It’s been a quiet year in South Bridlington.
Even if you see change and decay in all around, we prefer to think of it as development. The decay can very well look after itself.
In February Zdena arrived at 1, Mayfield Rd to take up the vacant position of Someone Who will Remember to Lock the Doors Each Evening.
This has been a big success.
We now live on a diet of Central European cooking which, in spite of the conviction of Czech cooks that gherkins are edible, has been an outstanding success. They also seem to believe that you throw food out that has started to go off, rather than cut off the bits that can just about be saved. We have lost quite a few packets that we brought across from Bradford in 2005. Old Friends, they were.
On December 6th we were surprised to be greeted by a Bishop, complete with mitre, splendid cope, and crozier, an Angel, and a devil. Zdena and 2 friends were about to go round and about visiting all the Czech and Slovak children in the area to find out whether they had been good. If they had been, St Nicholas (the bishop) and the angel would give them a treat. The devil was there as a fall-back. It was a lot of fun.
The other big change resulted from Judy’s decision that even if going on holiday just increases the probability of being ill, it beats going into a care home.
It was also good on the principle that if you don’t have a go, you won’t know whether you like it.
In which case it was a resounding success. A bit.
We went on a 7-day cruise to Norroway, to Norroway.
People were very kind and helpful. A lot of worldlings were having pleasure, although the project of trying to make people smile met with only limited success on board ship. The general environment was positively Babylonian, and confirmed my prejudice that hedonists are a bit sad, really.
Now happiness is quite a different thing. The highlight of the week was the celebrations on May 17th of Constitution Day. It was a national holiday, and as it was Thursday we were in Stavanger. In the morning there was an amazing procession of school children through the street – many in Norwegian dress, many schools led by their own school band, singing happy Norwegian folk songs. Now they fully understood the principles of gladness. There must have been well over 1,000 children, processing/skipping school by school, band by band. After a bit we could join in several of the songs, as they had distinctive memorable tunes. We asked a passing stranger who told us they were songs about spring time, so we made up our own words. And they were all so happy and well behaved.
In the afternoon another procession assembled – this time of voluntary groups – still countable by their hundreds, and including Scouts, cyclists, majorettes, football clubs, the Salvation Army band, mountaineering groups, male voice choirs, karate clubs, ski clubs, football clubs, and all sorts else.
It was quite cheering to see so many people delighted with their Constitution. May 17th is apparently a celebration of Independence from … Sweden. Sweden? Sweden, the imperialist aggressors? That’s what the man said. He did not say on exactly which day Swedish Chef beat in the head of Hagar the Horrible, but he must have done some time. Before you finally logout, visit Norway on 17th May and see what we mean.
So, it was almost worth going for that one day of unselfconscious cheerfulness.
Almost.
The other big development of the year has been our accidental discovery that we have become part of the Bridlington Tourist Board drive to pack the visitors in. We had already got on hailing terms with a few beach-hut recidivists last year, but were a bit surprised to be greeted as long lost friends by another group of visitors … and another … so that I started to ask them where were they from? Northampton, Hull, Beverley, Rotherham (we knew them from last year), Thurnscoe, … The realization that we were big in Bridlington came when someone hailed us early one morning and said “I’m glad I have seen you. We missed you yesterday”. “When did you arrive?” “Yesterday afternoon. I’ll tell the others I’ve seen you and your mum”. They come from Sheffield.
It is all very friendly here. Even in the winter time we are regularly greeted by Strangers.
October 31st was a big day, of course. I had been asked to preach at the Priory Church, and set off re-reading the books about the Reformation I’ve accumulated over the years. This was an exhilarating experience. Apart from the fact that I printed the text of the sermon in a bizarre order – 2- sided, p 1, p 2 upside down, p 3, p 5, p 6 and page 4, and therefore got hopelessly lost at about p 3 – it went very well. The congregation was amused and indulgent, and I add-libbed.
The Reformation was the occasion that Bridlington Priory was knocked down – an event that I secretly celebrated when everyone else was overcome with nostalgia at the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Priory in 1214-ish. This was the first time that those who had ears to hear could hear. A fair number of them probably didn’t.
David & Judy
10th December 2017
jbrip 