to the day job office.
Over the years the walk has improved. On the SouthEast side a derelict bulding site
was developed into the new MI5/MI6 HQ. On the SW side the huge dust bowl of a coach
and lorry park, was then developed into modern flats. The architecture
of both developments is not pleasing to the eye (mine anyway) but at
least the area is crisper and cleaner to stroll through. A new bus
station with what appears to be a rocket launcher for a roof
replaced some of the hideous roads in the centre of Vauxhall
Cross. A while later and the creation of new bus lanes had the
unintended effect of moving most of the rush of cars and vans
away from the W.side pavement thus making the bridge a tiny bit less
of a hassle to walk across.
The main improvements took place on
the North side however. Gradually housing developments
mostly quite good, replaced derelict wharfs and storehouses on the NW side
and a new Thameside footpath was created. For the last few years
this path though very attractive, has been frustratingly short with
the result that people on the N side walking west,
have been decanted back to the very busy, congestion
charge exempt embankment after a scenic
couple of hundred yards walk. During those years a stand alone building
was being constructed adjacent to the river just past yet
another nice-ish new development of riverside flats.
The function of the stand alone building is shrouded
in mystery. No nameplates or identifying signs of any kind are
to be found on it. Any embassy or company using it
for an HQ would doubtless be keen to show off their presence
with brass plates or flags. Any normal UK government
department or police or QUANGO would do the same. Yet
there are none of those trappings nor any sale boards etc.
Instead the site is surrounded by high brick walls and CCTV
cameras abound as well. The building does not seem to house
apartments/flats.
For years then I had assumed that the Thames path's westward
direction at that point would remain curtailed. However
a few days ago without any fanfare, I found one lunchtime, the usually
heavily barred gate at the Pimlico Gardens end open.
Walking back along the path eastwards for the first time,
it became apparent that the
length of the path accessible to the public had just about
been doubled in size enabling the whole of the Embankment's
traffic at that area to be avoided by pedestrians.
The stand alone building is as mysterious
and as well protected from the riverside
however as from the road. There appears to be a single occupancy
of some kind and although I'd
hesitate to say "fortified", one would need to be pretty
determined to break in.
To be able to walk Thameside virtually from Vauxhall in the S to Pimlico
Gardens in the N, is one of those changes which almost
imperceptibly, improves the quality of everyday life - just a little.
from London SWTrains overground station. Also during the interminable
climb down steps and escalators to the tube, the ears are assailed by incessant
tannoy announcements and canned classical music so I invariably walk
across Vauxhall Bridge and on to the day job office.
Over the years the walk has improved. On the SouthEast side a derelict bulding site
was developed into the new MI5/MI6 HQ. On the SW side the huge dust bowl of a coach
and lorry park, was then developed into modern flats. The architecture
of both developments is not pleasing to the eye (mine anyway) but at
least the area is crisper and cleaner to stroll through. A new bus
station with what appears to be a rocket launcher for a roof
replaced some of the hideous roads in the centre of Vauxhall
Cross. A while later and the creation of new bus lanes had the
unintended effect of moving most of the rush of cars and vans
away from the W.side pavement thus making the bridge a tiny bit less
of a hassle to walk across.
The main improvements took place on
the North side however. Gradually housing developments
mostly quite good, replaced derelict wharfs and storehouses on the NW side
and a new Thameside footpath was created. For the last few years
this path though very attractive, has been frustratingly short with
the result that people on the N side walking west,
have been decanted back to the very busy, congestion
charge exempt embankment after a scenic
couple of hundred yards walk. During those years a stand alone building
was being constructed adjacent to the river just past yet
another nice-ish new development of riverside flats.
The function of the stand alone building is shrouded
in mystery. No nameplates or identifying signs of any kind are
to be found on it. Any embassy or company using it
for an HQ would doubtless be keen to show off their presence
with brass plates or flags. Any normal UK government
department or police or QUANGO would do the same. Yet
there are none of those trappings nor any sale boards etc.
Instead the site is surrounded by high brick walls and CCTV
cameras abound as well. The building does not seem to house
apartments/flats.
For years then I had assumed that the Thames path's westward
direction at that point would remain curtailed. However
a few days ago without any fanfare, I found one lunchtime, the usually
heavily barred gate at the Pimlico Gardens end open.
Walking back along the path eastwards for the first time,
it became apparent that the
length of the path accessible to the public had just about
been doubled in size enabling the whole of the Embankment's
traffic at that area to be avoided by pedestrians.
The stand alone building is as mysterious
and as well protected from the riverside
however as from the road. There appears to be a single occupancy
of some kind and although I'd
hesitate to say "fortified", one would need to be pretty
determined to break in.
To be able to walk Thameside virtually from Vauxhall in the S to Pimlico
Gardens in the N, is one of those changes which almost
imperceptibly, improves the quality of everyday life - just a little.
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